Month: August 2023

CO: Lincoln County judge wrongly denied man opportunity to justify possession of contraband, court rules

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Source: coloradopolitics.com 8/14/23 Licoln County judge improperly denied an incarcerated man the opportunity to justify his possession of contraband weapons behind bars, Colorado’s second-highest court ruled last week in reversing the conviction. Colorado law provides for a “choice-of-evils” defense. A person can avoid conviction if they show they were facing imminent harm and engaged in criminal conduct as an emergency measure, without another path available to avoid the harm. Edward ___ was incarcerated at Limon Correctional Facility for a sex offense when he disclosed to an employee that he had…

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CA: School District Warned Regarding Support for Residency Restrictions

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The Lakeside Union School District (LUSD), located in San Diego county, was warned in a letter sent yesterday of the dangers it would face if it chooses to support residency restrictions.  Local parents and other residents of Lakeside, California, recently demanded that LUSD support residency restrictions due to their concerns about registrants who live near local schools. “Once again, the public is reacting out of fear and ignoring the facts regarding registrants,” stated ACSOL Executive Director Janice Bellucci.  “Their fear is based upon the mistaken belief that all registrants pose…

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CA Department of Justice Assigns Tiers to 9,000 Additional Registrants

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The California Department of Justice (CA DOJ) has assigned tiers to more than 9,000 individuals required to register during the past seven months.  As a result, there are up to 9,000 additional registrants who are now eligible to petition for removal from the registry.   ACSOL filed a lawsuit on January 5, 2023, in Sacramento Superior Court requesting that the court order CA DOJ to assign all individuals required to register to a tier.  At the time the case was filed, more than 12,500 registrants lacked a tier and therefore could…

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CT: It’s time to reform the CT sex offense registry

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Source: ctmirror.org 8/10/23 This year will mark the 25th anniversary of the public Sex Offender Registry (SOR) in Connecticut. The SOR – also called the sexual offense registry by advocates who want to move past the stigma of dehumanizing labels – is a publicly accessible internet database of individuals who have been convicted of a sexual offense and reside, work, or attend school in Connecticut. It is searchable and includes their name, physical description, addresses, photo, and offense details. Twenty-five years has been more than sufficient for researchers to study…

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CA: Sex offenders near Lakeside [near San Diego] schools upset parents, board members

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Source: cbs8.com 8/9/23 LAKESIDE, Calif. — Lakeside residents gathered at Riverview Elementary School Wednesday to express their outrage over the amount of convicted sex offenders near the schools. Both parents and school board members said they want to be more informed about sex offenders in the area and also more blanket restrictions surrounding them living near schools, parks and bus stops. There used to be state restrictions that prohibited registered sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of schools and parks where children gathered. Jessica’s Law was overturned in 2015…

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TN: Registry to life sentence: TN courts remove dozens from sex offender registry after legal challenges

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Source: newschannel5.com 8/9/23 NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — It’s costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars as more people file lawsuits claiming they shouldn’t be restricted by a registry that didn’t exist when they were convicted. Dozens of people have since been removed from the registry as a result, with dozens more potentially on the way. Thomas spent more than 20 years on Tennessee’s Sex Offender Registry but now considers himself a free man. His case is still being appealed, so we’ve agreed to stick with first names for his protection.…

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Protection, Punishment, and the Victims Rights Movement

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Source: thecrimereport.org 8/9/23 In 2018, 156 accusers of Larry Nasser, the former team doctor for USA Gymnastics Team who molested them over and over again during medical appointments, testified at his sentencing hearing about their experiences and the damage done to their lives as a result of his abuse. Their emotional and personal stories helped in sentencing him to between 40 and 175 years in prison. In February of 2023, the testimonies of family members and friends of the victims killed by Sayfullo Saipov, a terrorist convicted of running over…

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WI: Wisconsin releases sex offenders from GPS bracelets after court ruling

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Source: captimes.com 8/8/23 The state Department of Corrections has begun releasing certain sex offenders from lifetime GPS tracking after a Wisconsin Supreme Court decision undermined the agency’s justification for keeping people on electronic monitoring beyond their sentences. The department confirmed to the Cap Times that it is in the process of identifying everyone who was forced to wear the GPS devices for the rest of their lives as the result of a now-debunked interpretation of state statute by former Attorney General Brad Schimel. As of Tuesday, it remained unknown precisely…

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MS: Lifetime voting ban for felony convictions struck down in Mississippi

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Source: abcnews.go.com 8/4/23 Mississippi’s lifetime voting ban for people with disqualifying felony convictions has been struck down in a new decision from the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. The court’s 2-1 decision will restore the right to vote for tens of thousands of Mississippians, according to the plaintiff’s council Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP. The court ruled Thursday in the case of Hopkins v. Hosemann that by banning former offenders “from the body politic forever” they will be punished “beyond the term their culpability requires,” according…

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FL: Revisions made to Hernando County Sex Offender and Sexual Predator Ordinance

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Source: hernandosun.com 8/4/23 Last week, the Hernando Sun ran a story on recent changes to the Hernando County Sexual Offender and Sexual Offender Ordinance found in Chapter 21 of the Code of Ordinances. The story was largely based on a copy of the revised ordinance posted on the BOCC website for their July 11th meeting. We have learned that the copy of the ordinance posted did not reflect some of the final revisions. County Commissioner John Allocco spoke with us about the final revisions and why the changes were needed.…

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ACSOL Conference Schedule Now Available

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The schedule for ACSOL’s annual conference to be held on October 14 and October 15 in Los Angeles is now available.  The first plenary speaker for the conference will be sociologist Emily Horowitz who will discuss her years of research regarding registrants described in her newly published book, “From Rage to Reason.”   Dr. Horowitz’s presentation will be immediately followed by a panel of three registrants described in that book, who have succeeded in life despite the daily challenges of the registry.  The registrants are Shawn Rolfe, PhD, Norman Harris of…

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United States Sentencing Commission Public Meeting Scheduled for Aug 24, 2023

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Source: content.govdelivery.com 8/7/23 Commission to Vote on Final Priorities and May Vote to Make the 2023 Criminal History Amendment (Parts A and B) Retroactive We invite you to join us on Thursday, August 24, 2023 at 3 p.m. (EDT) for a public meeting of the U.S. Sentencing Commission. The meeting will be held at the Thurgood Marshall Federal Judiciary Building, One Columbus Circle, N.E., in Suite 2-500 (South Lobby).  The meeting will be livestreamed . The agenda follows: Report of the Chair Possible Vote on Adoption of April 2023 Meeting…

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The Dance of Justice and Mercy: An Integrated Approach to Crime, Addiction, and Recidivism

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Source: jumpstartvision.org 7/15/23 A perpetual challenge our society grapples with is the issue of crime, addiction, and recidivism. Traditional approaches often prioritize punitive measures as the primary means of addressing these issues, but emerging research suggests that this is not the most effective approach. A more compassionate, empathetic strategy that combines justice and mercy may not only offer more hope for the individuals embroiled in these cycles, but also for the overall health and well-being of society. Justice and Mercy: A Necessary Union   According to research, an approach that…

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FBI finds 200 sex trafficking victims, 59 missing children in two-week sweep

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Source: nbcnews.com 8/1/23 The FBI found 200 sex trafficking victims and more than 125 suspects during a two-week child exploitation operation in July, federal officials said Tuesday. During “Operation Cross County,” the FBI located 59 victims of child sex trafficking and child sexual exploitation and 59 missing children. The FBI teamed with state and local agencies to identify or arrest 126 suspects of child sexual exploitation and human trafficking and 68 suspected traffickers. Read the full article  

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Kids’ Online Safety Policy Bill is a Pretext for Censorship

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Source: newrepublic.com 8/2/23 The first thing you need to know about the latest bill in Congress meant to protect children on the internet is that one of its co-sponsors has been waging this fight against tech platforms since the days of MySpace. This bill, the Kids Online Safety Act, or KOSA, concerns children who were not yet born at the dawn of social media, whose parents could once have jockeyed to remain in each other’s Top 8, while their own parents in turn may have sounded the alarm about such…

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