[Thanks to FAC for this info] Explore how thoughts influence emotions, decisions, relationships, and conflict, while learning practical strategies for responding more effectively to challenges in everyday life. Wilfredo Laracuente is a Group Facilitator with the Fortune Society, where he facilitates Cognitive Behavioral Interventions (CBI), Career Development Workshops, and programming focused on personal growth, decision-making, and successful community reintegration. A recipient of the Brian Fischer Humanitarian Award, he also serves on the Manhattan District Attorney’s Reentry Advisory Council and has worked as a Teaching Assistant with the Columbia University Prison…
Read MoreYear: 2026
A New Supreme Court Case Tests the Limits of Judicial Deference to Federal Agencies
Source: reason.com 10/13/26 The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments today in an important case that asks how much judicial deference is owed to the U.S. Sentencing Commission’s commentary on the federal sentencing guidelines when a judge is applying those guidelines during the sentencing of a federal criminal defendant. That may sound like a somewhat dry legal dispute, but the ramifications are big not only in the realm of criminal law, but also for the broader legal battle over statutory interpretation, the role of the courts, and…
Read MoreEurope stopped stamping your passport. It scans your fingers now, and it’s keeping score.
Source: msn.com 10/8/26 The passport stamp, that smudgy bit of ink that quietly covered for a lot of sloppy day-counting, is on its way out of Europe. In its place: a camera, a fingerprint scanner, and a system that never forgets a date. Since 10 April 2026, the EU’s Entry/Exit System has been fully operational across 29 European countries. If your travel plans involve more than a long weekend on the Schengen side of the map, this changes more than you’d think. What happens at the border now Instead of…
Read MoreOK: Advocates for Registrants (including ACSOL) Testify in Support of Changes to Oklahoma Registry
Source: ACSOL Three leading advocates for registrants testified this week before a legislative committee in Oklahoma in support of proposed changes to that state’s registry. The changes, if adopted, would eliminate registration requirements for registrants who are physically or mentally impaired. ACSOL Executive Director Janice Bellucci provided the committee with information regarding the history of sex offender registries beginning with the creation of the first registry in the City of Los Angeles. That registry was focused solely upon tracking and monitoring gay men. Restorative Action Alliance Executive Director Amber Vlangas…
Read MoreFederal court rules registration is not punishment
A federal district court in Idaho issued a decision recently in which it agreed with the U.S. Supreme Court that the requirement to register is not punishment. Therefore, governments may retroactively apply new collateral consequences after a registrant is convicted. “This federal court ignored the significant harm caused to registrants and their families in its decision,” stated ACSOL Executive Director Janice Bellucci. In the decision, the court stated that SORNA requirements are “time-consuming, burdensome and inconvenient.” The court also acknowledged that “there are some negative implications, assumptions, or stigmatizations” due…
Read MoreCA: California Law Helps Former Prison Firefighters Get Fire Department Jobs
Source: goodnewsinstead.com For many people in California’s prisons, fighting wildfires offers more than a chance to serve their communities. The work pays better than other prison jobs and can bring purpose and variety to daily life. Incarcerated crews account for roughly half of the state’s firefighters. A new state law aims to help those firefighters turn their experience into careers after release. Signed by Governor Gavin Newsom, AB 2483 establishes standardized ways to certify their training and gives qualified former fire-camp workers priority for certain entry-level jobs with Cal Fire. …
Read MoreRemembering Michael McGuire. The Registrant Who Never Stopped Fighting
Source: floridaactioncommittee.org 10/6/26 On August 22, 2025, Michael A. McGuire filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama. The case is McGuire v. Richardson, No. 2:25-cv-00681. It was the latest step in a fight he had carried on for more than a decade against the way Alabama treats people on its sex offender registry. The defendants are Montgomery Police Officer Jadarius Charles Richardson, his supervisor Heather Williams, the Montgomery Police Department, and the City of Montgomery. McGuire alleged that he was…
Read MoreMO: Eighth Circuit rebuffs ‘cruel and unusual’ label for Missouri sex offender list
Source: courthousenews.com 10/5/26 Spouses and children of offenders had argued their homes’ inclusion on the registry left them socially ostracized. ST. LOUIS (CN) — An Eighth Circuit panel on Monday found Missouri’s public sex offender registry does not create “a permanent, inescapable badge of stigma” as argued by a group of convicted offenders and their families. In affirming a lower court’s ruling, the three-judge panel refused to revive claims that the registry — also known as SORA — is broadly punitive and violates their constitutional rights. “In their brief…
Read MoreHastert, who spearheaded legislative initiatives to punish offenders while he was one himself, is ding-dong dead at 84
Source: floridaactioncommittee.org 10/5/26 Former Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert, who backed laws such as the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Amendments of 1996, the Child Abuse Prevention and Enforcement Act of 2000, the PROTECT Act of 2003, and the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006 died this past weekend at 84. Hastert, was one of the biggest hypocrites in modern politics. While he was promoting himself as a crusader against the sexual abuse of children, it turns out he was… Read the full article
Read MoreACSOL Conference Discusses Registrant Challenges and Proposes Solutions
ACSOL’s annual conference was held on October 2 and October 3 in Los Angeles. During the conference, speakers discussed challenges that face registrants and their families as well as proposed solutions to those challenges. “The focus of this year’s conference was how to succeed while on the registry, including while on parole or probation,” stated ACSOL Executive Director. “The conference also provided information regarding how to successfully petition for removal from the California registry.” Speakers included all four ACSOL presidents: current president Elie Miller and former presidents Catherine Carpenter, Janice…
Read MoreCA: California restricts parole for sex offenders
Source: calmatters.org 9/30/26 People convicted of serious sex offenses must serve at least 25 years in prison and cannot receive parole until age 65 under a new California. Previously, some could earn parole at 50. Welcome to CalMatters, the only nonprofit newsroom devoted solely to covering issues that affect all Californians. Sign up for WhatMatters to receive the latest news and commentary on the most important issues in the Golden State. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill Wednesday that will raise the age of parole eligibility for sex offenders serving life sentences. …
Read MoreIreland: Paedophile hunters: Do vigilante groups help convict child sex offenders?
Source: irishexaminer.com 9/29/26 Alex Cunningham speaks to paedophile hunters, experts and gardaí about their methods and the questions surrounding their work In 2023, Cork man Tim Bowen was caught by a vigilante paedophile-hunting group when he turned up at a café expecting to meet a 14-year-old girl for sex. He was later convicted in connection with the incident. Former RTÉ producer Kieran Creaven was also caught by a vigilante group after contacting someone he believed to be a child online, and was later convicted. However, the methods used by…
Read MoreAL: Federal appeals court strikes down Alabama sex offender law banning Tuscaloosa father from living with his child
Source: wbrc.com 9/29/26 MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WBRC) – A federal appeals court on Tuesday ruled that a provision of Alabama’s sex offender law is unconstitutional as applied to a Tuscaloosa County father, deciding the state cannot permanently bar him from living with his young son. In a 30-page opinion, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit held that the Alabama Sex Offender Registration and Community Notification Act (ASORCNA) fails strict constitutional scrutiny because it enforces a mandatory, lifetime ban on parents living with their children…
Read MoreCA: Sac Sheriff Blasts Parole Release, but Man Has Been Out Four Years with No Reported Problems
Source: davisvanguard.org 9/26/26 SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Sacramento County Sheriff Jim Cooper sharply criticized California’s parole system this week after his office recently learned that a man convicted of a series of violent sexual offenses more than two decades ago is living in Sacramento County, questioning how someone sentenced to three life terms plus 51 years could be out of prison. But records from the California Board of Parole Hearings provide important context to Cooper’s criticism: Lloyd Clinton Edwards did not simply have his sentence reduced to 26 years. He became…
Read MoreCheck out these important upcoming Restorative Action Alliance events
Source: Restorative Action Alliance Our Mission: Through education, litigation and legislative advocacy, Restorative Action Alliance helps build safer communities which invest in primary prevention of sexual harm, meaningfully hold those accountable who cause harm, and safeguard the civil liberties of all. Click on any of these upcoming online events: Many Truths Virtual Gallery: Oct 19th 7 pm eastern / 3 pm pacific Employment Webinar: Working with Reality Nov 2 – 7:30 pm RAA Volunteer Orientation: Oct 8 – 6:30 to 8 eastern
Read MorePrimetime Movie Exposes the Ego-Driven Core of Vigilante Pedophile Hunting
Source: wired.com 9/25/26 Lance Oppenheim’s new film doesn’t paint Chris Hansen as a hero. The To Catch a Predator host’s real-world copycats are even more reckless. Child predators are arguably the most reviled demographic in society. So when someone like Chris Hansen, the former NBC Dateline journalist and host of the To Catch a Predator series, decides to take up the mantle of exposing them to the public, he is naturally praised as a hero. But, as is revealed in Lance Oppenheim’s Primetime—a dramatized snapshot of Hansen’s life at…
Read MoreNV: Child Sex Offender Given 435 Years in Prison
Source: washoelife.washoecounty.gov 9/24/26 [ACSOL is posting this as an example of extreme sentencing][ The Honorable Egan Walker has sentenced David Moreno to life in prison, with parole eligibility in 435 years. Moreno was previously found guilty of 11 counts of Sexual Assault on a Child Under 14, four counts of Lewdness with a Child Under 14, one count of Attempted Sexual Assault on a Child Under 14, one count of Child Neglect, one count of Incest, and one count of Dissuading a Witness. The case against Moreno began when one…
Read MoreNY: Decades of Harm: New York Schools Named in Nearly 2,000 Child Sex Abuse Claims
Source: motherjones.com 9/23/26 A law that opened a window for survivors to seek justice for past abuse also exposed how schools enabled alleged predators. Going to high school in Dutchess County, New York, in the 1960s, there was no late bus. For one star athlete at Our Lady of Lourdes High School, that meant regularly hitchhiking the 25 miles between school and home after practice. It was during those lonely treks, he said, that his new coach and gym teacher, Vincent Dutkowski, would stalk him in his car, offering…
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