***UPDATED NEWS: ACSOL in the news: Sues Fresno County over new restrictions on sex offenders, claims ordinance is ‘unconstitutional’ Source: ACSOL A new lawsuit has been sent to Fresno County Superior Court challenging an ordinance adopted by the Fresno County Board of Supervisors. That ordinance would significantly limit housing options for persons required to register who reside in that county. The ordinance will become effective on February 5. The ordinance was adopted after two public hearings conducted by the Fresno County Board of Supervisors. During the first public…
Read MoreYear: 2026
Changing Views of Sex Offender Policies: A Counterevidence Based Intervention
Source: tandfonline.com 10/14/25 Abstract Sexual offender policies, like registration, are highly popular, but generally ineffective. It would be advantageous to decrease support for these policies and increase support for empirically supported ones. Past attempts to reduce support for these policies have resulted in only modest effects. The current studies designed an intervention to more substantially reduce support. In two studies, participants either read a refutation-style text that provided counterevidence to misconceptions about sexual offenders and offenses, or an information only text defining residency restriction laws, registration laws, and treatments for…
Read MoreKY: Sixth Circuit reinstates Kentucky ban on anonymous social media use by sex offenders
Source: floridaactioncommittee.org 1/27/26 A proposed class of convicted sex offenders failed to meet the high bar required for broad injunctive relief when it made a facial challenge to a Kentucky law that bans their anonymous use of social media, according to a ruling Monday from the Sixth Circuit. A panel of the appeals court vacated a preliminary injunction granted by U.S. District Judge Greg Stivers. An anonymous plaintiff filed suit on behalf of a class shortly after Kentucky Democratic Governor Andy Beshear signed Senate Bill 249 into law and required…
Read MoreIL: State’s attorney explains ‘short’ sentence for sex offender
Source: myjournalcourier.com 1/26/26 CARROLLTON — The Greene County state’s attorney said social media comments prompted him to make “a statement of reason” about a sex offender’s sentencing. Comments posted on Facebook were focusing on the sentencing of Kaleb _____, 24, who now is on the sex offender registry. He was charged with sexual assault of a minor between 13 and 17 years old. He initially was facing five charges, including two Class X felony child pornography charges, two felony child pornography charges, and sexual assault of a minor between…
Read MoreFL: Registrant ordered to move out of Florida home
Source: newsnationnow.com 1/24/26 CLEARWATER, Fla. (WFLA) — Michael Jonathan ______ was convicted on 17 counts of having child pornography on his computer. Court documents show he had more than 300,000 sexually explicit images of child pornography. Friday, he stood before Judge Julie Sercus to ask that he be allowed to live in his home while serving probation for his convictions. The state argued that there is a park and a daycare located in close proximity to the home Michael would like to remain in. His attorney said the park doesn’t…
Read MoreVA: Virginia man convicted of child pornography possession despite autism defense
Source: kristv.com 1/23/26 CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — A 26-year-old Virginia man with previous ties to Corpus Christi was convicted of possessing child sexual abuse material after a jury rejected his defense that autism prevented him from understanding the illegality of his actions. Anthony ____ was found guilty following a three-day trial and approximately nine hours of jury deliberation, U.S. Attorney Nicholas J. Ganjei announced. The investigation began in October 2023 when authorities discovered Anthony had been engaging in activity involving images and videos depicting child sexual abuse material. Law enforcement…
Read MoreCASOMB Releases Annual Report for 2025
The California Sex Offender Management Board (CASOMB) released its annual report today for the year 2025. The report includes statistics regarding the total number of people required to register in the state by county. According to that report, Los Angeles County has the highest number of registrants living there — 13,056 while Alpine County has the lowest number of registrants living there — 2. And there are four counties that have more than 3,500 registrants living there — Sacramento (3,670), San Diego (3,695), Riverside (4,193) and San Bernardino (4,452). According…
Read MoreMO: Missouri Rep. introduces castration bill HB 1687
Source: ozarksfirst.com 1/20/25 JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Missouri State Rep. Scott Cupps (District 158) has filed a bill for the current legislative session that would allow courts to sentence ‘certain sex offenders’ to be surgically castrated. The McDonald and Barry County Representative’s bill says, if passed, the procedure would be done by a licensed physician from the Department of Corrections. As of now, the bill, HB 1687, is not scheduled for any committees or on the House calendar but was pre-filed on December 1, 2025. The summary language reads, “Before a…
Read MoreFAC Nationwide Call to Action: Oppose Massive Florida Homeless. Make Calls Now to Fight HB 45 / SB 212
Source: floridaactioncommittee.org 1/15/26 [ACSOL encourages everyone to make some calls to fight this insanity] HB 45 and SB 212 are dangerous, extreme, and counterproductive. SB 212 would banish more than 30,000 Floridians from “being” within 200 feet of a body of water and both bills would make 80% of Florida uninhabitable, displacing thousands of families from their homes and causing thousands to lose stable employment. These bills undermine public safety by increasing homelessness, instability, unemployment, and monitoring challenges. The bills will: Push thousands into homelessness by making the majority of…
Read MoreAttend ACSOL’s Lobby Day in Sacramento on March 24, 2026
ACSOL will conduct Lobby Day this year on March 24, 2026. We will once again educate the legislators and staff about the need for revising the Tiered Registry Law to increase the number of people eligible to petition for removal from the registry. Every person who participates in Lobby Day will be a member of a team led by someone who has done this before. It is an empowering experience. 3/10/26 UPDATE: The good news is that more people have signed up for Lobby Day than expected. The bad news…
Read MoreDoes the Ellingburg decision open the door to revisiting Ex Post Facto as it relates to sex offender laws?
Source: Florida Action Committee 1/21/26 [ACSOL note: This is well written and invites other organizations to come together to plan a way forward.] Related article: Non-Punitive in Name Only: How Ellingburg v. United States Threatens Florida’s “Civil” Registry Model The Supreme Court’s decision in Holsey Ellingburg v. United States (No. 24-482) should reopen a long-overdue conversation about the constitutional foundations of modern sex offender laws. In Ellingburg, the Court made clear that labels do not control constitutional analysis: when a legal consequence operates like punishment, is imposed as part of a criminal…
Read MoreFL: South Florida registered sex offender’s citizenship revoked: U.S. Attorney
Source: nbcmiami.com 1/20/26 A Peruvian-born registered sex offender who was living in South Florida has had his U.S. citizenship revoked after he obtained it by fraud, authorities said. Renzo William _______, 25, had his citizenship revoked and Certificate of Naturalization canceled, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida said Tuesday. Renzo, who had been living in Fort Lauderdale, was also sentenced to 100 days of home detention and one year of probation after pleading guilty to unlawful procurement of citizenship or naturalization, prosecutors said. Court records, on…
Read MoreSingapore to ban unwanted visitors from boarding planes
Source: bangkokpost.com 1/20/26 Singapore will order airlines worldwide to prohibit undesirable passengers from boarding flights to the city-state from Jan 30 under a new policy to boost security. The Singapore Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) said no-boarding directives would be enforced for all airlines flying to the country to prevent people who fail to meet requirements or “undesirable immigrants” from boarding planes. Travellers are normally denied entry to a country by immigration authorities after they arrive at a port of entry. The ICA said the new rule is a step forward as…
Read MoreJanice’s Journal: HOPE in 2026
The word HOPE has several definitions. Those definitions include a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen, grounds for believing that something good may happen, and a person or thing that may help or save someone. Applying each of those definitions to the registrant community, there is HOPE for the year 2026. Let’s examine each of those definitions and explore why. First, HOPE is a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen. There are many things we desire to happen in the…
Read MoreACSOL Online Meeting February 21, 2026
You are invited to join ACSOL Executive Director Janice Bellucci and President attorney Elie Miller to our next meeting. The meeting will be held on Saturday, February 21 online on Zoom beginning at 10 a.m. Pacific time, 1:00 PM Eastern, and will last at least two hours. You can use the Zoom app or you can call in using a Zoom phone number. There is no registration needed for this meeting. No government officials are allowed to attend the meetings. This meeting will be recorded and posted within a couple…
Read MoreMO: Attorney General Requests New Hearing in MO Halloween Sign Challenge
Source: ACSOL The Missouri Attorney General filed a petition today with the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals asking for reconsideration of the Court’s decision issued on January 2. That decision agreed with plaintiff that the Missouri state law at issue requiring all registrants to post a sign on their home on Halloween was unconstitutional. In its petition, the Attorney General argues that the 8th Circuit Court of Appeal judges that ruled in favor of plaintiff misapplied controlling U.S. Supreme Court precedent as well as a decision by the 5th Circuit…
Read MoreCanada: Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) has launched a national, publicly accessible High-Risk Child Sex Offender Database
Source: rcmp.ca 1/15/26 The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) launched the High Risk Child Sex Offender Database, a national publicly accessible tool. This is the first of its kind in Canada. The Database contains centralized information about people who have been found guilty of a sexual offence against children and who pose a high risk of committing crimes of a sexual nature. The Database contains information that has previously been made public by a police service or public authority. Only the offenders deemed as high risk of committing a crime…
Read MoreCA: New AB 1568 Legislation Could Reduce Number of Petitions Granted
Source: ACSOL IMPORTANT EVENT: CA Action Alert: Join us March 3 to stop AB 1568 that blocks registrants from petitioning A new bill was introduced on January 12, 2026, that could reduce the number of petitions granted that remove individuals from the registry. The bill number is AB 1568 and the author of the bill is Assemblyman Juan Alanis, a Republican, who represents Modesto and other nearby communities. Alanis is co-chair of the Assembly Public Safety Committee. If AB 1568 becomes law, it would add three additional requirements…
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