[bbc.co.uk – Available on BBC iPlayer on August 20, from 6:00 am UK time zone] Follow Becky Southworth as she steps into the unsettling world of sex offender rehabilitation. Meeting the sex offenders living in our communities, Becky tries to understand what drove them to commit these horrific crimes, whilst seeing what treatment is available to stop them committing any more. Becky’s father was convicted of sex offences against children and received 10 years in prison. He has since been released, but while in prison he undertook a sex offender…
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ACSOL Phone Meeting on August 15
Please join ACSOL Executive Director and civil rights attorney Janice Bellucci as well as ACSOL President and criminal defense attorney Chance Oberstein for our next phone meeting. The meeting will be held on Saturday, August 15, beginning at 10 a.m. Pacific time and will last at least two hours. Discussions topics will include in-person registration during the COVID-19 pandemic, the upcoming Tiered Registry, residency restrictions, overseas and domestic travel as well as other current topics and pending legal action throughout the nation. Please Show Up, Stand Up and Speak Up!…
Read MoreFL: Get the Facts: Did a Florida Senate 9 candidate defend a sex offender?
[wesh.com – 8/7/20 – Smear alert] SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. —One of the Democratic contenders in the State Senate District 9 race covering Seminole and part of Volusia counties is the target of a negative mailer that claims she defended a sex offender. “I do not believe any of this nonsense. It’s just trash,” Patricia Sigman said. Democratic candidate Patricia Sigman is furious about the new attack mailer. It blasts the attorney for “defending a sexual predator” calling it “indefensible.” The flyer, however, is misleading. Former Osceola County deputy Chad Lakey…
Read MoreNJ: Dem Congressman Once Lobbied Against Child Sex Offender Registry Bill
[dailycaller.com – 8/6/20] A Democratic congressman once fought against legislation that strengthened and improved the national child sex offender registry before taking office. Tom Malinowski, before becoming a Democratic congressman from New Jersey, lobbied against a 2006 bill that imposed tougher penalties on sex offenders, a review of congressional records and lobbying disclosures by The Washington Free Beacon found. He said that expanding sex offender registry requirements would put sex offenders “at risk of retaliation and discrimination.” … Malinowski was a top lobbyist for Human Rights Watch in 2006 and…
Read MoreLA: Acadia Sheriff’s deputies arrest registrants for not disclosing status on social media
[katc.com – 8/6/20] Acadia Parish Sheriff’s deputies have identified seven sex offenders who have been in violation of sex offender social media laws, Sheriff KP Gibson says. Between March of 2020 and July of 2020, the sheriff’s sex offender registry unit conducted an investigation of all registered sex offenders in the parish, to ensure they were following the law regarding use of social media. They found seven registered sex offenders were using social media illegally, but not posting on their profile that they were convicted sex offenders, conviction information, address,…
Read MoreOur System Is Not Doing the Thing It Says It Intends to Do: Deliver Justice
[jacobinmag.com – 8/5/20] Carceral solutions to sexual violence won’t deliver justice. We need investments in public services that will actually reduce sexual violence. In the last few years, the #MeToo movement has brought renewed attention to sexual harassment, sexual abuse, and the ways they are used by mostly powerful, wealthy men to maintain social and economic hierarchies. At the same time, the push for decarceration and opposition to policing have exploded into a national movement. For leftist feminists, these two movements raise urgent questions about how to fight sexual violence…
Read MoreUK: Online naming and shaming ‘threatening offender rehabilitation’
[bailiwickexpress.com – 8/4/20] Some sex offenders undergoing rehabilitation have lost their jobs, and risk losing their accommodation, after a list of their names and past crimes was posted online, putting pressure on the Police and Probation Services. According to Detective Superintendent Stewart Gull, the recent spate of ‘naming and shaming’ local offenders online after their sentences have been carried out is posing serious problems for their ability to reintegrate into the community. He told Express he is aware of more than 10 individuals – and, in some cases, their families…
Read MoreCURE California Zoom Meeting August 8 at 11 AM Pacific
[curenational.org] Dear ACSOL friends, please consider joining the weekly California CURE Zoom meeting this Saturday: Saturday, August 8 11:00 AM to noon Pacific See below for how to connect, NEWS FROM LAST WEEK’S MEETING: Gale Sanders, the leader of the California chapter of CURE, had a temporary health problem kept her from being with us last Saturday. I look forward to introducing Gale this Saturday. The three issues shared and discussed were the following: Orla pointed out the need for compassionate releases especially in regard to women incarcerated; Arax said…
Read MoreCURE California Zoom Meeting August 1 at 11 AM Pacific
[curenational.org] Dear ACSOL friends, please consider joining the California CURE Zoom meeting Saturday, August 1 11:00 AM Pacific Please let people know we are looking for volunteers to help us start California CURE. Gale Sanders is the leader. Charles Sullivan President, International CURE (received consultative status from the United Nations) Washington, DC HOW TO ATTEND: Zoom Meeting link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89537548040?pwd=R0FvRmY5UWNreFkxL25STlIvVFNUQT09 Or call 929-205-6099 Meeting ID: 895 3754 8040 Passcode: 770242 ABOUT CURE NATIONAL: Citizens United for Rehabilitation of Errants (CURE) is a grassroots organization that was founded in Texas in 1972.…
Read MoreMI: Michigan’s top court kills lawsuit by wrongly imprisoned man
[washingtontimes.com – 7/30/20] DETROIT (AP) – The Michigan Supreme Court has stopped a man from suing the state after he spent more than a year in prison for a crime that wasn’t a crime. The man was behind bars for 17 months for failing to provide accurate information for Michigan’s sex offender registry. The Corrections Department then discovered that he actually wasn’t required to register. The man sued the state, arguing that his constitutional rights were violated. The Supreme Court heard arguments in April but dropped the case in a…
Read MoreEarly Jail Releases During Pandemic Didn’t Lead to Crime Spike: Study
[thecrimereport.org – 7/27/20] A study of 29 U.S. cities has found no correlation between the early release of detainees from the cities’ jails due to COVID-19 fears and any increase in crime in those cities between March and May. “The analysis confirmed that the amount by which a county changed their jail population wasn’t correlated with the amount of change in crime,” said the report by the American Civil Liberties Union, “Decarceration and Crime During Covid-19,” released Monday. “We found no evidence of any spikes in crime in any of…
Read MoreKat’s Blog: Mississippi Senate Bill 2009
Here’s an example of a Bill being passed “before” it was thoroughly thought through. On July 1, 2020, Mississippi Senate Bill 2009, also known as Carly’s Law, was passed. The Bill prohibits future contact with the crime victim by a convicted “sex offender”; and for related purposes. Here’s a summary of the Bill. Section 1. 1) Except as otherwise provided in this section, it is unlawful for a person required to register as a sex offender under section 45-33-25 to commit any of the following actions with respect to the…
Read MoreNY: Despite Politicians’ Assurances, All Sex Offenders are Not Barred from New ‘Homeless Hotels’
[westsiderag.com – 7/29/20] Despite reassurances from politicians that there are no sex offenders at the three new homeless shelters on the Upper West Side, the city can’t bar all sex offenders from city shelters, according to Isaac McGinn, spokesperson for the Department of Homeless Services (DHS). Only sex offenders deemed “residency restricted” can be banned from shelters that are less than 1,000 feet from schools or child-care facilities, McGinn explained. Gaining that designation depends on factors like the severity of the offense and the offender’s criminal justice status. It appears…
Read MoreJanice’s Journal: CA Action Alert: It’s Time to Protest Exclusion of Registrants from Prison Releases
In my last column, I implored the California Department of Corrections (CDC) to include registrants in its release of prisoners that began on July 1 due to a growing number of COVID-19 infections in the state’s prisons. Since that time, the number of prisoners infected with COVID-19 has increased dramatically in three of those prisons: San Quentin, Avenal and Chuckwalla. That is why I am writing this column. We cannot and should not stand by while thousands of prisoners, including individuals convicted of a sex offense, are exposed to this…
Read MoreWI: A convicted sex offender has filed a federal lawsuit challenging Muskego’s rules that restrict where he can live
[amp.jsonline.com – 7/28/20] A convicted sex offender has filed a federal lawsuit challenging Muskego’s rules that restrict where he can live, or whether he can live in the city at all. In the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Milwaukee, Ronald E. Schroeder said the city’s ordinances violates his constitutional rights by preventing his move from Waukesha to Muskego, where he has been invited to live at the home of a woman who is a longtime friend. Schroeder, 50, is residing in Waukesha on a temporary living plan after his…
Read MoreCO: Audit Finds Deficiencies In How Colorado Sex Offender Management Board Carries Out Statutory Duties
[Press Release by the Colorado Office of the State Auditor – 7/28/20] Download PDFs of the reports from leg.colorado.gov/audits DENVER—The Office of the State Auditor (OSA) has released its performance audit of the 25-member Sex Offender Management Board (Board) at the Department of Public Safety (Department). The Board is not meeting its statutory charge to provide evidence-based standards for the evaluation, identification, treatment, management, and monitoring of Colorado’s 24,000 registered sex offenders. Specifically, of the Board’s 381 subsections of standards on evaluating, identifying, and treating offenders, only 18 percent in…
Read MoreFederal Probation and Supervised Release Violations Report by the United States Sentencing Commission July 2020
[www.ussc.gov – 7/2020] This report provides information on violations of federal probation and supervised release using data collected by the United States Sentencing Commission. For the first time, the Commission is reporting data collected from documents related to revocation hearings. Combined with data the Commission regularly collects, this report analyzes the characteristics of supervision violations and the outcomes of violation proceedings provided in documents sent to the Commission by the courts. As part of the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984, which created the Commission and charged it with establishing the…
Read MoreHouse Arrest Is Touted as a Humane Punishment. It’s Not.
[gen.medium.com – 7/27/20] Electronic monitoring incarcerates people who might otherwise be on probation — and makes them pay for it themselves “If I had just done time, I would’ve been done by now.”— Patricia, under house arrest in Indiana The “crime” Patricia, mother of five, committed was an odd one: She climbed through her best friend’s window to retrieve a bottle of her own medication. She and her friend had “open-door policies” and visited each other’s Indiana homes daily, including when the other wasn’t present — but her friend’s husband…
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