Dear ACSOL members, In less than two weeks, NARSOL and ACSOL together will be hosting the third annual “Halloween Conference Call and Cop Watch Marathon.” Both NARSOL’s Larry Neely and ACSOL’s Janice Bellucci will be taking questions, reporting on the latest legal developments, and collecting live reports on troubling law enforcement activities around the nation to prohibit Halloween involvement by the families of people on the registry. Our goal is to have attorneys from all over the country participating in the call and willing to opine on the constitutionality…
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Kat’s Blog: Are We Collateral Damage?
Collateral Damage: Injury inflicted on someone other than an intended target. Specifically, civilian casualties of a military operation. The earliest known use of the term was in1947. Until I had a family member on the registry, I’d never been referred to as “collateral damage”, then all of a sudden, that’s what I was informed I had become. When I was a newbie to this registry nation, some of the more senior advocates suggested that family and friends of registrants are considered “collateral damage.” “We’re not ON the registry, but we…
Read MoreGA: Palmer Sheriff Puts ‘No Trick-Or-Treat’ Signs in Yards of Sex Offenders
[1065.iheart.com – 10/17/19] A Sheriff in Georgia is not messing around when it comes to Halloween. He put up “No Trick-Or-Treat at This Address” signs in the yards of sex offenders in order to keep children out of harms way. “I’m not trying to humiliate ’em or anything like that. Let’s face reality: We have a greater chance of children getting run over by a car [on Halloween] than being a victim of sexual assault by a repeat offender,” says Sheriff Gary Long. “But at the end of the day…
Read MoreOH: Sheriff’s office says check sex offender list before children go trick-or-treating
[salemnews.net – 10/18/19] LISBON — With about 158 registered sex offenders living in Columbiana County, the county sheriff’s office is reminding residents they can check for the registered addresses online so children can avoid those houses while trick-or-treating. “We do the best we can in making sure sex offenders live where they tell us, so it is crucial that our citizens visit our website to see who the registered sex offenders are and where they are living,” said Chief Deputy Kip Dowling, adding he encourages county citizens to check…
Read MoreLA: Louisiana sheriffs promoting new app that alerts parents if sex offenders contact children
[theadvocate.com – 10/16/19] Louisiana sheriffs are backing a new mobile app that will alert parents if a registered sex offender contacts their child. The app, Safe Virtual Neighborhood, is the newest development from OffenderWatch and parent company Watch Systems, a Covington-based company known for tracking sex offenders. Watch Systems and Louisiana’s law enforcement community have worked together since 2000, when the company launched its sex offender registry system. … The Safe Virtual Neighborhood app utilizes existing information collected in law enforcement offender databases and applies it to people’s personal mobile…
Read MoreNY: Sex offenders form PAC to try and gain political voice
[timesunion.com – 10/14/19] Voting blocs, where people support candidates on specific issues, have long played an outsized role in New York politics – from labor unions that focus on workplace rules, to environmentalists who place clean air and water at the top of the list. But now an unusual bloc is emerging from an unexpected place: the locked sex offenders unit at one of the state’s major psychiatric hospitals. Convicted sex offenders at Central New York Psychiatric Center are joining a PAC, or political action committee, which could conceivably raise…
Read MoreACSOL Meeting October 19 in L.A.
Please mark your calendars for ACSOL’s upcoming meeting: Saturday, Oct 19 10 a.m. ACLU Building 1313 W. 8th Street, Los Angeles (free parking below building) Registrants, friends and family and interested service providers are invited to attend these free meetings. There will be no law enforcement or media present in order to protect everyone’s privacy. The meetings start at 10 am and last about 2-3 hours. Topics of conversation include information about ACSOL’s advocacy as well as current topics and pending legal action. Please Show up, Stand up, and Speak…
Read MoreCO: Colorado considers keeping some juvenile sex offenders off registry
[thedenverchannel.com – 10/12/10] DENVER (AP) — Colorado lawmakers have advanced a proposal to place fewer convicted juveniles on the state sex offender registry and partially seal the list from the public, officials said. The draft was endorsed Thursday by an interim committee of lawmakers tasked with considering changes to how the state justice system treats people with mental illness, The Denver Post reported . The proposed changes are informed by research showing that harshly penalizing juvenile sex offenders often does nothing to improve public safety or rehabilitate the offenders, lawmakers…
Read MoreKat’s Blog: Time to Dispel the Halloween Myth
It’s that time again, Halloween, pumpkins, trick or treaters, candy, Stranger Danger news coverage and the registry police. It’s hard to imagine that between law enforcement and the news media, what was once an enjoyable festive holiday for young and old alike has by all accounts been turned into a fictitious, stranger-danger, panic event of epic proportions for registrants. All these years the public’s been led to believe that children are at an increased danger at Halloween because of registrants. (Somehow the fact that the highest risk to children at…
Read MoreAustralia: WA’s sex offender laws ‘as tough as they can be’, says Premier Mark McGowan
[http://brandsauthority.com – 10/7/19] Premier Mark McGowan says WA laws are as tough as they can be in dealing with dangerous sex offenders following the release of a notorious paedophile.________, a repeat sex offender, walked free on Monday after convincing a judge he was no longer a threat to children.His release is subject to a record 61 conditions – including that he undergo chemical castration. The Premier said that as a parent he was unhappy whenever a sex offender was released from jail but said people could not be kept in…
Read MoreWhen Prison Is A Better Option
[Scott H. Greenfield at blog.simplejustice.us – 10/4/19] Years ago, I wrote of the creation of a permanent underclass. No, not the one woke people are willing to fight for. Rather, the one we’ve created because as much as we can forgive a murder, especially if it was committed by a black man because they’re in fashion at hipster cocktail parties, there is no forgiveness of a sex crime. Not when they get caught. Not when they get prosecuted. Not when they get convicted or sentenced. Not even when they get…
Read MoreKat’s blog: Hope
When I read the most recent “Janice’s Journal: The Big Picture” piece, it reminded me why so many of us have sought out websites like ACSOL, WAR, NARSOL and other advocacy group sites. Each of us was looking for HOPE. Hope that there were others like us somewhere out there that understood what we were going through. Hope that someone had answers, information or solutions to the mountain of questions and concerns we had. Hope that someone somewhere was trying to do something to change things. Hope that there was…
Read MoreMandatory registration recommended for sex offenders relocating to Jamaica
[jamaicaobserver.com – 10/3/19] KINGSTON, Jamaica — A parliamentary committee has recommended that it should be made mandatory for sex offenders who have relocated or returned to the island to register in the Sex Offender Registry in Jamaica. Failure to register will constitute an offence, which may be punishable by imprisonment. Minister of Justice, Delroy Chuck, made the disclosure as he opened debate in the House of Representatives on Tuesday, on the Report of the Joint Select Committee appointed to complete the review of the Sexual Offences Act, the Offences against…
Read MoreACSOL and NARSOL Halloween Marathon
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE . . . (October 1, 2019) CIVIL RIGHTS ORGANIZATIONS TO MONITOR POLICE ON HALLOWEEN “Cop-watch” hotline to be open for six hours Albuquerque, NM | Sacramento, CA—The National Association for Rational Sexual Offense Laws (NARSOL) and the Alliance for Constitutional Sexual Offense Laws (ACSOL) denounce what they believe are unconstitutional laws and blanket restrictions imposed by some state statutory schemes and supervising authorities across the country each Halloween. The organizations join together in demanding to know why every year at this time newspapers and TV news programs…
Read MoreVA: Patrick Hope column: Virginia’s sexually violent predator laws have gone too far
[richmond.com – 9/29/19] The “lock ’em up and throw away the key” era of criminal justice is over. Virginians have reassessed their views on criminal justice to better address mass incarceration weighed against costs and the likelihood to reoffend. Policies ripe for reform include: resentencing prisoners who were convicted as youth; repealing mandatory minimums; legalizing marijuana; abolishing the death penalty; ending solitary; reinstating parole; ending cash bail; and creating alternatives to incarceration. Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring has a strong track record of criminal justice reform. But there’s one enforcement…
Read MoreNE: Nebraska sex offenders testify for change in registry law
[journalstar.com – 9/27/19] Twenty-eight people who were registered sex offenders, or the wife, mother, father, brother or counselor of sex offenders, lined up to give testimony to the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee on Friday, asking for changes to the Nebraska registry law. The Judiciary Committee embarked on a study of the sex offender registry law over the interim to determine if changes are needed and, if so, what they should be. The registered offenders told the committee about how the registry created life-altering situations in which they couldn’t get jobs, or…
Read MoreKat’s Blog: TN Man Avoids Registry for Second Time
A Tennessee man accused of sexual offenses for the second time, has once again avoided the registry. In 2004, ______ was accused of allegedly molesting a 15 yr. old that had been hired to babysit his children. ______ denied molesting the girl but stated he pleaded guilty to a charge of reckless aggravated assault and a misdemeanor, to spare his family (he is the father of 3) and because his attorney at that time had advised him it was in his best interest. He was sentenced to 3 yrs. probation…
Read MoreCanada: Top court to rule if mentally ill must be on sex-offender registry
[thespec.com – 9/26/19] The federal government is challenging an appeal court decision that found that the registry reinforces a stereotype that those who commit criminal acts while mentally ill never change and pose a permanent risk. News Sep 26, 2019 by Colin Perkel The Canadian Press TORONTO — The Supreme Court of Canada will have final say on the validity of laws requiring sex offenders to register when an accused is granted an absolute discharge after being found not criminally responsible. In a decision on Thursday, the high court said…
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