“I’ve participated in every ACSOL conference, and find each session to be encouraging, motivating, and educational. I’ve met new friends and learned new tools for helping my family navigate the challenges of the registry. Highly recommended!” — Daphny Dear registrants, family members and supporters, You can see above that Daphny had a great experience at past ACSOL conferences. Next week on June 14 and 15 you can experience ACSOL’s conference too! NEW: 2019 ACSOL Conference Schedule Click here to sign up now to make sure you get a seat!…
Read MoreAuthor: R H
AL: Alabama’s state legislature just passed a bill to chemically castrate child sex offenders
[insider.com – 6/5/19] Alabama’s state legislature passed a bill Tuesday that will require convicted child sex offenders to undergo chemical castration prior to their release, raising questions about the legality and ethics of castration. According to the legislation, known as House Bill 379, a person convicted of a sexual offense involving anyone under the age of 13 will be required, as a condition of parole, “to undergo chemical castration treatment in addition to any other penalty or condition prescribed by law.” The person will be obligated to pay for the…
Read MoreNY: Medicaid bought sex offenders’ erectile dysfunction drugs
[whec.com – 6/5/19] Registered sex offenders in New York received $63,000 worth of erectile dysfunction drugs and other sexual treatments courtesy of the state’s publicly funded Medicaid program, according to an audit released Wednesday. Federal rules bar Medicaid coverage of sexual treatments for all recipients, not just sex offenders. Yet state Medicaid officials approved $930,000 in improper payments for the drugs between 2012 and 2018, according to the audit released by state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli and first reported by The Associated Press. According to the audit, 47 of those Medicaid…
Read MoreSouthern Baptist leaders plan to remedy ‘insufficient’ approach to abuse claims
[upi.com – 6/4/19] Southern Baptists hope to take steps at their upcoming annual meeting in Birmingham, Ala., to address continuing reports of sexual abuse in their denomination … The document also included a list of ways for state and regional groups to help churches handle sex offenders, including developing a covenant that, if violated, would limit their church attendance or access to church property. Easter said she considers offenders to be too dangerous to be permitted in a church gathering. “Predators should be ministered to by trained professionals separate from…
Read MoreMT: Attorney General’s Office secures grant to enforce sex offender registrations
[fairfieldsuntimes.com – 6/1/19] About 336 sex offenders are listed on the state registry in the Missoula area, and that’s only the number of those who are compliant with their registration. Assistant Attorney General Madison Mattioli stepped into a grant-funded position in April to address the 4,744 sex offenders statewide who are not compliant with current addresses and information on the state Department of Justice’s Sexual and Violent Registration. Read more
Read MoreAL: House passes chemical castration bill
[alreporter.com – 5/23/19] NOTE: PLEASE MOVE DISCUSSION TO AN UPDATED ARTICLE WITH A QUOTE FROM JANICE: AL: Alabama’s state legislature just passed a bill to chemically castrate child sex offenders The Alabama House of Representatives passed a bill Tuesday requiring that child rapists be chemically castrated for the rest of their lives once released from prison. House Bill 379 is sponsored by State Rep. Steve Hurst, R-Munford. Hurst said his original idea was for surgical castration, but after much research of the issue, he instead opted for…
Read MoreKat’s Blog: Accusations
A recent story out of Logan, Utah got me thinking about how those who are wrongly accused, whether a registrant or not a registrant, are treated so vastly different in the eyes of the world. On April 23, 62 yr. old Michael Fife (not a registrant) was killed after being accused of a sexual assault aboard a Cache Valley Transit District bus. A 16 yr. old female called her 17 yr. old brother and told him that she had been sexually assault by Fife. A few minutes later, the brother…
Read MoreEngland: Success! Kylo the Hero Dog Gets to Come Home
[care2.com – 5/30/19] Last summer, a mob of 20 angry men showed up at the residence of a young couple in Bristol, U.K. The men believed that this was the home of a registered sex offender, and they refused to leave even when the couple explained that the person they were seeking no longer lived there. The group didn’t believe the young couple and began attacking them. That’s when their five-year-old dog Kylo, a Staffy Cross Labrador, jumped into action and ran off 15 of the men. But the remaining…
Read MoreChina: Restrictions on child sex offenders
[shanghai.gov.cn – 5/30/19] Sex offenders will no longer be able to work for local enterprises, public institutions and social organizations that involve contact with children, the Shanghai People’s Procuratorate announced yesterday. It issued a document on an employment restriction system to cover all city enterprises, public institutions and social organizations which have special duties in regard to minors, such as guardianship, education, training and help, day care and medical care. They include kindergartens, primary and middle schools, nurseries for children under 3, children welfare institutions and training schools, medical institutions,…
Read MoreCA Senate Passes Senate Bill 145
The California Senate passed Senate Bill (SB) 145 by a vote of 25 to 3 on May 28. Ten of the Senators present at the time of the vote chose not to vote on this bill. Due to the Senate’s passage of this bill, SB 145 will move to the Assembly for a series of votes. If the Assembly passes the bill, the Governor will be provided an opportunity to sign it. “Thank you to everyone who made phone calls and sent letters to the Senators who represent you in…
Read MoreCO: Remembering Richard Matsch, Badass Judge With Courage of His Convictions
[westword.com – 5/28/19] Judge Richard Matsch, who died on May 26 at the age of 88, is best known for having overseen the Oklahoma City bombing trial of Timothy McVeigh. But that’s only part of his legacy. Matsch, who served as chief judge for the U.S. District Court in Colorado from 1994 to 2000 and remained on the bench until earlier this year under senior status, was one of the most powerful jurists in the state for decades, as evidenced by his frequent mentions in Westword. … Among the most…
Read MoreNY: Anthony Weiner complained about sex offenders in district before scandal
[nypost.com – 5/27/19] Here’s another thing that gets a rise out of Anthony Weiner: other perverts. Long before the former Queens congressman earned himself a rap sheet for trading X-rated messages with a 15-year-old girl, he was getting hot and bothered about sex offenders living in the congressional district he represented. Weiner’s office repeatedly called the NYPD’s Sex Offender Monitoring Unit to gripe about pervs too close to his digs and other places, a source told The Post. Weiner even once called the unit himself to grumble, according to the…
Read MoreMO: Missouri joins nationwide sex offender registry
[theeagle.com/ – 5/25/19] Missouri is the 20th state to join a nationwide sex offender registry. OffenderWatch said in a news release this week that every Missouri law enforcement agency that manages or investigates registered sex offenders will be able to collaborate on offender records, aid each other in investigations and share notifications with the public. It won a five-year contract from the Missouri Highway Patrol. Missouri has about 16,000 registered sex offenders. Read more
Read MoreKat’s Blog: Does Law Enforcement Belong In Your Group Setting?
Therapeutic treatment groups, no matter what kind, are usually carefully monitored settings where one can feel safe enough to talk about very personal and intimate issues. “Sex offender” treatment groups should be no exception. The therapeutic groups that many registrants are mandated to attend are also supposed to be safe havens, settings where registrants can open up in a group of their peers, about difficult issues they are dealing with. So why are parole officers sitting in on “sex offender” therapy treatment sessions? It doesn’t seem right and it doesn’t…
Read MoreACSOL Conference: Save $25 before June 1!
I thoroughly enjoyed attending last year’s conference because it gave me hope that others had successfully navigated the realities of being a registrant and gave me substantial and practical assistance in living with a 290 conviction. This year is sure to be fantastic, as we will have wonderful speakers, great breakout sessions, and an opportunity to connect with other registrants over dinner on Friday evening. Thank you Janice and ACSOL for putting together such a wonderful and meaningful gathering. -Steven Dear registrants, family members and supporters, Steven left last year’s…
Read MoreReview: Staging a True Family Nightmare in ‘Accidentally Brave’
[nytimes.com – 3/25/19] Some plays are seeds and some are stones. Seeds are the ones that grow and change over the course of their stage time — and maybe, in the minds of those who see them, forever. Stones are the ones that always remain exactly what they are. They never expand but can still knock you out. “Accidentally Brave,” which opened on Monday, is a stone. Not just for us but also for its author, Maddie Corman, giving a riveting performance, mostly as herself. The real-life situation she has…
Read MoreFL: Homeless sex offender listed intersection near middle school as his address
[wftv.com – 5/22/19] The sexual offender registry is designed to help residents know where sexual offenders live. Channel 9 found out that within a 1-mile radius of Lake Eola Park, there are twice as many homeless sexual offenders as there are sexual offenders living in permanent residences. Related Headlines In dense downtown Orlando, there are 11 sexual offenders and sexual predators with real addresses (homes or apartments). Twice that number — 22 sex offenders or predators — live on the street or list homeless shelters as their residence. “It seems…
Read MoreMD: A teenage girl texted her friends a graphic video of herself. A court said she’d shared child pornography
[washingtonpost.com – 5/23/19] The three teenagers regularly shared silly videos, trying to one-up each other and trusting the group text messages would remain private. But one especially sensitive text did not stay among them — landing the teen who first sent it at the center of a novel court case over a sexually explicit video she made and shared of herself. Maryland’s highest court will soon decide whether state laws intended to stop child pornography apply when the child is both the subject and the sender of the graphic material.…
Read More