[smh.com.au – 4/4/19] If politicians are looking for a sure fire vote winner then anything that punishes people convicted of sex offences does the trick. So there is likely to be little resistance to Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton’s budget announcement of $7.8 million to establish a National Public Register of Child Sex Offenders. Dutton is proposing that this register would allow all Australians to see names, aliases and photographs of sex offenders, as well as their date of birth, physical description and the “general location and nature” of…
Read MoreAuthor: R H
Canada: Sex-offender registry laws discriminate against mentally ill, court rules
[theprovince.com – 4/4/19] Parts of federal and Ontario laws requiring sex-offender registration where an accused is granted an absolute discharge after being found not criminally responsible discriminate against the mentally ill and are therefore unconstitutional, Ontario’s top court ruled Thursday. While the court ordered information belonging to the man who brought the case to be deleted immediately from sex-offender registries, the justices also gave governments 12 months to fix the offending legislation, widely known in Ontario as Christopher’s Law. “Persons found (not criminally responsible because of a mental disorder)…
Read MoreProsecutors Dropping Child Porn Charges After Software Tools Are Questioned
[propublica.org – 4/3/19] Using specialized software, investigators traced explicit child pornography to Todd Hartman’s internet address. A dozen police officers raided his Los Angeles-area apartment, seized his computer and arrested him for files including a video of a man ejaculating on a 7-year-old girl. But after his lawyer contended that the software tool inappropriately accessed Hartman’s private files, and asked to examine how it worked, prosecutors dismissed the case. Near Phoenix, police with a similar detection program tracked underage porn photos, including a 4-year-old with her legs spread, to…
Read MoreAction Alert: AB 884 and SB 145 hearing on April 9 [4/8 UPDATE]
4/9/19 UPDATE: the Assembly Public Safety Committee–which will still be hearing AB 884 at 10:00 am on 4/9–announced they are changing the room number to Room 4202. 4/4/19 UPDATE: the Senate Public Safety Committee–which will be hearing SB 145–announced they are meeting at 8:30 am. That means we will meet at Starbucks from 7:30 am to 8:00 and walk over at 8:00. Both the SB 145 and AB 884 hearings are still meeting on April 9. The Assembly Public Safety Committee–which will be hearing AB 884–is still after 10:00 am.…
Read MoreHow to carpool and get housing for our battle in Sacramento
We need as many people as possible to show up in Sacramento! We want well over 100 registrants, family, and supporters to show up. To help the maximum number of people attend, we need people who can, or wish to, carpool and/or share hotel rooms near the state capitol. Carpools will depart on Monday, April 8, from the cities in which we can find volunteer drivers. Everyone will rendezvous on Tuesday morning of the hearing. Please, do not be shy about taking action and asking for help or volunteering help!…
Read MoreNC Bill: Convicted Animal Abusers Will Be Added to an Online Registry; Much Like Sex Offenders
[wfmynews2.com – 4/2/19] After a person’s first Animal Abuse offense, they would be put on the registry for the next two years. If they have another offense they would be put on the registry for five years. If you are convicted of an animal abuse crime this bill reiterates you may be forced to give up any animals you own. If you are a repeat offender and are put on the registry multiple times the proposed bill says you would have to give up your animals, and would not be…
Read MoreAustralia: Federal Budget dedicates $7.8 million for child sex offender list
[news.com.au – 4/3/19] Australians will soon have access to a wealth of information about convicted paedophiles across the country after the Federal Budget allocated $7.8 million for a “name and shame” list. The Budget 2019-2020 provides $7.8 million to establish a National Public Register of Child Sex Offenders, an initiative the government hopes will provide a “nationally consistent approach to the public release of information about child sex offenders”. The register will allow Australians to see names, aliases and photographs of thousands of paedophiles, as well as their date…
Read MoreIL: Federal Judge Finds Illinois Rules On Sex Offenders Unconstitutional
[wbez.org – 4/1/19] A federal judge in Chicago has found the Illinois Department of Corrections is violating the constitutional rights of prisoners convicted of certain sex crimes by making the restrictions on where they can live so stringent that inmates are often locked up long beyond their sentences. In a ruling issued Sunday, Judge Virginia Kendall wrote that hundreds of offenders in the state’s prison system successfully complete their entire court-ordered sentences yet remain behind bars indefinitely. Kendall found the corrections department is depriving them of fundamental rights, and…
Read MoreCA: Judge Allows San Diego Sex Offender Lawsuit To Proceed
[kpbs.org – 4/1/19] San Diego City Council members are under more pressure to repeal an unenforceable law restricting where sex offenders can live in the city, after a federal judge allowed a lawsuit challenging the ordinance to proceed. Judge Barry Ted Moskowitz ruled in January against the city’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit, which was filed in 2017 by a group of unnamed sex offenders. The lawsuit rests heavily on a 2015 decision by the California Supreme Court finding blanket restrictions on where all sex offenders can live increase the…
Read MoreCT: Lawmakers Debate Changes in Sex Offender Registry
[courant.com – 4/1/19] State legislators are debating whether they should make changes in the state’s sex offender registry, which was established in 1998. Former Republican state legislator Bob Farr of West Hartford and other advocates called Monday for approving the recommendations of the state’s sentencing commission on changes to the registry, which is currently “based on the offense and not on the risk of re-offending.” The current registry now lists convicted criminals for 10 years, 20 years or life. The registry started with 800 criminals who were placed retroactively…
Read MoreWI: Fairchild residents up in arms over sex offender housing plan
[leadertelegram.com – 3/26/19] Fairchild residents came out in force Tuesday to share their objections to a plan to potentially house released sexual predators in the community. Nearly 40 Fairchild area residents packed into a small meeting room Tuesday morning at the Eau Claire County Courthouse to express their outrage at the possibility of housing sex offenders on supervised release at a facility on county-owned land about 1¼ miles northwest of Fairchild. Their comments came during a meeting of Eau Claire County’s Supervised Release Committee, which is tasked with identifying a…
Read MoreKat’s Blog: We are More Than a Mugshot
Last week’s Miami Herald article bothered me. You know the one, “Karma caught up with these sex offenders and predators, Florida cops say”. It was called Operation Karma, the totally unnecessary round-up of registrants, in this case, 26 of them, whose only “crime” was neglecting to follow through with some tiresome registration requirement, listing a new home address, registering a motor vehicle, a media account, updating employment information, etc. I suppose this “operation” served two purposes, it gave the police of Polk County, Fl. something to do that particular day…
Read MoreMaldives: FPA establishes regulation for sex offender database
[raajje.mv – 3/29/19] The state’s Family Protection Agency (FPA) has on Thursday established a regulation for the database of sexual offenders in the Maldives. The Special Provisions Act to Deal with Child Sex Abuse Offenders, passed in 2009, makes it mandatory to establish a register for sexual offenders. Read more
Read MoreAZ: Sex offenders get chance to end life-long registration under House proposal
[azcapitoltimes.com – 3/29/19] State lawmakers are weighing whether to give judges more leeway to eliminate the requirement that certain people register for life as sex offenders. A measure approved Thursday by the Senate Judiciary Committee would allow people convicted of certain sex crimes, when they turn 35, to petition to be absolved of the mandate. Not everyone would be eligible. The legislation pushed by House Speaker Rusty Bowers would apply only in situations where the offender was younger than 22 at the time and the victim was at least 15…
Read MoreOR: Portland city leader wants landlords to forgive bad credit and crimes
[komonews.com – 3/28/19] Hoping to get more people into homes, Portland City Commissioner Chloe Eudaly is proposing that landlords look past a prospective renter’s ding in their credit or even their criminal past. … But when she realized the new rules might let a burglar, or an arsonist, or even a sex offender move in next door, she admitted she had to rethink the proposal. Read more
Read MoreMalaysia: Child sex offender registry to begin operations from April 1
[freemalaysiatoday.com – 3/26/19] PUTRAJAYA: The child sex offenders registry will be made available from April 1 to help the public monitor sexual offenders. Deputy Women, Family and Community Development Minister Hannah Yeoh said with the child registry in place, the ministry and the Welfare Department hope to protect children from repeat offenders. “Parents, school managements, childcare centres and even religious organisations can now use this registry to check on sex offenders. “As long as it involves working with children, they are encouraged to use the registry,” Yeoh said after launching…
Read MoreCA: Newsom seeks to halt parole for some murderers and serious offenders. What does that signal?
[latimes.com – 3/26/19] ____ liked to suck on the toes of young boys and has spent the last 16 years in prison because of it. A jury convicted him in 2003 at age 32 in a case that shook Newport Beach, where he was a supervisor in the city’s youth recreation program. He was tried on multiple counts of child molestation and sentenced to two concurrent life terms after being caught in the act by a co-worker. Last week — despite an attempt by Gov. Gavin Newsom to stop it…
Read MoreCT: Town repeals sex offender restrictions amid lawsuit
[apnews.com – 3/24/19] WINDSOR LOCKS, Conn. (AP) — Residents of a Connecticut town have repealed a local ordinance that banned registered sex offenders from local parks, schools, the town library and other public places amid a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the law. The Windsor Locks law was approved 11 years ago amid concerns about threats to children’s safety by people listed on the state’s sex-offender registry. A federal lawsuit by an anonymous resident and an advocacy group alleges the ordinance violates sex offenders’ constitutional rights. Read more
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