[flsenate.gov – 1/25/19] SB 540: Human Trafficking GENERAL BILL by Book Human Trafficking; Requiring the owner or operator of a public lodging establishment to train certain employees and create certain policies relating to human trafficking by a specified date; requiring the Department of Children and Families, in consultation with the Department of Law Enforcement and the Attorney General, to establish a certain direct-support organization; requiring that the criminal history record of a person who is convicted of, or enters a plea of guilty or nolo contendere to, soliciting, inducing, enticing,…
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PA: Family of Pedophile Pastor Now Spreads the Word on How To Prevent Abuse
[blackchristiannews.com – 1/28/19] SOMERSET, Pa. – Jimmy and Clara Hinton don’t want others to miss what they didn’t see for years: their father and husband, a respected pastor for years in his rural community, was keeping his flock in the dark while he molested young children. Today, the elders at Somerset Church of Christ have moved intentionally to protect children. Empty classrooms are locked. Adults working with children operate in teams of two or more. On Sundays, monitors conduct random building sweeps and each Sunday School room has a walkie-talkie…
Read MoreNew Zealand: Public vilification a factor in Wellington academic sentencing
[stuff.co.nz – 1/28/19] Convicted sex offender ______ likely received a lesser sentence because of the potential “vilification” he would face, a leading criminal lawyer says. John Miller, who was a former senior law lecturer at Victoria University and previous Wellingtonian of the Year, said the Sentencing Act 2002 set out mitigating and aggravating factors in sentencing offenders, and a number of those factors would have been taken into account. Appearing before Judge Stephen Harrop at Wellington District Court on Friday, ______ was sentenced to eight months of home detention for…
Read MoreIN: Northwest Indiana legislators support bills closing loopholes in sex offender laws
[chicagotribune.com – 1/25/19] Northwest Indiana legislators said they are in support of bills looking to close some of the loopholes in the state’s sex offender laws. One of those bills would ban sexually violent predators or offenders against children from working as a child care provider or baby sitter, while the other prevents a convicted sex or violent offender from petitioning for a name change. “A lot of the issues that I’ve taken on are all things just like that, where there’s this loophole where it’s a small issue that…
Read MoreAustralian girl, 12, ‘had no idea about pregnancy’ until childbirth at home
[tert.am – 1/26/19] A 12-year-old girl who gave birth at a home in Western Australia could be charged over the pregnancy – along with the baby’s father. Youth Legal Service WA solicitor Sally Dechow said the charges could be brought against the pair as the conception was considered illegal under state law, The West reported. … WA Police believe the baby’s father is a child of similar age to the mother and was 11 at the the time of the pregnancy. Ms Dechow pointed out even though the pair are…
Read MoreMD: Maryland House GOP to push for state income tax cut, violent offender registry
[baltimoresun.com – 1/25/19] Republican leaders in Maryland’s House of Delegates on Friday released their legislative priorities for 2019, including a state income tax cut, a registry for violent repeat offenders, and single-member districts in the General Assembly. Flanked by fellow Republicans, Anne Arundel Del. Nic Kipke, the House’s minority leader, and Baltimore County Del. Kathy Szeliga, the minority whip, also said they would push for authority for greater use of so-called “special police” in Maryland in an effort to try to keep schools safer. Kipke said that Republican delegates represent…
Read MoreKat’s Blog: Death of a Registrant: Two Different Perspectives
The recent heart attack and subsequent death of a registrant who attended a “sex offender” treatment group for the past decade brought about two vastly different perspectives on his passing. The group counselors were emotional and grief stricken. They expressed their concern about how to break the news to the group. They offered group time or individual time to help any registrant that needed to process feelings of sadness. The counselors emotions stemmed from the notion that this was “someone they had grown to know over the years” and that…
Read MoreSouth Africa: Call for sex offenders’ list to be made public
[www.iol.co.za – 1/24/19] DURBAN – Child rights organisation Save the Children has launched an online petition calling on Police Minister Bheki Cele to make the National Registrar for Sex Offenders (NSRO) public. The NSRO is not available to the general public, but only to those who employ people who work with children or disabled people. The list helps with protection by ensuring the names of sex offenders are registered in order to prevent them from working with children and the disabled. Nicolette Myburgh, the director of social services at Tutela,…
Read MoreCivil Regulation? The Registry and its Components are in fact Legislative Punishment
[sosen.org – 1/12/19] The first thing that must be pointed out is that the sex offender registry came about because of the myth that people convicted of sexual related crimes were always going to reoffend. Some of the numbers that were tossed around at the time that the registry was conceived were 60 to 80% would reoffend. The registry was not originally designed to protect anyone, it was simply there to aid law-enforcement so that they would have suspects to look at because of this belief of high reoffense rates.…
Read MoreJanice’s Journal: Justice an Important Pillar
As we celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Day, it is important to remember that an essential pillar of his civil rights platform was Justice. ACSOL which is a civil rights organization has, in fact, adopted and advanced one of Dr. King’s best-known sayings about justice: “Injustice Anywhere is a Threat to Justice Everywhere” in our lobbying efforts in the state capitol. We credit the wisdom of Dr. King, as expressed in the saying above, as we recognize and celebrate that our efforts of 6 ½ years, as well as the…
Read MoreACSOL Meeting January 26 in L.A.
Please mark your calendars for ACSOL’s upcoming meeting: Saturday, January 26 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 MoreSC bill would prohibit sex offenders from working, volunteering around kids
[live5news.com – 1/15/19] MYRTLE BEACH, SC (WMBF) – Right now, registered sex offenders are allowed to work and volunteer around kids, but a South Carolina bill introduced last week in the State House of Representatives could change that. The bill says it would make it “unlawful for a sex offender to work or perform volunteer service with or around minor children under certain circumstances unless approved by a circuit court order that requires the offender’s employment or volunteer service be recorded in the offender’s sex offender registry file, to provide…
Read MoreKat’s Blog: Blimey, Who Does Australia’s Fact Checking?
Peter Dutton, Minister for Home Affairs in Australia wants to be the white knight riding in to save his constituents from “sex offenders” by proposing a National Public Registry. “Thwarting the exploitation of children is my key priority as Minister for Home Affairs” says Dutton. Fact #1: That’s all well and good, except Australia already has state-based registries with various levels of public accessibility in Victoria, Western Australia and the Northern Territory. Even with those state-based registries, there has been a 77% rise in child sex abuse and exploitation of…
Read MoreNE: People question legality of sex offender living in assisted living facility
[wowt.com – 1/14/19] FORT CALHOUN, Neb. (WOWT) – Concerns have been raised over a registered sex offender who is living in an assisted living community in Fort Calhoun. A few people connected to those living in the community are questioning whether or not the arrangement is legal. There are 48 apartments for seniors at the Autumn Pointe Assisted Living Services. One of those units is occupied by a registered sex offender, but the company officials said no one living in the community is at risk. Amy Wilcox Burns works for…
Read MoreAUS: Lawyer fears sex offender list would lead to jury bias
[pressreader.com for Courier-Mail, 1/14/19] Veteran criminal lawyer Chris Nyst says a public register for child sex offenders could result in unfair convictions from biased jurors, if they were given easy access to defendant’s criminal history. Read more
Read MoreKat’s Blog: The Registry: A Valuable Public Safety Tool?
If you have a few minutes, read Florida’s Sex Offender Registration and Monitoring Triennial Review 2018 (www.oppaga.state.fl.us). Even if you don’t live in Florida, it’s an interesting slog thru what governmental bureaucracy thinks is important when it comes to the registry. The highlight of this auditing monstrosity is the attached letter at the end of the report from Fl. Dept. of Law and Enforcement to the coordinator of the Office of Program Policy Analysis & Governmental Accountability, stating “the registry is a valuable public safety tool”. I read the report…
Read MoreNARSOL: RIT study is Butner Redux deja vu
[narsol.org – 1/7/19] Michael M . . . A recent study conducted by researchers at the Rochester Institute of Technology, or RIT, is already being cited in Federal Court cases to support the false presumption of a high rate of unreported child molestations by those convicted of child pornography offenses. This is despite the fact that it suffers from exactly the same serious flaws and inaccuracies as the infamous and thoroughly discredited “Butner Redux” study, which first appeared in the Journal of Family Violence in 2009. For those who may…
Read MoreCivil Rights Attorney to be Keynote Speaker at ACSOL’s Conference on June 14 and June 15
Civil rights attorney Adele Nicholas will be the keynote speaker at ACSOL’s third annual conference to be held on June 14 and June 15 in Los Angeles. Nicholas has represented the rights of registrants in multiple lawsuits challenging residency restrictions, access to public places and hospital visitations in Illinois and neighboring states in the Great Lakes region. “We are delighted that Ms. Nicholas has agreed to be the keynote speaker at this year’s conference,” stated ACSOL Executive Director Janice Bellucci. “She is a dedicated and effective civil rights attorney who…
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