[floridaactioncommittee.org – 3/31/18] It sounds like a great program. Homeless military veterans who have been sleeping in their cars and risking arrest for violating a new law making it illegal to sleep in your vehicle in a residential area overnight, can now park their vehicles in the VA parking lot and get a good night’s sleep and access to bathrooms. According to California Radio Station WMOT, “Last month, a non-profit group called Safe Parking L.A. partnered with the Department of Veterans Affairs to offer 10 parking stalls for vets to…
Read MoreAuthor: R H
FL: Duval County rolls out drivers license restoration program
[floridapolitics.com – 5/30/18] Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams and State Attorney Melissa Nelson on Wednesday rolled out the ‘KEYS 2 Drive’ (Knowledge Empowers Your Success) diversion program. The program will help those facing primary charges of driving without valid licenses, or suspended or revoked licenses, to get valid drivers’ licenses. … Sex offenders are ineligible for the program, … Read the whole article
Read MoreAR: Here’s a helping hand – Right into a prison cell—or worse
[arkansasonline.com – 5/30/18] There are so many lessons to be drawn from Bobbie Gross’ tragic experience in trying to help her 17-year-old son that the challenge isn’t to describe just one but how to sum up the whole plethora of ills the young man fell into when left to the not-so-tender mercies of the State of Arkansas: It turns out that his mother, seeking to help him, made her first mistake when she filed a petition with a judge of Arkansas’ juvenile court system asking the court get her son…
Read MoreNJ Supreme Court Bars Retroactive Application of Megan’s Law Amendments
[law.com – 5/30/18] The New Jersey Supreme Court on Wednesday held 2014 amendments to Megan’s Law enhancing certain penalties for sex offenders who violate parole requirements unenforceable against four defendants based on the ex post facto clauses of both the state and federal constitutions. Read more Related: NJ Supreme Court finds Ex Post Facto violations as applied to 4 sex offenders [floridaactioncommittee.org – 5/31/18]
Read MoreFL: A decree bars police from harassing homeless people. Miami has moved to terminate it
[miamiherald.com – 5/30/18] Miami has asked a federal judge to terminate a 20-year-old legal agreement that protects the city’s homeless from undue police harassment — a change that would allow the police to arrest the homeless for loitering. The city on Wednesday filed a motion in U.S. District Court to terminate the Pottinger agreement, a 1998 consent decree that prevents police from arresting homeless people for “life-sustaining” activities such as sleeping on the sidewalk, starting a cooking fire or urinating in public. The agreement stems from a landmark lawsuit brought…
Read MoreSex Offender Ponzi Scheme
[dsdaughtry.wordpress.com – 5/28/18] Ponzi schemes are investment strategies where individuals help facilitate other like-minded individuals by purchasing or acquiring an idea or product with the hopes of an economic safety and security outcomes. These elaborate schemes take time to manifest and mature. Those that refuse or suspicious are usually labeled as missing an opportunity of a lifetime or misanthropic. Once the moment of collapse of Ponzi schemes unravels then does the distrust of those that invested harming families, security, public trust, and overall accountability. The most massive Ponzi scheme that…
Read MoreThe Dating Debacle for Registrants
[blog.womenagainstregistry.org – 5/30/18] Who do you tell, what do you say and when do you say it? That’s just one of the many dilemmas facing single registrants trying to reintegrate back into the dating world. Getting out there an socializing is risky business and it’s filled with many possible pitfalls. But this is what you are supposed to do isn’t it? Isn’t this what those prison lectures on “reintegration” were all about. How you’re supposed to get out there and resume your life, build a support network of friends and…
Read MoreMO: Senate Bill 655 changes the way MO handles sex offender registry [three tier]
[fourstateshomepage.com = 5/29/18] State lawmakers sign off on a potential law changing the way the Show Me State handles its sex offender registry. Senate Bill 655 would create a three tier system, similar to the one used at the federal level. Those guilty of the least serious convictions could ask courts to take them off the list after ten years. That option is also available for convicts on the second tier -with more serious charges – after 25 years on the registry. But those with the worst offenses would remain…
Read MoreCA: The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation wants to rid some facilities of sensitive needs yards
[sacbee.com – 5/27/18] The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is changing how inmates are housed, saying current separations between general population inmates and those held in sensitive needs yards have been ineffective in eliminating gangs and violence within prison walls. The agency will instead move toward creating some “non-designated program” facilities, where both groups will be tasked with co-existing. The current system has bred new gangs within the sensitive needs yards, resulting in escalating violence, CDCR Undersecretary of Operations Ralph Diaz said. “We are going to do behavior-based programs…
Read MoreAZ: Sex offenders are legally living just feet away from Arizona schools
[12news.com – original: 5/16/18, updated 5/24/18] PHOENIX – A loophole in Arizona law allows sex offenders to live near schools, in some cases just feet away from campus. Per state law, it’s only illegal for a sex offender to live within 1,000 feet of a school if that person has been convicted of a dangerous crime against children. According to the state sex offender registry, one sex offender in Mesa lives steps away from two schools, Ishikawa Elementary School and Stapley Junior High. The Maricopa County Adult Probation says his…
Read MoreSC: Charleston sheriff unplugs mugshot websites
postandcourier.com – 5/26/18] Once upon a time, we named and shamed by putting the accused in stocks on the town square. Now we put them on the internet. I am omitting the names because it is impossible to sort the innocent from the guilty. “South Carolina Hottie Bookings,” on a website called Arrests.org, isn’t troubled by such details. On this one website, there are mugshots of 1,000 women arrested in South Carolina over the past two years, many on nothing-burger charges. Mind you, not one of them was convicted of…
Read MoreFL: Safety versus second chance: A home for sexual offenders has neighbors up in arms
[tallahassee.com – 5/26/18] Nestled in a pocket of land surrounded by the I-10 overpass and Mission Road sits the Moon Lane neighborhood. A dirt road that runs along the interstate wall leads to several mobile homes hidden behind a barricade of drooping trees and unkempt foliage. Cornered off and relatively quiet, homes are scattered around the unpaved road with no real boundaries. But, residents of the area are beginning to draw a line in the sand. Neighbors on Moon Lane are fighting to remove a rehabilitation home for sexual offenders…
Read MoreWV: West Virginia’s Fake News Regarding Sex Offenders
[blog.womenagainstregistry.org – 5/24/18] I thought it started out as a good news article from The Exponent Telegram in West Virginia. A judge was reading sex offender rules to a defendant at a sentencing hearing. The author of the article correctly noted that defendants at a sentencing hearing are focused on “sentencing” and probably not absorbing much of the information the judge is providing them regarding the requirements surrounding life on the registry. I had to agree that newcomers to the registry should be informed of what is expected of them,…
Read MoreConvicted of Violating a Law that Does Not Exist
[cato.org – 5/24/18] Herman Gundy stands convicted of violating a law that, for all intents and purposes, doesn’t exist. You may recall from high school civics that the Constitution separates the powers of the federal government among three coordinate branches. You may also recall from “Schoolhouse Rock” that a bill becomes a law after it’s passed by the two houses of the legislative branch and signed by the president. Unfortunately for Gundy, things are no longer so straightforward. The Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA) set up a national…
Read MoreFL: Police Now Shuffling Tent City Sex Offenders Around Miami-Dade
[miaminewtimes.com – 5/24/18] In 2009, California artist Scott Gairdner made the “Sex Offender Shuffle,” a viral video parodying Miami-Dade’s treatment of sex offenders. With a catchy beat and ’80s-style cinematography, the four-minute spoof of the 1985 Chicago Bears’ “Super Bowl Shuffle” mocked the way sex offenders are shuffled from one location to another under the guise of public safety. Nine years later, the sex offender shuffle is playing out in real life in Miami-Dade. After being forced to leave a longtime encampment near Hialeah, a group of homeless sex offenders…
Read MorePost-Prison Purgatory
[theinvestigativefund.org – 5/23/18] At Coalinga State Hospital, located in a desolate, dusty part of California’s Central Valley, 200 miles north of Los Angeles, 37-year-old Cory Hoch stands out. He’s well liked by other patients, and his dry sense of humor and lively intelligence come across almost immediately. His feathered earring and neon-green sneakers infuse some color into the surroundings, while his khaki scrubs identify him as a patient. Since the age of 19, Hoch has lived most of his life in some form of cage. He is one of the…
Read MoreRegistry Matters Episode 25 – Why GPS monitoring should be 1 of the 7 deadly sins
[narsol.org – 5/22/18] Why GPS monitoring should be 1 of the 7 deadly sins A malfunction in the charging could land you in jail. No access to power? Could land you in jail. Poor cell signal? Could result in being detained while proof is obtained. You could spend a week or more in jail for an unspecified violation. Spending time in jail could lose you your job which can lead to loss of housing. The GPS.gov website cites a 16’ radius of accuracy in the best conditions. Read more and…
Read MoreWhat People Get Wrong About ‘Political Will’
[governing.com – May 2018] At a recent Governing roundtable, I heard once again that the failure to act on a serious public problem was due to a lack of “political will.” Hearing this from people who are wise and good public officials always leaves me a little annoyed. I agree with David Roberts of Vox, who wrote, “To me, it has always sounded like the political equivalent of the Force in the Star Wars movies. It explains everything and nothing.” When you hear a public official or pundit say that…
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