[UPDATED LINKS 3/20/18] [floridaactioncommittee.org] The West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals has ruled that completely restricting a person’s access to the internet as a condition of their parole from prison is a violation of the First Amendment. “Like the statute in Packingham, Mr. Ross’s condition of parole ‘bars access to…sources for knowing current events, checking ads for employment, speaking and listening in the modern public square, and otherwise exploring the vast realms of human thought and knowledge,’” the decision states. Read more RELATED LINKS: Supreme Court says restricting internet access…
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MA: The New Sex Ed: What Young People Need to Know About Sex Laws
[Keren Goldenberg at kgdefenselaw.com] Like everyone else living in New England, I could not avoid the exhaustive media coverage of the St. Paul School rape trial. From a legal perspective, there was nothing sensational about this case: a 15 year old student claimed that she had been forcibly raped by a senior at her school. The senior claimed that they fooled around but never had sex and the jury ultimately ruled that statutory rape (but not forcible rape) had been committed. The media frenzy was due to the fact that…
Read MoreTX: Registered sex offenders targets of latest phone scam
[ktsm.com] EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) – The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office says a telephone scam is targeting registered sex offenders in the county, trying to scam them out of money According to EPCSO, registered people around the county have gotten calls from someone identifying themselves as employees of the Sheriff’s Office. The scammers tell the registered sex offender that they are non-compliant with their registration and have warrants which will result in their arrest if they don’t pay a specific fine. The victim is then told to buy Money…
Read MoreCA: California Lawmaker Banned From Hugging After Investigation
[usnews.com] SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A California state senator has been told to stop hugging people after an investigation concluded that his trademark embraces made multiple female colleagues uncomfortable. However, the investigation released Thursday found Sen. Bob Hertzberg’s frequent hugs are not intended to be sexual and more often than not are not unwelcome. Hertzberg, a Democrat from the Los Angeles area, has earned nicknames such as “Hugsberg” and “Huggy Bear” for greeting men and women alike with giant hugs. The Senate Rules Committee formally reprimanded him on Tuesday and…
Read MoreNY: State police: Sex offender’s death accidental at Central New York Psychiatric Center
[lohud.com] State police have ruled that a sex offender’s death inside Central New York Psychiatric Center in Marcy was accidental. Investigators determined Philip Barbato, 47, accidentally hanged himself with string while alone inside a shower room, Trooper Jack Kelly said. Barbato had been locked up under the state’s Sex Offender Treatment Program, part of the civil-commitment law that allows for confining sex offenders who completed their criminal sentence, according to Kelly. Nursing staff tried to resuscitate Barbato and an ambulance responded Monday at 3:05 a.m. He was pronounced dead at…
Read MoreNew book dispels myths about sex offenders
[UPDATED LINKS 4/19/18] [salemweeklynews.com] Even amid the national outcry about sex abuse and sexual harassment, very little is known about sex offenders or the treatments that best help them. Arguably the least understood population of the criminal justice system, sex offenders are subject to some of the country’s most punitive sentencing laws and their incarceration, life after prison and rehabilitation efforts are often misguided. Two Salem people with decades of experience with offenders in professional and prison settings have written a riveting new book , SO, The New Scarlett Letters…
Read MoreNJ: Opposition to Blanket Community Notification in New Jersey
[sexlawandpolicy.org] Today, SLAP Center delivered a letter to Assemblywoman Amy Handlin and Senator Christopher Bateman outlining our opposition to their proposal to allow for community notification of New Jersey’s Tier 1 registrants. New Jersey has three tiers of registrants, with only Tiers 2 and 3 currently available to the public. Tier 1 registrants are assessed as having little to no risk of re-offense and are not included on the publicly accessible registry, as such; the public is not notified of their registration information. Tier 1 registrants include people who were…
Read MoreYou’ve Got A Friend, But It’s Not U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions!
[blog.womenagainstregistry.org] U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions spoke at a conference for the International Association of Chiefs of Police in Nashville, TN on Thursday, his focus, increasing the prison population! You would think that government would be more interested in decreasing prison population, wouldn’t you? The federal prison population has decreased from 220,000 to 180,000 over the past few years. To me, that would seem like a good thing, we’re getting a handle on crime and fairer sentencing. What part of that doesn’t Mr. Sessions get? He wants to pursue “longer”…
Read MoreNJ: How the new ‘child erotica’ law might help stop sex predators
[nj.com] A new law that further defines child pornography and more heavily prosecutes those who distribute and possess it went into effect recently, and law enforcers are hoping it’ll help keep offenders behind bars. The legislation effectively closes a gap where possessors of “child erotica” — photos or videos of children who are being portrayed sexually or exploited — but aren’t necessarily nude, wasn’t considered child pornography. They are now. The law was signed by Gov. Chris Christie in July 2017 and went into effect Feb. 1. Officials say it’ll…
Read MoreACSOL CA Action CANCELLATION Alert for May 8 LA Court Murder Hearing
UPDATED May 1, 2018: The May 8 press conference and filing of lawsuit has been postponed. Future date to be determined and announced. Correspondingly, ACSOL will not be meeting as an organization at the hearing. Original (obsolete) March 16 posting: ACSOL members are encouraged to attend a court hearing on May 8 in Los Angeles County that will feature four men charged with the brutal murder of a registrant in late November 2017. The hearing is scheduled to begin at 8:30 a.m. in Courtroom 4 of the Los Angeles…
Read MoreCA Sex Offender Management Board to Release Recidivism Report
[ACSOL] The CA Sex Offender Management Board (CASOMB) will soon release the results of a 10-year study on recidivism rates for those convicted of a sex offense, according to a CASOMB member. The study is expected to include topics such as the number of people convicted of indecent exposure who later committed a sex contact offense. According to the board member, a preliminary copy of the report reveals that number is zero out of a group of more than 300 people. During today’s CASOMB meeting, several additional reports were issued…
Read MoreNational Registry of Exonerations 2017 report [document]
[law.umich.edu] The National Registry of Exonerations recently issued its 2017 report. Of the 139 exonerations they added to the registry in 2017, 21% were for sex crimes, not counting the two for registration crimes. About half of all the exonerations were based on the conclusion that no crime had been committed (as opposed to the finding that the exoneree was not the perpetrator). Eleven of these were child sexual abuse convictions. Download the Exonerations In 2017 report [PDF] The original path is: https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Documents/ExonerationsIn2017.pdf
Read MoreNY: Bills re-instate residency/ proximity laws, Shelter Bans and end Statutes of Limitations
[once-fallen.blogspot] Read comments by once-fallen.blogspot Read NY Assembly Bill A9505C Read NY Senate Bill S7505B
Read MoreTrump’s ‘Bipartisan’ Nominees to Sentencing Commission Tilt Conservative
[thecrimereport.org] President Donald Trump’s four nominees to the U.S. Sentencing Commission include three well-known conservatives who may be inclined to support tougher sentences in federal criminal cases. The White House announcement Thursday described it as a “bipartisan group” of nominees, but if all of them are approved by the Senate, the voting majority of the six-member commission (two of whom serve as ex-officio, nonvoting members), could tilt rightward, according to observers. The commission, an independent judiciary agency, was created by Congress in 1984 “to reduce sentencing disparities and promote transparency…
Read MoreAt the Fox News Site, a Sudden Focus on Women as Sex Offenders
[nytimes.com] In November, there was the story of a 22-year-old science teacher arrested in Oklahoma for her “sex romp” with a male student. In September, an article told of a 38-year-old teacher who kissed a student and let him “touch her breasts behind Culver’s,” a burger joint in Kerrville, Tex. And in July there was a report on a 54-year-old music teacher in Georgia who, a headline announced, “blames male student, 17, for tricking her into having sex ‘like a used-car salesman.’” Instances of female teachers sexually abusing male students…
Read MoreHow A Trailer Park Becomes A Secret Haven For Sex Offenders
[cracked.com] “Sex Offender Trailer Park” sounds like either a great horror movie, a middling rock band, or a horrible sitcom. In real life, neighborhoods like that do exist, because of a problem society has no goddamned idea how to solve. In many cities, laws keep registered sex offenders from living anywhere near where children gather, which means there are only tiny areas where they can live. We talked to James, who owned a trailer park that became known as a haven for the people society would prefer not to deal…
Read MoreFL: A National Push For Victims’ Rights is Now Hitting Florida. But Critics Are Fighting Back
[injusticetoday.com] Voters in Florida may soon get to decide whether to give victims of crime a bigger say in the criminal justice system. A proposed amendment to the state constitution known as Marsy’s Law for Florida would enshrine specific rights for crime victims, such as the right to privacy and the “right to be reasonably protected from the accused.” It would also give victims legal standing to testify during hearings to determine a defendant’s bail, sentencing, plea deals and parole. “The pain a victim suffers in the aftermath of a…
Read MoreMO: To better spot sexual predators, schools get advice from teachers convicted of sex crimes
[news-leader.com] To better safeguard schools from sexual predators, the Center for Education Safety turned to an unlikely source: Former Missouri teachers convicted of crossing the line with students. Six former school employees, most still behind bars, agreed to answer questions from a former law enforcement officer who works as training coordinator for the center, which is part of the Missouri School Boards’ Association. At a training Monday in Springfield for school safety coordinators, interviewer Gary Moore shared what he gained by asking the convicted felons how they chose and groomed…
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