[quora.com. Scroll down to the comment by Ben Kirssen] I think it is impossible. At least not without some serious collateral damage. The problem lies in the idea to send “all” pedophiles to an island. First you would have to determine who is a pedophile and who is not. That could prove to be tricky. However the last decade some promising ways of identifying a pedophile have emerged. Brain scans, implicit association tests, measuring penis enlarging tests and psychological reviews all claim with a certain degree of accuracy to do…
Read MoreAuthor: R H
IN: Churches aren’t school property; sex offenders can attend
[theindianalawyer.com] Three convicted Boone County sex offenders can return to their church congregations after the Indiana Court of Appeals determined that churches are not considered “school property,” so state statute cannot prohibit the offenders from going to church, even when children are present. The appellate court handed down that decision Tuesday in John Doe 1, et al., v. The Boone County Prosecutor, in his official capacity, et al., 06A01-1612-PL-2741. The case dates to 2015, when the Indiana General Assembly passed the “unlawful entry by a serious sex offender” statute, Indiana…
Read MoreSimi Valley Formally Notifies Registrants of Repealed Halloween Ordinance
The City of Simi Valley has formally notified registrants in that city that they are no longer required to post a sign on the front door of their home on Halloween and are allowed to decorate their homes as well as answer their door to children. According to the letter dated October 18, these changes are the result of a decision made on October 16 by the Simi Valley City Council to repeal its Halloween ordinance which was adopted in 2012. The Simi Valley letter did not make reference to…
Read MoreMO: Vicki Henry Is Fighting to Reform the Way Missouri Treats Sex Offenders
[riverfronttimes.com] Four hours into the armed standoff, the narrow residential street in Arnold is crowded with police cruisers, ambulances and SWAT trucks. Two TV news crews set up in someone’s front lawn, training their camera lenses on a boxy armored personnel carrier parked outside a one-floor duplex on West Highview Drive. A TV reporter relays in a breaking news update that federal officials would not release any information about the suspect, only that the man is believed to be armed and that FBI agents arrived at the home around 7…
Read MoreBlind Injustice: How ‘Tunnel Vision’ Convicts the Innocent
[thecrimereport.org] In 1991, soon after he was sentenced to 56 years in an Ohio prison for a crime he did not commit, Roger Dean Gillispie began pestering fellow inmates to save the tinfoil from their tobacco pouches. He also gathered discarded teabags and cassette tapes—anything he could get his hands on to serve as makeshift building materials. Then each evening, after he returned to his cell from one of his prison jobs, he devoted countless hours to creating a model of a shiny, vintage Airstream camper. It was, for him,…
Read MoreSenate passes Schumer-backed bill to open FBI sex offender database
[syracuse.com] The operators of summer camps, daycare centers and volunteer groups that work with children are a step closer to gaining access to an FBI sex offender database that could be used for background checks on prospective employees and volunteers. The U.S. Senate passed a bill backed by U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer that would close a loophole in the background check system and authorize the FBI to provide the information to organizations that work with children. Read more
Read MoreVA: Virginia pulls 132 confined sex offenders from list of eligible voters
[Washington Post] State officials abruptly removed 132 sex offenders from Virginia’s list of eligible voters last week, reacting to the latest problem emerging from Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s sweeping move to restore voting rights to felons who had served out their sentences. A spokesman for McAuliffe (D) said that the offenders, who are confined in a treatment facility under a form of civil commitment, had appeared on the list of eligible voters by mistake. Read more
Read MoreFL: More school districts blame sexual abuse victims
[sun-sentinel.com] Despite denying it, Broward and Miami-Dade school districts both have blamed schoolchildren for their own sexual abuse. The Sun Sentinel this week uncovered lawsuits in which the districts claimed children — from ages 8 to 14 — were wholly or partly responsible for what happened to them. The discovery came a week after Palm Beach County Schools came under fire for the same practice, after reports in the Sun Sentinel. In at least five sexual abuse lawsuits, involving children as young as 6, Palm Beach County Schools said students’…
Read MoreMN: ‘I Was Willing to Do Everything’: Mothers Defend Sons Accused of Sexual Assault
[New York Times] Four women met late last month at a restaurant in a Twin Cities suburb, where they spoke for hours, so intently their waiter had trouble getting their drink orders. Each had a son who had been accused at college of sexual assault. One was expelled and another suspended. The other two were cleared, yet one had contemplated suicide and the other was so crushed he had not returned to school. The women had been meeting regularly to share notes and commiserate. Now, over red wine in a…
Read MoreIA: Iowa’s High Court Rules That Despite Appeals, Sex Offenders Must Register
[iowapublicradio.org] People convicted of sex crimes are still required to register as sex offenders in Iowa even if they’re appealing their convictions, according to today’s ruling by the Iowa Supreme Court. The case centers on the appeal of Brian James Maxwell, who was hired as a youth coordinator for two churches in the Winterset area in March 2014. That month he inappropriately touched a 16-year-old girl who he met through this job. The next year Maxwell was convicted of lascivious conduct with a minor and sentenced to a year incarceration.…
Read MoreWhy some travelers will need a passport card for 2018
[yahoo.com] Everyone knows that you need a boarding pass and driver’s license to pass airport security. It’s always been this way, but next year, some travelers may also need a passport card. Starting on Jan. 22, 2018, travelers from a handful of states may have to show an alternate ID to Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents at the airport. This is because the REAL ID Act, which was passed by Congress in 2005, will go into effect. Essentially, this act established minimum security standards for state-issued driver’s licenses (and ID…
Read MoreFL: Month After Irma, Sex Offenders Haven’t Left
[miaminewtimes.com] Beneath a shredded blue tarp, 58-year-old Claudia Baker takes a swig of A&W root beer. “Imagine your faucet dripping at night. That’s what life is like for us—except instead of just hearing the drip, we feel it,” she says. After serving nine years in prison for child pornography, Baker now lives at an encampment of sex offenders near the train tracks near Hialeah. There, residents sleep on wet cots, endure massive storm floods and openly defecate behind a storage container. Nearby business owners say they’ve scared away customers. “My…
Read MoreThe only thing we have to fear on Halloween is fear itself
[timesledger.com] “Trick or treat, trick or treat, give us something lethal to eat!” That’s not the actual rhyme, but from all the warnings about Halloween you just might think it was. Even the American Academy of Pediatrics is still insisting that “a responsible adult should closely examine all treats.” But why? How many decades of disproving this murderous myth do America’s doctors require before they lay it to rest? Joel Best, a sociologist at the University of Delaware, first put a stake through the poison candy rumor all the way…
Read MoreHow Sex Offender Registries Impact Youth
[teenvogue.com] Ten-year-old Leah pretended to have sex with her younger step-siblings. She said it happened a few times and that she was just acting out scenes from the movies. A couple years later, Leah’s conduct was discovered by law enforcement. Leah was 12 when she was convicted of criminal sexual conduct in juvenile court and labeled a sex offender. The law required her to remain on the sex offender registry for 25 years. She says she lost jobs and internships as a result. When she was about to enter her…
Read MoreCA: California law will bar cities and counties from providing information for a ‘Muslim registry’
[Los Angeles Times] Gov. Jerry Brown signed a closely watched bill on Sunday to block the creation of any so-called Muslim registry should President Trump choose to act on a proposal he repeatedly suggested during his 2016 campaign. Senate Bill 31 by state Sen. Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens) bars state and local governments from releasing personal information to the federal government for the creation of any religious list, registry or database. It also prohibits them from using resources to create their own lists. Dubbed the California Religious Freedom Act, the…
Read MoreCA: Sex Offender Law Repealed In Simi Valley
[CBS Los Angeles] SIMI VALLEY (CBSLA) — Don’t take candy from strangers. But what about sexual offenders? The Simi Valley City Council decided on Monday night to overturn a law aimed at protecting children from sexual predators. City leaders say the law wouldn’t stand up in a legal appeal so they killed it. There will now be nothing to stop registered sex offenders in Simi Valley from interacting with trick-or-treaters. So when Halloween rolls around in a couple of weeks, parents say they’ll be a lot more vigilant. The ordinance…
Read MoreCO: County Sex-Offender Registry Pulled Down Because of Lawsuit Fears
[westword.com] As we’ve reported, Montrose County, on Colorado’s Western Slope, pulled its sex-offender list offline following a recent court ruling in which U.S. District Court Judge Richard Matsch found that such registries constituted cruel and unusual punishment in the case of three plaintiffs. The ruling is specific to the complainants in question, rather than everyone on the roster, and Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman has announced her intention to appeal. So why make the move now? According to a representative from the sheriff’s office in Montrose, a fear of lawsuits.…
Read MoreIN: Sex offender class for prisoners violates Constitution, judge rules
[indystar.com] A federal judge has ruled that Indiana’s mandated sex offender classes for prisoners who oppose them violates the constitutional right to be free from self-incrimination. The Sept. 28 ruling in the class-action lawsuit filed in the Southern District of Indiana will affect all convicted, incarcerated sex offenders who opt out of the Indiana Sex Offender Monitoring and Management, or SOMM, program. Three of the plaintiffs will be eligible for release from prison. The Indiana attorney general’s office has filed an emergency request to temporarily halt the case pending an…
Read More