Source: ctmirror.org 8/10/23 This year will mark the 25th anniversary of the public Sex Offender Registry (SOR) in Connecticut. The SOR – also called the sexual offense registry by advocates who want to move past the stigma of dehumanizing labels – is a publicly accessible internet database of individuals who have been convicted of a sexual offense and reside, work, or attend school in Connecticut. It is searchable and includes their name, physical description, addresses, photo, and offense details. Twenty-five years has been more than sufficient for researchers to study…
Read MoreAuthor: R H
CA: Sex offenders near Lakeside [near San Diego] schools upset parents, board members
Source: cbs8.com 8/9/23 LAKESIDE, Calif. — Lakeside residents gathered at Riverview Elementary School Wednesday to express their outrage over the amount of convicted sex offenders near the schools. Both parents and school board members said they want to be more informed about sex offenders in the area and also more blanket restrictions surrounding them living near schools, parks and bus stops. There used to be state restrictions that prohibited registered sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of schools and parks where children gathered. Jessica’s Law was overturned in 2015…
Read MoreTN: Registry to life sentence: TN courts remove dozens from sex offender registry after legal challenges
Source: newschannel5.com 8/9/23 NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — It’s costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars as more people file lawsuits claiming they shouldn’t be restricted by a registry that didn’t exist when they were convicted. Dozens of people have since been removed from the registry as a result, with dozens more potentially on the way. Thomas spent more than 20 years on Tennessee’s Sex Offender Registry but now considers himself a free man. His case is still being appealed, so we’ve agreed to stick with first names for his protection.…
Read MoreProtection, Punishment, and the Victims Rights Movement
Source: thecrimereport.org 8/9/23 In 2018, 156 accusers of Larry Nasser, the former team doctor for USA Gymnastics Team who molested them over and over again during medical appointments, testified at his sentencing hearing about their experiences and the damage done to their lives as a result of his abuse. Their emotional and personal stories helped in sentencing him to between 40 and 175 years in prison. In February of 2023, the testimonies of family members and friends of the victims killed by Sayfullo Saipov, a terrorist convicted of running over…
Read MoreWI: Wisconsin releases sex offenders from GPS bracelets after court ruling
Source: captimes.com 8/8/23 The state Department of Corrections has begun releasing certain sex offenders from lifetime GPS tracking after a Wisconsin Supreme Court decision undermined the agency’s justification for keeping people on electronic monitoring beyond their sentences. The department confirmed to the Cap Times that it is in the process of identifying everyone who was forced to wear the GPS devices for the rest of their lives as the result of a now-debunked interpretation of state statute by former Attorney General Brad Schimel. As of Tuesday, it remained unknown precisely…
Read MoreMS: Lifetime voting ban for felony convictions struck down in Mississippi
Source: abcnews.go.com 8/4/23 Mississippi’s lifetime voting ban for people with disqualifying felony convictions has been struck down in a new decision from the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. The court’s 2-1 decision will restore the right to vote for tens of thousands of Mississippians, according to the plaintiff’s council Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP. The court ruled Thursday in the case of Hopkins v. Hosemann that by banning former offenders “from the body politic forever” they will be punished “beyond the term their culpability requires,” according…
Read MoreFL: Revisions made to Hernando County Sex Offender and Sexual Predator Ordinance
Source: hernandosun.com 8/4/23 Last week, the Hernando Sun ran a story on recent changes to the Hernando County Sexual Offender and Sexual Offender Ordinance found in Chapter 21 of the Code of Ordinances. The story was largely based on a copy of the revised ordinance posted on the BOCC website for their July 11th meeting. We have learned that the copy of the ordinance posted did not reflect some of the final revisions. County Commissioner John Allocco spoke with us about the final revisions and why the changes were needed.…
Read MoreACSOL Conference Schedule Now Available
The schedule for ACSOL’s annual conference to be held on October 14 and October 15 in Los Angeles is now available. The first plenary speaker for the conference will be sociologist Emily Horowitz who will discuss her years of research regarding registrants described in her newly published book, “From Rage to Reason.” Dr. Horowitz’s presentation will be immediately followed by a panel of three registrants described in that book, who have succeeded in life despite the daily challenges of the registry. The registrants are Shawn Rolfe, PhD, Norman Harris of…
Read MoreUnited States Sentencing Commission Public Meeting Scheduled for Aug 24, 2023
Source: content.govdelivery.com 8/7/23 Commission to Vote on Final Priorities and May Vote to Make the 2023 Criminal History Amendment (Parts A and B) Retroactive We invite you to join us on Thursday, August 24, 2023 at 3 p.m. (EDT) for a public meeting of the U.S. Sentencing Commission. The meeting will be held at the Thurgood Marshall Federal Judiciary Building, One Columbus Circle, N.E., in Suite 2-500 (South Lobby). The meeting will be livestreamed . The agenda follows: Report of the Chair Possible Vote on Adoption of April 2023 Meeting…
Read MoreThe Dance of Justice and Mercy: An Integrated Approach to Crime, Addiction, and Recidivism
Source: jumpstartvision.org 7/15/23 A perpetual challenge our society grapples with is the issue of crime, addiction, and recidivism. Traditional approaches often prioritize punitive measures as the primary means of addressing these issues, but emerging research suggests that this is not the most effective approach. A more compassionate, empathetic strategy that combines justice and mercy may not only offer more hope for the individuals embroiled in these cycles, but also for the overall health and well-being of society. Justice and Mercy: A Necessary Union According to research, an approach that…
Read MoreFBI finds 200 sex trafficking victims, 59 missing children in two-week sweep
Source: nbcnews.com 8/1/23 The FBI found 200 sex trafficking victims and more than 125 suspects during a two-week child exploitation operation in July, federal officials said Tuesday. During “Operation Cross County,” the FBI located 59 victims of child sex trafficking and child sexual exploitation and 59 missing children. The FBI teamed with state and local agencies to identify or arrest 126 suspects of child sexual exploitation and human trafficking and 68 suspected traffickers. Read the full article
Read MoreKids’ Online Safety Policy Bill is a Pretext for Censorship
Source: newrepublic.com 8/2/23 The first thing you need to know about the latest bill in Congress meant to protect children on the internet is that one of its co-sponsors has been waging this fight against tech platforms since the days of MySpace. This bill, the Kids Online Safety Act, or KOSA, concerns children who were not yet born at the dawn of social media, whose parents could once have jockeyed to remain in each other’s Top 8, while their own parents in turn may have sounded the alarm about such…
Read MoreUK: Wanted sex offender caught on facial recognition camera at King Charles coronation
Source: independent.co.uk 7/31/23 A wanted sex offender was sent back to jail after being caught by a facial recognition camera at the coronation of King Charles. The 33-old-man, who has not been named, was picked up by one of the cameras operating in a van near Buckingham Palace on 6 May. An image of his face was captured by the hi-tech cameras and fed into a database that matched a mugshot of a wanted suspect. This sparked an alert to the Metropolitan Police and the man was immediately arrested and…
Read MoreChief Justice John Roberts defends legitimacy of court
Source: news.yahoo.com 9/10/22 COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — Chief Justice John Roberts on Friday defended the authority of the Supreme Court to interpret the Constitution, saying its role should not be called into question just because people disagree with its decisions. When asked to reflect on the last year at the court in his first public appearance since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Roberts said he was concerned that lately some critics of the court’s controversial decisions have questioned the legitimacy of the court, which he said…
Read MoreMatching Grant Program: Frank’s Freedom Fund
The family of Frank Lindsay has donated $10,000 to the Family Safety Foundation for the purpose of a matching grant. All donations made to this fund will be used to support ongoing and future litigation to help restore the rights of registrants and their families. As a matching grant, the amount of $10,000 will be made available to the foundation if additional donations in that or a larger amount are made during the next 90 days. The family recommends donations to the foundation in an amount that includes the number…
Read MoreFL: Sex offender camp growing in Florida woods; public apparently not warned
Source: fox8.com 7/28/23 CLEARWATER, Florida (WFLA) — A Florida camp powered by solar panels and a generator is home to about a dozen sex offenders who claim they were sent there by probation officers, but there is no indication the public was alerted. Land records indicate the tents that sit under a structure made from branches are on land owned by the Florida Department of Transportation. A state spokesperson said they were “not aware of this.” Several sources, including a defense attorney, told Nexstar’s WFLA that anyone on probation is…
Read MoreMS: Mississippi to pay more than $400K in attorneys’ fees over unconstitutional sodomy law
Source: mississippitoday.org 7/28/23 Mississippi will have to pay more than $400,000 in attorneys’ fees after the attorney general’s office spent years defending a sodomy law that criminalizes oral and anal sex. The law in question — Section 97-29-59 — was deemed unconstitutional in 2003 when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the case Lawrence v. Texas that private sexual conduct was constitutionally protected. But Mississippi kept its sodomy law on the books, opening the door for a 2016 legal challenge that resulted in the expensive attorneys’ fees. The AGs office,…
Read MoreCA: Nearly 140 arrested in Southern California child sex abuse raids
Source: ktla.com 7/26/23 139 people were arrested in a sweeping multi-agency crackdown on child sex abuse and child pornography this month, the Los Angeles Police Department announced Wednesday. The crackdown, dubbed Operation Online Guardian, involved over 100 agencies that comprise LAPD’s Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force. “Child exploitation is one of the most horrendous crimes affecting our most vulnerable members of the community,” Joe McNally, Assistant U.S. Attorney General, said at a news conference Wednesday morning. “Through these crimes, predators target those who can’t protect themselves.” The operation…
Read More