Author: Admin

CT: Sentencing Commission Makes Last-Minute Plea To Senate

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With less than two weeks to the end of the legislative session, the state Sentencing Commission is asking Senate leaders to bring two potentially controversial proposals to a vote. SB 1113 would create a new sex offender registry board, which would set the length of time a person could be on the registry based on their risk of reoffending and not just the offenses they committed. Full Article

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Janice’s Journal: Today is A Day to Remember

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Today is Memorial Day. A day to remember those who paid the “ultimate price” as members of the U.S. Armed Forces. As a U. S. Navy veteran, I salute those who died in combat. As a leader of this movement, however, I cry for those who died not in combat, but at the hands of vigilantes. For the fights they fought were both unfair and unnecessary. The fights were unfair because, unlike soldiers, the registrants who were killed were not armed. That is because as registrants, they could not possess…

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IL: Long legal battle in sex offender case ends with plea deal, probation

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Charges filed in 2018 were dismissed Friday against a 26-year-old Normal man after he pleaded guilty to a  new charge involving a 2014 offense, ending his long-running legal challenge of the constitutionality of the state’s sex offender registration rules. ___ ___ was 16 when he engaged in sexual activity with a 14-year-old classmate. He served 12 months’ probation, and registered as a sex offender until 2018 when the state did not object to his request to end reporting requirements. Full Article IL Supreme Court Decision

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MI: Lawmakers ordered to revise the Sex Offender Registry Act

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A U.S. district court judge is giving Michigan lawmakers 90 days to change the state’s sex offender registry law, almost three years after it was first ruled unconstitutional by federal appeals court. U.S. District Judge Robert H. Cleland issued an order that the law must be changed on Thursday. The ruling stems from an August 2016 decision by the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati which found that Michigan’s Sex Offender Registry Act was unconstitutional. Full Article Decision

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You Just Discovered You Hired a Sex Offender. Now What?

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A reader sent me the following question. I worked for a grocery store. Can a child molester be employed by the grocery store? I reported it to the manager, and showed proof and nothing was done about it. There’s a lot going on here. What does the law require an employer to do (if anything) under these circumstances? And what should an employer do when it discovers it is employing a sex offender?  Legal Advice Column

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CA: Sex Offender Law – Fight or Punt? City Choices Limited

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Rock. Santa Clarita. Hard Place. That about sums up the situation the Santa Clarita City Council was in this past week, when council members faced a staff recommendation to repeal a city ordinance restricting the residency of registered sex offenders. Full Editorial Also see Sex Offender Case Posed Dilemma for City Council by Santa Clarita Mayer Pro Tem Related Santa Clarita City Council Repeals Residency Restrictions CA: Santa Clarita City Council To Consider Repeal Of Sex Offender Residency Restrictions

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AUS: Child Sex Offender Register Could Become Reality After Coalition’s Shock Win

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Following Coalition’s shock election victory, a public sex offender register posited by the political alliance in Australia could soon become reality. Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton suggested in a January news release that information about the crimes of pedophiles be added to a national child sex offender registry—including the perpetrators’ names, aliases, and photos. “It would have a strong deterrent effect on offenders and ensure that parents are not in the dark about whether a registered sex offender has access to their children,” Dutton said at the time. Full Article

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MA: State’s Highest Court Orders Release Of Sex Offender Held Since 1970s

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Massachusetts’ highest court ruled Thursday that a 71-year-old convicted sex offender held for more than 40 years as a sexually dangerous person can be released, after two mental health professionals ruled that he was no longer a risk. The court essentially upheld an earlier decision from 2009 in ruling that ___ ___ can’t continue to be held at the Massachusetts Treatment Center. Full Article Related Calling for change before offender ____ is free Tough on sex offender legislation not refiled

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UT: Lawmaker calls for study in taking some convicts off sex offender registry

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It’s a sensitive issues at the Utah Capitol — maybe close to alcohol policy, marijuana and Medicaid expansion — who goes off Utah’s Sex Offender Registry. Depending on the sex crime, convicts now can stay on for ten years, or for the rest of their lives. “We tend to kind of group those sex offenders together in the same broad brush category,“ said Sen. Todd Weiler, R-Davis County, who maintained Wednesday during a legislative committee hearing, the circumstances of the criminal acts are often very different. “Sometimes with these controversial…

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Santa Clarita City Council Repeals Residency Restrictions

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The Santa Clarita City Council voted unanimously to repeal the city’s residency restrictions during its May 14 meeting. Because the issue was placed on the consent calendar, the vote took place without discussion or debate. A lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on February 25, 2019, challenging the city’s residency restrictions which prohibited registrants from living within 2,000 feet from schools, parks, public libraries and child care centers. The effect of this restriction was to place off limits virtually all of the city, including hotels, on either a…

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IN: Prison Sex Offender Treatment vs. The Fifth

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Remember the Inquisition where you could either deny your guilt and get burned at the stake, or confess and get burned at the stake? The idea was that since confessing saves you from eternal damnation, the Inquisition was simply a strict and intensive rehabilitation program, enforcing “acceptance of responsibility” for the offender’s own good. Full Article Related IN: 7th Circuit rules DOC sex offender program violates Constitution

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FL: Approves Database to Publish Details of People Who Pay for Sex

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The Florida legislature passed legislation within the past week, Senate Bill 540 and House Bill 851, to establish a public database that tracks people convicted of, or who have pleaded guilty to, soliciting paid sex. While the legislation’s bipartisan authors consider it to be a step toward ending human trafficking, critics call it a means to publicly shame clients and others associated with people who do consensual sex work. The Soliciting for Prostitution Public Database will include anyone convicted of or pleading guilty to “soliciting, inducing, enticing, or procuring another…

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The Problem with Sex Offender Punishment

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Few crimes evoke such passionate and emotional public responses as do those committed by the sexual offender; yet, few crimes are as sensationalized and misunderstood as the sexual offence. Although many offences are exaggerated in terms of amount, those committed by the sex offender are often perpetually entrenched in hyperbole. And this is not some neo-liberal, new wave approach to understanding sex offenders. In 1965, the Institute for Sex Research published a lengthy analysis of sexual offenders and deviant sexual behaviours, resulting in the conclusion that there exists a wide…

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