ACSOL Conference to Identify Solutions to Daily Challenges Faced by Registrants

ACSOL will host a conference on June 16 and 17 in Los Angeles focused upon solutions to daily challenges faced by U.S. registrants, family members, and those who support them. The conference will address topics of interest to registrants and family members throughout the nation such as housing, employment, domestic and international travel, parole and probation conditions, as well as post-conviction relief. “This conference was created for you, the registrant and your family members. It was not created for professionals in this field. You will be immersed in a supportive…

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CA Sex Offender Management Board Issues Annual Report

Adopting a tiered registration policy and changing California laws is the “highest priority” of the California Sex Offender Management Board (CASOMB), according to its newly released annual report. In order to achieve that result, CASOMB has engaged in an “evidence-based public education campaign”. CASOMB views the current system of registering all sex offenders for a lifetime as “hugely burdensome and ineffective” and recognizes that “not all offenders are the same.” The board believes that a tiered registry would remove “sex offenders who pose a negligible to no risk of reoffending”…

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SC: Bill would prevent registered sex offenders from owning locksmith businesses

 A bill that would require locksmiths to undergo background checks before entering your home or car is now closer to becoming law. The bill was passed unanimously in the South Carolina State House of Representatives and is now making its way through the state Senate. The bill was drafted after a North Myrtle Beach sexual molestation case involving a locksmith. Full Article

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Sex offender won’t have to pay victim after Utah Supreme Court overturns order in 2003 crime

The Utah Supreme Court has overturned a judge’s order requiring a sex offender to pay his victim for the wages she lost as a result of his abuse in 2003. ____ ____, who sexually exploited a teenage girl, had been ordered by a judge to reimburse the victim almost $13,000 in wages she lost when depression caused by the offense led to problems at work and a reduction in her hours. Full Article

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Senate Schools Bill (SB 26) Amended – HEARING April 25

HEARING DATE: April 25 – Senate Public Safety Committee at 8:30 a.m. in Room 3191 (as of 4/8) Sen. Connie Leyva has amended again Senate Bill 26 (SB 26) which would affect whether and when registrants could visit school campuses. As amended, the bill would require registrant parents to be supervised by a school official when they visit a school campus. In addition, the bill would limit visits by registrants who are not parents to times when students are not present. “The bill, as amended, would harm children by effectively denying…

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PA: Does isolating sex offenders really work? Some experts say no

The arguments from experts who contend that residency restrictions such as those sought by Dawn Knull don’t work focus on concerns that the restrictions isolate sex offenders and make it more difficult for them to be rehabilitated. “It is a bad idea from the perspective of public safety,” said Mary Catherine Roper, deputy legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, which brought the case on behalf of sex offenders that led to the court striking down the Allegheny County ordinance. Many experts have come out in recent…

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AZ: U.S. judge knocks down Arizona’s child-molestation law, orders ex-teacher released

A U.S. District Court judge in Phoenix has found unconstitutional an Arizona law defining child molestation, and he ordered that a man who already has spent a decade in custody be released. In 2007, a Maricopa County jury found ____ ____guilty of five counts of molestation of a child and acquitted him of two other counts. An eighth count was dismissed by prosecutors. ____ was a former schoolteacher and swim instructor, and the charges came from allegations that he touched children inappropriately while giving them swim lessons. ____denied there was any…

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Internet Exclusion Bill (AB 558) Hearing Scheduled on April 18

The internet exclusion bill, AB 558, is scheduled to be considered by the Assembly Public Safety Committee on April 18. The committee hearing will begin at 8:30 a.m. in Room 126 and include consideration of more than 30 pending bills. “This bill must be stopped,” stated ACSOL executive director Janice Bellucci. “If the bill becomes law, families will be harmed and victims will be re-victimized.” AB 558 was previously scheduled for a hearing on March 28, however, the bill was pulled from consideration by its author. The Assembly Public Safety…

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Sen. Lara Pulls Tiered Registry Bill (SB 695)

Senator Ricardo Lara, the primary author of the Tiered Registry Bill (SB 695), has pulled that bill from further consideration. The bill had been scheduled to be heard by the Senate Public Safety Committee on April 18. The bill could continue if either co-author Holly Mitchell agrees to serve as the bill’s sole author or a new author is identified. In order to remain viable, the bill must be heard by the Senate Public Safety Committee during its hearing on April 25. Related California state Sen. Ricardo Lara announces he’s…

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GA: Sex offenders require constant vigilance from law enforcement

When ____ ____ set foot in South Georgia a few years ago, he had just spent 30 years in a Detroit prison for being a serial rapist convicted 10 times over. Because Palmer committed his crimes before June 4, 2003, under Georgia law, he is allowed to settle down anywhere with no restrictions. Yes, that’s right. Anywhere. He can settle in a home next door to a school or day care or playground — anywhere. “____ ____’s crime is so old (he) can live next to whatever he wants to.…

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NCMEC Hypocrisy on “Stranger Danger”

Yesterday, Callahan Walsh of NCMEC—The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children—appeared on Good Morning America to urge parents to stop using the phrase “stranger danger”—the phrase that NCMEC itself popularized for decades. They rightly noted—finally—that most child sexual exploitation is from someone known to the child, not a stranger. Full Article Related Group that Put Missing Kids’ Pictures on Milk Cartons NOW Says, “Don’t Teach Kids Stranger Danger” Experts warn against teaching the phrase ‘stranger danger’

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AZ: Women working together to change sex offender notification process

Two North Valley women say they have their family lives and careers on hold, to fight for a safer community. Julie Read and Ann O’Brien, who live in the Norterra subdivision of the North Valley, started this mission after an old juvenile detention facility re-opened as the Maricopa Re-entry Center, a place where former inmates who were drug addicts and sex offenders would come for treatment. “It was literally 16 sex offenders came in one day, in addition to the dozens we already have living in our community,” said Read.…

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Experts warn against teaching the phrase ‘stranger danger’

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children is now encouraging parents to steer away from using the phrase “stranger danger,” a slogan that has been taught for decades to emphasize to children the potential threat posed by strangers. Although the group moved away from “stranger danger” years ago, the phrase is so pervasive that many parents still teach it. The group renewed their call to end its use on “Good Morning America” today. “It’s so easy, it rhymes,” Callahan Walsh, a child advocate at the National Center for Missing…

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