ACSOL conducted annual conferences from the year 2017 through the year 2024. ACSOL chose not to conduct a conference this year for several reasons, including indirect threats of violence and deference to NARSOL’s rescheduled conference. ACSOL is happy to announce that its annual conference will return in 2026. Why? Because we miss you! We miss the opportunities to network with you and to listen to what you have to say. ACSOL’s 2026 conference will be conducted in person at a hotel in Los Angeles, near the LAX airport. The date…
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Janice’s Journal: Fraud, Deceit, Murder
The registrant community is in shock today after learning that a 71-year-old registrant was brutally murdered by a 29-year-old stranger. The violent attack that led to murder began in the registrant’s own home after the stranger falsely identified himself as a CPA going door-to-door looking for new business. Tragically, the registrant opened the front door of his home, giving the stranger an opportunity to begin his attack. Although the registrant was able to escape from his home, he was unable to gain help from a car that he tried to…
Read MoreJanice’s Journal: CA Assembly Appropriations Committee Strikes Again
The CA Assembly Appropriations Committee made a surprising decision last week when they reversed their position on a bill (Senate Bill 680) that will require a new category of people to register. The category will include everyone convicted of Penal Code Section 261.5, unlawful intercourse, on or after January 1, 2026. This is the same committee that attempted to stop the Tiered Registry Law in 2017. And it happened on the same day of the year, the Friday before Labor Day. What appears to be different this year is that…
Read MoreJanice’s Journal: Executive Order Casts Dark Shadow
The White House recently issued an Executive Order that casts a dark shadow upon individuals required to register and others. According to that order, its primary goal is to “restore order to American cities” as well as to “remove vagrant individuals from our streets.” Although the stated goals do not specifically refer to individuals required to register, two provisions of the Executive Order include references to them. For example, the Order requires the Attorney General to work with several federal agencies to “track the location of sex offenders.” The Order…
Read MoreJanice’s Journal: The Mountain Climb Just Got Steeper
As an advocate and litigator, I often compare my efforts to restore the civil rights of registrants to climbing up a steep mountain. Unfortunately, the mountain I must now climb is steeper due to a U.S. Supreme Court decision issued a few days ago. In that decision, a majority of the Court’s nine justices overturned relief granted by district court judges in three different but related cases. In those cases, each district court ruled that an Executive Order could not be enforced after it was challenged as unconstitutional. The district…
Read MoreJanice’s Journal: Jamaica Gets It, Why Not the U.S.?
The island nation of Jamaica has a sex offender registry and that is bad. However, the registry in Jamaica is not available to the public and that is good. One reason the Jamaican registry is not public is a vocal human rights activist who has warned and continues to warn that making the Jamaican registry public could lead to dangerous consequences. The dangerous consequences include lynchings and other attacks upon those required to register. The activist agrees that those who commit sexual offenses should be arrested, convicted and sentenced to…
Read MoreJanice’s Journal: Registrants Have Rights
Registrants have rights. Rights that are protected by the U.S. Constitution as well as state constitutions. This fact is often overlooked or misunderstood. For example, a police officer recently told me that it was lawful that he and a fellow officer climbed over a four-foot locked gate outside a registrant’s home and then used a public address system to identify a registrant during a compliance check. The officer attempted to justify his actions stating that the registrant had no constitutional rights. The officer’s statement was false. The registrant, who is…
Read MoreJanice’s Journal: Shame on Idaho Legislators
It has been reported that legislators in the State of Idaho unanimously passed a bill this week that would allow the death penalty for adults who sexually abuse a child under the age of 12. ACSOL does not believe that the sexual abuse of a child is acceptable or should go unpunished. That is not the issue. Instead, the issue is whether killing a human being will help a child heal or prevent another child from being abused. The answer to that question is clearly no. It must be noted…
Read MoreJanice’s Journal: The Importance of Tenacity
On March 3, a group of individuals representing dozens of organizations will gather near the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court. When they do so, they will repeat for the third time efforts to educate the Court regarding the significant harm caused by their decision, Smith v. Doe, issued in the year 2003. Some may ask why it is necessary to repeat these efforts. After all, the Court did not appear to care or perhaps even to know that people in the past have stood in front of the building…
Read MoreJanice’s Journal: Opportunities to Show Up, Stand Up, Speak Up
There are two opportunities to show up, stand up and speak up on the horizon. The first opportunity is the third annual vigil near the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. on March 3. The second opportunity is the fifteenth annual Lobby Day in Sacramento, California, on March 25. Both opportunities provide the possibility to be heard if you are ready. Or to join in silence if you are not. Both opportunities will empower you as you experience or observe the power of speaking truth to power.…
Read MoreJanice’s Journal: One Successful Demonstration More Effective Than 100 Speeches
Today is the last day of the year 2024. During this year, I have given a lot of speeches. Speeches to attorneys, speeches to social workers, speeches to family members of registrants and a long list of others. The bottom line is that I am willing to give a speech about registrants and the challenges they face to almost anyone. That is because spreading the word about this topic is important. After 15 years of giving speeches on this topic, however, I recognize that I am only one voice. That…
Read MoreJanice’s Journal: I Choose Hope
We cannot control what happens in the world, in our country, in our state or in our neighborhood. What we can control is our attitude toward what happens in those locales. I choose hope and I strongly encourage you to choose hope as well. Regardless of whether your candidate was elected to office. Regardless of recent indictments of two former registrants for a large number of sex offenses, including possession of more than 1,000 files of child pornography. Regardless of the fact that three people who were removed from the California registry have…
Read MoreJanice’s Journal: Answers to Questions are Only Stop Gap Measures
About a month ago we identified three cases for which we had not yet received an answer. As of today, we have answers to those questions, however, some of those answers have resulted in more questions. First, a federal district court in Missouri has issued its decision regarding Halloween signs. That decision was strong and clear: Halloween signs are unconstitutional. The court even granted a permanent statewide injunction that in essence prohibits law enforcement in the state of Missouri from enforcing the state law that required the Halloween signs. While…
Read MoreJanice’s Journal: Waiting for Answers
As the month of September comes to a close, we find ourselves waiting. Waiting for answers in several important cases. First, we are waiting for a federal district court in Missouri to either issue a decision on the merits of a challenge to the state’s Halloween sign requirement or to clarify whether a temporary restraining order issued last year will remain in effect this year. Although the trial in this case took place in June and final briefs in the case were filed in July, the court has not yet…
Read MoreJanice’s Journal: We Did It!
Thanks to almost 50 individuals, we did it! We raised $10,175 for the matching grant program in about two weeks. As a result, ACSOL has a total of $20,175 to apply toward significantly increasing the number of registrants who are eligible to petition for removal from the registry. This is not the first step, but it is an important step, in a multi-step process that began about 18 months ago when ACSOL made a presentation to the CA Sex Offender Management Board (CASOMB). During that presentation, ACSOL identified several improvements…
Read MoreJanice’s Journal: A Small, But Significant Victory
Marion County, Arkansas, posted signs on the front door of registrants last year identifying those individuals as people required to register as a sex offender. The signs stayed in place not for one day, but for about two weeks – a week before Halloween, Halloween and then a week after Halloween. This Halloween sign requirement was not a state law. In fact, it was not a county law. Instead, it was a decision by a county sheriff who printed signs with his name on it. Implementation of the Halloween sign…
Read MoreJanice’s Journal: It’s Time to Show You Care
We are a community. A community that includes people required to register, their families and those who support them. Some members of the community never committed a sex offense but pled guilty anyway. Some members of the community have been convicted of a non-violent, non-contact offense. And some members of the community have been convicted of heinous acts and designated as sexually violent predators. Although members of the community appear to be different, we are fundamentally the same because we all know that the registration system is broken and does…
Read MoreJanice’s Journal: Reaching the Goal of 100
It happened. I have reached my goal of helping 100 registrants obtain a court order terminating their requirement to register. That goal was met yesterday in Los Angeles County under the sweetest of circumstances when a Superior Court judge who previously denied a registrant’s petition granted the same registrant’s petition. The judge’s initial decision denying the registrant’s petition was flawed because it was based upon facts not in evidence. That decision was also flawed because the judge acted as if he was still employed as a prosecutor and not an…
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