Thanks to those who showed up on the 2/11 ACSOL Lobby Day, which focused on needed changes to the Tiered Registry Law that will take effect in 2021. Changes included new tier assignments for those convicted of felony offenses involving illegal images and sexual battery as well as creation of an off-ramp for those assigned to the highest tier. We ask that you make phone calls or send letters supporting these changes to the office where we will meet,” stated ACSOL Executive Director Janice Bellucci. “The messages to be delivered…
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International Travel 2020
This post is intended as a place for discussions about International Travel ONLY. We added a new post for this year in order to keep the discussion manageable. For more information and previous discussions on the topic, please see the pages in the International Travel menu named International Travel [year number] Click here for the latest International Travel Information and Resources
Read MoreDistinguished Speakers, Informative Panels Added to ACSOL Conference
Social justice leader Alissa Ackerman and civil rights attorney Aaron Marcus have been added to the 4th Annual ACSOL Conference to be held on May 29 and May 30 in Los Angeles. Ackerman and Marcus will join keynote speaker Justin Brooks of the CA Innocence Project as well as Chance Oberstein, ACSOL President, and Janice Bellucci, ACSOL Executive Director at the conference. In addition to presentations from these civil rights leaders, the conference will offer panels on issues such as how to survive parole and probation, employment, the Tiered Registry…
Read MoreSex Offender Laws Are Broken. These Women Are Working To Fix Them.
Sandy Rozek is the polar opposite of what comes to mind when you hear the word activist. A 78-year-old great-grandmother and retired high school English teacher who lives in Houston, Rozek is not woke, doesn’t post on Twitter, and spearheads a movement you’ve probably never heard of. Rozek works with the National Association for Rational Sexual Offense Laws (NARSOL). She is one of several women who lead an effort to oppose the unjust, irrational, and ineffective laws that continue to punish sex offenders long after they have served their time. Full…
Read MoreKat’s Blog: People Will Try Anything to Get Off the Registry
In Jefferson County, Tennessee this week, 2 people were charged with forging the signature of a mental health counselor in order to get one of them removed from the North Carolina Sex Offender Registry. In December 2018, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation began investigating allegations that a woman, 37 years old, had attempted to assist a man, 36 years old, in getting himself removed from the North Carolina Registry. The woman apparently forged a mental health consultant’s signature on an evaluation document in order to facilitate the man’s removal from the…
Read MoreFL: NPR Station to discuss sex offender issues at 1:00PM today.
Today at 1:00PM on South Florida’s NPR affiliate 91.3, they will be running a story on sex offenders. For those in the South Florida area, you can listen live on your radio. For those out of the area, you can stream it live online from https://www.npr.org/ or search for WLRN 91.3 HD1 https://www.wlrn.org/topic/radio. FAC Announcement
Read MoreNY: Why Keeping People With Sex Offense Convictions Off Social Media Sites Does Little To Make Those Sites Safe
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s proposal purports to take sexual violence seriously, but it aggressively ignores reality in favor of lazy solutions. Full Opinion Piece By Guy Hamilton-Smith, ACSOL Board Member
Read MoreWhen a sex offender calls, she’s there to listen
Vicki Henry sits at the desk in her two-bedroom duplex on a recent Sunday morning and adjusts her phone headset, which she has nestled on hair with a deep magenta tinge, a rare bit of pizazz for the 72-year-old grandmother of three. Everyone else in Henry’s working-class neighborhood of Arnold, a southern suburb of St. Louis, is probably at church or finishing up a pancake breakfast with the family. But Henry is on the clock for a job that pays her nothing. She wears a baggy red T-shirt with “Women…
Read MoreParticipate in our study on veterans who have been convicted of a sex crime
[Note from Janice: I recommend this. Emily is a part of ACSOL] Dear Veterans, There is still time to participate in our study on veterans who have been convicted of a sex crime. Thank you to those who have already participated in this research project. As of January 8, 2020, we have received 164 completed surveys; however, we still need more veterans on the registry to complete the survey. Our goal is to have a minimum of 250-300 completed surveys by the end of the month. If you have yet…
Read MoreGeneral Comments January 2020
Comments that are not specific to a certain post should go here, for the month of January 2020. Contributions should relate to the cause and goals of this organization and please, keep it courteous and civil. This section is not intended for posting links to news articles without additional relevant comment.
Read MoreWhat is the Purpose of Sex Offense Registries?
Two days ago, the Union-Recorder in Georgia published a bizarre editorial. The editorial board noted that the state’s sex offender registry system drives people into homelessness and deprived them of counseling and employment opportunities, but laments this fact only insofar as it allows registrants to “fly under the radar” and makes them “more difficult to track.” Georgia’s registry system, according to the authors, “places too much trust in the honor system” because requiring people to self-register “places too much confidence” in the registrant. They acknowledge that there are “strong penalties”…
Read MoreBlack victims demeaned in named violent crime laws
The slayings of Reagan Tokes and Alianna DeFreeze had much in common. Both were abducted, raped and killed in Ohio in 2017. Tokes was a 21-year-old college student, DeFreeze a 14-year-old seventh grader. Both their killers, previously convicted sex offenders, were subsequently found guilty. Yet only one victim got a law with her name on it — Tokes, who was white. That disparity in so-called namesake laws represents a national trend: White crime victims are much more likely to get crime bills named after them than black victims. Full Article
Read MoreTinder Lets Known Sex Offenders Use the App. It’s Not the Only One.
Match Group, which owns most major online dating services, screens for sexual predators on Match — but not on Tinder, OkCupid or PlentyofFish. A spokesperson said, “There are definitely registered sex offenders on our free products.” Full Article
Read MoreGeneral Comments December 2019
Comments that are not specific to a certain post should go here, for the month of December 2019. Contributions should relate to the cause and goals of this organization and please, keep it courteous and civil. This section is not intended for posting links to news articles without additional relevant comment.
Read MoreSurvey of Veterans on the Registry
[Approved by Janice] To: military veterans who are on the sex offense registry Emily Horowitz, Ph.D. Professor & Chair, Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice Co-Director, Post-Prison Education Program St. Francis College 180 Remsen Street Brooklyn, NY 11201 | 718-489-5446 | [email protected] November 15, 2019 Dear Veterans, First, we want to thank you for serving our country. We are seeking military veterans who are on the sex offense registry to participate in a research project titled: Veterans with Sex Offense Convictions: A Preliminary Investigation. The research is being conducted by…
Read MoreKat’s Blog: Future Risk
We hear a lot of talk about the “unfairness” of the registry, how everyone on it is “treated the same” no matter what their offense. Lumping all registrants under the “sex offender” label is wrong, especially when there’s so many offenses under the umbrella, high risk, low risk and even no risk offenses that may be at opposite ends of the spectrum. Released from incarceration, many registrants are mandated to attend one-size-fits-all “sex offender” treatment groups. There they are continuously reminded of their “sex offender” label and the need for…
Read MoreICE HSI opens Angel Watch Center to combat child sex tourism, announces FY19 child exploitation investigative results
On Thursday, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) held a ribbon-cutting ceremony at HSI’s new Angel Watch Center (AWC) in Fairfax, Virginia. As part of the ceremony, ICE Acting Director Matthew Albence explained that HSI special agents initiated more than 4,200 child exploitation cases in fiscal year 2019, resulting in approximately 3,771 criminal arrests, an increase of 18 percent compared to fiscal year 2018. … “If only a fraction of notifications to foreign countries save a child from having to carry the lasting scars of sexual…
Read MoreData shows upswing in child exploitation cases
Homeland Security investigators who uncover child exploitation initiated more than 4,000 cases around the world in the 2019 budget year, resulting in thousands of arrests and the identification of more than 1,000 victims, according to new data obtained by The Associated Press. … On Thursday, officials plan to unveil a new center based at ICE’s Washington headquarters tasked with alerting other countries when U.S. sex offenders are traveling there. The new center will include representatives from the U.S. Marshals office and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Full Article
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