In 1972, at the age of 21, Phillip Garrido had his first arrest. The charge: sexual assault of a minor. Four years later, he kidnapped and raped Katherine Callaway, a crime for which he received a 50-year sentence in the federal Leavenworth Penitentiary. During his trial, Garrido testified to masturbating while sitting outside middle schools and going on drug binges. After serving 11 years in federal prison and an additional seven months in Nevada State Prison, he was released in 1988 to parole authorities in Contra Costa County, Calif. For…
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Labeling sex offenders’ passports is overkill (Editorial)
Say you slept with your girlfriend when you were a senior in high school and she was a freshman. That’s enough to get you labeled a sex offender in some states. Or say you streaked across the football stadium buck naked in college, or urinated outside when you were drunk, or clicked on the photo of a naked 17-year-old. Strange as it may seem, all these “crimes” have the same punishment in the end: After serving time, doing probation and/or paying a fine, the people who committed them get on…
Read MoreThe yellow star, the scarlet letter and ‘International Megan’s Law’
When I was growing up, in a Jewish family in Brooklyn in the 1950s, Hitler and the Holocaust were common subjects of conversation in my household. Though at the time it all seemed like ancient history — along with the Civil War, the Black Death, the fall of Rome, and everything else that had ever happened before I was born — I realized, when I became an adult, that to my parents and their generation it must have seemed as though it had happened the day before yesterday. Full Article
Read MoreVote “No” to Oppose International Megan’s Law
Votes are now being taken from the public regarding H.R. 515, International Megan’s Law, on a website that will report the votes to members of Congress. It is important for registered citizens, family members and supporters to cast their vote. As of the writing of this article, 59 percent of the public supports the bill and 41 percent opposes the bill. We can change that tally dramatically by clicking on the link below. It’s easy to do and will take less than 5 minutes. Please ask your family members, friends and colleagues…
Read MoreRegistrant Travel Action Group in Washington DC to Fight for Our Right to Travel
Registrant Travel Action Group (http://registranttag.org/), the National RSOL affiliate focused on protecting the travel rights of registered citizens, is in Washington DC to pound the pavement, speak to legislators and fight for our right to travel. As reported, in recent weeks the Senate passed a bill (the International Megan’s Law) that would severely impede the rights of registered citizens to travel internationally and expose them to potential danger when traveling. Among other things; the bill would authorize the government to notify other countries of a registrant’s intent to travel there…
Read MoreGeneral Comments January 2016
Comments that are not specific to a certain post should go here, for the month of January 2016. Contributions should relate to the cause and goals of this organization and please, keep it courteous and civil.
Read MoreCA RSOL Meeting January 16 – Los Angeles
California RSOL’s first regular monthly meeting in 2016 will take place on January 16, 2016 in Los Angeles. As always, the location is the ACLU Building at 1313 W. 8th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90017. Start time is 10 am. We will focus on current topics, including pending legislation and legal actions as well as offer an opportunity for networking with others. We welcome registrants, friends and family and other supporters to attend. The meeting is off-limits to media and government officials in order to ensure everyone’s privacy. There is…
Read MoreThrowaway Children: The Tragic Consequences of a False Narrative
Abstract: Truth be told, we are afraid for our children and we are afraid of our children. The intersection of these disparate thoughts has produced a perfect storm. We have created increasingly harsh sex offender registration schemes to protect our children from sexual abuse. At the same time, fear of our children ensnares and punishes them under the very same laws that were designed to protect them. Yet, what compels action is premised on a false narrative that includes flawed studies on recidivism rates and misguided case decisions that embraced…
Read MoreWI: Manitowoc sex offender ordinance approved
Convicted sex offenders from outside Manitowoc can no longer legally be placed within the city limits after the City Council approved an ordinance regulating such placements. The council Dec. 21 unanimously approved the ordinance, which prohibits any convicted sex offender from residing or being placed on supervised release within the city limits unless the offender lived in the city at the time of the offense or previously resided in the city for more than five years. Full Article
Read MoreInternational Megan’s Law to Prevent Child Exploitation and Other Sexual Crimes Through Advanced Notification of Traveling Sex Offenders’.
The Senate passed HR 515 formerly known as “International Megan’s Law” with another NEW title “International Megan’s Law to Prevent Child Exploitation and Other Sexual Crimes Through Advanced Notification of Traveling Sex Offenders” and added a section about Passports. Full Article Related https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/515 https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/515/text
Read MoreNY: Sex Offenders Drive Down Property Values, Quality of Life (updated)
One of the most highly publicized aspects of the city’s turn toward the poverty industry has been the open armed embrace given to registered sex offenders. Full Article Update Readr Response
Read MoreWho is a sex offender? Lenore Skenazy
A guy you might be scared to meet, Galen Baughman, gave a talk at a TEDx event in New York City recently. TED is known for introducing new speakers with new ideas on everything from tech to society to teaching. But Baughman was the first presenter who happens to be on the registry. The sex offender registry, that is. His crime? He had sex with a teen when he was a teen. He was 19; his boyfriend, 14. They had sex once. It was consensual. The younger teen did not…
Read MoreMI: U.P. School Upholds Ban – Parents on sex offender registry prohibited from school events
ENGADINE — What if you could never watch your child in a school basketball game? What if your dad has never seen you play in a school football game? Full Article
Read MoreTX: Signs not answer to sexual assault
The passage of the recent ordinance requiring sex offenders to place a sign in their yard has generated quite a furor over how unfair this ordinance is to the offender and his or her family. Full Article
Read MoreFalse Allegations and the UCMJ
Reggie Yager, a Major in the Air Force Judge Advocate General Corps, has written an extremely thorough article about false allegations and sexual assault prosecutions under the UCMJ. Before Senators McCaskill and Gillibrand focused on the sexual assault epidemic that plagued universities, they were highly entrenched in the invisible war of sexual violence plaguing the military. I would hope that a military law review would reach out to Major Yager and publish this article. Full Article
Read MoreProgram promotes healing and safety
One of the best ways to keep kids safe and away from sex offenders is to provide a network of support around them. That was the message presented Friday night by Alison Feigh, director of the Jacob Wetterling Foundation, at the Northland Arboretum. Full Article
Read MoreWashington Post: The biggest Pinocchios of 2015
No single issue earned more Pinocchios than dubious claims about sex trafficking. There are not 300,000 children at risk for sexual exploitation. There are not 100,000 children in the sex trade. Human trafficking is not a $9.5 billion business in the United States. Girls do not become victims of sex trafficking at an average age of 13 years. The federal government has not arrested hundreds of sex traffickers. These were all false claims made in 2015 by politicians, advocacy groups and government officials. (last paragraph) Full Article
Read MoreImpact Justice: The Center on Youth Registration Reform
The Center on Youth Registration Reform aims to eliminate the practice of placing children on sex offender registries in the United States. Using a zealous, unwavering, yet tactical strategy, the Center works to confront the fears and misconceptions about children that drove our country to include them in sex offender registration schemes, and transform the paradigm of how the criminal justice system responds to child sexual behavior. Full Article
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