The Supreme Court on Friday said it will consider whether the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act requires sex offenders who move to a foreign country to notify their prior home state of their change of residence. At issue is are the cases of two men who lived on opposite sides of the Missouri River in the Kansas City Metropolitan area, were both convicted of sex crimes in unrelated cases prior to the enactment of the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act, and later moved — again separately — to…
Read MoreCategory: General News
The Fate Of This Sex Offender May Lie In The Hands Of Justice Scalia [updated]
***Supreme Court Justice Scalia dies at 79; fiery conservative fought liberalism’s tide*** WASHINGTON — A man convicted of possessing child pornography wants the Supreme Court to read his offense under federal law narrowly — and in the process, to give him a break from a very long prison sentence. Whether he’s successful may depend on the voice and vote of Justice Antonin Scalia. Full Article
Read MoreWas the trigger point for John Roberts’ appointment based upon Smith v Doe?
One of the most influential appointments in the history of the United states has turned out to be John Roberts, Chief Justice and Price Club Manager of the United States Supreme Court. I am in the process of researching how judicial appointments were made in the United States, including both the historical records as well as political gamesmanship in making those selections. Full Editorial on sosen.org
Read MoreThe Community Notification Registry is More than a Hit list for just Murderers.
Everyone quotes the Department of Justice study done in 1997 that looked at offenders released in 1994. The government has rehashed the study and done their best to make sex offenders look bad.This study was reevaluated in 2001, 2002, and again in 2003 for the governments part. They like to point to the fact that 5.3% (517) of the 9,691 sex offenders released in 1994, were rearrested for a new sex crime, then they grudgingly admit that 3.5% (339) are reconvicted in a new sex crime since the government is been so kind…
Read MoreHalloween 2015 Recap
This is for all personal Halloween stories or media articles.
Read MoreReal Sex Ed Means Teaching Teens, “This Is How You Could Get Labeled a ‘Sex Offender’”
One of the scariest things about our over-the-top sex offender laws is how easy it is for a teenager with a girlfriend, boyfriend or sophomoric sense of humor to get labeled a “sex offender,” with all the legal and social ramifications this engenders. That’s why I nominate the probation and parole officer profiled in Sunday’s Cedar Rapids (IA) Gazette, Michelle Reese, as educator of the year. She goes around to middle schools, teaching students about the Puritanical pitfalls ahead. As shadowed by reporter Erin Jordan, Reese starts out her lecture…
Read MoreGeneral Comments November 2015
Comments that are not specific to a certain post should go here, for the month of November 2015. Contributions should relate to the cause and goals of this organization and please, keep it courteous and civil.
Read MoreHundreds Of Cops Kicked Off Force For Committing Sex Crimes
The number is unquestionably an undercount because it represents only those officers whose licenses to work in law enforcement were revoked, and not all states take such action. Full Article Related A 50-state look at officer decertification for sex incidents (on CA RSOL) Sex-offender cops exploit broken system, AP investigation reveals (OC Register) Same AP Article on SF Chronicle
Read More“Attempted Sexting” Lands 24 Year-Old on Sex Offender Registry
Should a person be ordered to register as a sex offender for sending explicit video to a minor (sexting), but never physically touching the victim? The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals says yes. Full Article
Read More‘Person of interest’ named in 1989 Jacob Wetterling disappearance
The boy was 11 when he was abducted while riding home on his bike. An Annandale man charged with possessing child pornography is a person of interest in the case, authorities said. Full Article Related Wetterling Family Statement
Read MoreA 50-state look at officer decertification for sex incidents
An Associated Press investigation into sexual misconduct by law enforcement officers in the U.S. identified some 1,000 in six years who lost their licenses for sexual assault or other sex offenses or misconduct, including possession of child pornography, voyeurism and sex on duty. The findings are based on an analysis of state records for an administrative process called decertification, but the AP found that policies regarding decertification vary widely from state to state. Forty-one states provided information, three did not, and six states and the District of Columbia said they…
Read MoreThe FCC Just Voted to Reduce the Exorbitant Cost of Prison Phone Calls
A long campaign to reduce the exorbitant sums that inmates are charged to speak to friends and family on the phone just notched a major victory, with the Federal Communications Commission voting 3–2 to aggressively regulate an industry that until recently was, in the words of the Prison Policy Initiative’s Peter Wagner, “a dark little backwater of telecommunication that the FCC was not paying attention to.” Full Article
Read MoreHALLOWEEN SEX OFFENDER LAW HEARING TO BE HELD OCT 26 [UPDATED 10/26 5pm]
CDCR Withdraws Halloween Sign Requirement Statewide – more details to follow. First Media Reports: Decision made over requirement that paroled sex offenders post signs on Halloween (10News) Sex Offenders on Parole Will Not Have to Post Signs on Door: Dept. of Corrections NBC Sex offenders not required to post signs on Halloween CBS No door signs required for parolees on Halloween Union Tribune For Release October 26 -The Southern District of California will conduct a hearing today regarding whether to grant a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) that would halt a…
Read MoreSex Offender Registry Laws Don’t Make As Much Sense As You’d Thought
The need for criminal justice reform has gotten a lot of attention recently, but there’s one aspect that rarely enters the conversation — sex offender registries. Online records of people convicted of sexual crimes are intended to keep everyone, especially children, safe from sexual predators — the words “sex offender,” after all, illicit the image of a violent rapist or child molester. However, just like American jails and prisons, these state registries are overcrowded and may be doing more harm than good, which is why Americans should be talking about…
Read MoreChris Hansen Is Back To Catching Predators
In mid-August, the police department in Fairfield, Connecticut, received a most unusual phone call. It was from Chris Hansen, former host of the infamous NBC reality series To Catch A Predator, which filmed the arrests of men caught soliciting sex from underage decoys online. Hansen informed the department that he was setting up a sex sting in Fairfield that would mirror the operations he became famous for a decade ago, with one key difference: This time, he was going at it without the backing of a major—or any—television network. It…
Read MoreHow Safe Are Trick-or-Treaters?
States, municipalities, and parole departments have adopted policies banning known sex offenders from Halloween activities, based on the worry that there is unusual risk on these days. The existence of this risk has not been empirically established. National Incident-Base Reporting System crime report data from 1997 through 2005 were used to examine daily population adjusted rates from 67,045 nonfamilial sex crimes against children aged 12 years and less. Halloween rates were compared with expectations based on time, seasonality, and weekday periodicity. Rates did not differ from expectation, no increased rate…
Read More“BE AFRAID. BE VERY AFRAID.”
It’s Halloween again. It’s my first Halloween since being released from prison. and until Monday, I didn’t really care. Seriously, I didn’t care. I’ve never been a big fan of Halloween. It was always a pain-in-the-ass “holiday” where it’s socially permissible for kids I don’t know to bang on my door. Annoying. Go away. But if I don’t give them candy, I’m the asshole. And it wasn’t much better when I was a kid. I always felt like a mooch asking people I didn’t know to just give me candy.…
Read MoreL.A. school board fires Rafe Esquith, one of nation’s most lauded teachers
Flowery praise of teachers is a standard part of speeches by superintendents, school board members and principals. But they never mention a sad truth. If our most energetic and effective educators make others look bad, someone is eventually going to punish them for that. Full Article
Read More