ATSA supports evidence-based public policy and practice. Research consistently shows that residence restrictions do not reduce sexual reoffending or increas community safety. In fact, these laws often create more problems than they solve, including homelessness, transience, and clustering of disproportionate numbers of offenders in areas outside of restricted zones. Full Report (pdf)
Read MoreCategory: General News
FBI launches a face recognition system
The FBI’s new facial recognition system lets local police easily identify you. It will one day spot you from your iris, voice and the way you walk. It’s called the FBI’s Next Generation Identification system, and the agency said it became fully operational Monday. The government expects the system’s database to house 51 million photographs by next year — and keep growing. But it’s not just for the FBI. Police everywhere will be able to tap into the system. They’ll quickly ID fingerprints during a routine traffic stop — or look up…
Read MoreThe Supreme Court Renders Another Decision Interpreting the Ex Post Facto Clause
June 2013 – The national drive to identify and punish child predators took a step backward this week. While on its surface, the Supreme Court’s decision this week in Peugh v. United States does not deal with sex offenders, its impact will surely be felt in the sex-offender cases. As with the Court’s decision ten years ago in Stogner v. California, the Ex Post Facto Clause has once again been interpreted to make it more difficult to incarcerate criminals, and particularly sex offenders, as I will explain below. Full Article
Read MoreThe Promise (and Perils) of Predicting Sex Crimes
Attorney-General Eric Holder’s August 1 speech criticizing the use of risk assessment in sentencing decisions may not lever the issue to the top of the policy agenda. But a new paper could revive the debate about the effectiveness of risk tools in evaluating the chances of recidivism among those convicted of sex crimes. A forthcoming article in the Arizona State Law Journal argues that state criminal justice systems which use risk assessment tools may overestimate sex offenders’ likelihood of committing another crime. That message may complicate the efforts of those…
Read MoreLets charge Mckayla Maroney with Child Pornography! (Op-Ed)
I am going to suggest something that is counter-intuitive to our efforts to reform America’s sex offender laws, but I have a good reason for my proposal. I want to see Olympic Gymnast McKayla Maroney charged with production of child pornography. I know, it is a ludicrous proposal on its face. Maroney didn’t mean for these pictures to go out; her personal pictures were part of the celebrity leaked photo fiasco from Labor Day weekend. At first, Maroney denied the photos, buy later claimed they were taken of her at…
Read MoreCould Gold Medal Gymnast McKayla Maroney Face Child Pornography Charges?
A new “We the People” petition is asking that the Obama administration charge gold-medal gymnast McKayla Maroney with production or possession of child pornography because the recently leaked nude images of her were taken when she was underage. And it’s not as outlandish a request as you may think. Full Article
Read MoreNonprofit Floats Unusual Alternative To Private Prison
A group of activists in Washington, D.C., have proposed a novel solution to a problem that has affected the United States for decades: the practice of locking people up in private prisons that critics say are more concerned with making money for their shareholders than with helping lawbreakers turn their lives around. Full Article
Read MoreThe Debt Penalty
Financial debt associated with legal system involvement is a pressing issue that affects the criminal justice system, offenders, and taxpayers. Mere contact with the criminal justice system often results in fees and fines that increase with progression through the system. Criminal justice fines and fees punish offenders and are designed to generate revenue for legal systems that are operating on limited budgets. However, fines and fees often fail to accomplish this second goal because many offenders are too poor to pay them. To compound their financial struggles, offenders may be subject to other financial obligations, such as…
Read MoreGeneral Comments September 2014
Comments that are not specific to a certain post should go here, for the month of September 2014. Contributions should relate to the cause and goals of this organization and please, keep it courteous and civil.
Read MoreCanada: RCMP considers outsourcing creation of Harper government’s planned public sex offender registry
The Mounties are considering outsourcing the replacement and modernization of the national sex offender registry — and the creation of a proposed new public website — to the private sector. This is in advance of new legislation, expected this fall, which will toughen penalties for sexual predators. A spokesman for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said the force is taking a “proactive approach” by exploring “possible solutions offered by the private industry” for the creation of a new public website on high-risk child sex offenders, which would replace the current one.…
Read MoreID: How to guard against violent offenders (Opinion)
The tragic, horrific death of Nampa resident Selena Thomas has once again brought the uncomfortable topic of domestic violence to the forefront. It has also inspired the city’s former police chief and city councilman to call for the Idaho Legislature to create a new criminal registry for violent offenders, similar to the state’s sex offender registry. Full Article
Read MoreI was taking pictures of my daughters. A stranger thought I was exploiting them.
After my family arrives on the Cape May ferry for our annual vacation to the Jersey Shore, I take pictures of our two daughters on the ferry’s deck as we leave the harbor. I’ve been doing this since they were 3 and 4 years old. They are now 16 and 17. … Totally engaged with the scene in front of me, I jumped when a man came up beside me and said to my daughters: “I would be remiss if I didn’t ask if you were okay.” Full Article
Read MorePolygraphs don’t work. So why do we still use them?
The FBI gives a polygraph test to every single person who’s considered for a job there. When the DEA, CIA, and other agencies are taken into account, about 70,000 people a year submit to polygraphs while seeking security clearances and jobs with the federal government. Polygraphs are also regularly used by law enforcement when interrogating suspects. In some places, they’re used to monitor the activities of sex offenders on probation, and some judges have recently permitted plea bargains that hinge on the results of defendants’ polygraph tests. Full Article
Read MoreChild-porn sentencing questioned
Are federal sentencing guidelines for possessing child pornography too harsh? Calling the guidelines “draconian,” U.S. District Judge James L. Graham has become increasingly vocal in his criticism from the federal bench in Columbus. Full Article
Read MoreSex Offenders Housing Restrictions Are Pointless (Opinion)
On Thursday, Joseph Goldstein of the New York Times reported that “Dozens of sex offenders who have satisfied their sentences in New York State are being held in prison beyond their release dates because of a new interpretation of a state law that governs where they can live.” In short, since 2005, sex offenders in the state can’t live within 1,000 feet of a school, and a February ruling from the state’s Department of Corrections and Community Supervision extended that restriction to homeless shelters. Full Opinion Piece
Read MoreTwo decades later, has Megan’s Law delivered? (Opinion)
It’s been 20 years since New Jersey’s Legislature passed Megan’s Law. The two decades since have been filled with legal challenges and disappointment it didn’t accomplish what many thought it would. It’s what happens when politics and emotion team to shortcut the legislative process. Full Opinion Piece
Read MoreMy Turn: State officials must accept that sex offenders can change
People change. This is an incontrovertible truth in life. Yet, this concept seems to be lacking in the wonderful state that has become my home – at least it’s MIA in the New Hampshire state prison system. (Fortunately, it hasn’t hit our schools yet.) The money to be made by an opposite view – people don’t change – is real. The flawed anthropology that argues that people can’t change has no place in any serious attempt at rehabilitation. The shallow promises to act on behalf of change are the result…
Read MoreSex Offender Registries (SOR’s): TIME-FOR-A-CHANGE
Editor’s Note: Although this article is clearly editorial in nature, it contains a substantial amount of fact and data that have direct bearing on the subject. It’s also a long article, and I hope you’ll have the patience to read it through to the end. The article is in five sections: The History of Sex Offender Registries in the US, Sex Offender Registries are Manifestly Unjust, Sex Offender Registries Don’t Work, Sex Offender Registries Cost a Lot of Money, Conclusion Full Editorial
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