When this year began, I wrote a column called “20/20: The Year of Perfect Vision.” In that column, I expressed a long list of hopes for the year 2020 including the hope that the civil rights of registrants would be restored. As the end of the year 2020 approaches, it is time to reflect upon what progress has been made toward that important goal. The most significant step may have been a decision this week by the California Supreme Court that recognized the rights of registrants in custody to be…
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Janice’s Journal: Homeless for the Holidays
Thanksgiving is just a few days away, the first in a series of winter holidays followed by Hanukkah, Christmas and New Year’s Day. For many people, including some registrants, they will spend those holidays in a sleeping bag on a public sidewalk. In a tent under a bridge. Or in a car if they’re lucky. Although some of those registrants have a low-income job or government assistance, they cannot find a place to live. Why? Not because they can’t afford it, not because of COVID-19, but because of a different…
Read MoreJanice’s Journal: We Are at the Brink
The Cambridge English dictionary defines the word “brink” as the point where a new or different situation is about to begin. The word “brink” therefore accurately describes the current situation facing almost 1 million people in the United States who are required to register as sex offenders. There are three reasons this is true. First, the United States is about to either re-elect the same President or elect a new President as well as countless other politicians on the city, county, state and federal levels. The results of those elections…
Read MoreJanice’s Journal: Mourning the Loss of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
After a long battle with cancer, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died yesterday. She and her wisdom will be missed profoundly. As a civil rights attorney, an appellate court judge and a U.S. Supreme Court justice, Ginsburg could be counted on to understand the plight of the underdog. She also understood that being an underdog does not mean you have no rights. Ginsburg is best known for fighting for, and then protecting, the rights of women. She is less known for her position on registrants. Yet buried in…
Read MoreJanice’s Journal: Zombies versus Sex Offenders?
A friend recently referred to a TV series, IZombie, as a TV show in which some Zombies are portrayed in a positive light. That is, she said, there are good Zombies and bad Zombies. The idea of a good Zombie piqued my curiosity to the point that I watched three seasons of that TV show. I quit watching the show when I realized I was covering my own eyes for large parts of each episode due to the gory scenes they portrayed. What did I learn from watching three seasons…
Read MoreJanice’s Journal: CA Action Alert: It’s Time to Protest Exclusion of Registrants from Prison Releases
In my last column, I implored the California Department of Corrections (CDC) to include registrants in its release of prisoners that began on July 1 due to a growing number of COVID-19 infections in the state’s prisons. Since that time, the number of prisoners infected with COVID-19 has increased dramatically in three of those prisons: San Quentin, Avenal and Chuckwalla. That is why I am writing this column. We cannot and should not stand by while thousands of prisoners, including individuals convicted of a sex offense, are exposed to this…
Read MoreJanice’s Journal: Let My People Go
How dare they! How dare the CA Department of Corrections[1] once again deny rights to individuals solely because they have been convicted of a sex offense. Didn’t they learn? The department has recently lost every case in which another of their “mistakes” involving registrants was challenged. Those cases were focused upon the department’s regulations which denied the benefits of Proposition 57 to every person convicted of a non-violent sex offense[2]. The number of Proposition 57 lawsuits is large and includes successful challenges by ACSOL at both the trial and appellate…
Read MoreJanice’s Journal: Take Your Knee Off of My Neck
I became a grandmother for the first time a week ago. It’s a moment I have been looking forward to, and planning for, many years. Who knew it would take place during a global pandemic and less than a week after the death of George Floyd? Although I am the founder, past President and current Executive Director of the Alliance for Constitutional Sex Offense Laws (ACSOL), I was uncertain how I would feel about the issue of civil rights for registrants and their families after I became a grandmother. Now…
Read MoreJanice’s Journal: The Stage Is Set, But Will the Players Play
California Governor Gavin Newsom has set the stage for the end of in-person registration during the COVID-19 pandemic. He did so by issuing an Executive Order that authorizes and encourages law enforcement agencies to remotely register individuals telephonically and by other means. The reason for these remote procedures, according to the Order, is to protect both law enforcement personnel as well as registrants. We acknowledge that the Governor’s order is a suggestion, not a mandate. There are no penalties for law enforcement agencies that choose to disregard it. But the…
Read MoreJanice’s Journal: The Punishment Does Not Fit the Crime
A registrant died yesterday in a Florida jail. He was put into that jail about 60 days ago because he forgot to report his new home address to local law enforcement. The price he paid for his forgetfulness was death. Death due to exposure to the coronavirus. A local public defender tried to get this man released from jail. The public defender knew the risk of infection in that jail was high because more than 20 people, including inmates and staff, had already been infected. The prosecuting attorney also knew…
Read MoreJanice’s Journal: High Risk COVID-19 Registrants Required to Register in Person
As COVID-19 continues to spread throughout the nation and the world, local law enforcement agencies continue to require all registrants – even those with multiple high-risk factors – to register in person. This requirement places in extreme danger “high risk” registrants as well as everyone who comes into contact with them. This requirement must be stopped immediately! According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), high risk factors include older than 65 and/or suffering from one or more chronic health problems including heart disease, diabetes, asthma, COPD, hypertension and cancer. …
Read MoreJanice’s Journal: Have You Noticed?
Have you noticed there is a change in the relationship between the Alliance for Constitutional Sex Offense Laws (ACSOL) and the National Association for Rational Sex Offense Laws (NARSOL)? We hope so. Because the change in that relationship is the result of both hard work and a change in focus. In order to fully understand the significance of what is happening now, it is important to know a little about the past….including the good, the bad, and the ugly. The good is that NARSOL began almost 15 years ago and…
Read MoreJanice’s Journal: 20/20: The Year of Perfect Vision
We have now begun the year 2020. When I first used the year on a personal check, the digits of that number popped out at me. 2020. Where have I seen that before? The answer was easy. On a prescription for eyeglasses. No, my vision without glasses is not 20/20. However, the eyeglasses I have been prescribed and wear help me perfect my vision to 20/20 which helps me to see more clearly. What if the year 20/20 is meant to provide us all with opportunities to see more clearly?…
Read MoreJanice’s Journal: A Line in the Sand
We have drawn a line in the sand. No longer will we accept governmental decisions that exclude registrants from benefits provided to the rest of society. Instead, we will challenge in court those decisions which are based upon the myth that registrants “always” re-offend. There are three such challenges now pending in state courts in California. The first challenge is to a decision by the Registrar of Voters in Los Angeles County that prohibits individuals convicted of a sex offense from serving as poll workers. This decision was made after…
Read MoreJanice’s Journal: The Best Defense is a Good Offense
Have you noticed? The winds are shifting for the registrant community. One solid example of that is the recent federal court decision in Georgia that determined that the three registrant plaintiffs have paid their debt to society and are both rehabilitated and leading productive lives. In that decision, the court went on to assist registrants by shifting the burden of proof to the government to show that the registrants pose a current danger to society. And then the court found that the government failed to meet that burden. In fact,…
Read MoreJanice’s Journal: The Big Picture
I founded California Reform Sex Offender Laws, the predecessor of the Alliance for Constitutional Sex Offense Laws (ACSOL) eight years ago in September 2011. I did so after reading the book, “We’re All in This Together”, by Frank Lindsay who was convicted of a single sex offense in 1979. My decision to create this organization was based upon the outrage I experienced after learning that not only Frank’s civil rights, but the civil rights of a large group of people in this country were being violated every day, 24 hours…
Read MoreJanice’s Journal: Child Pornography Laws Should Protect, Not Prosecute Children
The highest state court in Maryland ruled yesterday that a teenage girl could be prosecuted for distributing “child pornography” because she shared a one-minute video in which she was engaged in a consensual sexual act. Has the world gone crazy? “Child pornography” laws have been passed in every state in the nation. And in each of those states the purpose of the laws is to protect children from abuse and exploitation. Protecting children from abuse and exploitation is a noble cause. However, it is not noble to prosecute children who…
Read MoreJanice’s Journal: Watch this movie! And recommend it to others!
The newly released movie, “Brian Banks”, deserves attention. A lot of attention. Attention from every person required to register as a sex offender as well as his/her family and friends. Based upon a true story, the movie is about a 16-year-old high school athlete who is falsely accused of raping a 15-year-old girl who attended the same school. The movie accurately portrays the challenges he faces before conviction as well as both inside and outside of prison. For example, a plea deal goes wrong after Brian enters a plea of…
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