[floridapolitics.com – 5/30/18] Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams and State Attorney Melissa Nelson on Wednesday rolled out the ‘KEYS 2 Drive’ (Knowledge Empowers Your Success) diversion program. The program will help those facing primary charges of driving without valid licenses, or suspended or revoked licenses, to get valid drivers’ licenses. … Sex offenders are ineligible for the program, … Read the whole article
Read MoreCategory: National
AR: Here’s a helping hand – Right into a prison cell—or worse
[arkansasonline.com – 5/30/18] There are so many lessons to be drawn from Bobbie Gross’ tragic experience in trying to help her 17-year-old son that the challenge isn’t to describe just one but how to sum up the whole plethora of ills the young man fell into when left to the not-so-tender mercies of the State of Arkansas: It turns out that his mother, seeking to help him, made her first mistake when she filed a petition with a judge of Arkansas’ juvenile court system asking the court get her son…
Read MoreNJ Supreme Court Bars Retroactive Application of Megan’s Law Amendments
[law.com – 5/30/18] The New Jersey Supreme Court on Wednesday held 2014 amendments to Megan’s Law enhancing certain penalties for sex offenders who violate parole requirements unenforceable against four defendants based on the ex post facto clauses of both the state and federal constitutions. Read more Related: NJ Supreme Court finds Ex Post Facto violations as applied to 4 sex offenders [floridaactioncommittee.org – 5/31/18]
Read MoreFL: A decree bars police from harassing homeless people. Miami has moved to terminate it
[miamiherald.com – 5/30/18] Miami has asked a federal judge to terminate a 20-year-old legal agreement that protects the city’s homeless from undue police harassment — a change that would allow the police to arrest the homeless for loitering. The city on Wednesday filed a motion in U.S. District Court to terminate the Pottinger agreement, a 1998 consent decree that prevents police from arresting homeless people for “life-sustaining” activities such as sleeping on the sidewalk, starting a cooking fire or urinating in public. The agreement stems from a landmark lawsuit brought…
Read MoreMO: Senate Bill 655 changes the way MO handles sex offender registry [three tier]
[fourstateshomepage.com = 5/29/18] State lawmakers sign off on a potential law changing the way the Show Me State handles its sex offender registry. Senate Bill 655 would create a three tier system, similar to the one used at the federal level. Those guilty of the least serious convictions could ask courts to take them off the list after ten years. That option is also available for convicts on the second tier -with more serious charges – after 25 years on the registry. But those with the worst offenses would remain…
Read MoreAZ: Sex offenders are legally living just feet away from Arizona schools
[12news.com – original: 5/16/18, updated 5/24/18] PHOENIX – A loophole in Arizona law allows sex offenders to live near schools, in some cases just feet away from campus. Per state law, it’s only illegal for a sex offender to live within 1,000 feet of a school if that person has been convicted of a dangerous crime against children. According to the state sex offender registry, one sex offender in Mesa lives steps away from two schools, Ishikawa Elementary School and Stapley Junior High. The Maricopa County Adult Probation says his…
Read MoreID: Judge Rejects Idaho Sex Offender Registration Lawsuit
A federal judge has rejected a lawsuit challenging Idaho’s sex offender registration laws, but the 134 anonymous sex offenders who brought the lawsuit have the option to refile the case if they can show the current laws caused them actual harm. Full Article
Read MoreSC: Charleston sheriff unplugs mugshot websites
postandcourier.com – 5/26/18] Once upon a time, we named and shamed by putting the accused in stocks on the town square. Now we put them on the internet. I am omitting the names because it is impossible to sort the innocent from the guilty. “South Carolina Hottie Bookings,” on a website called Arrests.org, isn’t troubled by such details. On this one website, there are mugshots of 1,000 women arrested in South Carolina over the past two years, many on nothing-burger charges. Mind you, not one of them was convicted of…
Read MoreFL: Safety versus second chance: A home for sexual offenders has neighbors up in arms
[tallahassee.com – 5/26/18] Nestled in a pocket of land surrounded by the I-10 overpass and Mission Road sits the Moon Lane neighborhood. A dirt road that runs along the interstate wall leads to several mobile homes hidden behind a barricade of drooping trees and unkempt foliage. Cornered off and relatively quiet, homes are scattered around the unpaved road with no real boundaries. But, residents of the area are beginning to draw a line in the sand. Neighbors on Moon Lane are fighting to remove a rehabilitation home for sexual offenders…
Read MoreGA: Sex offender registry problems cost the state federal funds
Shortcomings in Georgia’s sex offender registration program are going to cost the state hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal grant money, according to a letter the U.S. Department of Justice sent to the governor. Full Article
Read MorePA: Montgomery County lawmaker wants only sex offenders on state sex offender registry
Sen. Stewart Greenleaf plans to introduce a bill that would keep individuals convicted of crimes where there is no sexual motivation from ended up on the states sex offender registry. The lawmaker cited data that shows individuals with no sex crime accusations are being labeled as sex offenders.Full Article
Read MoreNJ: Science and Law Evolve Together, Sex Offender Registry Case Reminds Us
This is how law and social science are meant to intersect. The case reminds us that, as our knowledge of human behavior evolves, our approach to legal issues will evolve as well. Full Article Decision
Read MoreWV: West Virginia’s Fake News Regarding Sex Offenders
[blog.womenagainstregistry.org – 5/24/18] I thought it started out as a good news article from The Exponent Telegram in West Virginia. A judge was reading sex offender rules to a defendant at a sentencing hearing. The author of the article correctly noted that defendants at a sentencing hearing are focused on “sentencing” and probably not absorbing much of the information the judge is providing them regarding the requirements surrounding life on the registry. I had to agree that newcomers to the registry should be informed of what is expected of them,…
Read MoreConvicted of Violating a Law that Does Not Exist
[cato.org – 5/24/18] Herman Gundy stands convicted of violating a law that, for all intents and purposes, doesn’t exist. You may recall from high school civics that the Constitution separates the powers of the federal government among three coordinate branches. You may also recall from “Schoolhouse Rock” that a bill becomes a law after it’s passed by the two houses of the legislative branch and signed by the president. Unfortunately for Gundy, things are no longer so straightforward. The Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA) set up a national…
Read MoreFL: Police Now Shuffling Tent City Sex Offenders Around Miami-Dade
[miaminewtimes.com – 5/24/18] In 2009, California artist Scott Gairdner made the “Sex Offender Shuffle,” a viral video parodying Miami-Dade’s treatment of sex offenders. With a catchy beat and ’80s-style cinematography, the four-minute spoof of the 1985 Chicago Bears’ “Super Bowl Shuffle” mocked the way sex offenders are shuffled from one location to another under the guise of public safety. Nine years later, the sex offender shuffle is playing out in real life in Miami-Dade. After being forced to leave a longtime encampment near Hialeah, a group of homeless sex offenders…
Read MorePost-Prison Purgatory
[theinvestigativefund.org – 5/23/18] At Coalinga State Hospital, located in a desolate, dusty part of California’s Central Valley, 200 miles north of Los Angeles, 37-year-old Cory Hoch stands out. He’s well liked by other patients, and his dry sense of humor and lively intelligence come across almost immediately. His feathered earring and neon-green sneakers infuse some color into the surroundings, while his khaki scrubs identify him as a patient. Since the age of 19, Hoch has lived most of his life in some form of cage. He is one of the…
Read MoreA Flurry of Bills Followed Larry Nassar’s Conviction. Here’s Why That’s a Problem.
[injusticetoday.com – 5/24/18] The history of child sex abuse legislation in the United States follows a well-worn pattern: a chilling incident rouses public anger and fear, to which lawmakers respond with expansive, emotionally charged legislative action. The 1994 Jacob Wetterling Act, the first law to establish federal guidelines requiring states to implement sex offender registries, was named after an 11-year-old Minnesotan who was kidnapped and murdered by a suspected pedophile. Megan’s Law, mandating public notification about registered sex offenders when deemed necessary, was introduced directly in response to the brutal…
Read MoreNV: Giunchigliani amendment exempted teachers from bill expanding sex offender reporting laws
[rgj.com – 5/23/18] Democratic governor hopeful Chris Giunchigliani, a former teacher and state lawmaker, helped hollow out a proposed law that would’ve required teachers who have sex with an underage student to register as sex offenders. Then-Assemblywoman Giunchigliani — an ex-teachers union boss who in January won an endorsement from the Nevada State Education Association — waited until the second-to-last day of the 2005 legislative session to submit an amendment that scuttled a proposed expansion of sex offender reporting laws. Her last-minute revision came less than two weeks after the…
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