[kpvi.com] The Idaho Central Sex Offender Registry, administered by the Idaho State Police, has been made aware of several attempted scams targeting registered sex offenders in at least one Idaho county and six Florida counties. One scam involves a caller posing as a law enforcement officer who tells the sex offender that they have missing or out-of-date registration information. The caller then threatens that, in order to avoid arrest for failure to register, the registrant must bring a gift/money card to a specified location (other than the registration office). Read…
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FL: Maxwell: Sun Sentinel Editorial: Gov. Rick Scott has no credibility on rights restoration
[floridaactioncommittee.org] Gov. Rick Scott claims that he, not a federal judge, should determine how Florida restores the civil rights of ex-felons. Seriously? That would be like having Bill Belichick design the Dolphins’ game plans against the Patriots. Watch the video: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/opinion/95047063-132.html Scott made this absurd argument Monday in response to the Feb. 1 ruling by U.S. District Judge Mark Walker that Florida’s Jim Crow-era system for how ex-felons can regain their rights is arbitrary and thus unconstitutional. A Scott spokesman said authority for clemency rests with “officials elected by Floridians,…
Read MoreCO: Senate committee turns down bill to change indefinite sentencing for sex offenders
The Senate Judiciary Committee Monday voted down a bill that would change the state’s laws on indefinite sentencing for sex offenders. The measure, Senate Bill 17, would allow judges to determine on a case-by-case basis whether to sentence sex offenders to “indeterminate sentences,” which in some cases means a life sentence. Full Article
Read MoreMO: Legislature considers updating sex offender registry
State legislators are talking about updating Missouri’s sex offender registry to be more in line with the federal system. Under State Rep. Kurt Bahr’s proposal, three tiers of offenses would be created, corresponding with how serious the crime was, the 3rd, being the most heinous. Full Article
Read MorePA: Registered Sex Offender Elected As Fire Chief In Pa. Town, Mayor Defends Decision
[pittsburgh.cbslocal.com] SPARTANSBURG, Pa. (AP) – The mayor of a small Pennsylvania town is standing by its volunteer fire company’s re-election of a registered sex offender as its fire chief. Chief Roger Gilbert Jr. was convicted in 2001 of sexual intercourse with a 4-year-old girl and is listed in the state’s Megan’s Law database, The (Corry) Journal reported Saturday . Court records show Gilbert is a felon who completed a five- to 10-year sentence for “involuntary deviate sexual intercourse.” Mayor Ann Louise Wagner says she and firefighters have been aware that…
Read MoreNY: “All Sex Offender Registries Should Be Abolished”: Reason/Soho Forum Debate
[narsol.org] That’s the highly controversial resolution that will be argued at the next Soho Forum/Reason debate, on Monday, February 12 at New York’s Subculture Theater from 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. Emily Horowitz will argue the affirmative position. She is professor and chair of the sociology and criminal justice department at St. Francis College in Brooklyn, New York, where she founded a program that helps the formerly incarcerated complete college. Marci A. Hamilton will take the negative. She is Fox Professor of Practice and Fox Family Pavilion Resident Senior Fellow in…
Read MoreVA: New bill could allow prosecutors to hold more “sexting” minors accountable
[wset.com] BEDFORD Co., Va. (WSET) – A local prosecutor says a proposed bill that charges teens who willfully send illicit images to one another, with a misdemeanor instead of a felony, could allow them to charge more people. This bill already passed the Virginia Senate. Commonwealth’s Attorney Wes Nance spoke on behalf of the Virginia Association of Commonwealth Attorney’s in favor of this bill before the courts subcommittee. Nance said the juvenile courts system allows for rehabilitation instead of incarceration. “No prosecutor when an individual is a juvenile necessarily wants…
Read MoreKS: Wichita YMCA to implement daily sex offender registry checks
The Greater Wichita YMCA is implementing a new sex offender check system after a Kid Zone employee was accused of sexually assaulting a child. In an e-mail to members, Wichita YMCA CEO and President Ronn McMahon announced the YMCA will implement daily sex offender registry checks. McMahon said the system will notify daily of any staff member, guest or participant with a change in their status. Full Article Related http://ksn.com/2018/02/07/ymca-guests-weigh-in-on-sex-offender-registry-check-for-all-members-employees/
Read MorePA: Senate positions Megan’s Law fix for vote
[altoonamirror.com] HARRISBURG — A bill seeking to deliver a legislative fix to Megan’s Law for sexual assault offenders was positioned for a Senate floor vote after a key senator gave a green light Monday. Sen. Stewart Greenleaf, R-Montgomery, repeated his strong objections to the House-passed legislation, House Bill 1952, at the start of a two-hour hearing Monday morning on the Judiciary Committee, which Greenleaf chairs. Following the hearing, Greenleaf voted with colleagues to approve the bill, which addresses concerns the Pennsylvania Supreme Court raised about Pennsylvania’s sex offender registry. The…
Read MoreNY: Death, assaults and sex offenses: Life behind Central New York Psychiatric Center’s walls
[lohud.com] A New York State psychiatric center operated illegally with impunity while two dead bodies, 40 assaults and 25 sex offenses triggered police responses behind its walls from 2012 to 2016, The Journal News/lohud has found. The newly obtained tally of violence, roughly one attack per month, is part of 210 criminal incidents at Central New York Psychiatric Center. Much of the violence involved the mentally ill men locked up there, and it unfolded without the independent monitor required by law. From rapes and beatings to illicit drug use and…
Read MoreAL: Signs in Yards & Chemical Castration: Bad Legislation to oppose during the 2018 Alabama legislative season
[reformalabama.blogspot.com] The following bills MUST BE opposed during this legislative season. SB195 By Senators Ward and Shelnutt RFD Judiciary Rd 1 18-JAN-18 Under existing law, community notification of sex offenders requires a flyer be mailed or hand delivered to required residences. The existing law also provides any other method reasonably expected to provide notification may be utilized. This bill would further authorize local law enforcement to post public notices on the property where adult sex offenders who are subject to community notification reside. Reason this is bad: This means the…
Read MoreVA: ‘Sexting’ teens could avoid felony charges under bill that clears Virginia Senate
[roanoke.com] RICHMOND — The Virginia Senate on Monday passed a bill intended to keep teenagers who willingly share sexually explicit images with each other from being branded felony sex offenders. The measure, which passed on a bipartisan 35-to-5 vote, would give prosecutors the option to charge “sexting” among minors as a misdemeanor. Read more
Read MorePA: Thousands of sex offenders no longer have to register. Should lawmakers put them back on a list for life?
About 150 people in Philadelphia are in state prison and 150 more are on probation or parole for neglecting to fill out address-change notifications or missing a required reporting date — all failures to comply with a sex-offender-registration law the state Supreme Court found unconstitutional last July. Now, the fates of those people — along with as many as 17,000 others statewide who were required, under that law, to remain on a registry for decades or life — hinge in large part on the state legislature. On Monday, the Senate…
Read MoreID: Idaho Senate panel introduces bill to broaden sex crime laws
[idahostatesman.com] An Idaho Senate committee has introduced two bills that would broaden the definition of some sex crimes to include crimes committed with the intent of degrading or humiliating someone. Idaho Deputy Attorney General Paul Panther told the Senate Judiciary and Rules committee on Monday that both the state’s current statute on sexual battery and the statue on forcible penetration with a foreign object define the crimes as having been done with the intent of sexual gratification or arousal. But Panther said those statutes currently don’t cover situations like severe…
Read MoreFL: Man accused of killing cellmate: ‘There’s one less child molester’
[kcra.com] Florida authorities say an inmate who killed his cellmate last month while awaiting trial for killing another cellmate in 2015 is now in solitary confinement. The Panama City News Herald reports 21-year-old Frederick Patterson III said he killed his 82-year-old cellmate Arthur Williams on Jan. 15, and told correctional officers that “there’s one less child molester on the streets.” Advertisement Patterson, a convicted burglar, was sentenced Thursday to life in prison for killing 45-year-old Scott Collinsworth, a convicted robber, in the Apalachee Correctional Institution. Patterson now faces a first-degree…
Read MoreFL: According to Homeless Trust, over 45% of Homeless in Miami-Dade County are Sex Offenders
[floridaactioncommittee.org] Last month, Ron Book was out with his “Homeless Trust” to count the homeless in Miami-Dade. Yes, literally, to manually count the homeless. According to this article, the Miami-Dade Homeless Trust counts the homeless twice a year in January and in August, but “tonight’s count is the one that counts for federal funding.” Counts for “federal funding”… no wonder Ron Book is on hand for that one. If it means more money for him, you can be sure he’ll be hands-on. But what about the stats? The article states,…
Read MoreHow to prevent child sexual abuse: Know the myths and realities
[salon.com] How would you describe a sex offender? In all likelihood, you would describe a monster — someone who lurks behind bushes and rapes unsuspecting women or abuses children. And that is how sex offenders are portrayed in the media. For most of us, much of what we know about sex offenders comes from movies, TV shows and news stories. However, those stories are often sensationalized portrayals — or cases that are the exception to the rule — rather than the norm. While cases like these do exist, they remain…
Read MoreFL: Four years after being called out on poor public policy, Florida is STILL putting children at risk
[sosen.org] On April 14, 2014, A national coalition of members of CURE, CURE-SORT, FAC, USA Fair and WAR members joined together to ask Florida legislators, “Why are the many children and families of former offenders being placed in danger from missed opportunities of effective legislation?” “Are the children of citizens on the sex offender registry less valuable to law makers?” Nearly four full years later, we are still awaiting a satisfactory answer. As of May 24, 2017, there were 69,917 people listed on the Florida state sex offender registry and…
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