This week, my graduate seminar at the University of Delaware hosted several scholars who study sex trafficking, both trafficking laws and the people they affect. Together, this group of scholars and activists from around the world share some common concerns about what happens when well-meaning policymakers use the wrong tools to address problems. Sen. Chris Coons has the opportunity to address one aspect of this with the bill pending now in the Senate Foreign Relations committee, H.R.515, International Megan’s Law to Prevent Demand for Child Sex Trafficking. While the proposed…
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NY: Senate passes Sex Offender Legislation
Albany, N.Y. – The New York State Senate passed a bill Thursday granting municipalities the authority to establish residency restrictions for registered sex offenders. Sen. Rich Funke (R-NY 55th District) first announced the bill Monday alongside Penfield Supervisor Tony LaFountain. Penfield is working on a child safety act that would prevent level two and three sex offenders from living in designated child-safe zones, which would be 2,000 feet away from any schools, parks, playgrounds, town facilities or daycare centers. Full Article
Read MoreWI: Man arrested on suspicion of burning house intended for sex offender
Dane County authorities arrested a town of Cottage Grove man they say set fire to a house Sunday night in a vigilante effort to keep a sex offender from moving in there. Russell A. Speigle, 50, was arrested on a tentative charge of arson for the fire, which destroyed a home at 4721 Gaston Circle in the town of Cottage Grove, Sheriff Dave Mahoney said Tuesday. Investigators are now trying to determine if Speigle was responsible for another fire that damaged the same house in December, Mahoney said. Full Article
Read MoreOK: Sex offender chemical castration bill defeated in Senate committee
OKLAHOMA CITY – A Senate panel on Tuesday defeated a measure that would have allowed for the chemical castration of violent sex offenders.bThe Senate Judiciary Committee rejected Senate Bill 671 by Sen. Mark Allen, R-Spiro, by a vote of 5-4 with no debate. The legislation would have applied to sexually violent offenses including rape, rape by instrumentation, lewd or indecent proposals or acts against a child under 16, solicitation of a minor and procuring a minor to participate in pornography. Full Article
Read MoreFL: Proposed bills aim at tracking sex offenders for life
Some Florida lawmakers are pushing to require convicted sex offenders to wear monitoring devices for the rest of their lives. Even after the convicted offender completed the probation period, he or she would still have to wear or carry the electronic monitoring device under proposed bills SB 134 and HB 203. Full Article
Read MoreNY: Ruling stirs debate on limiting where sex offenders live
MINEOLA, N.Y. — A decision by New York’s highest court striking down dozens of local laws that set boundaries on where convicted sex offenders may live has rekindled a debate over whether such laws really work to protect children. New York’s Court of Appeals ruled unanimously last week that only the state has the power to tell offenders where they can and cannot reside, and generally only while they are on parole or supervised release. The ruling effectively struck down more than 130 local laws across the state, many of…
Read MoreNY: High Court right to overturn local sex offender laws (Editorial)
Local and county politicians around the state hopped on a populist bandwagon nearly a decade ago, hurriedly passing laws that outdid the state’s effort to keep convicted sex offenders from living or even walking near schools, parks and daycare centers — in the absence of any real evidence that stricter laws were needed. Full Editorial
Read MoreVA: Sex offender registry – Bad idea (OpEd)
Virginia lawmakers introduce many bad ideas, but they also wisely dispense with a good proportion of them. One of those that has escaped the ax comes from state Sen. Ryan McDougle, and would establish a supplemental sex-offender registry. The supplemental registry, which would be published on the State Police website, would include the names of persons who committed various offenses between 1980 and 1994. Full OpEd Piece
Read MoreAR: Sex Offender Database Violates Federal Law
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Arkansas is violating federal law with the way it tracks certain sex offenders. It has cost the state hundreds of thousands of dollars and some say is putting the public in danger. The Adam Walsh Act was passed in 2006. Nearly 10 years later, Arkansas is non-compliant in three major areas. They are: failing to report certain juvenile offenders, establishing a process for getting off the registry and not listing all offenders online. Full Article
Read MoreMA: Worcester’s sex-offender ordinance awaits court ruling on Lynn measure
WORCESTER — Local efforts to restrict where Level 2 and Level 3 sex offenders can live in the city have been put on hold, pending the outcome of a legal challenge to a similar ordinance adopted by another community that is now before the state Supreme Judicial Court. Councilor-at-Large Morris A. Bergman, chairman of the City Council Public Safety Committee, said it is his understanding that arguments regarding that residency ordinance are expected to be made before the SJC in April, with a decision likely to come out in June.…
Read MoreID: Bill would add violent criminals to sex offender registry
BOISE — An Idaho legislative panel is considering a bill to add people convicted of violent crimes – such as murder, kidnapping and felony domestic violence – to the state’s sex offender registry. The House Judiciary, Rules and Administration Committee voted unanimously Tuesday to consider expanding the registry to include violent offenders. Full Article
Read MoreNY: Court of Appeals voids sex offender laws
ALBANY — The state’s highest court ruled Tuesday that state law restricting the residency of registered sex offenders supersedes local and county laws, rendering them obsolete. The 5-0 decision by the Court of Appeals marked defeat for Nassau County and any other municipality in New York state hoping to restrict the offenders to within certain distances of schools, parks, playgrounds, daycare centers and other places where children are likely to be. Full Article
Read MoreIA: Blue Grass woman finds her own address on sex offender registry, used without her knowledge
BLUE GRASS, Iowa (KWQC) — We hear about the sex offender registry when there is a change in the law or a big compliance check. But does it really hold offenders accountable? A Blue Grass woman says, not as much as you might expect. And her story hits close to home. She lives in an established neighborhood with nice houses fronted by big yards. You wouldn’t think a sex offender lived there. And as far as we know, one doesn’t. But for a little while this winter, Stefanie Mucha’s Valley…
Read MoreMI: Mom on mission for a public child abuse registry
… The proposed registry would be searchable by name, similar to the state’s sex offender registry. Specific details of the proposed child abuse registry have yet to be determined. But such a registry would give people another way to check whether someone has been convicted of child abuse, be it a new neighbor, a babysitter, someone who is dating an ex-spouse or someone who is marrying into the family. Full Article
Read MoreFL: Sex offender had only one place to live – A parking lot
TAMPA — As a convicted sex offender, ____ ____ ____ was ordered to live in a small parking lot on Channelside Drive. For refusing to stay for more than a few weeks in the empty lot, ____ , 27, was sentenced to 10 years in state prison. On Friday, the 2nd District Court of Appeal reluctantly upheld ____ ’s punishment. “We are troubled by the fact that the terms of ____ ’s community control have rendered him homeless,” the court wrote. “This does not appear to facilitate the goals of…
Read MoreVA: Campbell – Sex offender bill would stir up angry mobs
HB1366 patroned by Del. Jeff Campbell, R-Marion, passed the House of Delegates recently, unanimously, with absolutely no discussion or debate and with very little notice by most Virginians. ***Article no longer online*** More at restoringintegritytovirginiaregistry
Read MoreAR: Sex Offender Registry – Address Debate
(KARK) — CONWAY, AR — An Arkansas advocacy group is fighting to get law enforcement agencies to remove the full addresses of sex offenders on websites. The group wants the numbers blocked, but not everyone is budging. Carla Swanson — with Arkansas Time after Time — sent out 900 letters to registered sex offenders with listed addresses on sheriffs’ websites. She says a couple hundred came back to her because the offender no longer lived there. Swanson says that proves the system isn’t very effective, but that’s not her only…
Read MoreNH: Supreme Court Rules That Retroactive, Lifetime Registration Requirement Is Unconstitutional As Applied To ACLU Client
CONCORD – In a victory for fundamental fairness, the New Hampshire Supreme Court held today that New Hampshire’s law requiring the registration of certain criminal offenders is unconstitutional as applied to an ACLU client because the law retroactively imposes lifetime restrictions on individuals who were convicted before these lifetime restrictions were enacted. Full Article Also see: N.H. Supreme Court: Disabled sex offender eligible to get off sex offender registry
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