Colorado is overtreating many low-risk sex offenders in the mistaken belief that they cannot be cured, an independent consultant has found. As a result, the state’s Sex Offender Management Board is wasting significant amounts of public money on supervision in the community, according to a report from Central Coast Clinical and Forensic Psychology Services. The report, released earlier this month, also concluded that Colorado’s system for classifying some offenders as sexually violent predators is hopelessly flawed and in urgent need of replacement. That means Colorado could be classifying the wrong people…
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NV: Nevada’s Disappearing Sex Offender
Big changes for sex offenders in the western US state of Nevada. If implemented on February 1, 2014 as planned, the stealth roll out of the Adam Walsh Act will have a number of unintended consequences. These include: a dramatic increase in the number of citizens required to register as sex offenders including all those as far back as 1956 who were convicted of sex crimes against minors–even when the offender was himself a minor at the time. So a 12-year-old boy who in 1956 who molested his 10-year-old sister…
Read MoreGA: New state law gives ex offenders hope for landing a job
A new state law is a beacon of hope for job seekers with a criminal history. Albany Second Chance hosted workshops for ex-offenders Monday at Albany Technical College and Albany State University. Speakers from the Georgia Justice Project said state is the second worst in the nation for barriers that keep ex-offenders from finding jobs, but they hope the Record Restriction Law will help. Many of the hundreds of people crammed together in the Albany Tech Kirkland Conference Center were seeking a new beginning. “Who doesn’t wish they could go back and…
Read MoreNY: Mount Pleasant police chief faces child-porn charges
Mount Pleasant Police Chief ____ ____, accused Thursday of possessing child pornography, told federal investigators his alleged habit began when he was researching material for school classes he was teaching about the dangers of sexual abuse, according to papers filed in U.S. District Court in White Plains. “But shortly thereafter (____) began viewing child pornography for personal interest,” the 10-page complaint says. Full Article
Read MoreCO: Greeley police chief supports easing sex offender living restrictions
GREELEY – Sex offenders against children could be allowed to move closer to schools and parks in Greeley. “We’re trying to strike a balance between the need for public safety. We want to protect our kids from sex offenders, versus being able to have these folks rehabilitate and not re-offend out here,” Greeley Police Chief Jerry Garner said. Garner supports an ordinance that would reduce from 750 feet to 300 feet the mandatory distance a sex offender must live from parks, schools, playgrounds and pools. He said the city attorney suggested the…
Read MoreSex offender fights registry by registering his registerers [updated]
UPDATED with related story If nothing else, ____ ____ is not your typical ex-con. At first glance, he looks like the model returning citizen: After serving more than a decade in prison, ____, 70, returned to the District, started a gallery for prison art and ran for mayor. … So, for his latest act, ____ has decided to protest his treatment by creating his own online data base and registering the people who monitor him at the sex offender registry. Full Article Related: Dennis Sobin Has a Registery for People Who…
Read MorePA: Juvenile Law Center Wins Second Ruling Declaring Pennsylvania’s Juvenile Sex Offender Registration Requirements Unconstitutional
For the second time in the last three months, a Pennsylvania judge has ruled that Pennsylvania’s juvenile sex offender registration requirements are unconstitutional. On January 16, 2014, Monroe County Court of Common Pleas President Judge Margherita Patti-Worthington ruled that Pennsylvania’s law requiring juveniles convicted of sexual offenses be subjected to lifetime sex offender registration violates their rights under the Pennsylvania Constitution. (Read Judge Patti-Worthington’s opinion here.) Full Article
Read MoreVirginia anticipates need for more prison beds if oral sex is banned for teens
A Republican lawmaker in Virginia has proposed re-criminalizing oral and anal sex — but only for teenagers. State Senator Thomas Garrett, who calls himself a “Cuccinelli Conservative,” filed a bill on Wednesday to “amend and reenact § 18.2-361 of the Code of Virginia, relating to crimes against nature.” Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a bid by Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli to re-establish the ban on oral and anal sex in his state. The law had previously been declared to be unconstitutional by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. In its 2003 Lawrence…
Read MoreNY: Danger of a Different Kind – Firefighters Push to Keep Sex Offenders Out
The dangers of being a firefighter. Some are obvious. And others, not so much. That’s why the New York State Firemen’s Association is fighting to prevent what it claims is a danger of a different kind. Convicted sex offenders volunteering as firefighters. “Current labor law does give certain considerations and prohibits sex offenders from working in positions similar to firefighters that are entrusted with people’s safety and well-being. And so we just want some parity brought into our field,” said Andrew Maracco, FASNY lobbyist. Hundreds of firefighters and emergency responders are pushing…
Read More2014 Women Against Registry’s Operation Push Back
This Press Release was just sent out to all Missouri Media and Legislators: As Director of Women Against Registry, I am contacting your agency on behalf of over two million women, family members and those affected by the public sex offender registry. We have grown tired of the continued penalties registrants and their FAMILY members increasingly face. We have begun “Pushing Back” on legislation and false media representation. For too long we have heard heart-breaking stories from families being destroyed, children beaten, passed over for higher education opportunities, family homes/property…
Read MoreAL: National Women’s Organization Opposes HB 14
The question we are asking is an obvious one; “do laws such as this truly PROTECT children?” Alabama Representative Steve Hurst seems to think so. His previous years’ and newly introduced legislation, if enacted, would mandate the Department of Corrections to surgically castrate any person over the age of 21 who has been convicted of a sexual crime against a minor under the age of 12 years. But a national women’s organization is challenging the usefulness of such a law, asserting that it does nothing to increase community safety but seriously…
Read MoreALERT: Serial killer targeting registered sex offenders in New Hampshire
There is a serial killer at large in Keene, New Hampshire. The killer is targeting individuals whose names and addresses appear on New Hampshire’s Registry of Criminal Offenders and whose residences are pinpointed on the Keene Police Department’s online “CrimeReports” map. This killer has struck twice in the past three months, killing one man and severely maiming another. Citizens for Criminal Justice Reform is asking the State of New Hampshire and the City of Keene to take immediate steps to prevent further tragedy by taking down the State’s online sex offender registry…
Read MoreWebsites will no longer bill to remove mug shots
TOLEDO, Ohio – Two Internet sites that make money by posting millions of mug shots of people who’ve been arrested have agreed to stop charging them to take down their photos as part of a settlement in a federal lawsuit. The lawsuit came about after a number of complaints from people who said the websites were charging hundreds of dollars to remove the mug shots even if the cases against those arrested had been dropped. The settlement in U.S. District Court in Toledo doesn’t apply to all of the mug…
Read MoreIn Wake of NY Times Editorial, CPI Unveils Registry of Prosecutorial Misconduct
WASHINGTON / January 8, 2014 – Today the non-profit Center for Prosecutor Integrity (CPI) announces the launching of the new Registry of Prosecutorial Misconduct. The unveiling comes three days after a New York Times’ editorial charged ethical violations by prosecutors have become “rampant” across the nation: http://nyti.ms/1hu7K7V The Registry is the first publicly available national online database to catalog judicial or legal disciplinary committee findings of prosecutorial misconduct. The Registry of Prosecutorial Misconduct will allow lawmakers, researchers, legal organizations, criminal justice reform groups, and others to identify common types of misconduct, assess trends, and…
Read MoreWA: Court postpones decision on releasing sex-offender registration forms [UPDATED]
UPDATE 1/30: Judge rules sex offender data in Benton County not public information YAKIMA, Wash. — A Columbia Basin woman seeking the names of all low-level sex offenders in Yakima County will have to wait another month to learn if she’ll get the list. A public records request by Mesa resident Donna Zink, who has sought similar lists in other counties in order to post the names on her website, has been on hold after a group of offenders last month obtained a temporary injunction against the release. On Wednesday, Yakima County…
Read MoreKY: (Registered) Sex offender looks to gain admission to Kentucky bar
LOUISVILLE, KY. – ____ ____ ____ graduated in the top third of his law school class at the University of Kentucky, but the state Supreme Court blocked him from taking the bar exam because he is a registered sex offender. In the first case of its kind in Kentucky, the court rejected ____’s bid and a move by the state Office of Bar Admissions to create and endorse a blanket rule that would have kept all registered sex offenders from gaining access to the bar. Full Article
Read MoreNV: New Law Puts More Sex Offenders on the Map
LAS VEGAS — People may soon find out there are more sex offenders living in their neighborhood than they thought. That is because a newly enforced state law is about to re-define who is considered a sex offender who must register. Judges and child welfare advocates say that it is going to be more difficult to tell who is a sexual predator because the sex offender map is now going to flag anyone who has committed a sexual offense, even those who teenagers at the time. The starting point for being…
Read MoreID: E-mail Notifications Feature Added to Idaho State Sex Offender Registry System
Citizens can now elect to receive e-mail notifications when a sex offender in their neighborhood moves to a new location. When interested persons register for this new service, they can specify the given radius of the area they desire to keep tabs on. Additionally, if a person is interested in being notified when a particular registrant moves, there is a link provided under the picture on each registrant’s page that reads, “Track Registrant.” When the user clicks on the link, they will be asked to provide the e-mail address where notifications…
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