Category: National

At a court hearing today on the ACLU’s request for a preliminary injunction, the state and the Providence Police Department have agreed not to arrest and/or prosecute the plaintiffs in an ACLU lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a state law that makes it a felony for any person required to register as a sex offender to reside within 300 feet of any school. Across the country, experts involved in the treatment of sex offenders, as well as victims’ rights groups, have opposed sex offender residency laws as being ineffective, counter-productive,…

ST. PAUL, Minn. — A federal judge has certified a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the Minnesota Sex Offender Program as a class action on behalf of everyone committed to the program. U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank ruled Tuesday that the lawsuit meets the legal requirements to be certified as a class action. He pointed out that the proposed class includes about 600 people who’ve been indefinitely committed to the program, and he concluded that addressing each case individually would be an enormous drain on legal resources. Frank writes that…

The Second Circuit Court of Appeals held this week that a judge is not required to inform a child pornography defendant that his plea bargain could lead to civil commitment as a sexually dangerous person at the end of his prison term. According to the appellate court, due process and Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure do not require the district court to advise a defendant of the possibility. Full Article

Those who choose to serve the public are often confronted with unpleasantness and difficult decisions. Oftentimes those decisions, in order that they be correct ones which benefit society as a whole rather than one small segment of it, must fly in the face of public sentiment. The issue of child pornography is a highly volatile, emotionally charged one, but where it is the right of parents to be emotional where children are concerned, it is the DUTY of those who serve the public to look beyond the raw emotion and…

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It began in New Jersey 15 years ago when the murder-rape of 7-year-old Megan Kanka launched a nationwide movement – and laws in all 50 states. The idea was to keep tabs on sex offenders through town by town registries … and, in the cases of those deemed most likely to strike again, to notify neighbors, schools and community institutions that a potential sexual predator was among them. But now a federally-funded study by the NJ Department of Corrections concludes that Megan’s Law may be a failure – that it…

October 13. 2011 – There are so many problems with the current sex crime/offender system that it is overwhelming to think about it.  You can’t truly understand how dark life can be until you’ve been charged with a sex crime.  Once charged, you will be shocked at the new world in which you live, and the new identity you have assumed.  You will look around, wondering why somebody isn’t doing something about it.  You will ask yourself, “How can they get away with that?”  This happens every day, over and…

Reentry through Employment: A Comprehensive Approach to Reintegrating the  Formerly Incarcerated –  Supported by the Bureau of Justice Assistance An Event Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor Register now for this summit event, which will focus on successful state and local approaches to reentry, challenges to reentry for special populations, and  model programs adopted by the business community. Labor Secretary Hilda L. Solis will offer a keynote address and other federal agencies, including the Departments of Housing and Urban Development and Health and Human Services, the Small Business Administration,…

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) – The Rhode Island Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union is holding a news conference Monday afternoon. The RI ACLU plans to announce the filing of a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a state law that makes it a felony for a sex offender to reside within 300 feet of a school. The suit is being brought on behalf of three individuals, two of them with developmental disabilities, who are facing potential homelessness as a result of the law. Advocates from the disability community will also…

A Gaston County jury said that Pastor Keith Devon Pettis used his role as a foster parent to sexually abuse a 12-year-old girl. A group of Pettis’ parishioners and family disagrees. That group has hosted rallies in support of the 45-year-old man, and his case will be at the center of a march and rally scheduled for Saturday. Full Article

It would be difficult today to find a person who had no idea what the sex offender registry is. It would be equally difficult to find someone with only a passing interest who didn’t feel that it is a good thing to have. It started in most states as a law enforcement tool identifying repeat, sexually violent child predators. It now has an estimated 700,000 names on it and encompasses acts as varied as consensual teen sex, taking and sending a photo of one’s own breasts, and rape. And even…

Despite the obvious disconnect between teens’ online behaviors and parents’ knowledge of them, parents continue to exude a sense of confidence and control. Most parents insist they’re in control when it comes to mentoring their teen’s online behaviors. Yet, many teens believe their parents are in the dark. More than three in four parents express confidence they know how to find out what their teen is doing online, and half of parents live under the assumption that their teen tells them everything he/she does online. In reality, over two in…

We might feel at ease knowing that, if a sex offender moved into our neighborhood, we’d have to be informed. But does that really protect our children? In Tom Perrotta’s novel, Little Children, a convicted sex offender moves back to the town where he grew up to live with his mother. Isolated and ostracized, he nonetheless ventures to the town swimming pool one steamy summer afternoon to cool off. When the crowd begins to realize he’s snorkeling in the pool, it quickly empties as screaming mothers grab their toddlers and…

On June 12,  the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued Notice H 2012-11 State Registered Lifetime Sex Offenders in Federally Assisted Housing, which reiterates statutory- and regulatory-based responsibilities to prohibit admission to federally assisted housing for individuals subject to a lifetime registration requirement under a state sex offender registration program, and supersedes Notice H 2009-11. The new policies stem, in part, from a 2009 OIG audit, which estimated that 2,094 to 3,046 assisted households included a lifetime registered sex offender. Full Article

Dear Child Advocate: Mr. Sandusky is not a Monster as the public and media are labeling him! He is a human being who had/has many good qualities and has become a SICK Opportunist who has been allowed to repeat his behavior because of current laws and Society has once again turned their back on a man who needed treatment fourteen years ago. There are Opportunists and there are Predators who sexually abuse children. Congress supplied the weapon to allow Mr. Sandusky (and many others) to commit these crimes; “If you…

A Seattle attorney is asking for a review of Washington’s sex offender registration and notification system following the murders of two sex offenders this week in Clallam County. At least one of the two men killed was a husband and a father. The crime that put him into the state sex offender registry happened ten years ago. He was categorized a level II offender, one being lowest risk, three being the highest. Seattle attorney Brad Meryhew devotes his entire practice to defending accused and convicted sex offenders. He says it’s…

The New York Times:  “Louisiana is the world’s prison capital. The state imprisons more of its people, per head, than any of its U.S. counterparts. First among Americans means first in the world. Louisiana’s incarceration rate is nearly triple Iran’s, seven times China’s and 10 times Germany’s.” That paragraph opens a devastating eight-part series published this month by The Times-Picayune of New Orleans about how the state’s largely private prison system profits from high incarceration rates and tough sentencing, and how many with the power to curtail the system actually…