Ever since the Julia Tuttle Causeway became an encampment for sex offenders more than a decade ago, officials have been trying to shoo the group away from the rest of civilization. Thanks to stringent requirements mandating that child predators live 2,500 feet from schools, parks, and daycare centers, the offenders have struggled to find legal housing, leaving many effectively homeless. For years, the roving offenders have been shuffled from one place to another, angering unlucky neighbors and nearby business owners. Full Article
Read MoreCategory: National
Nearly 1,700 Suspected Child Predators Arrested During Operation “Broken Heart”
[ojp.gov – 6/11/19] The Department of Justice today announced the arrest of almost 1,700 suspected online child sex offenders during a two-month, nationwide operation conducted by Internet Crimes Against Children task forces. The task forces identified 308 offenders who either produced child pornography or committed child sexual abuse, and 357 children who suffered recent, ongoing or historical sexual abuse or were exploited in the production of child pornography. The 61 ICAC task forces, located in all 50 states and comprised of more than 4,500 federal, state, local and tribal law…
Read MoreAL: Alabama governor signs chemical castration bill into law
[cnn.com – 6/10/19] Republican Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey on Monday signed a bill into law that requires someone convicted of a sex offense against a child under the age of 13 to begin chemical castration a month before being released from custody. The law requires individuals convicted of such an offense to continue treatments until a court deems the treatment is no longer necessary. It says offenders must pay for the treatment, and they can’t be denied parole solely based on an inability to pay. “This bill is a step…
Read MoreA limited study done by the Department of Justice still proves that registrants have the lowest re-offense rate
[sosen.org – 6/7/19] The Department of Justice Bureau of statistics has put out another report “Recidivism of sex offenders released from state prison a nine-year follow-up 2005-14.” This is another attempt to muddy the waters by the Department of Justice in relation to the re-offense rate of people on the registry. First of all, this is not a valid study for evaluating the amount of recidivism by the 900,000+ people that are registered citizens. This is in fact a limited study of a small group of people that were…
Read MoreNY: Social media accounts raise complexities for sex offender registry
The law that went on the books 24 years ago has had updates and spawned a number of requirements for sex offenders. One of them is that they must disclose to the state Division of Criminal Justice Services the “internet identifiers” that they use when they go online. The rationale for that is simple to understand since it is so easy for people to use social media accounts to pretend they are someone they are not and attempt to initiate communications with an unsuspecting person. But how much information must…
Read MoreFL: Fort Lauderdale opening more neighborhoods to sex offenders with change in strict law
[sun-sentinel.com – 6/7/19] There are no homes at 2700 N. Federal Highway in Fort Lauderdale. Although the only buildings standing are a McDonald’s and a Chick-fil-A, 110 people have registered it as an address. All of them are convicted sex offenders. This hot spot for sexual criminals is one of several along Federal Highway in northeast Fort Lauderdale, one of the few slivers in the city where a registered sex offender or sexual predator — rapists, molesters, child porn addicts — can legally reside. That will change soon. The city…
Read MoreNY: Registered sex offender living at Newfane nursing facility
[wkbw.com – 6/6/19] 7 Eyewitness News has learned a registered sex offender is living at the Newfane Rehabilitation and Health Care Center. But he had been quietly living in a local nursing home for months without any residents knowing. What’s even more concerning is how close this facility is to three schools. The registered sex offender has been living at the Newfane nursing center since January, but the state has not notified anyone until Thursday. This is the same center where the state attorney general’s office is also investigating an…
Read MoreAL: Alabama’s state legislature just passed a bill to chemically castrate child sex offenders
[insider.com – 6/5/19] Alabama’s state legislature passed a bill Tuesday that will require convicted child sex offenders to undergo chemical castration prior to their release, raising questions about the legality and ethics of castration. According to the legislation, known as House Bill 379, a person convicted of a sexual offense involving anyone under the age of 13 will be required, as a condition of parole, “to undergo chemical castration treatment in addition to any other penalty or condition prescribed by law.” The person will be obligated to pay for the…
Read MoreNY: Medicaid bought sex offenders’ erectile dysfunction drugs
[whec.com – 6/5/19] Registered sex offenders in New York received $63,000 worth of erectile dysfunction drugs and other sexual treatments courtesy of the state’s publicly funded Medicaid program, according to an audit released Wednesday. Federal rules bar Medicaid coverage of sexual treatments for all recipients, not just sex offenders. Yet state Medicaid officials approved $930,000 in improper payments for the drugs between 2012 and 2018, according to the audit released by state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli and first reported by The Associated Press. According to the audit, 47 of those Medicaid…
Read MoreSouthern Baptist leaders plan to remedy ‘insufficient’ approach to abuse claims
[upi.com – 6/4/19] Southern Baptists hope to take steps at their upcoming annual meeting in Birmingham, Ala., to address continuing reports of sexual abuse in their denomination … The document also included a list of ways for state and regional groups to help churches handle sex offenders, including developing a covenant that, if violated, would limit their church attendance or access to church property. Easter said she considers offenders to be too dangerous to be permitted in a church gathering. “Predators should be ministered to by trained professionals separate from…
Read MoreNC: Court Reverses Order for Convicted Sex Offender to Wear GPS-monitoring System for Life
North Carolina’s second-highest court has reversed a decision requiring a man who pleaded guilty to taking indecent liberties with a child to wear a monitoring system for the rest of his life. Full Article
Read MoreMT: Attorney General’s Office secures grant to enforce sex offender registrations
[fairfieldsuntimes.com – 6/1/19] About 336 sex offenders are listed on the state registry in the Missoula area, and that’s only the number of those who are compliant with their registration. Assistant Attorney General Madison Mattioli stepped into a grant-funded position in April to address the 4,744 sex offenders statewide who are not compliant with current addresses and information on the state Department of Justice’s Sexual and Violent Registration. Read more
Read MoreAL: House passes chemical castration bill
[alreporter.com – 5/23/19] NOTE: PLEASE MOVE DISCUSSION TO AN UPDATED ARTICLE WITH A QUOTE FROM JANICE: AL: Alabama’s state legislature just passed a bill to chemically castrate child sex offenders The Alabama House of Representatives passed a bill Tuesday requiring that child rapists be chemically castrated for the rest of their lives once released from prison. House Bill 379 is sponsored by State Rep. Steve Hurst, R-Munford. Hurst said his original idea was for surgical castration, but after much research of the issue, he instead opted for…
Read MoreCO: Remembering Richard Matsch, Badass Judge With Courage of His Convictions
[westword.com – 5/28/19] Judge Richard Matsch, who died on May 26 at the age of 88, is best known for having overseen the Oklahoma City bombing trial of Timothy McVeigh. But that’s only part of his legacy. Matsch, who served as chief judge for the U.S. District Court in Colorado from 1994 to 2000 and remained on the bench until earlier this year under senior status, was one of the most powerful jurists in the state for decades, as evidenced by his frequent mentions in Westword. … Among the most…
Read MoreNY: Anthony Weiner complained about sex offenders in district before scandal
[nypost.com – 5/27/19] Here’s another thing that gets a rise out of Anthony Weiner: other perverts. Long before the former Queens congressman earned himself a rap sheet for trading X-rated messages with a 15-year-old girl, he was getting hot and bothered about sex offenders living in the congressional district he represented. Weiner’s office repeatedly called the NYPD’s Sex Offender Monitoring Unit to gripe about pervs too close to his digs and other places, a source told The Post. Weiner even once called the unit himself to grumble, according to the…
Read MoreCT: Sentencing Commission Makes Last-Minute Plea To Senate
With less than two weeks to the end of the legislative session, the state Sentencing Commission is asking Senate leaders to bring two potentially controversial proposals to a vote. SB 1113 would create a new sex offender registry board, which would set the length of time a person could be on the registry based on their risk of reoffending and not just the offenses they committed. Full Article
Read MoreCT: Police awards questioned after sex offender honored
Some Town Council members are calling procedure into question after the Police Department dolled out a Citizen’s Award to a registered sex offender at its awards ceremony last week, recognizing him for his actions in thwarting car burglars in his neighborhood last July. Full Article
Read MoreMO: Missouri joins nationwide sex offender registry
[theeagle.com/ – 5/25/19] Missouri is the 20th state to join a nationwide sex offender registry. OffenderWatch said in a news release this week that every Missouri law enforcement agency that manages or investigates registered sex offenders will be able to collaborate on offender records, aid each other in investigations and share notifications with the public. It won a five-year contract from the Missouri Highway Patrol. Missouri has about 16,000 registered sex offenders. Read more
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