The Alaska Supreme Court has ruled that the state’s sex offender registry law violates offenders’ right to due process. In an opinion handed down Friday, the court — voting 3-2 — found the law requiring all offenders to register unconstitutional unless offenders are first given the opportunity to demonstrate they aren’t a danger to the public. Full Article Decision
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FL: Homeless Sex Offenders Must Move Again
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 MoreWe look forward to seeing you at ACSOL’s conference this Friday!
I really enjoy listening to the speakers that have come and shared about legal challenges across the country. I always walk away amazed of all the info I’ve learned; I’m never disappointed. -Sherri Dear registrants, family members and supporters, Sherri enjoyed how much she learned at the conference. You can too! ACSOL’s annual conference starts this Friday on June 14! Click here to see the schedule. Click here to sign up now to make sure you get a seat! We aren’t just saying that, because we really were given a…
Read MoreNearly 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 MoreIsrael: Labor’s Gabbay apologizes for calling former MK a ‘sex offender’
[israelnationalnews.com – 6/10/19] The Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court accepted the compromise reached between Labor Party Chairman Avi Gabbay and former Labor MK Eitan Broshi in the libel suit filed by Broshi against Gabbay. Gabbay, who called Broshi a sex offender, was ordered to publicly apologize to Broshi and pay him NIS 40,000 in compensation. Read more
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 MoreHow the Use of Improper Statistics and Unverified Data Corrupts the Judicial Process in Sex Offender Cases
We begin this Article by sharing something about our past legal practice careers, as we believe that is so relevant to the topic that we focus on in this Article. When Michael L. Perlin was a rookie Public Defender in Trenton, New Jersey, in the early 1970s, he regularly visited the Menlo Park Diagnostic Center where some of his clients—those who had been found, in the phrase used then, to be “repetitive and compulsive” sex offenders—were housed. When Heather Ellis Cucolo was a rookie Public Defender in Newark, New Jersey,…
Read MoreKat’s Blog: Tennessee’s New Law: A Form of Birth Control for Registrants
Several months ago several TN Senators and Representatives were hell-bent on passing a two-fold law aimed at further punishment against registrants. The first part of the law would have increased the boundary restrictions for registrants from 1,000 ft. to 2,000 ft., thankfully, this portion of the law was abandoned. However, the second part of the law was passed and it is already bringing in to question the amount of “functioning gray matter” that these legislators actually have. Here’s the new law as it is written: State of TN /Senate…
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 MoreACSOL 2019 Conference is next week! Come get your hope! Seats are still available
“I’ve participated in every ACSOL conference, and find each session to be encouraging, motivating, and educational. I’ve met new friends and learned new tools for helping my family navigate the challenges of the registry. Highly recommended!” — Daphny Dear registrants, family members and supporters, You can see above that Daphny had a great experience at past ACSOL conferences. Next week on June 14 and 15 you can experience ACSOL’s conference too! NEW: 2019 ACSOL Conference Schedule Click here to sign up now to make sure you get a seat!…
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 MoreModern-Day Gulags In the Golden State
Back in 1997, the Supreme Court ruled that the practice known as civil commitment was legal. This meant that 20 states—which had passed laws permitting the ongoing incarceration of sex offenders—could continue to keep the men confined even after they completed their prison terms. Full Article Related / from the same author Sex Crimes and Criminal Justice
Read MoreGundy v. United States could signal a major change in the Supreme Court’s separation of powers jurisprudence
Gundy v. United States is not listed in most media accounts of important matters now before the Supreme Court, yet this case could profoundly change how courts intervene to preserve the constitutional separation of powers in the future. Full Commentary Related How a Sex Offender’s Case Before the Supreme Court Could Bring Down the Administrative State (June 2)
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