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
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General Comments June 2019
Comments that are not specific to a certain post should go here, for the month of June 2019. Contributions should relate to the cause and goals of this organization and please, keep it courteous and civil. This section is not intended for posting links to news articles without additional relevant comment.
Read MoreHow a Sex Offender’s Case Before the Supreme Court Could Bring Down the Administrative State
___________ was out on supervised release in 2004 from a 1996 crack distribution conviction when he met an 11-year-old girl. He served her cocaine and raped her. As soon as Monday, the Supreme Court will rule on his fate. While court-watchers have been focused on other headline issues the court may decide this term—including cases on abortion, citizenship questions on the Census, and partisan gerrymandering—the ______case could mark a watershed of its own. At issue isn’t the lurid crime itself, but just how much power Congress can delegate to the executive…
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 MoreKat’s Blog: Accusations
A recent story out of Logan, Utah got me thinking about how those who are wrongly accused, whether a registrant or not a registrant, are treated so vastly different in the eyes of the world. On April 23, 62 yr. old Michael Fife (not a registrant) was killed after being accused of a sexual assault aboard a Cache Valley Transit District bus. A 16 yr. old female called her 17 yr. old brother and told him that she had been sexually assault by Fife. A few minutes later, the brother…
Read MoreSex Offense Recidivism Rates LOWER than Previous Estimates According to Recent Bureau of Justice Study
Recently, the Bureau of Justice Statistics released a report entitled, “Recidivism of Sex Offenders Released from State Prison: A 9-Year Follow Up (2005-2014).” “Notwithstanding the sensationalist headline (“three times as likely”), the statistics reported are actually quite favorable. Full Summary BJS Report
Read MoreRemove Children from Sex-Offender Registries
There are good reasons to reconsider some aspects of the 1994 Crime Bill, because we’ve had a chance to see the unintended consequences. One feature of the 1994 law that has had baleful unanticipated effects was the adoption of sex-offender registries. At the time, experts advised that sex offenders never reformed. To protect the community from those found guilty of such offenses after their return to society, registries would require them to identify themselves (sometimes even with signs in their windows). Understandably, penalties were particularly harsh for anyone who harmed…
Read MoreEngland: Success! Kylo the Hero Dog Gets to Come Home
[care2.com – 5/30/19] Last summer, a mob of 20 angry men showed up at the residence of a young couple in Bristol, U.K. The men believed that this was the home of a registered sex offender, and they refused to leave even when the couple explained that the person they were seeking no longer lived there. The group didn’t believe the young couple and began attacking them. That’s when their five-year-old dog Kylo, a Staffy Cross Labrador, jumped into action and ran off 15 of the men. But the remaining…
Read MoreChina: Restrictions on child sex offenders
[shanghai.gov.cn – 5/30/19] Sex offenders will no longer be able to work for local enterprises, public institutions and social organizations that involve contact with children, the Shanghai People’s Procuratorate announced yesterday. It issued a document on an employment restriction system to cover all city enterprises, public institutions and social organizations which have special duties in regard to minors, such as guardianship, education, training and help, day care and medical care. They include kindergartens, primary and middle schools, nurseries for children under 3, children welfare institutions and training schools, medical institutions,…
Read MoreCA Senate Passes Senate Bill 145
The California Senate passed Senate Bill (SB) 145 by a vote of 25 to 3 on May 28. Ten of the Senators present at the time of the vote chose not to vote on this bill. Due to the Senate’s passage of this bill, SB 145 will move to the Assembly for a series of votes. If the Assembly passes the bill, the Governor will be provided an opportunity to sign it. “Thank you to everyone who made phone calls and sent letters to the Senators who represent you in…
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 MoreJanice’s Journal: Today is A Day to Remember
Today is Memorial Day. A day to remember those who paid the “ultimate price” as members of the U.S. Armed Forces. As a U. S. Navy veteran, I salute those who died in combat. As a leader of this movement, however, I cry for those who died not in combat, but at the hands of vigilantes. For the fights they fought were both unfair and unnecessary. The fights were unfair because, unlike soldiers, the registrants who were killed were not armed. That is because as registrants, they could not possess…
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
Read MoreKat’s Blog: Does Law Enforcement Belong In Your Group Setting?
Therapeutic treatment groups, no matter what kind, are usually carefully monitored settings where one can feel safe enough to talk about very personal and intimate issues. “Sex offender” treatment groups should be no exception. The therapeutic groups that many registrants are mandated to attend are also supposed to be safe havens, settings where registrants can open up in a group of their peers, about difficult issues they are dealing with. So why are parole officers sitting in on “sex offender” therapy treatment sessions? It doesn’t seem right and it doesn’t…
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