Salem-Keizer teachers and staff were recently told that when they learn, or suspect, a student is sexually active, they must report it to law enforcement or state officials. Full Article
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General Comments November 2017
Comments that are not specific to a certain post should go here, for the month of November 2017. Contributions should relate to the cause and goals of this organization and please, keep it courteous and civil.
Read MoreTrump administration reduces support for prisoner halfway houses
[Reuters] The administration of President Donald Trump has been quietly cutting support for halfway houses for federal prisoners, severing contracts with as many as 16 facilities in recent months, prompting concern that some inmates are being forced to stay behind bars longer than necessary. The Federal Bureau of Prisons spokesman Justin Long confirmed the cuts in response to an email inquiry from Reuters, and said they only affect areas with small populations or underutilized centers. “The Bureau remains firmly committed to these practices, but has had to make some modifications…
Read MoreScarlet-Letter Passports Are Unjust and Irrational
The notice, which will appear on the second-to-last page of U.S. passports, is officially known as an “endorsement,” but it is more like a badge of shame. “The bearer was convicted of a sex offense against a minor,” it says, “and is a covered sex offender pursuant to 22 United States Code Section 212b(c)(l).” The scary notation, which was revealed this week, is the State Department’s response to a 2016 law requiring that the passports of certain registered sex offenders include a “unique identifier” to help maintain their status as pariahs wherever…
Read MoreCA: Initiative Would Expand DNA Gathering, Restrict Early Parole
[CBS Sacramento] A Democratic lawmaker on Monday proposed a ballot measure that would bar certain convicted rapists and sex traffickers from earning credits to reduce their sentences and expand the list of crimes for which a perpetrator’s DNA is collected. Assemblyman Jim Cooper of Elk Grove said he’s taking the measure to California voters because Democratic leaders repeatedly stonewalled legislation to enact similar changes. “This initiative holds bad people accountable,” Cooper said at a news conference outside the Capitol flanked by prosecutors and law enforcement officers. Read more
Read MoreDoes Megan’s Law Put A Scarlet Letter On A Sex Offender’s Former Address?
Does the Megan’s Law website actually hurt some homeowners or renters? A La Puente woman says it does and that she has become the target of vandals. CBS2’s Randy Paige investigated and discovered a loophole in the law that could put future homeowners and renters at risk. Full Article
Read MoreIN: Homeless sex offender living on jail property Sheriff hopes to monitor, motivate future offenders with new plan
A unique plan hatched by the Boone County Sheriff’s Office has lead to five homeless registered sex offenders moving to permanent residences, and one to live in a tent on Boone County Jail property. Last week, a resident saw online that a registered sex offender had used the Whitestown Meijer store address as his own. The man was living in a car in the grocery store parking lot. The issue came to the attention of the Boone County Sheriff’s Office, the only law enforcement agency in the county charged with…
Read MoreMA: Senate passes sweeping criminal justice bill after emotional debate
The Massachusetts Senate early Friday passed a sweeping bill that would upend state laws on crime and punishment, aiming to reduce the number of people ensnared in the thicket of the criminal justice system and ease the tough-on-crime approach of decades past. The vote was 27-10. Full Article
Read MoreState Department Press Release Reveals “Unique Identifier” for Passports
The U.S. State Department issued a press release on Friday, October 27, that revealed both the wording and placement of a “unique identifier” to be added to the passports of some, but not all, registrants. According to that press release, the language “The bearer was convicted of a sex offense against a minor, and is a covered sex offender pursuant to 22 United States Code Section 212b(c)(1)” will be printed on the inside back cover of new passports issued to those convicted of a sex offense involving a minor and currently required to register as a sex offender…
Read MoreOH: Ohio judges can dismiss sex charges against kids under 13, justices rule
[The Columbus Dispatch] Juvenile court rules empower judges to dismiss some sex charges against children under age 13 charged with molesting a child close to their age, the Ohio Supreme Court declared Wednesday. The court was divided on the Franklin County case, voting 4-3 to overturn a decision by the Franklin County Court of Appeals. The 2013 case involved a 12-year-old boy charged with three delinquency counts of gross sexual imposition for conduct with a boy who was nearly 10 years old. Read more
Read MoreNM: Halloween Sex Offender Scare Is Largely Myth
[Albuquerque Journal] The spookiest time of the year is fast approaching, and you have likely already heard about local law enforcement officers preparing to keep your area free of danger on Halloween night. They may be visiting schools to counsel kids on safe practices, they may be warning drivers about watching out for children on Halloween night, and in communities across America officers are fanning out to knock on the doors of registered sex offenders. The idea behind police visits to local S.O.s (as sex offenders are referred to) is…
Read MoreCO: The flaws in Colorado’s sex offender registry
The state’s sex offender registry informs me of an allegedly dangerous man living within a mile of my house who was born in 1927. That’s right: This 90-year-old who committed his crime in the last century is still required to tell the state of his whereabouts on the theory that the information will assist local police in identifying suspects for sex offenses and allow nearby residents to take precautions. But of course the rate of sex offenses among nonagenarians is virtually zero, even when they have a felony in their…
Read MoreNY: Police Reportedly Claim a Brooklyn Teen Consented to Sex in Custody. That’s Impossible.
[theintercept.com] On September 28, attorney Michael David filed notice of a claim against the New York Police Department, the City of New York, and two unnamed police officers, referred to as John and Jim Doe. These plainclothes cops, alleged the claim, “brutally sexually assaulted and raped” his 18-year-old female client. David told me that within a day, he needed to amend the claim: The officers had been identified by police in the press as Brooklyn South narcotics detectives Richard Hall and Edward Martins. “What was strange,” said David, “was that…
Read MoreFL: Housing changes for sexual offenders will make Jacksonville safer
[The Florida Times-Union] The city has finally taken a giant step toward protecting all its residents by considering a ordinance that will amend the strict sexual offender housing requirements that have put the community at risk. The ordinance in question decreases the distance sexual predators must reside from places, such as schools, day care centers and parks or playgrounds, from 2,500 feet to 1,500 feet. Sound contradictory? How does reducing the distance an ex-felon must live from places children frequent make the public safer? It’s simple. It makes the public…
Read MoreYe Olde Ikea Sex Traffickers
[reason.com] We are in the midst of a massive mommy moral panic. Across the country, mothers are writing breathless accounts on Facebook of how sex traffickers nearly snatched their children at Target/Ikea/the grocery store. While at Sam’s Club, one such post explains, “a man came up to us and asked if the empty cart nearby was ours.…He was an African American with a shaved head.…It seemed like an innocent encounter.” Innocent, that is, until the mom and kids headed to Walmart and there was the guy again, “feverishly texting on…
Read MorePA: Legal questions swirl around Megan’s Law in Pennsylvania
Since 1995, Pennsylvania has had Megan’s Law, which seeks to protect communities by requiring sex offenders to register with the state police, or face arrest if they fail to do so. But a July decision by the state Supreme Court has undermined that once bedrock certainty, and cases like Davies’s are now testing the law’s reach, under which offenders have their photos, addresses and other identifying information published on a state-run website. http://www.mcall.com/news/police/mc-nws-pennsylvania-megans-law-sex-offender-registry-unconsitutional-20171024-story.html
Read MoreCDCR Motion Denied in Prop. 57 Case; New Hearing Date Set
A Superior Court judge has denied the demurrer filed by the CA Dept. of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) and canceled the hearing on that topic which was scheduled for October 27, 2017. In addition, the judge scheduled a hearing on the merits of the case for February 9, 2018. “Because the judge did not grant CDCR’s demurrer, we will have the opportunity early next year to present legal arguments regarding how and why CDCR’s emergency regulations implementing Proposition 57 are both invalid and unconstitutional,” stated ACSOL Executive Director Janice Bellucci. “The public is encouraged to attend that…
Read MoreVA: Gillespie ad blasting McAuliffe rights restoration policy as soft on sex offenders draws outrage from Democrats
[Richmond Times-Dispatch] A marquee policy initiative of Gov. Terry McAuliffe took center stage in the Virginia governor’s race Monday as Republican Ed Gillespie attacked McAuliffe’s approach to felon rights restoration as charitable to the point of being dangerous and Democrat Ralph Northam pushed back by saying Gillespie should be “ashamed” over his “fearmongering campaign.” The Gillespie campaign rolled out an ad Monday highlighting the case of a sex offender whose rights were restored late last year, months after he was arrested for having a massive child pornography stash. Gillespie said…
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