[U.S. News] When the U.S. Supreme Court last week declined to hear a challenge to the constitutionality of Minnesota‘s sex offender program, it relieved the pressure for major near-term change in a program that confines over 700 people who’ve finished their prison sentences. Only rarely is anyone released. Here’s a look at a program that is often opaque to the public, and at the handful of people who — at least on paper — may have a shot at release sometime soon: Read more
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CO: U.S. court ruling sparks debate over Colorado’s sex offender registry
When David sifted through the mail the morning of his 18th birthday, he hoped to find cards with money. Instead, he received a warrant for his arrest. The charge: statutory rape. It was 2007, and the 17-year-old junior basketball star had recently moved to a small Missouri town, population less than 500, and almost immediately started dating a girl who was one month shy of her 14th birthday. They were intimately involved for nearly three months before David ended the relationship. Full Article
Read MoreJanice’s Journal: The Stage is Set
The stage is set. The Governor has signed the tiered registry bill into law, a law that opens a wide gap in the dam of California’s “Lifetime Registry for All”. A dam that was in place for 70 years. It is now our job to widen that gap. The Tiered Registry will take effect in January 2021, about 3 ½ years from now. While it is truly unfortunate that those who will benefit from the “new” tiered registry will have to wait so long, the lengthy gestation period for the…
Read MoreVA: It’s Time to Reduce, Reconstruct, Reclassify, Rethink and Reform the Virginia Sex Offender Registry
Professor Catherine Carpenter (Southwestern Law School), a nationally renowned criminal law scholar in the area of sex crimes and sex offender registration laws, came to St. Francis College on September 26 to talk about The Unconstitutionality of Sex Offense Laws. Read more and watch video
Read MoreIreland to be first in Europe to cancel passports of paedophiles
[Irish Examiner] Earlier this year Australia became the first country in the world to introduce strict legislation to clamp down on sex offenders leaving or attempting to go abroad. Now Ireland looks set to follow with draft legislation expected to be introduced later this month, which would pave the way for this country becoming the first European nation to make it illegal for convicted paedophiles to travel overseas. The campaign is being spearheaded by Fr Shay Cullen, the Nobel Peace Prize-nominated Irish missionary who runs the PREDA child abuse charity…
Read MoreRI: Bill restricting sex offenders in homeless shelters passes Rhode Island House, Senate
[Brown Daily Herald, Rhode Island] Last month, a bill that would cap the proportion of registered sex offenders in homeless shelter beds at 10 percent for shelters whose capacity exceeds 50 people passed in the Rhode Island State House. A coalition of activists are now asking via petition that Gov. Gina Raimondo veto the bill, arguing that the legislation is “against the public interest.” The bill passed the state Senate in June after the Senate Judiciary Committee recommended it for passage. The bill was passed in concurrence by the Rhode…
Read MoreMI: Sex registry rewrite should focus on risk
[The Detroit News] Michigan’s ill-advised scheme to pile on punishment for convicted sex offenders failed to get even a hearing before the U.S. Supreme Court, leaving the Legislature to craft a new law that will restore both sanity and fairness to the state’s sex offender registry. The High Court said Monday it will not take up Michigan’s appeal of a 6th Circuit Court ruling that struck down its practice of applying new restrictions retroactively to those on the list. Now, the state has no choice but to draft new rules…
Read MoreMore Than Just a Felon: What should we call people with a criminal history — and why does it matter?
[Prison Fellowship] What is the worst thing you’ve ever done? Now imagine being known by that one mistake — regardless of what you’ve done to take responsibility or make amends. You have to write it on the top of every application for employment or housing you ever fill out — for the rest of your life. Labels are powerful, and our society has plenty for people who have been through the criminal justice system and have the record to show for it: Felon. Offender. Convict. Criminal. Even inmate casts a dark shadow in its…
Read MoreWI: State legislation would exempt teens from a felony for having consensual sex
[WKOW Madison, Wisconsin] Sex between most Wisconsin high school students would be reduced from a felony to a misdemeanor, under the so-called “Romeo and Juliet bill” heard Thursday by the Assembly Committee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety. Public testimony brought out some very strong emotions from people who have seen their lives, and the lives of loved ones, turned upside down by a decision to have sex as teenagers. Cindy Komorowski fought back tears as she told lawmakers about her teenage son, Mitchell. “In the eyes of the law,…
Read MoreCA: Governor Brown Signs Equality California-Sponsored Bill to Reform California’s Sex Offender Registry
[Equality California] Sacramento–California Gov. Jerry Brown today signed a bill to reform California’s sex offender registry, creating a tiered system that will make the registry a more effective tool for law enforcement and bring California’s system in line with the rest of the United States. SB 384 was authored by Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) and co-authored by Senators Joel Anderson (R- Alpine), Holly Mitchell (D-Los Angeles), and Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley). The bill was sponsored by Equality California, Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey, the California Coalition Against Sexual…
Read MoreCA: California will soon end lifetime registration of some sex offenders under bill signed by Gov. Jerry Brown
[L.A. Times] Thousands of Californians will be allowed to take their names off the state’s registry of sex offenders as a result of action Friday by Gov. Jerry Brown. Brown signed legislation that, when it takes effect Jan. 1, will end lifetime listings for lower-level offenders judged to be at little risk of committing new crimes. The measure was introduced at the request of Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Jackie Lacey and other law enforcement officials who said the registry, which has grown to more than 105,000 names, is less…
Read MoreIN: Indiana Supreme Court – Sex with minors is OK, but it’s illegal to sext them
In Indiana, it’s legal for adults to have consensual sex with minors aged 16 and 17. But it’s illegal to sext those same minors, the Indiana Supreme Court ruled this week. The decision reinstated sexting charges against an adult who texted nude images of himself to a girl he knew was 16. Full Article
Read MoreMI: Michigan’s sex offender registry needs reform, U.S. Supreme Court decides (audio)
[Florida Action Committee] J.J. Prescott, a University of Michigan law professor and expert on sex offender laws, talks about the state of the sex offender registry in Michigan, in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision not to review a lower court’s ruling that the registry violates Ex Post Facto Laws. Listen to the audio recording
Read MoreWA: Motion filed to allow sex offender to move after eviction notice
[KREM.com] SPOKANE, Wash. – Attorneys for a level three sex offender released to Spokane in 2016 have filed a motion for him to move to new housing. David McCuistion was served an eviction notice by his landlord at the New Washington Apartments in downtown Spokane back in July. He was served an eviction notice at his current apartment because his landlord did not like the publicity, court documents said. Read more
Read MoreNiagara Falls men imprisoned in beating of sex offender
[The Buffalo News] Rondell V. Ralands of Niagara Falls was sentenced Tuesday to 2 1/2 years in prison for his role in the beating of a registered sex offender who also was his sister’s boyfriend. The woman called Ralands, 29, of 38th Street, and Terrill D. Pettway, 27, of Steele Circle, Town of Niagara, after a Nov. 25 domestic incident with Cyston L. Brundidge Jr., 44. Brundidge needed 47 stitches to close two cuts. When he pleaded guilty, Ralands said he hit Brundidge with a cellphone. Read more
Read MoreGet rid of the registry [Opd Ed]
There’s nothing I can say about the tragedy in Las Vegas, except this: some version of that will happen in Michigan, probably sooner rather than later. The politicians are either in the pay of the gun lobby fanatics or resigned to the fact that they can’t possibly overcome them, so nothing will change. Nothing, that is, unless and until people somehow demand that democracy and sanity be restored. So far, they haven’t, and the senseless killing will go on. But there is something we do have an opportunity to change:…
Read MoreWhere is proof that sex offender lists make communities safer?
I have been trained to use facts as the foundation for my decisions. Your editorial states that the sexual offender registry “is an important public safety tool (that) presents critical public information … that can make communities safer.” Full Letter to the editor
Read MoreHI: 1 in 5 Big Island sex offenders noncompliant with registry requirements
Almost one in five Big Island sex offenders is noncompliant with state sex offender registry requirements. As of Sept. 11, 73 of 402 “covered offenders” — those required to register — weren’t in compliance with the state’s registry law, according to figures from the Department of the Attorney General’s Hawaii Criminal Justice Data Center. That’s more than 18 percent. Full Article
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