ACSOL’s will hold a public conference call on Wednesday, October 26, at 4 p.m. Pacific time. The topic of the call will be “Halloween” and the call will follow the same format as the previous calls. There will be a brief presentation of the topic to be followed by a Q&A session where call attendees may ask questions pertaining to the topic. Dial-in number: 1-712-770-8055 Conference Code: 983459 I look forward to having you call in. Sincerely, Janice Recording Related ***Listen to the Call Recordings (when done)*** ***ACSOL Conference Call Discussions by date /…
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CA Sex Offender Management Board Releases New Statistics, Discusses Tiered Registry Bill
The California Sex Offender Management Board (CASOMB) released new statistics regarding registrants during its regularly scheduled monthly meeting on October 20. In addition, the board discussed a tiered registry bill expected to be introduced in the state legislature in early 2017. The total number of registrants is 104,369 according to CASOMB. Of that total, there are 16,294 in violation (about 16 percent) of registration laws. The total number of registrants who register as transients is 6,444 and of that total there are 1,575 (about 24 percent) in violation of registration…
Read MoreIL: Sex offender internet law constitutional
SPRINGFIELD — The state’s highest court has upheld a law that requires sex offenders to disclose information about their internet identities and websites. In a unanimous decision authored by Justice Charles E. Freeman, the Illinois Supreme Court held that a provision of the Sex Offender Registration Act survived First Amendment scrutiny because it bolsters the government’s interest in protecting the public without restricting more speech than necessary. In an 18-page opinion issued this morning, the court critiqued a handful of federal district courts who have found similar statutes unconstitutional and…
Read MoreAsperger’s, autism, and sex offenders
… Then he talked about his son’s diagnosis: Asperger’s Syndrome, a developmental disorder on the autism spectrum. As a young child, Nick flapped his arms and jumped a lot. At three, he barely spoke. As an adult, he still cannot tie his shoes, making it all the more impressive that he has achieved so much. Then the dad added one more item to his son’s resume: Nick is a convicted felon, a sex offender on the registry. He was found guilty of possession of child porn. Full Article
Read MoreLARGE RACIAL DISPARITIES IN SEX OFFENDER REGISTRY, PROFESSOR FINDS
A University at Albany assistant professor has begun looking into how sex offender registries reveal the inequalities of the criminal justice system. The findings of Trevor Hoppe, an assistant professor of sociology, have been published in his paper, “Punishing Sex: Sex Offenders and the Missing Punitive Turn in Sexuality Studies.” The study indicates that approximately 1 percent of African American males in the United States are registered sex offenders while white males are registered at approximately half that rate. Full Article
Read MoreSex offender registries need reform
Twenty-five years ago, with activist Patty Wetterling by his side, Minnesota governor Arne Carlson signed America’s first law establishing a public registry system for sex offenders. The law, which Wetterling helped to write, aimed to give police a starting point for tracking down sexual predators like Danny Heinrich, the man who had kidnapped, molested and murdered Patty’s son, Jacob Wetterling. Full Article
Read MoreAUS: Dangerous offender laws the antithesis of free and democratic society
DETAINING people after they have served the sentence imposed on them by a court is unconscionable. Yet this practice, which has its origins in Nazi Germany, has become common across Australia, and the Turnbull Government’s plan to keep people convicted of terrorism offences locked up potentially until they die is the latest incarnation of this trend. Full Article
Read MoreOH: Convicted rapist says his care hurt by his offender status
Sex offender who lives in Columbus nursing home talks about difficulties in getting housing. Full Article
Read MoreLawsuit is filed against FUSD because of sex offender policy
The Alliance for Constitutional Sex Offense Laws, a non-profit organization dedicated to restoring civil rights for those accused and/or convicted of a sex crime, filed a lawsuit against the Fontana Unified School District on Oct. 11 in response to the sex offender policy that was adopted last month. Full Article
Read MoreLA: Too Poor for Freedom: Sex Offender Registry and the Fourteenth Amendment
If a school mandated uniforms and suspended a child too poor to afford them, there would be an uproar. Media would excoriate the school for denying the impoverished an education due to their financial circumstances. Many would wonder at the cost of a uniform relative to the school’s budget, suggesting that the school simply offer the child a simple uniform. As ever, our instinctive notions of justice and fair play seem to end at criminal court. In the state of Louisiana, a person required to register as a sex offender…
Read MoreAUS: One in four child sex offenders are revealed as children
A major increase in the number of children sexually attacking other kids has seen more than 3000 young people involved in sex crimes in NSW in the past five years. One in four child sex offenders are in fact children and 140 of the attacks that have occurred since 2011 were carried out by those aged under 11, NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research reveal. Just last year, 28 young children were sexually assaulted by 31 kids who were younger than 11, the Daily Telegraph reports. Full Article
Read MoreThe Myth and the Propaganda of Halloween and Registered Sex Offenders
3 weeks from today is Halloween 2016 and in about 2 weeks I’ll post my annual Do’s and Don’ts list for RSO’s in Virginia on Halloween. Over the years of advocating for data-driven laws and reform here I’ve learned the worst time of year for Myth-Based and Hysteria-Driven articles, policies and laws is Halloween. Halloween can be more emotionally draining than the annual Virginia General Assembly in Richmond. Full Article on It’s Time to Reduce, Reconstruct, Reclassify, Rethink and Reform the Virginia Sex Offender Registry
Read MoreAUS: Man who kept sexts between underage step-daughter and boyfriend to show police placed on sex offenders register
A man who kept sexts sent by his teenage step-daughter to her boyfriend has been convicted under child pornography laws and placed on the sex offenders register. Full Article
Read MoreFontana School District’s “No Registrants” Policy Challenged in Court
Today a lawsuit was filed in state court challenging a decision by the Fontana Unified School District to prohibit all registrants, including parents, from entering all 45schools in that district. The five members of the school district board voted unanimously in favor of the “zero tolerance” policy on September 14 after several angry parents threatened to oust any board member who opposed it. According to the lawsuit, the school board policy is preempted by state law and is inconsistent with other state laws which require schools to allow parents and…
Read MoreIML Report to Congress Addresses Passport Identifiers, Notifications to Foreign Countries
Three executive branch agencies — the Departments of State, Homeland Security, and Justice — have reported to Congress their plans to implement the International Megan’s Law (IML). The 17-page report also includes a request for an additional $9.3 million in funding each year to implement that law. According to the report, the Angel Watch Center (AWC) will provide written determinations to the Department of State regarding whether an individual is a “covered sex offender”. After that determination is made, the State Department will add an individual’s name to its existing…
Read MoreTeens and sex: When laws don’t keep up with reality
An 11-year-old girl in Michigan streaking in front of her brothers was charged with a sex crime. A 14-year-old boy in Minnesota was charged with distributing child pornography after sending a photo of his genitals to a female classmate. Another 14-year-old boy in South Dakota was charged with rape after getting his 13-year-old girlfriend pregnant. These are all cases that have been worked on by Nicole Pittman, vice president and director of the Center on Youth Registration Reform in California. Full Article
Read MoreACSOL’s Conference Call on October 12 – Domestic Travel
ACSOL’s first conference call will be on Wednesday, October 12, at 5 p.m. Pacific time. The topic of the call will be “Domestic Travel: Rules of the Road for Registrants” and the call will follow the same format as the 9/29 IML call. Dial-in number: 1-712-770-8055 Conference Code: 983459. ***corrected on 10/12. Moderator*** I look forward to having you call in. Sincerely, Janice ***Listen to the Call Recording*** added 10/19 ***ACSOL Conference Call Discussions***
Read MoreSex-offender registry adds costs without protecting public (Opinion)
Last month, a new chapter was written in one of America’s oldest real-life murder mysteries. The body of 11-year-old Jacob Wetterling was finally found, 27 years after his abduction. Jacob’s gun-point abduction shocked the nation and spawned a network of state sex-offender registries, South Carolina’s among them. But extensive research since then has raised serious questions about the effectiveness of such measures. Full Opinion Piece
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