The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) today announced in federal district court its decision to withdraw a statewide requirement that sex offender parolees post a sign on the front door of their residences on Halloween. Immediately following that announcement, CA RSOL withdrew its request for a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO). “This is a significant victory for more than 10,000 registered citizens and their families,” stated CA RSOL president Janice Bellucci. “They are no longer faced with the risk of significant injury.” CA RSOL and plaintiff John Doe were…
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Japan: UN envoy calls on Japan to ban extreme child manga porn
A UN special envoy Monday, October 26, called on Japan to ban cartoon images featuring “extreme” sexualized images of children, after Tokyo last year fell into line with other G7 nations by criminalizing possession of child pornography. Full Article
Read MoreIN: Zach Anderson removed from Indiana sex offender registry after months-long court battle
Zach Anderson of Elkhart is off the Indiana sex offender registry after a months-long court battle over a criminal sexual conduct case. Anderson pleaded guilty to misdemeanor criminal sexual conduct earlier this year after having sex in December with a 14-year-old Niles, Mich., girl who told him she was 17. Anderson’s sentence included 25 years on the sex offender registry — a punishment his family thought was too harsh considering both Anderson, who was 19 at the time, and the girl said he did not know she was underage. Full…
Read MoreThe FCC Just Voted to Reduce the Exorbitant Cost of Prison Phone Calls
A long campaign to reduce the exorbitant sums that inmates are charged to speak to friends and family on the phone just notched a major victory, with the Federal Communications Commission voting 3–2 to aggressively regulate an industry that until recently was, in the words of the Prison Policy Initiative’s Peter Wagner, “a dark little backwater of telecommunication that the FCC was not paying attention to.” Full Article
Read MoreHALLOWEEN SEX OFFENDER LAW HEARING TO BE HELD OCT 26 [UPDATED 10/26 5pm]
CDCR Withdraws Halloween Sign Requirement Statewide – more details to follow. First Media Reports: Decision made over requirement that paroled sex offenders post signs on Halloween (10News) Sex Offenders on Parole Will Not Have to Post Signs on Door: Dept. of Corrections NBC Sex offenders not required to post signs on Halloween CBS No door signs required for parolees on Halloween Union Tribune For Release October 26 -The Southern District of California will conduct a hearing today regarding whether to grant a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) that would halt a…
Read MoreMS: ‘Lie’ begets lifetime of regret for Clay County father, son
Brodie Leap was 5 years old when he told what he now calls The Lie. He says he knew it was a lie the second he said it. He is 31 now, living in Oakview in Clay County, and he has known his entire life that it wasn’t true. Full Article
Read MoreBoogie man is still out there!
____ ____ is not the poster boy for one-trial learning. He has several sexual assault convictions behind him and was civilly committed for eight years. But he was released from civil commitment last year. That means that he was found no longer to be at a dangerous risk of re-offending. He could live in the community, monitored, as a registered offender. Full Article (National RSOL) Related RI: ACLU to sue over Level III sex offender housing ban RI: Outcasts – Level III sex offenders in R.I. can’t live within 1,000…
Read MoreBritish court blocks extradition of sex-abuse suspect, saying California law violates human rights
A British high court has refused to extradite a former Orange County choir director who fled the U.S. before he was to stand trial on sexual abuse charges, ruling that a California involuntary commitment law would violate his human rights. Full Article Related England Refuses to Extradite an Alleged Sex Offender (slate.com) with High Court decision More time over US ‘fugitive’ Roger Giese extradition case (BBC)
Read MoreSex Offender Registry Laws Don’t Make As Much Sense As You’d Thought
The need for criminal justice reform has gotten a lot of attention recently, but there’s one aspect that rarely enters the conversation — sex offender registries. Online records of people convicted of sexual crimes are intended to keep everyone, especially children, safe from sexual predators — the words “sex offender,” after all, illicit the image of a violent rapist or child molester. However, just like American jails and prisons, these state registries are overcrowded and may be doing more harm than good, which is why Americans should be talking about…
Read MoreIN: 20-year-old on sex-offender registry gets leniency
An Indiana man, who was looking at spending more than two decades on the sexual offender registry for a dating app hookup, got some good news. A judge has resentenced Zach Anderson to two years’ probation — a decision that will keep him off Michigan’s list and possibly off Indiana’s as well. Anderson was 19 when he had sex with a 14-year-old Michigan girl who had told him she was 17. Even if the sex was consensual and even if the girl did lie about her age, it is not…
Read MoreAL: For Offenders Who Can’t Pay, It’s a Pint of Blood or Jail Time
Judge Marvin Wiggins’s courtroom was packed on a September morning. The docket listed hundreds of offenders who owed fines or fees for a wide variety of crimes — hunting after dark, assault, drug possession and passing bad checks among them. “Good morning, ladies and gentlemen,” began Judge Wiggins, a circuit judge here in rural Alabama since 1999. “For your consideration, there’s a blood drive outside,” he continued, according to a recording of the hearing. “If you don’t have any money, go out there and give blood and bring in a…
Read MoreCDCR Lawsuit Expanded, TRO Hearing Set October 26
A lawsuit challenging CDCR’s requirement that registered citizens post signs on the front door of their residences on Halloween has been expanded to include an individual in Los Angeles. Similar to the original plaintiff in the case who lives in San Diego County, the man in L.A. was told by his parole officer that he must post a sign on the front door of his home. “Both plaintiffs believe their lives will be in danger if they post a sign on the front door of their homes,” stated CA RSOL…
Read MoreNY: Local group pushes for hard-copy sex offender registry
When Buffalo’s Common Council meeting is called to order Tuesday afternoon, a local group of parents and community leaders will be calling on the city to be more proactive about its sex offenders. “A lot of people are not computer savvy. We have a lot of foreigners in our city, who may not be able to read and write correct English. We need the registration list to be sent out. The disconnect is that they’re not providing this to us,” he said. Full Article
Read MoreChris Hansen Is Back To Catching Predators
In mid-August, the police department in Fairfield, Connecticut, received a most unusual phone call. It was from Chris Hansen, former host of the infamous NBC reality series To Catch A Predator, which filmed the arrests of men caught soliciting sex from underage decoys online. Hansen informed the department that he was setting up a sex sting in Fairfield that would mirror the operations he became famous for a decade ago, with one key difference: This time, he was going at it without the backing of a major—or any—television network. It…
Read MoreHow Safe Are Trick-or-Treaters?
States, municipalities, and parole departments have adopted policies banning known sex offenders from Halloween activities, based on the worry that there is unusual risk on these days. The existence of this risk has not been empirically established. National Incident-Base Reporting System crime report data from 1997 through 2005 were used to examine daily population adjusted rates from 67,045 nonfamilial sex crimes against children aged 12 years and less. Halloween rates were compared with expectations based on time, seasonality, and weekday periodicity. Rates did not differ from expectation, no increased rate…
Read More“BE AFRAID. BE VERY AFRAID.”
It’s Halloween again. It’s my first Halloween since being released from prison. and until Monday, I didn’t really care. Seriously, I didn’t care. I’ve never been a big fan of Halloween. It was always a pain-in-the-ass “holiday” where it’s socially permissible for kids I don’t know to bang on my door. Annoying. Go away. But if I don’t give them candy, I’m the asshole. And it wasn’t much better when I was a kid. I always felt like a mooch asking people I didn’t know to just give me candy.…
Read MoreL.A. school board fires Rafe Esquith, one of nation’s most lauded teachers
Flowery praise of teachers is a standard part of speeches by superintendents, school board members and principals. But they never mention a sad truth. If our most energetic and effective educators make others look bad, someone is eventually going to punish them for that. Full Article
Read MoreCampaign: Keep CCA out of Dallas
Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) is trying to move into Dallas. Let’s say no! Corrections Corporation of America, or CCA, makes a huge profit off of locking up people and even entire immigrant families. Now, this deplorable company with a history of inhumane treatment and a plethora of human rights violations has set its sights on winning an 80 YEAR contract with Dallas County. Several years ago, CCA was kicked out of Dallas after repeated violence and ignorance of human suffering occurred at Dawson State Jail (nicknamed Texas’ Worst Jail).…
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