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Living with 290: Compliance Checks

It’s 10:30 am on March 6th 2014 and the yearly round of sheriffs coming to my residence has begun for this year. I’ve been told this is to make sure I live where I live and anything beyond that is a mystery to me (Christ! I just renewed my registration a week ago!). Every time this happens it is just another round of “them” trying to get me to say things to get me to give up my rights so they can walk all over me. This is troubling to…

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Mission Viejo agrees not to enforce Presence Restrictions for 290s

The City of Mission Viejo has agreed not to enforce the presence restrictions in an ordinance it adopted in January 2012.  The agreement is now in effect and will continue to remain in effect unless the State Supreme Court makes an adverse ruling in a related case.   According to a letter from Mayor Trish Kelley dated February 21, 2014 (below), the Chief of Police Services and the City Attorney recommended to the City Council a stay of enforcement for the city’s ordinance.  The presence restrictions in that ordinance that will not be enforced include all…

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Living with 290: Stinkin sick

Not a lot of time right now, but this is worth mentioning, not for encouragement. I’m sorry to say, rather for the raw gut reality. My old man had a case of food poisoning and boy did he get sick. We basically live in a van, I got a motel room for the night, as i some times do. I am not on parole or probation, anyways my honey got lumpuckaroo, or Diarrhea / vomiting. for three days and 4 nights. He asked his agent if he could go to…

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UK: Senior Tory adviser arrested on child abuse images allegations

A senior adviser to David Cameron was arrested on child abuse images allegations, Downing Street said tonight. … The Prime Minister brought him into Downing Street in 2011 to work in the Number 10 policy unit. He took responsibility for home affairs issues and was among officials who were involved in drawing up controls against internet images of child abuse. Full Article

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Canada: Conservatives propose public sex offender registry, despite its failure in the U.S.

The federal Conservatives have announced they are continuing their pursuit of the lowest of low-hanging fruit: registered sex offenders. The Tougher Penalties for Sexual Predators Act, which was formally tabled in the House of Commons Feb. 26, includes nine proposals for dealing with those convicted of sexual offences, including increasing prison sentences for certain child sexual offences and harsher penalties for violations of release conditions. Some of the proposals, quite appropriately, assign greater severity to a system of punishment that is often derided as far too lenient. But nestled among…

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The Sex Offender Shuffle

Washington Post Opinion Section: I know the term Kafkesque is overused, but I mean come on.The Chicago Police Department forces sex offenders to violate their parole. I know that sounds crazy. I thought it was crazy when I first heard about it, but I’ve spent a lot of time in the last two weeks with sex offenders waiting — for hours and hours — outside police headquarters and watching a Kafkaesque process play out. Full Op-Ed Piece

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IL: Crowded Chicago Police office forces sex offenders to violate parole

The Chicago Police Department forces sex offenders to violate their parole. I know that sounds crazy. I thought it was crazy when I first heard about it, but I’ve spent a lot of time in the last two weeks with sex offenders waiting — for hours and hours — outside police headquarters and watching a Kafkaesque process play out. Every morning sex offenders start lining up at 6, while it’s still dark out, sometimes even earlier than that, and I probably don’t have to remind you how cold it’s been…

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FL: State senators fast track sex offender legislation

State senators are poised to pass landmark legislation aimed at better protecting Floridians from rapists and child molesters Tuesday, the first day of the annual Legislative session. “I don’t want to let one more day go by without making Florida scorched earth for sexual predators,” said Senate President Don Gaetz, R-Niceville. The package of four bills would toughen sex-crime sentences, increase community monitoring, and keep more of the most dangerous offenders confined after their prison terms end. It would provide the most comprehensive overhaul of sex offender legislation in more than…

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Wrongly convicted man free after 8 years

Every day behind bars was torture, but holidays hurt the most. It wasn’t just missing Thanksgiving or Christmas with his family. It was that he’d miss out next year, too, and the year after that, and the year after that. Every year for the rest of his life. Prison isn’t supposed to be easy, of course. If you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime — but what if you didn’t do the crime? Welcome to Uriah Courtney’s nightmare. He was convicted of sexually assaulting a high school girl…

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MA: Porn debate over National Geographic photo goes to SJC

The question of whether a photo of a naked boy in National Geographic constitutes child pornography when found in the troubling jailhouse stash of a convicted sex offender goes before the state’s highest court today. “After a summer day’s swim, a boy returns to his new bike,” reads the caption under award-winning photojournalist Lynn Johnson’s picture in “Inside the Dragon,” the magazine’s 2008 special edition on China. The Norfolk District Attorney’s Office convinced a grand jury that in the prison footlocker of convicted sex offender ____ ____, the image merited…

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OR: Teen sexting – A photo sent, life changed forever

A law creates a three-tiered sex offender registration system BEND — Sexting — sending nude pictures or arousing text messages — has become part of our modern-day life. But for one Central Oregon teen, who wants to remain anonymous, sending one picture changed his life. “I’m on supervised probation for 120 months, which is 10 years — and I sent a picture,” he said. Last year, when he was 18 years old and in high school, he sent a nude picture to his friend, a 15-year-old girl. Although there was never any…

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Talk Radio: NATIONAL REFORM SEX OFFENDER LAWS – “The Big Picture affecting our nation.

Part 1: March 2, 2014 – 8 pm PST The vision and mission of this organization. www.nationalrsol.org The effect sex offender laws have on the community. Call in to speak with the host (619) 393-2837 A national organization sees the issue and the affect demoralizing a sex offender has on communities, and why it is imperative to change this thinking to heal society, the victim and the offender. We will detail the National RSOL and what it is doing to protect the nation and reform sex offender issues. Link

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CO: With 2 Different Bills, Colorado Will Get A ‘Jessica’s Law’

DENVER (CBS4) – Colorado lawmakers from both parties are working on different versions of a bill that would lay out mandatory sentences for child sex offenders. Similar bills have failed before. Last year’s bill, brought by Republicans, died in an end-of-session drama that left Democrats struggling to explain why they opposed a bill that went hard on sex offenders. So this year there are dueling bills — one Democratic one Republican. The intent of both bills is the same — to make sure anyone who sexually assaults a child spends a long…

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PA: Third Judge Rules Juvenile Sex Offender Registration Unconstitutional

Under current Pennsylvania law, juvenile sex offenders have to comply with lifetime registration requirements. But this month, a third Pennsylvania judge ruled that law unconstitutional, setting the stage for the issue to be addressed by the state supreme court. Judges from York, Monroe, and Lancaster counties have now all written opinions stating that the law fails to take juveniles’ greater capacity for reform into account. Full Article

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