The Alliance for Constitutional Sex Offense Laws (ACSOL) is dedicated to protecting the Constitution by restoring the civil rights of registrants and their families. In order to achieve that objective, ACSOL will educate and litigate as well as support or oppose legislation. The ACSOL website and recordings are provided as a service to registrants, registrants’ families, and others for general information only. The information on the website and in the recordings are not designed to provide legal or other advice or to create an attorney-client relationship. You should not take, or refrain from taking, action based on their content. Prior results and case studies do not guarantee a similar outcome in future representations. ACSOL accepts no responsibility for any loss or damages that may result from accessing or reliance on content on the ACSOL website and recordings and disclaim, to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, any and all liability with respect to acts or omissions made by registrants, registrants’ families and others on the basis of content on the ACSOL website.
Important News / Announcements
Janice's Journal
General News Feed
UK: County lines gangsters stop using children to sell their drugs when prison bosses put them on sex offenders’ wings, police say
[dailymail.co.uk - 1/11/2021] County lines gangsters will 'very quickly stop using kids' for drug trafficking after they are placed on the sex offenders' wing in prison, police have said. In their report the criminal justice consultancy Crest Advisory found that being placed in the separated location for prisoners with sexual convictions saw drug dealers 'drop using kids completely' because of the reputational damage this does. Read...
Public Perceptions Of Youth Who Commit Sexual Offense Is Skewed, Our Research Shows
[jjie.org - 1/11/21] Few crimes stimulate such visceral reactions and deep-seated fears as sexual offenses. Accordingly, societal responses to sexual offending such as registration and notification laws tend to be quite punitive and highly stigmatizing for the offender. Yet these social control practices are widely considered by the public to be essential for community safety. However, given lessons learned about the linkages between moral...
Fourth Circuit Strikes Bans on Internet, Legal Pornography For Sex Offender
[fd.org - 1/10/21] The Fourth Circuit held (link is external) that conditions of supervised release banning legal pornography and internet access are too restrictive and cannot be sustained as "reasonably related" under 18 U.S.C. 3583(d)(1) and are overbroad under 18 U.S.C. 3583(d)(2). The court explained that the district court abused its discretion in imposing an outright ban on defendant possessing legal pornography or entering...
IN: No Registration for Registrants From Other States If Their Crime Wouldn’t Require it in Indiana
INDIANA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTION, et al, Defendants-Appellants. ____________________ Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, Indianapolis Division. No. 1:16-cv-02865-RLY-TAB — Richard L. Young, Judge. ____________________ ARGUED JANUARY 14, 2020 — DECIDED JANUARY 6, 2021 ____________________ Before ROVNER, WOOD, and ST. EVE, Circuit Judges. ROVNER, Circuit Judge. Sex offender registration and notification laws have a unique place at the...
VA: Virginia Crime Commission recommends eliminating all mandatory minimum sentences
[virginiamercury.com - 1/7/21] Members of the Virginia Crime Commission voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to endorse legislation stripping all mandatory minimum sentences from state code. The sweeping proposal, which lawmakers plan to introduce when the General Assembly convenes later this month, would eliminate mandatory jail and prison terms attached to 224 offenses that range from drunken driving to child rape. Lawmakers on the commission who backed...
ND: Should North Dakota Extend the Statue of Limitations for Prosecuting Sexual Abuse?
[hot975fm.com - 1/5/21] ... But three North Dakota lawmakers are working to make sure other victims get the justice they deserve. The lawmakers had been planning bills that would extend the statute of limitations for reporting and prosecuting sex crimes before the Attorney General made his decision. Learn more about the potential bills here. Read the full article and links to the proposed bills Related: Lawmakers seek to extend...
ACSOL Book Offers Insight, Identifies Trends in Registrant Community
The Alliance for Constitutional Sex Offense Law (ACSOL) and the registrant community is the focus of a newly published book by ACSOL Executive Director Janice Bellucci. The book, Show Up - Stand Up - Speak, offers insights and identifies trends in the registrant community. "The purpose of the book is to educate the public regarding the daily challenges faced by registrants and their loved...
NY: After 25 Years, It Is Past Time To Reform New York’s Sex Offender Risk Assessment System: Part I
[law.com - 1/5/21] In this article, the author outlines the significant flaws of the sex offender risk assessment instrument. A second article to be published later will explain why these deficiencies are not adequately corrected by court departure determinations. Convicted sex offenders under New York law must have their risk of reoffense assessed by courts under the Sex Offender Registration Act (“SORA” or “Megan’s...
MN: Third COVID death at Moose Lake sex offender facility
A client housed in a Minnesota sex offender treatment facility has died from COVID-19, state officials said Monday. Friday's death at the Moose Lake facility is the third COVID-related fatality in the Minnesota Sex Offender Program (MSOP) since the pandemic surfaced early last year in Minnesota. "We mourn his passing and extend our deepest sympathy to those who loved him and called him friend,"...
ACSOL Phone Meeting Jan 16
Please join ACSOL Executive Director and civil rights attorney Janice Bellucci as well as ACSOL President and criminal defense attorney Chance Oberstein for our next phone meeting. The meeting will be held on Saturday, January 16, beginning at 10 a.m. Pacific time and will last at least two hours. This meeting will be recorded and then posted as an audio recording. A link to...
California Tiered Registry Experiences (EXPERIENCES ONLY)
As of January 1, 2021 the California Tiered Registry Law became effective. In order to share information about the new law and help others with the petitions, please document your experiences with the process in the comments below. Comments should pertain to actual experiences with the Tiered Registry only. In order to maximize the value to others, feel free to include as many details...
Banishing ‘Sex Offenders’: How Meaningless Language Makes Bad Law – Guy Hamilton-Smith
[Southwestern University Law Review - papers.ssrn.com - 12/3/20] Abstract: An essay on how the term "sex offender" is functionally meaningless, and invites policy responses that are out of step with the reality of sexual harm. These policy responses, in turn, hobble our efforts to reckon with sexual harm, foreclose accountability and redemption, and elide more effective approaches. View the download page
General Comments January 2021
Comments that are not specific to a certain post should go here, for the month of January 2021. Contributions should relate to the cause and goals of this organization and please, keep it courteous and civil. This section is not intended for posting links to news articles without additional relevant comment.
California Tiered Registry Law Now Effective [UPDATED 1/5/21]
[ACSOL] The Tiered Registry Law (formerly Senate Bill 384), passed by the California state legislature four years ago, is now effective. Some of its provisions, however, will not begin until July 1, 2021. The most important of those provisions is the petitioning process for removal from the registry. "The first step to take in the petitioning process is to go to the law enforcement...
The Outspoken Offender: Can You Shed The Sex Offender Stigma? [Podcast]
[radio.com - 12/29/20] "My hope is to encourage registered citizens, former inmates, and anyone facing stereotypes and social ostracism to move beyond society's labels" A positive podcast offering advice, tips, and general commentary on a variety of issues including - - Social ostracism - Sex offender issues - Living with a felony - Second chances - Empathy and compassion - Housing and employment rejection...
Taiwan: Justices urged to keep forced treatment of molesters [Updated 12/31]
[taipeitimes.com - 12/31/20] Victims’ rights groups and lawmakers yesterday urged the Council of Grand Justices to uphold the involuntary psychiatric treatment of sex offenders as the council is to hand down a ruling on the practice today. ... Should the council rule against involuntary treatment, the government would have to set free 68 sex offenders — 57 at the Pei Teh Hospital and 11...
How Thousands of American Laws Keep People ‘Imprisoned’ Long After They’re Released
[politico.com - 12/30/20] In the run-up to the election in November, there was a pervasive belief that the fate of the nation could hinge on Florida because of its 2018 passage of Amendment 4, which reversed a permanent voting ban for 1.4 million Floridians with felony records. Then, in September, an appellate court ruled that people with felony convictions must pay all their court...
It Could Be You – Vicky Henry with Women Against Registry – Recorded Dec 16, 2020
[womenagainstregistry.org - 12/16/20] Listen to Vicky Henry with Women Against Registry The program is courtesy of “It Could Be You”, and KABF 88.3 FM Community Radio, The Voice of the People, Little Rock, Arkansas. www.kabf.org
MI: Whitmer signs bill with long-awaited changes to sex offender law
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Tuesday signed a bill that would eliminate school safety zones and certain appearance requirements in Michigan's Sex Offender Registration Act. Full ArticleFull Article
LA Times Editorial: End irrational sentencing
[latimes.com - 12/30/20] The explosion in California’s prison population can be traced to first-term Gov. Jerry Brown’s signature on the Uniform Determinate Sentencing Act of 1976, a bill that was supposed to remove racism and irrationality from prison terms but in the end did the opposite. Fourth-term Gov. Brown, who left office last year, understood the problem well. He presided over a prison system...