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.
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General Comments January 2019
Comments that are not specific to a certain post should go here, for the month of January 2019. Contributions should relate to the cause and goals of this organization and please, keep it courteous and civil.
New US Sentencing Commission Report: Mandatory Minimums for Federal Sex Offenses
[ussc.gov - 1/1/19] Summary (Published January 2019) This publication examines the application of mandatory minimum penalties specific to federal sex offenses; it is the sixth and final release in the Commission's series of publications on mandatory minimum penalties. Using fiscal year 2016 data, this publication includes analyses of the two types of federal sex offenses carrying mandatory minimum penalties, sexual abuse offenses and child...
FL: Report: Number of sex offenders living in Florida is growing
[miamiherald.com - 12/31/18] TALLAHASSEE, Fla. The number of sex offenders and predators living in Florida has been rising steadily for more than a decade, according to a new report put together by legislative auditors. The report issued late last week stated that nearly 29,000 registered sex offenders and predators now reside in the state. That's an increase of 53 percent since 2005, when state...
Kat’s Blog: Sometimes A Song Is Just A Song
Baby It’s Cold Outside. It was just a wintery song from the late forties, nothing more. A song that’s been sung during the Christmas holidays for decades. Generations grew up singing along with the radio, no one ever had issues with it. That is until now. Now it’s the latest moral holiday debate. The victim of a # movement. Someone or some group decides...
Israeli Sex Offenders Are No Longer Allowed to Change Name
[haaretz.com - 1/1/19] The Knesset on Monday passed into law a bill that prohibits people convicted of sex crimes from changing their name. “The law came about as a response to complaints by women who were shocked to learn they had been in a relationship with convicted sex offenders in the past,” said Meretz MK Michal Rozin, who drafted the law. “This had been...
Not all sex offenders are the same. It’s time we reform how we treat them – Opinion
Florida Bar Association President Michelle Suskauer recently penned a column published in FLORIDA TODAY about needs for reforming the criminal justice system. In her piece, she focused on a number of important issues about mental health, curbing recidivism, re-entry, sentencing and much more. Missing among these targets for reform, however, is the ever-present quagmire dealing with sex offenders, a topic most politicians and justice...
The Carceral Problem Is Getting Worse
The criminal justice reform bill, hopefully dubbed the First Step Act, represents a real accomplishment — a positive development in otherwise conservative times. It is all the more remarkable that a reactionary president, who ran a tough-on-crime campaign, is now poised to sign the bill. ... Mass incarceration is no doubt the most glaring feature of the punitive turn. But the punitive state is...
The Dobbs Wire: Rogue judge driven off the bench
[The Dobbs Wire email - 12/25/18] A Pittsburgh criminal court judge has finally submitted her resignation. Judge Donna Jo McDaniel’s expected exit comes after repeated rebukes by a Pennsylvania appeals court, extensive news coverage, the ire of at least one editorial board, and talk of an investigation by the state's judicial conduct commission. First elected to the bench in 1985, McDaniel was driven from...
Kat’s Blog: Media Can’t Leave Well Enough Alone
From the small town (pop. 2,000+) of Sardis, Mississippi came a Christmas Story with a happy ending, sort of. Michael Clay Saripkin, a registrant, served as the Grand Marshal of the Sardis Christmas parade Dec. 11 2018. According to the news article most of the residents of Sardis have no problem with a man with a past being named Grand Marshal by the town’s...
Reminder of NARSOL’s helpline open on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day
For everyone who may be feeling more lonely and depressed as Christmas draws nearer, NARSOL wishes to remind you of our fully staffed helpline opening at 7 a.m. eastern time on Christmas Eve. The volunteers who will be manning the lines all have intimate knowledge of what being on the registry is like and how difficult holidays can be, and they are happy to...
Why Should Feminists Be Against the Sex Offender Registry?
In October, the Supreme Court heard a case that was painfully ironic, considering the Kavanaugh hearings the nation had just been subjected to: a challenge to the United States’ extremely restrictive sex offender registry laws. While opinions on the case Gundy v. United States, which challenges the Attorney General’s ability to retroactively impose registry requirements, have yet to come out, debate around sex offender...
PayPal Account for ACSOL Restored
The PayPal account for the Alliance for Constitutional Sex Offense Laws (ACSOL) was put on hold for about a week, but has been restored. According to PayPal representatives, the IRS is responsible for the hold which affected ACSOL as well as thousands of others. "ACSOL's PayPal account was unable to accept donations, either on a one-time or a monthly basis, from December 15 through...
Interpol Response re. Green Notices
Submitted by Steve: Some off you are aware that I sent in a inquiry to Interpol that questioned their standards for issuing green notices...well I got a response back from Interpol, Lyon Paris (Yes the mothership AJ) In my letter I stated that I have not yet had a green notice issued against me (haven't travel abroad yet) but asked the question are they appealable....
MS: Mississippi Town Chose Sex Offender as Its Christmas Parade Grand Marshal
[newsweek.com - 12/17/18] Residents of small town in Mississippi said they do not care that its Christmas parade grand marshal has been listed on the sex offender registry in two different states. Michael Clay Saripkin, a convicted sex offender, served as grand marshal of the Sardis Christmas parade on December 11. Some residents of the Mississippi town told local media that they saw no...
Ronald L. Book: I thought sexual abuse only happened to other people’s children. Then I woke up.
[usatoday.com - 12/10/18] Nearly 17 years ago, I woke up from a nightmare I didn’t realize I was in. If you’re a parent whose child has suffered sexual abuse at the hands of someone you know and trust, you will understand what I mean. Sitting in a family counselor’s office, the world as I knew it came crashing down as I learned that my...
MN: Judge strikes down city ordinance restricting sex offender housing
[startribune.com - 12/18/18] A Hennepin County judge has struck down an ordinance in Dayton, Minn. that restricts where sex offenders can live in the community, saying the measure is trumped by state law. The far-reaching ordinance barred convicted sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of any school, day care provider, park, playground or public bus stop — even a pumpkin patch or apple...
Janice’s Journal: Registry Continues to Grow by Leaps and Bounds
The registry continues to grow by leaps and bounds. In fact, the registry grew by almost 5 percent during the past 12 months. That means there are currently more than 912,000 people on the registry in the U.S., an increase of 42,001, according to The Dobbs Wire. The recent increases in the number of people on the registry are not uniform throughout the nation....
UT: Social work expert disagrees with federal law enforcers about sex offender treatment
[deseretnews.com - 12/15/18] A University of Utah social work professor and therapist disagrees with the state’s top federal law enforcement officials' assessment that treatment for child sex offenders doesn’t work. Rob Butters, who has also worked as a probation officer, said it's unfortunate they made the statement in a public forum because "it's simply not true." "We know that treatment works a lot better...
MI: This Proposed Michigan Law Would Treat Parents Who Use Drugs Like Sex Offenders
[filtermag.org - 12/12/18] Sex offender registries and notification laws have proliferated in the name of protecting women and children, despite the fact that the evidence does not show that they prevent sex crimes. In fact, some evidence suggests that notification laws—which require that registry information be made available to the broader public—may increase recidivism and overall rates of sex crime. Even so, the State...
Action Alert: ACSOL Organizing State Capitol Meetings (February 5)
The Alliance for Constitutional Sex Offense Laws (ACSOL) is organizing meetings in the State Capitol with newly elected members of the Assembly and Senate in Sacramento on Tuesday, February 5. Training for the meetings will be held at the ACSOL offices located at 1215 K Street, 17th Floor, starting at 9 a.m. "Registrants, family members and supporters are encouraged to join ACSOL in these...