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
Sex assaults in high school sports minimized as ‘hazing’
The Georgia school district said it was investigating the baseball players for "misbehavior" and "inappropriate physical contact." What it didn't reveal was that a younger teammate had reported being sexually assaulted. Full Article
WI: “Romeo and Juliet” offenders wouldn’t be listed on sex offender registry
A group of lawmakers says Wisconsin's sex offender registry is watered down with teenagers who have no purpose being on it, and they've proposed legislation to carve out a so-called "Romeo and Juliet" exemption. Under the bill, teenagers between the ages of 15 and 18 years old who have consensual sex would no longer be put on the state registry, though they would be...
NJ: Upholds Lie Detector Tests for Sex Offenders
Paroled sex offenders must submit to lie detector tests as part of the conditions of their release but must be made more clearly aware of their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination, New Jersey's Supreme Court ruled Monday in rejecting a challenge to the tests. Full Article
Accurate rape statistics ensure credible arguments
On April 20, The News-Letter ran a piece titled “Sexual assault at college: Confronting the rapists in our lives.” Although it is perfectly understandable where the author, a female senior undergraduate student studying International Studies, is coming from, there is a lack of some key points that provide the necessary context to fully comprehend the issue that King, the writer, brought forth. Full Article
Lecturers critique child sexual abuse prevention policies
Experts gathered to discuss child sexual abuse prevention at the Bloomberg School of Public Health’s fifth annual Child Sexual Abuse Symposium. The Moore Center for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse hosted the symposium on Thursday, April 27. Full Article
Appropriations Committees to Consider AB 558, SB 26 and SB 421
Three bills of great importance to registrants and their loved ones will be heard soon by the relevant Assembly or Senate Appropriations Committees. The Assembly Appropriations Committee is scheduled to consider AB 558 (internet exclusions) on May 10 and the Senate Appropriations Committee is scheduled to consider both SB 26 (school campus visits) and SB 421 (tiered registry) on May 15. Due to the...
CO: After two years of debate, Colorado teen sexting bill heads to Governor
A compromise teen sexting bill is heading to the desk of Colorado’s governor after passing both chambers of the state’s legislature and more than two years of fierce debate about how to address the complicated issue that’s becoming more prevalent. Full Article
CT: Residents can participate in sex offender sentencing survey
A public input survey regarding sex offender sentencing is now available to Connecticut residents until June 2. The State of Connecticut Sentencing Commission’s Special Committee on Sex Offenders created the survey to identify concerns the public may have. The survey touches upon sentencing, the sex offender registry for Connecticut and the supervision and management of sex offenders on parole or probation. Full Article /...
Registration, Tracking of Sex Offenders Drives Mass Incarceration Numbers and Costs
The September 1988 rape and murder of 29-year-old Diane Ballasiotes in Seattle, Washington, followed by the 1989 rape and sexual mutilation of a 7-year-old Tacoma boy, were the seedlings of today’s nationwide sex offender registry laws – a 50-state network that tracks over 805,000 registrants and whose usefulness as a crime-prevention tool has been questioned and criticized. Full Article
NY: Lawmakers Brainstorm Sex Offender Legislation Reform
More than a dozen local lawmakers and law enforcers gathered at Yorktown Town Hall last week at a roundtable organized by state Sen. Terrence Murphy in an effort to update and strengthen legislation that will keep communities safe from sexual predators. Currently, he said, there are more than 1,200 registered sex offenders living in Dutchess, Putnam and Westchester counties. Full Article
General Comments May 2017
Comments that are not specific to a certain post should go here, for the month of May 2017. Contributions should relate to the cause and goals of this organization and please, keep it courteous and civil.
MN: Judge Stays Further Action in Minnesota Sex Offenders Case
A federal judge has stayed further proceedings in a class-action lawsuit over Minnesota's sex offender treatment program while lawyers for the offenders ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review an appeals court finding that the program is constitutional. Full Article
FL: Lauren’s Kids racks up six-figure donations via auto tag registration renewals
In January, Broward County car owners who received their auto tag renewal notices also got a special message from Lauren’s Kids, the nonprofit organization dedicated to preventing child sex abuse and founded by freshman State Sen. Lauren Book. Inside the envelopes, colorful flyers bearing Lauren’s Kids logo wished vehicle registrants a happy birthday while segueing into an ominous stat: “Yet shockingly, 1 in 3...
Sex Offender Registration – Why Fear Isn’t Smart Policy
As momentum around criminal justice reform builds nationwide, sex offenders are one population that is consistently left out of the conversation. Full Editorial
SC: Teens can be kept on sex-offender registry for life
South Carolina can continue to require some teens convicted of serious sex crimes to appear on the state's public sex-offender registry and wear an electronic monitor for the rest of their lives, the state Supreme Court ruled Wednesday. A boy from Spartanburg County who was 15 when he sexually assaulted a 5-year-old boy and ended up on the registry challenged the law. Full Article
TN: Lawmakers pass bill lessening sexting punishment
Minors who send sexually explicit photos to one another could face far less serious consequences than they do now, under a bill that received final support from Tennessee lawmakers Wednesday. Full Article
Shakespeare And Sexting: Reconsidering Penalties For Teen Sexual Activity
Worried that the law sometimes imposes too big a penalty on teens who engage in consensual sexual activity, some legislators are pushing to reduce the consequences. More than 20 years ago, when ____ ____ was 19 and his girlfriend Amber was 15, Montana’s laws tore them apart, sending Russell to prison for four years for having sex with a minor. Source
California Inmates Decry Changes to Voter-Backed Early Release Plan
With the support of Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown and voters, California is preparing to overhaul decades-old determinate-sentencing laws and make thousands of nonviolent inmates eligible for early parole.... With the department planning to start determining parole eligibility on July 1, a civil rights group claims in state court that prisons officials cunningly tweaked the voter-approved measure and are planning to categorically exempt inmates incarcerated...
Kindergarteners among youngest schoolhouse assault victims
Student-on-student sexual assaults rise significantly during middle-school years, an Associated Press analysis of federal crime data found. But even as early as kindergarten and first grade, children can be at risk: About 5 percent of all sexual attacks reported on school property in a recent two-year period happened to 5 and 6 year olds, according to the AP analysis. Full Article Related Hidden horror...
Hidden horror of school sex assaults revealed by AP
____ ____ was 12 when they came after him. The classmates who tormented him were children, too, entering the age of pimples and cracking voices. Eventually, he swore under oath, the boys raped him and left him bleeding, the culmination of a year of harassment. Though ____ repeatedly told teachers and administrators about insults and physical attacks, he didn't report being sexually assaulted until a...