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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Janice's Journal
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NC: Petitions to Terminate Sex Offender Registration – Moir Tiers
Last month the supreme court decided State v. Moir. It is a case about how a state sex crime—namely, indecent liberties with a child—fits within the offense tiering system set out in the federal Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA). Full Article
Sex offenders are among the most harshly punished criminals in the state, but how often does the punishment fit the crime?
In the past few years, the growth of incarceration and the inequality perpetuated through the US carceral system have become common topics of discussion and debate among academics, politicians, and the general public. Perhaps nowhere are these debates more salient than in the state of California, which houses the largest incarcerated population in the United States. In the most recent election, five out of...
CO: Colorado wasting as much as $44 million a year in sex-offender program, audit says
Colorado’s Department of Corrections is wasting as much as $44 million annually because it has not fixed problems in a treatment program intended to prepare sex offenders for release from prison, a recent state audit found.Full Article
Best Buy Geek Squad Informant Use Has FBI on Defense in Child-Porn Case [updated]
FBI agents and prosecutors usually strut inside Santa Ana's Ronald Reagan Federal Courthouse, knowing they've focused the wrath of the criminal-justice system on a particular criminal. But an unusual child-pornography-possession case has placed officials on the defensive for nearly 26 months. Questions linger about law-enforcement honesty, unconstitutional searches, underhanded use of informants and twisted logic. Given that a judge recently ruled against government demands to...
Serial child molester loses on appeal
An appeals court on Wednesday reinstated the conviction of a serial child molester from Maryland whose case was held out as a major success of a law to punish sexual predators overseas. Full Article
FL: Column misleads about sex offenders
In Lauren Book's Dec. 11 column, she wrote about the dangers that sexual predators pose to children and admonishes parents to be suspicious of staff at youth-serving organizations. We all want to protect children, so how could such a column be objectionable? Because it is alarmist, misleading and mostly false. Full Opinion Piece Related Lauren Book: UK abuse cases show need to safeguard children
NE: Ruling that allowed kids in sex offender’s home spurs lawmaker
LINCOLN — Reactions ranged from bewilderment to outrage over a Nebraska Supreme Court decision earlier this year that allowed two girls to remain in the home of a felony sex offender. And the decision set a clear precedent, said Brandon Brinegar, the Kearney lawyer who represented the biological father who had tried to remove the girls from the sex offender’s residence. Brinegar said lawmakers...
Bill Would Ban Adults Without Kids from Playgrounds
A City Councilman in Los Angeles, Mitch O’Farrell, has proposed a bill to keep playgrounds “free of creepy activity” by not allowing anyone unaccompanied by kids to enter one. Shamefully, that is already the rule here in my burg, New York City. This has lead to the arrest of two women who dared to eat donuts on a playground bench in Brooklyn (exposing kids...
General Comments January 2017
Comments that are not specific to a certain post should go here, for the month of January 2017. Contributions should relate to the cause and goals of this organization and please, keep it courteous and civil.
MN: Appeals Court – Sex Offender Program Constitutional
Minnesota's program for keeping sex offenders confined after they complete their prison sentences is constitutional, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday, reversing a lower-court judge who said it violates offenders' rights because hardly anyone is ever released. Full Article Decision Related ‘A System That Is Clearly Broken’ The Latest: Official: Sex offender program needs more money
UK: Police hunt for sex offenders who have fled country
Five registered sex offenders have evaded police and fled the country, it has emerged. Figures from Police Scotland show there are currently more than 4,000 sex offenders being managed in the community and a further 1,283 in custody or in hospital. But five registered offenders who are required to notify the authorities of their whereabouts are wanted by police and are believed to have...
WI: ‘Modern-Day Leper’
A “modern-day leper.” Those are his words, not ours. Ventae Parrow is branded by the state of Wisconsin as a “homeless sex offender” and, by many in society, an outcast to be feared, warned about, and shunned. He’d have more rights to move freely if he’d killed someone. He’s served his prison sentence (again), but the elaborate network of Milwaukee city ordinances places almost...
IL: Class Action – Supervised release policies unjustly effectively keep sex offenders in prison ‘for life’
CHICAGO — A lawsuit has been filed accusing the state of Illinois of violating the rights of convicted sex offenders by maintaining policies that do not allow a number of them to be released from prison after they have served their sentences, effectively leaving them informally sentenced to life in prison. Full Article
Why rape cases should not be subject to reasonable doubt
Conviction rates for sexual assault against women are shockingly low, to the extent that, even in a developed nation such as the United Kingdom, only 6 per cent of rape allegations result in a conviction, a far lower rate than for any other violent crime. As The Guardian columnist Julia Bindel puts it, ‘rape might as well be legal’. Disturbingly low conviction rates have...
SLO YMCA trying to keep out sex offenders
The San Luis Obispo County YMCA is attempting to prevent sex offenders from accessing its gym. [KSBY] Starting in 2017, the YMCA will conduct background checks on all members and applicants. The local YMCA will use the National Sex Offender Registry to check for offenders who could be working out at the gym. Full Article
State owes counties millions in sex offender legal costs
California must reimburse its counties for the legal costs involved in determining whether sex offenders who have completed their prison terms should be sent to mental hospitals, a state appeals court ruled Wednesday. A lawyer for local governments said the statewide cost would be about $25 million a year for the reimbursements, which the state stopped paying in July 2013. Full Article
L.A.’s proposed ban on single adults near playgrounds is fear-based policy making at its worst
In an attempt to make Los Angeles parks seem super safe, City Councilman Mitch O’Farrell has proposed barring adults unaccompanied by children from entering playgrounds. It’s an effort, he said, to keep city parks “free of creepy activity.” Full Article
MT: Bill Would Cap Jail Time for 18-Year-Olds Who Have Consensual Sex with Other Teens at ‘Just’ 5 Years
It is a measure of how insane our sex offender laws have become, to announce that this proposed bill in Montana is a relief. Senate Bill 26 would prevent 18-year-olds who have consensual sex with other teens under the age of consent (younger than 16, but at least age 14) from needing to register as sex offenders. It would also cap the time they can possibly...
Is It OK To Automatically Hate Sex Offenders?
A few months ago I was asked by the editors of Sex Offender Law Report to write an article, intended for a legal system readership, discussing the inner-life of sex offenders, including analysis about whether some offenders are more/less dangerous than others, and if we can tell the difference. (They are, and we can.) That article will likely be published in mid-2017. In the interim, I want to...
EFF to Supreme Court: Strike Social Media Ban for Sex Offenders
Yesterday, EFF and its allies Public Knowledge and the Center for Democracy & Technology filed an amicus brief asking the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down under the First Amendment a North Carolina law that bans “registered sex offenders” (RSOs) from using all Internet social media. This law sweeps far too broadly. Social media are one of the most important communication channels ever created. People banned from social...