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
General News Feed
FBI’s massive porn sting puts internet privacy in crossfire
For two weeks in the spring of 2015, the FBI was one of the largest purveyors of child pornography on the internet. After arresting the North Carolina administrator of The Playpen, a “dark web” child-pornography internet bulletin board, agents seized the site’s server and moved it to an FBI warehouse in Virginia. They then initiated “Operation Pacifier,” a sting and computer-hacking operation of unparalleled...
Judges Are Starting to Question Overzealous Sex-Offender Laws
There’s a stark divide between lawmakers and experts when it comes to laws which restrict where registered sex offenders can live. Cities and states all around the country have enthusiastically banned offenders from living too close to schools — and introduced other, similarly oriented restrictions — on the grounds that such legislation is a common-sense way to help keep kids safe. Experts, on the...
Prescott on Post-Release Regulations and Sex Offender Recidivism
Abstract: The purported purpose of sex offender post-release regulations (e.g., community notification and residency restrictions) is the reduction of sex offender recidivism. On their face, these laws seem well-designed and likely to be effective. A simple economic framework of offender behavior can be used to formalize these basic intuitions: in essence, post-release regulations either increase the probability of detection or increase the immediate cost of...
Senate Appropriations Committee Stops AB 2569
The Senate Appropriations Committee stopped Assembly Bill (AB) 2569 which would have reduced the number of registrants who are not listed on the Megan's Law website. The bill, which was authored by Assembly Member Melissa Melendez, was previously passed by the full Assembly. "AB 2569 was stopped by the efforts of registrants, family members and supporters who wrote letters, made phone calls and testified,"...
The 6th Circuit Finally Said The Magic Word: Punitive
Of the many legal fictions enjoyed by judges, few have done as much damage to as many people as calling sex offender registries “regulatory.” The trick is that if it’s characterized as regulatory, then it’s not punitive. And if it’s punitive, then it opens a whole slew of constitutional rights that would render the concept unlawful. But if legislators squint and write the “r”...
Janice’s Journal: Sixth Circuit Speaks Truth
The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals spoke the truth this week when it declared unconstitutional the retroactive application of sex offender laws in the State of Michigan. In doing so, the Court demonstrated uncommon courage and set an example that should be followed by courts throughout the land. The laws at issue in this case are common and can be found in many states. ...
Activists asking if police will be charged in sex scandal
Activists and relatives of a teenage woman at the center of a San Francisco Bay Area police sex scandal say they want to know if any of the more than two dozen law enforcement officials implicated earlier this year will face criminal charges. The woman, who turned 19 on Thursday and says she works as a prostitute, told The Associated Press that she informed...
California DOJ Agrees to Correct Megan’s Law Profiles
The California Department of Justice (CA DOJ) agreed yesterday to correct more than 90 percent of individuals' profiles on the state's Megan's Law website which lack the date of conviction. The agency's agreement is the result of a lawsuit filed by CA RSOL in November 2015. "The lack of a conviction date coupled with an individual's current photo on the Megan's Law website profiles...
Sex offenders would have to disclose email addresses and usernames under bill sent to governor
Sex offenders would be required to report their email addresses, usernames and other Internet identifiers to law enforcement under a bill California state senators sent to the governor Wednesday. Full Article SB 448
MN: 26-year-old is cleared for unconditional release from MSOP
A Minnesota court has ordered the first-ever full and unconditional discharge from Minnesota’s sex offender treatment program, choosing a young man who has spent the past six years in state confinement solely for sexual acts he committed as a child. Full Article
NC: Gap in N.C. law allows sex offenders near schools, day cares
On Sept. 1, a registered sex offender will be breaking the law if he continues to work at a car repair shop that sits within 300 feet of the Boys & Girls Club of Cumberland County and a day-care center. A state law takes effect that day prohibiting sex offenders from being near places where children "frequently congregate" - including schools, parks, arcades and...
MI: Court voids state sex offender registry for imposing unconstitutionally retroactive punishment [UPDATED]
UPDATED with media links - Today the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit held that recent amendments to Michigan’s Sex Offender Registration Act (SORA) are unconstitutional because they impose retroactive punishment on sex offenders in violation of the Constitution’s prohibition on ex post facto laws. Among other things, the plaintiffs argued that amendments to Michigan’s SORA increased the severity of its requirements...
Registrant Travel Action Group (RTAG) International Travel Matrix Update
The Travel Matrix is a list of nations along with information about how they handle entrance of visiting or moving registrants (Registered Sex Offenders) and their families. We compile this information from various sources including Travel Experience Reports submitted by users of this website. This list is kept as current and thorough as possible, but individual experiences may vary. This list is informational and...
FL: Miami-Dade Sex Offender Homeless Encampment Reaches 250 People
The shame of Miami-Dade has reached a new level. The encampment of homeless sex offenders living alongside the railroad tracks on the street corner in a warehouse district in Miami-Dade county has reached two hundred fifty people. Full Article
NY: Concerns Over Rule Banning Sex Offenders From Playing Pokémon Go
The list that most sex offenders must sign in order to be granted parole in New York State includes many stipulations, all written in the first person. There are promises to register with local law enforcement, to complete therapy if it is required and to not pick up hitchhikers or visit schools or playgrounds. Full Article
WI: Lawsuit challenges Kenosha’s sex offender residency restrictions
The city of Kenosha’s restrictions on where registered sex offenders can live are so pervasive that, except in high-risk situations, police will not enforce them knowing it would effectively ban offenders from the city, according to a lawsuit filed this week. Full Article
TX: Iowa Park city council turns down father’s plea for sex offender exemption
An Iowa Park man was turned down after asking the City Council on Monday night to consider an exemption to the code of ordinances. After recently writing a letter to the city of Iowa Park, James H. Pappas stood in front of the City Council and requested an exemption for his son, ___ ____, who is in his 60s and was convicted of having...
CO: Legislature to blame for sentencing quandary (Opinion)
I feel compelled to respond to Chandler McCorkle's guest opinion ("Judge failed rape victim, society," Daily Camera, Aug. 14) because it proceeds from woefully erroneous assumptions about the nature of sex offense probation and sentencing. Ms. McCorkle states that the sentence means that sex offender probationary sentences do not carry "true repercussion(s)," and the judge's sentence was "naïve [and] unthinkably stupid." With all due...
IL: Sex Offender Pleads No Contest
52-year-old blind man, ____ ____ of South Roxana, was convicted in 2000 of aggravated criminal sexual abuse. ____ pleaded no contest Thursday to a violation of the state sex offender registration law. The violation comes after a police compliance check on Halloween of 2014. ____ was sitting just inside the front door of his living room as his step-daughter was handing out candy. State law...
WI: Sex offender ordinance hasn’t worked as planned, putting public at greater risk
Last summer, ____ ____ got a notice from the Milwaukee Police Department: He had to move out of his north side rental home. ____, a registered sex offender, hadn’t done anything to violate the terms of his sentence, which stemmed from groping a 13-year-old girl he met online when he was 19. In fact, ____ had stayed out of trouble since his conviction in 2002....