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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FL: FATSA Recommendations on the Florida Registry
The Florida Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers submitted a report to the Florida Legislatures Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability (OPPAGA) making several evidence-based recommendations for Florida's Sex Offender Registry System. Full Article
PA: Kane appoints special prosecutor to unravel PornGate
Pennsylvanians have already suffered the indignity of learning that judges, prosecutors and other law enforcement officials have used state computer systems to exchange pornographic, racist and misogynistic emails. Now, state taxpayers will pick up the bill for a team of special prosecutors hired to sort out the sordid details of PornGate. Full Article
Janice’s Journal: Tenacity Results in Victory in Carson
Our tenacity paid off! More than 18 months, 3 lawsuits and 2 protests later, the City of Carson has repealed its presence restrictions. In a vote of 3 to 0, the City Council decided to rid the City of Carson of its presence restrictions which both violated state law and denied the civil rights of more than 100,000 individuals. This important vote was taken...
General Comments December 2015
Comments that are not specific to a certain post should go here, for the month of December 2015. Contributions should relate to the cause and goals of this organization and please, keep it courteous and civil.
Carson Revises Presence Restrictions [updated with media]
Media links at the bottom - The Carson City Council agreed on December 1 to revise the city's ordinance which restricts where registered citizens may be present. As a result of the revisions, registered citizens may soon visit public sites such as parks, libraries, and swimming pools as well as private sites such as fast food restaurants. "At long last the City of Carson...
TX: Proposed law would require sex offender signs [updated with approval]
GONZALES — The Gonzales City Council approved an ordinance at Tuesday night’s regular monthly meeting requiring registered sex offenders within the city limits to post signs in their yard alerting everyone to their crime. Though councilmen were quick to move forward with the motion, it took several more minutes to explain what the law could actually do. City Manager Allen Barnes started by stating...
Redding man takes plea bargain in shooting of registered sex offender
REDDING, California - A 28-year-old Redding man pleaded guilty today in Shasta County Superior Court to attempted murder and use of a firearm in connection with the September shooting of a registered sex offender. In exchange for his guilty plea, Timothy Joseph Gould will be sentenced Feb. 2 to 15 years in prison. Gould must serve 85 percent of his sentence — about nearly...
MA: State lawmakers consider changes to the sex offender registry
BOSTON, Mass. (WWLP) – The state legislature’s Committee on the Judiciary is taking a closer look at the Sex Offender Registry Board. Right now, the public only has access to information on level two and level three sex offenders. State Representative Shaunna O’Connell (R-Taunton) wants to make information on level one sex offenders available to those who request it from their local police stations. Full Article
MN: Minnesota House panel votes to back governor sex offender stance
A Minnesota House committee unanimously voted Tuesday to support the position Gov. Mark Dayton and Attorney General Lori Swanson are taking in appealing a federal judge's decision that a state sex offender program is unconstitutional. Full Article
FL: Miami-Dade Sex Offender Residency Ordinance Unsuccessfully Challenged
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) recently challenged the constitutionality of a Miami-Dade County, Florida ordinance that, according to the organization, forces sex offenders on probation into homelessness by imposing residency restrictions so harsh there is literally no place where they are legally permitted to live. ... While that may indeed be outrageous, the federal district court hearing the challenge to the Miami-Dade ordinance...
Loretta Lynch’s false claim on sex trafficking arrests
This is a story about how the language regarding the crime of sex trafficking has become so fuzzy that even the nation’s top law enforcement officer can speak before an international audience and utter wildly inflated statistics. Throughout 2015, The Fact Checker has dug into dubious statistics concerning sex trafficking, so this recent speech by Attorney General Lynch caught our eye. Lynch has taken...
IL: State sues prisoners to pay for their room, board
The $31,690 Johnny Melton received to settle a lawsuit over his mother's death was going to help him start life anew after prison. But before he was released, after 15 months in prison for a drug conviction, the Illinois Department of Corrections sued Melton and won nearly $20,000 to cover the cost of his incarceration. When Melton was paroled earlier this year, he was...
NH: Prisoner rights advocates push for audit of state’s sex offender treatment program
A group of New Hampshire lawmakers is requesting an audit of the state’s sex offender treatment program to address a purported backlog of inmates awaiting mandatory psychosexual therapy. Chris Dornin, founder of Citizens for Criminal Justice Reform-New Hampshire, said dozens of incarcerated sex offenders are currently approaching their minimum release dates but will be ineligible for parole because they haven’t yet begun treatment, which...
KY: Many ‘sex offenders’ also deserve rights restored (Opinion)
Gov. Beshear’s recent decision to restore voting rights to many felons is an encouraging step toward criminal justice reform. The governor listed a litany of reasons why ‘it makes no sense" to deny opportunities to those seeking to rebuild their lives after serving out their sentences. He cited a key study that those whose rights are restored are less likely to commit another crime....
Sue-Happy Sex Offender Frank Lindsay Throws His Latest Legal Papers at Long Beach
A San Luis Obispo County sex offender who sued Santa Ana in May 2014--and has sued several other California cities in attempts to overturn local laws targeting perverts--now has his legal team trained on Long Beach. Janice Bellucci, president of CA Reform Sex Offender Laws and Lindsay's attorney, tells the Weekly she has filed suit in federal court in Los Angeles to challenge Long...
After Sandusky wins back pension, PA senator calls for stricter forfeiture law
Jerry Sandusky might have gotten his public pension back, but one lawmaker wants to ensure taxpayers aren’t footing the bill for other sex offenders’ retirements. State Sen. Larry Farnese, D-Philadelphia, plans to introduce legislation that would bar public officials and employees from collecting retirement benefits if they’re convicted of, or plead guilty or no defense, to crimes that require registration as a sex offender...
NH: 850 convicted sex offenders eligible to petition to get off state’s criminal offenders registry
Approximately 850 convicted sex offenders and offenders against children are eligible to petition to get off the state's criminal offenders registry, after a little-noticed Supreme Court ruling earlier this year. Full Article
We’re All Offenders Who Haven’t Been Caught
That’s the question posed to the audience of mostly college students by Galen Baughman, a Soros Justice Fellow and the final speaker at the City University of New York TEDx talks at the Borough of Manhattan Community College last week. TEDx talks are known for introducing new speakers with new ideas on everything from tech, to teaching, to society — but Baughman was the...
NY: Mom Believes She Must Helicopter if Lowest-Level Sex Offenders Come Off Registry After 20 Years
FreeRange Kids: Here in my state, something wildly fair is about to happen: People who have been on the Sex Offender Registry for 20 years, who GOT ON the list for a “Level 1” non-violent sex crime like going to a prostitute, “public lewdness,” or peeing in public, are finally going to be allowed to get off it. Full Opinion Piece Lenore Skenazy is...
ME: After attacks on Bowdoin students, nearby church shuts out sex offender group
A church next to the Bowdoin College campus in Brunswick has shut down a support group for convicted sex offenders, after college officials expressed concerns. Last week, Bowdoin’s director of security, Randy Nichols, said in an email to Bowdoin’s students and staff that he had only recently learned about the group, which had been meeting every Tuesday evening for two years at the First...