Source: chronicletimes.com 8/31/23 Officials with the Iowa Department of Correctional Services have expressed concern over a disproportionate share of sex offenders from the Civil Commitment Unit for Sex Offenders being discharged in Cherokee and surrounding counties. Maureen Hansen, director of the DOCS’s third judicial district, told the Buena Vista County Board of Supervisors last month a “concerning development” is CCUSO patient discharges to the area “where they otherwise wouldn’t be connected.” Hansen acknowledged to the supervisors some of the patients that have either been discharged or nearing discharge from the…
Read MoreTag: Iowa
IA: Higher reimbursement rates now available for sex offender nursing home units
Source: radioiowa.com 6/6/34 A new law requires the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services to come up with a formula to raise the Medicaid reimbursement rate for Iowa nursing homes that accept registered sex offenders. The higher reimbursement would only be available to nursing homes that establish a separate unit for sex offenders. “This is a growing need in our state,” Representative Joel Fry, a Republican from Osceola, said during House debate of the plan. “I’ve been working on this for a number of years, so we will hopefully…
Read MoreACSOL Action Alert: Comment online TODAY (Jan 31) to oppose Iowa bill HF77, which forces registrants who have completed their registration requirements to renew their registration requirements
All registrants nationwide, and especially Iowa registrants and supporters, please act today to oppose Iowa bill HF77. We must do this TODAY, before its hearing TOMORROW, February 1! As you can see by this link, it says, “requiring sex offenders whose registration requirements have expired to reregister, and making penalties applicable”. This would make lifetime registration for all registrants! Please be a warrior for justice to help our fellow Iowa registrants! It’s easy. Click here to make a quick comment today to oppose this cruel, vindictive bill. Some points you…
Read MoreIA: Sex offender claims state forced castration
Source: stormlake.com 1/24/23 A patient at the Cherokee Civil Commitment Unit for Sex Offenders has demanded $2.25 million from the state for damages including “forced castration” that was inflicted after an improperly close relationship with a CCUSO psychologist. Jeff ____ has requested $1.5 million for “pain and suffering” and an additional $750,000 for punitive damages from the relationship, which has been described in court documents as an “emotional affair” that included sexual discussions. In a Jan. 12 filing in Cherokee County District Court, ____’s attorney, Brad Schroeder of Des Moines,…
Read MoreIA: Sheriff spreads lies about why registrants have lower recidivism rate
Source: qctimes.com 10/29/22 Compliance checks on Scott County registered sex offenders were held Oct. 23, 24, 25 and 26 that led to the arrest of 10 people for registration violations and investigations into seven others, Scott County Sheriff Tim Lane said. … “The ultimate goal of the registry is to eliminate recidivism,” he added. “The recidivism rate for sex offenders is actually lower than it is for other crimes. I attribute that to the hard work of the Sheriff’s Department and the Iowa Department of Corrections.” Read the full article…
Read MoreIA: Former Iowa City schools counselor awarded $12 million after being wrongfully imprisoned for 6 years for sex offense
Source: press-citizen.com 9/30/22 Donald Clark won $12 million in a lawsuit he filed against the state of Iowa on Thursday, years after being exonerated and released from prison on false charges that he sexually abused a student while working as an Iowa City elementary school counselor. A jury awarded Clark $8 million in past emotional distress damages and $4 million for future damages after he spent six years in prison starting in 2010. He was released in 2016 when his conviction was vacated. That year, the court found that his…
Read MoreIA: New advocacy group emerging in Iowa
Source: floridaactioncommittee.org 1/5/22 My name is Heather Wagner, and I’m a new Iowa contact for NARSOL. I have a passion for fighting the injustices surrounding those who have committed a sex crime, as well as the unfair laws forced upon our Registered Citizens (aka “Sex Offenders”). I have been an advocate on this topic for nearly three years, lending my voice as the first to speak on a sex crime with the criminal justice group FAMM (Families Against Mandatory Minimums) this past May. I have attached my work under my salutation, if interested…
Read MoreIA: Iowa Supreme Court says State has ‘no duty’ to end what sex offenders call ‘silent mandatory minimum’
Source: desmoinesregister.com 12/7/21 Do prisoners have a right to be paroled? And if so, do they have a right to access programming required to be eligible for parole? As a new decision from the Iowa Supreme Court shows, there’s no easy answer to either question. The court’s ruling, issued before Thanksgiving, denied an effort by seven Iowa prisoners to challenge what they described in court filings as a “Catch-22” that forces some inmates to wait far longer than others to complete their sentences. The issue before the court involved Iowa’s…
Read MoreIowa: Sex offender from Iowa arrested after failing to register phone number
Source: villages-news.com 11/30/21 A sex offender from Iowa was arrested after failing to register his phone number with local authorities. Read the full article
Read MoreIA: Supreme Court upholds prison sex offender treatment process
Source: radioiowa.com 11/24/21 The Iowa Supreme Court rules against a group of inmates at the Newton prison who said their constitutional rights were violated by a delay in getting sex offender treatment need to be considered for parole. The ruling says the Iowa Department of Corrections has not postponed treatment in order to delay parole. It says it is a numbers problem where there are more male sex offenders in Iowa’s prison system than spots available for treatment. Read the full article
Read MoreIA: Audit says employee at Iowa sex offense treatment unit falsified husband’s work hours to collect more than $50,000
[msn.com – 6/2/21] Iowa’s sex offense treatment facility is facing questions over falsified time card records said to have netted an employee and her husband more than $52,000 in unearned income. For more than a year, the administrative assistant manipulated records to show her husband — a part-time employee of the facility — was working at times he wasn’t, according to an investigation released Wednesday by the state auditor’s office. Over about 18 months, Renae Rapp was able to orchestrate at least $52,618.19 in excessive pay for her husband, Adam,…
Read MoreIA: Hall convicted for prison murder
[messengernews.net – 5/21/21] It took a Webster County jury a little over two hours to decide that vigilante justice has no place in the American criminal justice system. The jury convicted Eric Todd Hall, 45, of first-degree murder for the death of his fellow Fort Dodge Correctional Facility inmate Thomas Daleske on Thursday afternoon. Hall was accused of killing Daleske, 59, in the victim’s cell at the FDCF on June 14, 2020. Daleske was found unresponsive in his cell in the Grove Unit of the prison around 5:15 p.m. on…
Read MoreIA: Iowa Capitol Digest: Lawmakers discuss the sex offender registry, traffic speed and housing
[nonpareilonline.com – 3/18/21] The Senate Judiciary Committee advanced legislation that would require any individual on a sex offender registry in another state who moves to Iowa to be placed on Iowa’s sex offender registry for as long as they are required in the other state, or by Iowa law, whichever is longer. Sen. Zach Whiting, R-Spirit Lake, said state law enforcement officials expressed concern that some individuals may have moved to Iowa in order to avoid other states’ registry requirements. House File 201 already passed the House, 88-0, and is…
Read MoreIA: No place for an old sex offender but Marathon
[stormlake.com – 2/18/21] An elderly sex offender from Marathon was removed from the Iowa Sex-Offender Registry on Tuesday so he can eventually end up in a nursing home, a development that “outraged” a former state senator whose last major proposal was to establish a geriatric sex-offender unit in Algona. Buena Vista County District Court Judge David Lester ruled on Tuesday Edward _____, 83, satisfied the state’s requirements to be removed from the registry. He’s been out of prison for more than five years; a Department of Corrections director in Sioux…
Read MoreIA: Arizona man who threatened Iowa lawmakers sentenced
[ap.org – 2/1/21] DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An Arizona man who threatened to shoot Iowa lawmakers over his frustration with a failed attempt to change Iowa’s sex offender registry law has been sentenced to five years in prison. ____, also identified as ____ in court records, was sentenced Friday in Des Moines’ federal court, the Des Moines Register reported. ____was arrested in December 2019 and convicted by a jury in September of interstate communication of a threat. ____sent emails to state Sen. Herman Quirmbach saying he was “angry enough…
Read MoreIA: Iowa Supreme Court rules requiring sex offenders to report social media presence is not a First Amendment violation
The Iowa Supreme Court ruled Friday that requiring sex offenders to disclose their social media identities and other digital information does not violate their free speech rights. Five of the seven justices agreed that the requirement, part of the state’s sex offender registry, was put in place a decade ago to protect children and victims from possible abuse but was not a “proxy for content regulations.” Justice Thomas Waterman’s opinion emphasized that sex offenders aren’t required to disclose their passwords and aren’t prevented from participating in social media. Full Article Opinion
Read MoreIA: Bill to Require Continued Registration
… One area I have been working on in past years has to do with requiring sex offenders that have timed out of their requirement to register as a sex offender to continue to register once with the county sheriff when they have moved to a new address. This would apply to sex offenders that have moved within Iowa, or moved into Iowa from another state. Past Iowa Supreme Court precedent has regarded this type of requirement to be applied retroactively as a regulation, not a punishment. It is imperative…
Read MoreIA: Civil Commitment of Sex Offenders Survives Court Challenge
A nearly six-year-old lawsuit challenging Iowa’s program for keeping sex offenders confined after they serve their prison terms has been dismissed by a federal judge in Sioux City. U.S. District Court Judge Mark Bennett ruled against patients in the Civil Commitment Unit for Sexual Offenders, or CCUSO, housed at the Mental Health Institute in Cherokee. Full Article
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