Raising kids is more than just feeding and housing them. Editorials we’ve written are filled with examples of where we, as a society, have failed. Whether we are talking about how Erin Andrews was treated, sexual assault in our society, treating each other with respect or the sex offender registry, we believe all of these are tied together in the quest to raise good citizens. We also believe the sex offender registry helps keep our kids – and community – safe. Full Opinion Piece Related With sex offender issues, many…
Read MoreTag: Opinion
Juveniles Don’t Belong On The Sex Offender Registry (Opinion)
At the age of 17, Mark O. of Grand Rapids, Mich., got his then 15-year old girlfriend pregnant. Taking responsibility for his actions and agreeing to provide support, he signed the birth certificate and later married the mother of his child. His “reward” was to face charges for sexual assault and a long-term requirement that his name and photo appear on a public sex-offender registry. Full Opinion Piece
Read MoreTime has come to declare voting a universal, fundamental right
I voted today. I know. What’s the big deal, right? Most Americans exercise the privilege sorta like they wash their cars. Sometimes it’s important. Other times, whatever. And that’s all it is, you know. A privilege. Yes, it’s 2016. Yes, we talk a good game about self-government and democracy. But voting in American, unlike speech and breeding, still doesn’t rank as “fundamental” in the pantheon of rights, at least not “legally” speaking. Full Article
Read MoreThis is how to pass a bill with no facts to support it
The discussion in the U.S. House pertinent to International Megan’s Law has ended with a vote to pass the resolution under suspension of the rules. Ten legislators spoke in favor of the bill. They all threw out a lot of numbers, sometimes in conflict with each other, all designed to draw conclusions that cannot be concluded with any degree of logic. Remember that the bill is named International Megan’s Law to Prevent Child Exploitation and Other Sexual Crimes Through Advanced Notification of Traveling Sex Offenders. Child exploitation and other sexual…
Read MoreShould a 9-year-old Be Branded a Sex Offender for Life? [Opinion]
Southwestern Law School professor Catherine Carpenter put it bluntly in her new research paper, “Throwaway Children: The Tragic Consequences of a False Narrative.” “Truth be told,” she wrote, “we are afraid for our children and we are afraid of our children.” Full Article
Read MoreMy Voice: Sex registry ‘does more harm than good’ (Opinion)
As citizens, we must be aware of what is going on in our Legislature. Prison is “big business;” educate yourself as to what is really happening in our society before you demand to know where every sex offender lives. America (the land of the free) is number one for incarcerating more of its citizens than any other country. There are currently 2.2 million incarcerated citizens in the nations’ prisons and jails. There are 3,432 registered sex offenders in South Dakota. Full Opinion Piece
Read MoreLabeling sex offenders’ passports is overkill (Editorial)
Say you slept with your girlfriend when you were a senior in high school and she was a freshman. That’s enough to get you labeled a sex offender in some states. Or say you streaked across the football stadium buck naked in college, or urinated outside when you were drunk, or clicked on the photo of a naked 17-year-old. Strange as it may seem, all these “crimes” have the same punishment in the end: After serving time, doing probation and/or paying a fine, the people who committed them get on…
Read MoreWho is a sex offender? Lenore Skenazy
A guy you might be scared to meet, Galen Baughman, gave a talk at a TEDx event in New York City recently. TED is known for introducing new speakers with new ideas on everything from tech to society to teaching. But Baughman was the first presenter who happens to be on the registry. The sex offender registry, that is. His crime? He had sex with a teen when he was a teen. He was 19; his boyfriend, 14. They had sex once. It was consensual. The younger teen did not…
Read MoreEditorial: New residency restrictions help officers keep better tabs on high risk sex
The numbers are alarming. California voters thought they had locked down all sex offenders in the state, preventing them from living near where children congregated. But a change in policy spurred by a court decision has dropped that number under the state’s residency restriction from 100 percent to 24 percent. Full Article
Read MoreTX: Signs not answer to sexual assault
The passage of the recent ordinance requiring sex offenders to place a sign in their yard has generated quite a furor over how unfair this ordinance is to the offender and his or her family. Full Article
Read MoreProgram promotes healing and safety
One of the best ways to keep kids safe and away from sex offenders is to provide a network of support around them. That was the message presented Friday night by Alison Feigh, director of the Jacob Wetterling Foundation, at the Northland Arboretum. Full Article
Read MoreKY: 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. Though this signifies a significant policy shift, I am disappointed that the governor’s executive order did not go far enough. He excluded among others, those who…
Read MoreNY: 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 the author of the web blog Free-Range Kids. She was a speaker at the 2014 RSOL Conference in Dallas. My Interview in Salon about Sex Offenders…
Read MoreOH: Sex-offender registry requires reboot in Ohio and the nation: editorial
Title 1 of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006 created an all-inclusive state-by-state registry of convicted sex offenders. Known as the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act, Title 1 also attempted the impossible: to protect the public, particularly children, from convicted sexual predators who had done their time and were now back on the street. Full Article
Read MoreSex Offender Registry Laws Don’t Make As Much Sense As You’d Thought
The need for criminal justice reform has gotten a lot of attention recently, but there’s one aspect that rarely enters the conversation — sex offender registries. Online records of people convicted of sexual crimes are intended to keep everyone, especially children, safe from sexual predators — the words “sex offender,” after all, illicit the image of a violent rapist or child molester. However, just like American jails and prisons, these state registries are overcrowded and may be doing more harm than good, which is why Americans should be talking about…
Read MoreWe are all sex offenders now — Happy Halloween.
2008 – One can almost bet that a politician is, right this moment, concocting some new stupid piece of legislation. And he will crow if he manages to pass the new absurdity into law — and the more absurd it is, the more likely it is that it will pass. Consider that we are now about to enter Halloween. It is not a holiday I have ever particularly enjoyed, not even as a child. And my general response has been to ignore it. I don’t wear a costume and I…
Read MoreJustice Can Be Served Without Putting Kids Behind Bars
Last month, the Seattle City Council resolved to end the practice of putting young lawbreakers behind bars. Resolution 31614, which passed unanimously, is a commitment to “eliminate the need to detain or incarcerate youth” by cutting off the “school-to-prison pipeline” and finding alternatives to incarceration. Full Article
Read MoreWe are NEVER safe–but we CAN control our destiny. A cautionary tale from Rhode Island
We at RSOL heard the news on Monday with a sinking despair that could only be topped by the desperation clearly felt by Rhode Island’s Level III registered citizens. In June of 2015, Rhode Island legislators passed a law that would restrict all Level III’s from living within 1000 feet of any school. That’s a 700-foot increase over the previous restriction. The article reported on how registrants were in shock – although most had known this was coming – begging for more time to find a new place to live,…
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