[restorativeactionalliance.org – 9/22/20] My name is Amber Vlangas, Executive Director for the Restorative Action Alliance (RAA). As both a survivor of sexual harm, and part of a family who has been severely impacted by both the criminal legal system and public registries, I am uniquely immersed in the challenges we all face. I am excited to announce that New York Action Alliance and other northeast regional groups from CT and NJ have combined their collective efforts to become the Restorative Action Alliance, made up of volunteer leaders from varied backgrounds and…
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Women Against Registry: We Saved the Best for Last – Registry impact demonstration – YouTube livestream on Sept 24
[womenagainstregistry.org – 9/21/20] We will live stream the peaceful demonstration beginning Thursday at 8 AM Mountain time. We invite you to get your cup of coffee and by all means get dressed then join us remotely. This will be on the innocentvictims1 YouTube channel. Here is the direct link to the live stream. Be sure to check the description on the live stream page to learn the latest about any last minute changes such as a different start time or different URL for the live stream, if necessary. Read the full…
Read MoreOffenderWatch and Advocacy Nonprofit Zandoli USA Join Forces to Track Sex Offenders in the Caribbean
[prnewswire.com – 9/15/20] ARIMA, Trinidad and Tobago, Sept. 15, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — OffenderWatch the leading sex offender registry management solution for law enforcement, and the Caribbean Committee Against Sex Crimes (CCASC), an initiative of nonprofit Zandoli USA, today announced a joint mission to deliver a network of sex offender registries across the 15 nations of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) that seeks to track sex offenders throughout the Caribbean and eventually across the world. “With this partnership, we hope to deliver a comprehensive network of shared sex offender registries in all the countries of the Caribbean so that offenders are accounted for and children are saved,”…
Read MoreKamala Harris Refused To Enforce Tough Sex Offender Law While California AG
[thepatriotsreport.com – 9/13/20] Since former Vice President Joe Biden chose California Sen. Kamala Harris as his running mate, the latter has faced intense scrutiny over her controversial record as California’s attorney general. Harris’ record on sex crimes was especially awful. Nowhere is this better shown than in a 2015 legal opinion in which Harris ordered the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to stop enforcing residency restrictions that prohibited sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of schools and parks. Harris’ decision resulted in the undoing of a key provision…
Read MoreFAC: MI: Sex offender registry months out-of-date, but little action from lawmakers… so what?
[floridaactioncommittee.org – 9/14/20] A local Michigan news paper ran this story yesterday, which spoke about the state of Michigan’s sex offender registry and how out of date and inaccurate it is. Essentially, since U.S. District Judge Robert Cleland declared parts of the State’s registry unconstitutional, Michigan has not been enforcing it. That means information on 44,000 people on their list has not been updated in months. Old information still appears online, new information has not been added. And things appear to be in limbo until their legislature can pass a…
Read MoreMaxwell Monty: Parole enjoys playing Tether “Gall”
[Maxwell Monty] “You cannot ever unplug that box! You are tethered to it!” shouted my parole agent during a recent phone conversation. The referred to apparatus is the black box that was installed in my apartment to maximize connection for maintenance checks with the GPS monitor on my ankle. Frequently, the box inexplicably emits beeps. When that happens, I unplug it, and five minutes later plug it back in and reboot it to my ankle monitor. This process routinely has occurred over the past five months; and I had not…
Read MoreWomen Against Registry: Pushback Again! Sept 24 Denver demonstration to change America’s sexual offense registration laws
[womenagainstregistry.org ] Last year WAR organized a massive media campaign with a focus on Halloween the impact to registered citizens and families. That campaign went to over 9,000 outlets. The DOJ Rule 72 recommendation was released mid-August asking for public comment prior to October 13, 2020. We are concerned with the pattern that is developing to further punish our registrants and families. In Millard v Rankin, 13-cv-02406-RPM (USDC 2017), a US District Court determined Colorado’s sex offense registry laws constituted cruel and unusual punishment. But in the 10th Circuit Court…
Read MoreJill Levenson Issues New Report Regarding Life on the List
[Danielle Arlanda Harris and Jill Levenson – International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology – 9/7/20] In their recent report, “Life on ‘The List’ is a Life Lived in Fear: Post-Conviction Traumatic Stress in Men Convicted of Sexual Offenses,” [a download link is at the bottom of this post] Dr. Danielle Arlanda Harris and Dr. Jill Levenson cogently demonstrate the inherent stress for Registrants as they pursue basic needs for survival as outlined in Maslow’s Hierarchy while simultaneously combating symptoms connected to PCTS (Post-Conviction Traumatic Stress). The report also…
Read MoreIreland: Cork neighbourhood targeted by leaflet campaign accusing man of being sex offender
[corkbeo.ie – 9/4/20] A community on the northside of Cork city were targeted overnight by a vigilante leafleting campaign in which a man was accused of being a sex offender. Leaflets featuring a photograph and a name were left on cars overnight in the vicinity, with locals speaking of their distress when they discovered them this Friday morning. There have been several instances of the leaflets being left along a number of streets in the neighbourhood. Read the full story
Read MoreKat’s Blog: The Registry: If It’s Not Punishment, Then What Is It?
We’re tired of hearing that the registry isn’t punishment. Tired of “it’s for public safety” rhetoric that politicians use to keep the public in a constant state of fear, fanning the flames of hatred and depicting anyone on the registry as a violent, predatory monster. The registry is punishment. The courts know it. Registrants know it. Families, friends, spouses and children of registrants know it. The registry protects no one. There is nothing remotely “safe” or public friendly about the registry. It was disturbing to read that in Kansas, the…
Read MoreKS: Court opinion affirms states’ authority to require sex offender registries
[stjosephpost.com – 8/24/20] TOPEKA – A ruling by the United States Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit has reaffirmed the authority of states to maintain sex offender registries to inform the public and rejected the claim that registries are a form of punishment, Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt said Monday. The appellate ruling last week reversed a 2017 lower court decision striking down the Colorado sex offender registry as unconstitutional. The case involved a claim brought by three individuals against the director of the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. “While…
Read MoreJuvenile Law Center Report Advocates End of Youth Registration
[jlc.org – 8/13/20] The Juvenile Law Center released today a comprehensive report focused upon individuals who are currently required to register due to their conviction for a sex offense that was committed when they were children. According to that report, there are more than 200,000 such individuals including people who were convicted when they were only 8 years old. The report points out that children on sex offender registries are four times more likely to report a recent suicide attempt as compared to their peers. The same children face residency…
Read MoreAL: CCBOE approves policy for low risk juvenile sex offenders
[cullmantimes.com – 8/15/20] The Cullman County School Board has approved a new board policy that will allow the superintendent and school administrators to know the names of students in the system who are low risk sex offenders. The policy was approved during Thursday night’s meeting to bring the system in line with Annalyn’s Law, which was passed by the state in 2018 and requires local law enforcement to notify school system’s when a low risk juvenile sex offender is enrolled in one of its schools. Learning Support Specialist Karen Pinion shared some of…
Read MoreTN: Win in Tennessee – District Court Denies State’s Motion to Dismiss and Grants Injunction on Ex Post Facto Grounds
[floridaactioncommittee.org – 8/10/20] A Tennessee Federal District Court last week denied the State’s Motion to Dismiss and ordered an injunction preventing them from enforcing the sex offender registry against an individual whose offense pre-dated the enactment of the ordinance. The best part of this case was that the court based its opinion on Ex Post Facto grounds! Read the full article Link to PDF of the decision [eagle.com]
Read MoreUK: Online naming and shaming ‘threatening offender rehabilitation’
[bailiwickexpress.com – 8/4/20] Some sex offenders undergoing rehabilitation have lost their jobs, and risk losing their accommodation, after a list of their names and past crimes was posted online, putting pressure on the Police and Probation Services. According to Detective Superintendent Stewart Gull, the recent spate of ‘naming and shaming’ local offenders online after their sentences have been carried out is posing serious problems for their ability to reintegrate into the community. He told Express he is aware of more than 10 individuals – and, in some cases, their families…
Read MoreMI: Michigan’s top court kills lawsuit by wrongly imprisoned man
[washingtontimes.com – 7/30/20] DETROIT (AP) – The Michigan Supreme Court has stopped a man from suing the state after he spent more than a year in prison for a crime that wasn’t a crime. The man was behind bars for 17 months for failing to provide accurate information for Michigan’s sex offender registry. The Corrections Department then discovered that he actually wasn’t required to register. The man sued the state, arguing that his constitutional rights were violated. The Supreme Court heard arguments in April but dropped the case in a…
Read MoreKat’s Blog: County Commissioner Seeks A New Kind of Registry in Florida
The County Commissioner in Brevard County, Florida has put this rather odd item on next week’s County Commission agenda. County Commissioner John Tobias is apparently not satisfied with the current state residency statute for those convicted of certain sexual offenses. The existing 1,000 ft. restriction of registrants from schools, daycares and playgrounds doesn’t seem to be “safe enough” for him. The Commissioner has proposed an ordinance that would also restrict registrants from certain businesses, an “expansion of the buffer zone” if you will. Those businesses that are willing, can “voluntarily”…
Read MoreSheriff and Deputy Magazine: Big data software helps allocate resources to managing sex offender registry
[poffenderwatch.com – 5/30/18] [ACSOL is publishing this older article to reveal the inner workings of registrant categorizing software that may affect you] Excerpt from the article: FOCUS [software] uses complex predictive analytics to ana1yze more than 100 different risk factors on more than 1,000 variables found in a sex offender’s record, as well as other state, federal, and commercial data sources. The analysis then assigns a 1 to 10 score to each registered offender, with 10 signaling a higher likelihood to reoffend. For example, offenders who move multiple times…
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