[sfchronicle.com – 1/9/20] Legislators will consider changes to the state’s sex offender registration policies in response to revelations that deceased financier and New Mexico ranch owner Jeffrey Epstein was allowed to avoid registering locally as a sex offender following a guilty plea a decade ago in Florida Epstein was accused of abusing young women at his desert ranch outside the community of Stanley before his death last year behind bars. Democratic New Mexico state Rep. Matthew McQueen of Galisteo said Thursday that he has filed a bill that would automatically…
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TX: Family says they’re being targeted due to criminal past
[kens5.com – 1/6/20] Obscene symbols and hateful words fill the walls outside a San Antonio home. The messages are directed at the registered sex offender who lives in the house. Watch the video
Read MorePA: Five Cases Could Significantly Reform Pennsylvania’s Sex Offense Registry. The State’s Attorney General Is Pushing Back
[theappeal.org – 1/7/20] Josh Shapiro has warned that changing the state’s sex offense registry requirements threatens public safety. But experts say his fears are unfounded and the registry provides little to no public safety benefit. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court is expected to rule on five cases this year that could change how the state treats people convicted of sex offenses, and could ease the state’s sex offense registry restrictions, commonly referred to as Megan’s Law. But in a December opinion piece, state Attorney General Josh Shapiro warned that if the…
Read MoreIreland: Laws to protect sex offenders’ identities must be considered, says outgoing probation chief
[irishtimes.com – 1/1/20] Ireland should consider introducing privacy laws to protect the identities of sex offenders being released back into the community, the outgoing director of the Probation Service believes. Such laws, which are in place in several other countries, would prevent the public naming of offenders in the media and would aid in their rehabilitation and therefore reduce the risk of re-offending, Vivian Geiran said. “I certainly think there is a case to be made for that,” Mr Geiran said in an interview ahead of his retirement after seven…
Read MoreDominica island: BPW calls for a sex offenders registry in Dominica
[loopslu.com – 12/31/19] The Dominica chapter of Business and Professional Women (BPW) is working with other women’s rights groups across the region, to ensure that dreams of a sex offenders registry on the nature isle, is realized. President of BPW Dominica, Rhoda St. John, said “We are working with a number of Caribbean islands where we’re going to be looking at getting the sex offenders registries implemented not only in Dominica, but in as many of the Caribbean islands as we can in 2020.” The aim, she said is to…
Read MoreTX: Texas Sex Offender Registry Upheld by Fifth Circuit
[bloomberglaw.com – 12/17/19] The Texas Sex Offender Registration Program, which requires sex offenders to make in person reports and restricts housing options, doesn’t violate the U.S. Constitution by depriving registrants of due process, the Fifth Circuit ruled. An individual convicted of a sex crime in a trial or plea agreement has received the minimum protections required by due process, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit said Dec. 16. Secondary harms to registrants, such as finding housing, aren’t direct infringements by the state, the court said. The court…
Read MoreKat’s Blog: Will Pennsylvania Ruling Begin the Domino Effect We Need?
Pennsylvania’s “Sex Offender” Registry is headed for what some are calling a life-or-death battle in the PA Supreme Court. The registry, in existence for nearly a quarter of a century, enacted as part of Megan’s Law, a law giving the public a false sense of security by allowing them access to know who and where “sex offenders” lived in their communities, is about to be challenged. A challenge that we can only hope will either begin putting the registry to death or at the very least, let it be picked…
Read MoreTN: Justice Department Announces More than $376 Million in Awards to Promote Public Safety
[justice.gov – 12/4/10] $5,528,132 Will Support Crime-Fighting Efforts in the Western District of Tennessee MEMPHIS – The Department of Justice today announced that it has awarded more than $376 million in grant funding to enhance state, local and tribal law enforcement operations and reinforce public safety efforts in jurisdictions across the United States. $5,528,132 will support public safety activities in the Western District of Tennessee. The awards were made by the Department’s Office of Justice Programs. “Crime and violence hold families, friends and neighborhoods hostage, and they rip communities apart,”…
Read MoreUPDATED: 50-State Chart on Relief from Sex Offender Registration 11-21-2019
[ccresourcecenter.org – 11/21/19] We [Collateral Consequences Resource Center] have completed an overhaul of our 50-State chart on relief from sex offender registration obligations, to bring it up to date and ensure that it is thorough and accurate. This chart documents the duration of sex offender registration requirements, as well as legal mechanisms for early termination from such requirements. In conducting this review, we have identified a handful of states that have, since the chart was last revised in November 2017, expanded the availability of relief from sex offender registration requirements, including…
Read MoreWhy there is no national domestic assault offender registry – yet
[foxnews.com – 11/30/19] It was a murder so brutal – and one that continues to haunt law enforcement in the quiet community of Osceola County, Florida. … For those like Gibson, who are tasked with safeguarding the most vulnerable in the community, it has raised the question as to what more the justice system should and could be doing to support victims of domestic violence. Namely, why there has been little headway made to establish a national registry for those convicted of domestic violence crimes – similar to the SORNA…
Read MoreNigeria launches first sex offender register
[theguardian.com/ – 11/25/19] Campaigners have hailed the launch of Nigeria’s first sex offender register as a vital step towards tackling reported cases of sexual abuse, which are rising across the country. The publicly accessible onlineregister of people prosecuted for sexual violence since 2015 will allow public bodies and police authorities to conduct background checks and identify repeat offenders. Oluwaseun Osowobi, the director of Stand To End Rape, a Nigerian non-government organisation that supports survivors of sexual violence, said: “If a case is reported anywhere in the country, the case is…
Read MoreSupreme Court Won’t Weigh Curbing U.S. Agency Powers
[bloomberglaw.com – 11/25/19] The U.S. Supreme Court refused Nov. 25 to once again consider whether Congress is disregarding a long-held legal doctrine and giving too much power to federal agencies. Last term a short-handed Supreme Court refused to reinvigorate the “non-delegation doctrine,” which prohibits lawmakers from effectively passing off their legislative authority to another branch of government. The doctrine was used to upend New Deal legislation in the 1930s, but has been dormant since. Conservatives and libertarians eager to dismantle the so-called administrative state are eager for the court to…
Read MoreCA: CASOMB Reports Significant Increase in Number of Registrants
[ACSOL] The number of individuals required to register as a sex offender in the state of California continues to grow rapidly, according to the CA Sex Offender Management Board. The current number of registrants in the state is 108,970, an increase of about one thousand people in only five months. “The rapid growth in the number of registrants in California must stop,” stated ACSOL Executive Director Janice Bellucci. “A significant part of this growth is made up of individuals convicted of offenses involving unlawful images, including teens who are viewing…
Read MoreNJ: Registered Forever: NJ Offenders Fight for Reprieve
[courthousenews.com – 11/18/19] TRENTON, N.J. (CN) — A lawyer for New Jersey urged the state Supreme Court on Monday for a strict reading of a law that lets registered sex offenders off the registry so long as they keep a clean record for 15 years. “Conviction means what we say it does, and that’s the conviction that triggers Megan’s Law,” said Special Deputy Attorney General Frank DuCoat, referencing the 1994 law enacted after 7-year-old Megan Kanka was raped and murdered by a neighbor who had already been convicted twice for…
Read MoreSurvey of Veterans on the Registry
[Approved by Janice] To: military veterans who are on the sex offense registry Emily Horowitz, Ph.D. Professor & Chair, Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice Co-Director, Post-Prison Education Program St. Francis College 180 Remsen Street Brooklyn, NY 11201 | 718-489-5446 | [email protected] November 15, 2019 Dear Veterans, First, we want to thank you for serving our country. We are seeking military veterans who are on the sex offense registry to participate in a research project titled: Veterans with Sex Offense Convictions: A Preliminary Investigation. The research is being conducted by…
Read MoreCanada: Calls for public sex offender registry in Canada [video]
[ctvnews.ca – 11/11/19] Why isn’t Canada’s sex offender registry viewable by the public like in the U.S.? Watch the video
Read MoreNJ: New Jersey could soon compensate those wrongfully put on sex offender list
[nj.com – 11/7/19] Dion Harrell spent two decades on New Jersey’s sex offender registry. He had trouble finding a job. He couldn’t be alone with his kids. For a time, he was homeless. But when a DNA test finally proved his innocence, the state had nothing to offer him for those years. “I was surprised I wouldn’t get compensation,” Harrell said at a hearing in Trenton Thursday. If you can prove that you were wrongfully imprisoned in New Jersey, you can receive up to $50,000 for every year spent behind…
Read MoreKat’s Blog: Will Vagueness Take Down the Registry?
It’s well known, nothing is clear cut when it comes to the registry. The rules and regulations may vary slightly from state to state, but the vagueness with which these regulations were conceived and are enforced, is the same all over. Take Halloween for instance. In my neck of the woods, every year registrants were given letters by their P.O.’s or sent letters from the registry office outlining the do’s and don’ts of Halloween. Some years there were curfews and restrictions on outside Fall Decorations. There were warnings to keep…
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