Source: wpri.com 5/16/24 The YMCA of Greater Providence (GPYMCA) fired an employee earlier this month after learning she allowed a registered sex offender on the premises. The former employee worked for the aquatics program at the Cranston branch and the sex offender is her fiancé, GPYMCA CEO Karen Santilli told 12 News on Thursday. Watch the video
Read MoreTag: Rhode Island
RI: Many people in the leadership of Warwick, Rhode Island see no benefit from the residency restrictions
Source: warwickonline.com 3/23/23 Although the news might not sit well with some parents, the Warwick Police Department says that the elimination of residency restrictions for Level III sex offenders does not pose a danger to students at local schools. “I do not believe that the elimination of the 1,000’ law will add any more risk to the community,” said Chief Bradford Connor. A 300-foot restriction was introduced in 1996, which was expanded to a 1,000 foot radius in a law approved by the General Assembly and signed by Gov. Gina…
Read MoreRI: Federal judge rules sex offender residency law is unconstitutional
Source: turnto10.com 3/17/23 A state law that makes it a crime for Level 3 sex offenders to live within 1,000 feet of a school was ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge on Thursday. The American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island challenged the statue when it was first enacted in 2015, and it’s been subject to a preliminary injunction barring its enforcement since then. Currently in Rhode Island, state law says sex offenders are barred from living within 300 feet of a school. In the wake of Thursday’s ruling, it…
Read MoreRI: Shunned wherever he goes, sex offender greeted by protests in Lincoln
In the short time that ____ has been out of prison, he has moved to Providence, then to Cranston and now to a small house off Cobble Hill Road in Lincoln — where more than 40 protesters gathered Wednesday night to shout demands and insults at his house. Soon after nightfall Wednesday, the street filled with more than more 40 protesters, many of them accepting an invitation to move onto the snow-covered lawn of ____ neighbor. They shouted toward the sex offender’s front door a short distance away. Full Article
Read MoreRI: Lawmaker hopes to expand Megan’s Law to include crimes that predate it
One local lawmaker is pushing for sexual predators found guilty of crimes decades ago to be treated the same way as those convicted more recently. The push comes after convicted child molester ____ ____ moved to Cranston at the beginning of the month. Since his crime pre-dates Megan’s Law, which led to the creation of the sex offender registry, residents weren’t notified of his arrival or address. Full Article
Read MoreRI: After prison, more punishment
[washingtonpost.com – 9/3/19] PROVIDENCE, R.I. — He had spent 17 of his 46 years behind bars, locked in a pattern of addiction and crime that led to 16 prison terms. Now, Meko Lincoln pushed a cart of cleaning supplies at the reentry house to which he had been paroled in December, determined to provide for his grandchildren in a way he failed to do as a father. “Keep on movin’, don’t stop,” Lincoln sang, grooving to the British R&B group Soul II Soul on his headphones as he emptied trash…
Read MoreRI: Concrete thrown at Rhode Island sex offender’s home
Police say someone threw a piece of concrete through the window of a registered sex offender’s home in Providence, Rhode Island. The vandalism occurred at the home of Richard Gardner at around 10:30 p.m. Saturday. Gardner was convicted of multiple child rapes in the 1980s and 1990s in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. Residents protested Gardner for weeks after he moved into the neighborhood last year following his release from prison. Full Article Also see RI: City Officials Stoke Mob Mentality in Front of Sex Offender’s Home RI: Judge dismisses charge against sex…
Read MoreRI: Judge dismisses charge against sex offender
Recent misdemeanor charges against ____ ____, a registered sex offender who caused a stir among neighbors when he moved to Providence last month, were dismissed Monday in District Court. Full Article Related Statement by RI ACLU
Read MoreRI: City Officials Stoke Mob Mentality in Front of Sex Offender’s Home
When _____ _____ , a convicted child sex offender, was released from prison after serving almost 30 years, he quietly moved into the Washington Park neighborhood in Providence. One would not have expected a welcome wagon — but an angry mob should not have been the result either. Because his crimes were committed so long ago, Gardner is not subject to the community notification provisions that apply to more recent offenders under the state’s Megan’s Law. But the police leaked his address to public officials, and a media circus ensued.…
Read MoreRI: 4 Cranston residents concerned about sex offenders, criminally insane living nearby
[abc6.com 4/30/18] CRANSTON, R.I. (WLNE) — Cranston East High School hosted a forum Monday night that many feel is long overdue, about a growing list of unwanted neighbors for those who live along Roosevelt and Pontiac Avenues. “With Cranston being the receiving community of not only sex offenders but now the criminally insane, our residents need to be aware of it,” said Rep. Robert Lancia. Since 2012, the sex offender population at Harrington Hall on Howard Ave has been steadily growing–now hovering around 30. “If you go hang out with…
Read MoreRI: My Turn: John R. Grasso: Destroying lives for childish mistakes
[providencejournal.com 4/18/18] Quicksand. That’s what the Internet is for young people. It looks like solid ground but it isn’t. It blends into the surroundings as though it was always there but it wasn’t. The Internet has developed much quicker than our children’s adaptation to it. They have the technology figured out but they do not recognize the dangers. Their parents lag far behind while the police are in hot pursuit. The Barrington Times reported the arrest of two teenagers, a boy and a girl. Both 14 years old. Police charged…
Read MoreRI: Letter: Leo Carroll: Base sex offender laws on facts rather than myths [opinion]
[providencejournal.com] Two decades of research regarding the effects of sex offender laws have produced no evidence that such laws achieve their stated purposes. A recent review of research on community notification and residency restriction laws in the Oxford Handbook of Sex Offences and Sex Offenders concludes that such legislation is “misinformed and simply incorrect.” These laws are knee-jerk reactions to hysteria fueled by media narratives of sensational but exceptional tragedies; they are based on myths rather than facts. The first myth is that sex offenders are strangers, when in fact…
Read MoreRI: Crossroads will continue to shelter homeless sex offenders as lawsuit plays out
[providencejournal.com] PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Crossroads Rhode Island will continue to take in sex offenders at a homeless shelter in Cranston under an agreement between the parties to a lawsuit challenging a new state law that limits the number of convicted sex offenders who can be housed in homeless shelters. The parties met in chambers Wednesday afternoon with U.S. District Court Chief Judge William E. Smith. According to Lynette Labinger, a lawyer for the state affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union, which brought the lawsuit, Judge Smith recognized that there…
Read MoreRI: Lawsuit seeks to block R.I. law limiting number of sex offenders in homeless shelters
[providencejournal.com] PROVIDENCE, R.I. — An advocacy group for the homeless is asking a federal judge to block a Rhode Island law set to go into effect Monday that limits the number of convicted sex offenders who can stay at Rhode Island homeless shelters. In a lawsuit against the state filed Friday in U.S. District Court, lawyers representing the Rhode Island Homeless Advocacy Project and six registered sex offenders argue that the law passed in September is unconstitutional and violates the Americans with Disabilities Act. The suit asks for an injunction…
Read MoreRI: Assembly OKs Bill Alerting Parents to Sex Offenders Living Near Bus Stops
The Rhode Island General Assembly passed legislation introduced by Senate Majority Leader Michael J. McCaffrey (D-Dist. 29, Warwick) and Rep. Joseph J. Solomon Jr. (D-Dist. 22, Warwick) that would mandate the notification of parents of schoolchildren when sex offenders are living near school bus stops. Full Article
Read MoreRI: Law would bar high-risk sex offenders from living in motels
A Rhode Island lawmaker is co-sponsoring a bill that would limit how long level III sex offenders can live in hotels and motels. Full Article
Read MoreRI: Critics of new residency law say it’s dangerous to remove sex offenders from stable living situations
WOONSOCKET – One the few shelters for homeless men in Northern Rhode Island will continue to admit Level 3 sex offenders until the federal court in Providence decides whether it is unlawful to do so. “We’re not looking to bring them in, but if they show up, we’ll take them in,” said Steve Bacon, associate pastor of Harvest Community Church, 60 North Main St. “If the law changes we’ll abide by the law.” In a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, a U.S. District Court judge on Friday…
Read MoreRI: Federal judge orders temporary halt to enforcement of relocation law for R.I. sex offenders
PROVIDENCE — Enforcement of a newly revised state law that prohibits high-risk sex offenders from living within 1,000 feet of a school has been temporarily blocked by U.S. District Court Judge John J. McConnell. On Friday afternoon, McConnell granted a restraining order allowing Level III sex offenders who live within 1,000 feet of a school in Rhode Island to stay in their homes for at least a little longer. McConnell’s action bars the attorney general’s office and the Department of Correction from enforcing the law. Previously, they could not live…
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