New state law aims to limit where California judges place violent sex offenders out on conditional release

A state law signed by Gov. Jerry Brown this week would make it harder for violent sex offenders released under a court’s conditions to live in counties where they have no work or family ties. Assembly Bill 255 will require judges to consider additional factors, such as residential, family or employment connections, when weighing where to release offenders who fall under the Sexually Violent Predator Program. Full Article

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Accepting that others can change is often difficult

Many residents hearing about a sexually violent predator possibly being released from a state hospital to Lincoln want to prevent that move. Having a sex offender living nearby is scary. We want to keep family members safe and protect them from anyone who is dangerous. But how can parents do that if they’re living next to someone who committed horrendous crimes on innocent victims, oftentimes children who can’t defend themselves? Full Article Also see Criminal controversy

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California’s laws test whether sexual predators can ever be rehabilitated

At the foot of a fence around a small house in the desert, a protester cleared her throat. She wanted to scream loud enough for the man inside to hear. “Raaaaaapist!” she shouted. “Go away, rapist!” “No one in this world loves you,” her friend yelled. “You are a sexually violent predator!” The shrieks were met with silence from the white, two-bedroom home outside Palmdale where ____ _____ ____ has lived since his 2014 release from a California mental hospital. Full Article

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Sex offender kicked out of Vallejo motel after outcry

A violent sex offender released from a psychiatric hospital last month and forced to live as a transient was kicked out of a motel in Vallejo this week amid public outcry, including critical statements from local police and city officials. _____ _____ ____, 51, who committed five sexual assaults over 15 years, was evicted Wednesday from the Motel 6 on Enterprise Street after police and residents discovered he had been secretly placed there, Vallejo officials said Thursday. “It appears that Motel 6 did not know that they had rented a…

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State Legislation Would Require SVP’s to Reside Near Police Departments

A state Assembly bill would, if enacted into law, require anyone deemed a sexually violent predator (SVP) to live within 10 miles of a “permanent physical police or sheriff’s station”. That bill is AB 262 which was introduced by Tom Lackey, who is a Republican member of the state legislature representing Palmdale and a former CHP officer. “The public needs to be protected from individuals who currently pose a current threat to public safety,” stated CA RSOL president Janice Bellucci. “However, this legislation is written too broadly because it would…

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State audit faults evaluations of sexually violent predators

The state auditor released a report Thursday criticizing the Department of State Hospitals’ evaluation system for determining whether  prisoners due for parole or psychiatric patients being held at Coalinga State Hospital are sexually violent predators. The audit found that evaluations of current and potential “SVPs” are inconsistent, and that there is no standard protocol used to determine whether those being assessed meet the criteria for confinement. The audit also found that evaluators lack clinical supervision and training, and that Coalinga has a “significant backlog” of annual evaluations that violates the rights…

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Steep cost to house sex offenders

Sometime before Oct. 24, if all goes according to plan, ____ ____ will move into a rented three-bedroom home on five acres in the backcountry community of Campo — a move that will be unwelcome by neighbors, closely watched by a team of experts, and expensive to taxpayers. _____, 58, is the most recent sexually violent predator to win release from a state hospital to live on his own, but under supervision. It won’t come cheap, either: the state Department of Hospitals said that the average cost for supervision of sexually violent…

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