Saturday, April 30, 2016

MD: Progress can be made with sex offenders, say therapists

It’s often portrayed on television and in movies, and at times in the past stated as fact in local courtrooms, that the recidivism rates for child molesters are higher than that of any other criminal category.

"Not so," said Leilah Gilligan, senior manager for the Center for Sex Offender Management in Silver Spring, Maryland.

“In fact, they’re lower than most people think,” she said.

Read more

TX: Hays Co. conducts compliance check on registered sex offenders

There are thousands of registered sex offenders in Central Texas -- 445 sex offenders in Williamson County, nearly 1,600 sex offenders in Travis County and 268 registered offenders in Hays County.

In order to find out if registered sex offenders are living in your neighborhood all you have to do is type in your zip code on the Texas Department of Public Safety website. But investigators say they are not always living where they say they are.

Read more

Internet Identifiers and the constitution - Florida Action Committee

How America treats its sex offenders is deeply, morally complex - Florida Action Committee

Thursday, April 28, 2016

David Post: In a single day, the Kansas Supreme Court issues important constitutional opinions — and overrules them - Florida Action Committee

Hastert Gets 15 Months in Prison - Florida Action Committee

FL: Proposed bill requires landlords to notify tenants if registered sex offenders work on property - Florida Action Committee

Proposed bill requires landlords to notify tenants if registered sex offenders work on property - Florida Action Committee

KS: In a single day, the Kansas Supreme Court issues important constitutional opinions — and ...

Thompson — holding that Kansas's Offender Registration Act, requiring anyone previously convicted of various violent felonies, drug crimes or sex ...

AU: Violent offenders to be housed in new $54m secure facility

Currently only serious sex offenders assessed as an unacceptable risk to ... facility for offenders with a disability or serious mental health issues.

Nenshi calls Uber 'dicks,' says sex offenders can pass screening process

Nenshi calls Uber 'dicks,' says sex offenders can pass screening process ... in October, over insurance and driver screening, among other issues.

National: Tom Delay, others defend Dennis Hastert in letters to court

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/04/dennis-hastert-tom-delay-letters-court-sentencing-222344

“Today there are over eight hundred thousand individuals in the United States on sex offender registries. Some, like Mr. Hastert, committed heinous crimes against multiple victims, but others committed non-violent, one-time offenses, yet are being punished for life as a consequence of the harshly punitive laws that Mr. Hastert passed,” wrote Gail Colletta of the Florida Action Committee.

“As you consider the appropriate sentence for Mr. Hastert, I sincerely hope you will keep in mind the 800,000 other victims of Mr. Hastert’s, who are serving decades, if not a lifetime under ineffective and unduly harsh laws that were passed as a result of his hypocritical and self-serving actions,” Colletta added.

Thursday, April 21, 2016

Pasco to hold meeting regarding Residency Restrictions - Florida Action Committee

Monday, April 18, 2016

ReFORM Alabama's Sex Offender Laws!: Alabama pastor wins round in freedom of religion l...

ReFORM Alabama's Sex Offender Laws!: Alabama pastor wins round in freedom of religion l...: It is a small victory. The battle is far from over. http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2016/04/alabama_pastor_wins_round_in_f.html Alaba...

This Is How 8th Graders Could Become Registered Sex Offenders

Young teens may be charged with child pornography and required to register as sex offenders for their involvement in a Colorado sexting scandal.

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Teen Vigilantes Murder Man They Mistook For Pedophile

National: Judge Won't Block Passport Marker Law Involving Sex Crimes

Associated Press via ABC News | Apr. 13, 2016 1:48 PM ET

Judge Won't Block Passport Marker Law Involving Sex Crimes

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge won't immediately block a law that requires authorities to place a marker in the passports of people convicted of sex offenses against children.

U.S. District Court Judge Phyllis Hamilton said Wednesday that federal authorities have yet to begin marking passports, so it would be premature to decide whether the law was constitutional.

Opponents of the marker have called it a "Scarlet Letter" that could wrongly imply that passport holders had engaged in child sex trafficking or child sex tourism and expose them to danger.

Janice Bellucci, the attorney challenging the law, said she wasn't sure yet whether she would appeal Hamilton's ruling on Bellucci's request for a preliminary injunction.

The passport marker is part of the so-called International Megan's Law that President Barack Obama signed in February.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/judge-block-passport-marker-law-involving-sex-crimes-38367796

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Courthouse News Service | Apr. 13, 2016 11:14 AM PT

Too Soon to Fight Sex Offender Passport Mark

By MARIA DINZEO

     OAKLAND, Calif. (CN) - A federal judge refused to halt enforcement of a new law requiring sex offenders to be identified as such on their passports, saying it's too soon to fight what offenders say is "a scarlet letter."
     Under the International Megan's Law to Prevent Demand for Child Sex Trafficking, passports issued to registered sex offenders whose crimes involved minors will contain an identifying mark. The form of the mark has not yet been decided.
     The law also requires the Department of Homeland Security and the Justice Department to notify foreign governments when registered sex offenders are visiting their countries, and those departments will also receive notifications when sex offenders come to the United States from abroad.
     Attorney Janice Bellucci, president of the civil rights group California Reform Sex Offender Laws, filed the lawsuit on behalf of the anonymous plaintiffs days after the bill was signed by President Barack Obama in February. The lawsuit compares the required mark to a "scarlet letter," and "an international travel blacklist."
     Following a hearing last month, U.S. District Chief Judge Phyllis Hamilton on Wednesday rejected a motion to halt implementation of the law, saying that while domestic travel may be a fundamental right, there is no such right to international travel.
     Moreover, she wrote, a timeline for implementation isn't even in the works at this point, and the State Department said it isn't prepared to start placing identifiers on U.S. passports. The department says its best estimate to begin marking sex offenders' passports is sometime around the end of 2016.
     "Here, based solely on the statutory language, it is not clear, for example, what form the identifier will take, which citizens will be required to carry a passport with the identifier, or whether the identifier will appear on the face of the passport or will be readable only by a scanner," Hamilton wrote. "Thus, because significant steps must be taken before the passport identifier can be implemented, the court finds that plaintiffs' challenge is not yet ripe."

http://www.courthousenews.com/2016/04/13/too-soon-to-fight-sex-offender-passport-mark.htm

Job opportunity for people struggling to find work

Posted On 17 Apr, 2016 - 2 Comments

Hello, affiliates. As you may have read in a recent RSOL newsletter, I started a company called HomePro. One of the main reasons for starting this company was to provide an opportunity for those who are struggling to find work. We provide at-home telemarketing reps to do mostly survey work. It’s not a difficult job, and it can be a stepping stone to better opportunities, as I’ve found that it is generally easier to find a job if you already have a job.

We recently made a change in the way we do payroll by outsourcing it to a national company. What this means is that we are no longer limited to hiring just from Illinois, but we can now hire people from anywhere in the U.S. So I’m passing this on in case you have people in your state list who are looking for work and who meet the qualifications:

1. Must have a good, reliable computer (Windows 7 or higher).
2. Must have a good, high-speed internet connection (Cable internet,
DSL, etc. Unfortunately, 4g probably won’t work). All calls are made from the computer, so no phone is necessary.
3. Must have a quiet place in their home from where they can work.
4. Must be able to read and follow a script and have a pleasant phone voice.
5. We’re looking for people who are willing to work, have flexibility
in their schedule, and are willing to commit to at least 20 hours per week.
6. Parole/probation is fine, as long as they are legally able to use
the computer and internet (including email).
7. We do not inquire about background, and we do not do background checks.

Our work schedule varies depending on the needs of the client.
Currently, we are doing a lot of afternoon/evening work, but again, that can vary week to week. We hire all our workers as employees, not contractors. We are currently paying $8.50/hour.

Please feel free to pass this information on to your supporters.

Anyone interested should complete an application on our website:
www.homeprotc.com

If anyone has questions, they are welcome to email us at
info@homeprotc.com. We are looking to add at least 20 people in the next few weeks.

Thanks in advance for your help disseminating this information.

//Will//
Executive Director, Illinois Voices for Reform

http://californiarsol.org/2016/04/job-opportunity-for-people-struggling-to-find-work/

Wednesday, April 13, 2016

MN: Appeals Court To Hear Arguments On Constitutionality Of Minnesota Sex Offender Program

CBS Local

... whether Minnesota's program that keeps sex offenders confined indefinitely after they ... Only a handful of offenders have been provisionally released to ... judge to consider any issues the appeals court remands to the lower court.

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Hastert is a Hypocrite, Says Sex Registry Reform Group

Roy Strom, The National Law Journal

Decades after Dennis Hastert’s alleged sexual abuse of high school wrestlers he coached, the then-Speaker of the House helped pass a tough-on-sex-crimes law known as the Adam Walsh Act.

Hastert is sworn in as speaker of

the House of Representatives on January 6, 1999

Interesting comment:

Dennis Hastert committed much of his political career passing laws that serve to punish, shame and alienate a segment of the population. All the while, he was villainizing this group in order to divert attention (and likely guilt) from his own horrible misdeeds. Ron Book fiercely lobbies to punish sex offenders as a crusade for his daughter, but his daughter was molested by the nanny that Mr. Book himself brought into their home. John Walsh started dating Reve when she was 16 and he was in his 20s. Mark Lunsford was looking at child pornography on his computer the night his daughter was abducted, his son Kevin molested a 14 year old. It would great to see these crusaders for punishment get saddled with the harsh stigma they fought for (and rightly deserve).

Monday, April 11, 2016

NE: State appeals decision barring state from adding boy to state's sex offender list

Lincoln Journal Star| Apr. 8, 2016

By LORI PILGER

The Nebraska Attorney General's office has filed notice it will appeal a federal judge's decision to block the state from putting a 13-year-old boy who moved here from Minnesota on its public list of sex offenders. In his ruling last month, Senior U.S. District Judge Richard G. Kopf wrote that it made no sense to believe Nebraska statutes were intended to be more punitive to juveniles adjudicated elsewhere than those that go through the system here.

Josh Weir, the family's attorney, called the attorney general's decision to appeal shameful; "An absolute waste of time, energy and resources."

Asked about the decision, Suzanne Gage, the Attorney General's director of communications, said the office appealed "because the outcome of the case has important ramifications on how Nebraska's Sex Offender Registry Act should be properly interpreted."

MORE:
http://journalstar.com/news/local/911/state-appeals-decision-barring-state-from-adding-boy-to-state/article_95eb8c8a-cfc1-5d83-a9c0-224ba6ac97fc.html

Washington State Supreme Court rules Zink has right to sex offender records

Tri-City Herald | April 7, 2016

By Tyler Richardson

Donna Zink

The personal information of thousands of low-level sex offenders could soon become public after Washington’s highest court ruled in favor Thursday of releasing a statewide database to a Mesa woman. The Supreme Court’s 7-2 decision reverses a ruling in King County Superior Court that the Washington State Patrol couldn’t release the names, addresses and other information of Level 1 sex offenders to Donna Zink. The decision clears the way for Zink to reveal the identities of thousands of Level 1 offenders, considered the least likely to reoffend, whose names were previously protected by law enforcement agencies.

The two justices who voted against making the records public, Sheryl Gordon McCloud and Charles K. Wiggins, wrote there is “overwhelming evidence” the offenders will face the threat of being harmed, lose out on work and become stigmatized.
MORE:
http://www.tri-cityherald.com/news/local/crime/article70555867.html

John Doe A v. Wash. State Patrol
Supreme Court of the State of Washington
Case information:
https://www.courts.wa.gov/opinions/index.cfm?fa=opinions.showOpinion&filename=904138MAJ
Opinion and decision–April 7, 2016:
https://www.courts.wa.gov/opinions/pdf/904138.pdf

On a Personal Note

Thanks for the opportunity to express my thoughts regarding the issue of citizens’ rights, particularly addressing certain sex offenders’ crimes that do not fit the devastating, inequitable and endless punishment given.

As you know, many young men and women lives across the nation are being destroyed by incarceration, life-time registry and restrictive laws that do more harm than good. For those individuals, there is no second chance.

Below is a personal letter to President Obama:
* * * *
“Dear President Obama,

I truly agree with your sentiments that individuals, such as ex-felons, should be able to receive a second chance at life. Since we all know that one can veer off that path of life and travel along rough, rocky terrain, sometimes running off and ending up in some ditch. We all have made our fill of mistakes and sometimes those held a costly consequence that changed life forever. So we lived through it, trying harder to make things right with family, friends and those around us, but what about those who aren’t able to make things right even if they tried…because they’re labeled as too dirty, a leper, a person who is rejected from society and home.

But what if they’re a seventeen year old and had sex with a fifteen year old, consensual at that? Or they’re a teen that had gotten so enraged after a breakup that he sent out naked pictures of his girlfriend on his cell phone or email? Or an individual urinates where someone just happens to see them?

All are wrong and a travesty but do they deserve the life of no second chance with a registry that ends all. They are labeled, no jobs, no where to live…they have been deemed a menace to society, a plague. These certain circumstances, and many other situations similar to these, I believe still deserve a second change.

Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution

Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

After my son’s early release and two years of prison, I thought I had handled that fact graciously knowing after serving his time he would be able to get that fresh start, that second chance. He was an exemplary inmate, GED, college courses and vocational classes. Little did I know that a second chance on the outside was the farthest from the truth? He now struggles and lives in a trailer park sharing a trailer with another and surrounded by others in the same rocking boat, one to float endlessly in shark infested waters. I see him little because of probation requirements (he couldn’t live with us because we were 800 feet near a school). My family is afraid of what would happen to them if he lived with them…vigilantism. My son has no other place to stay since others condemn him of his crime that is screamed from the highest rooftop. Sex offender, sex offender!

Not all sex offenders are pedophiles or predators but some are simply young kids that make one stupid and rash decision that eventually changes everything, and they have no idea what they’ve done until their life is never their own. Exactly, where is that second chance for those sex-offenders who are lumped together with pedophiles and predators? Now, it makes me sick to think of my son’s future and many like him that are on the registry and many with no second chance…ever. I am asking you as a mother and as another concerned citizen of the United States that these laws are looked at again and taken into serious consideration in what they are doing to the Constitution of the United States, not for sex offenders in general but the future rights of every citizen, before anymore are put into effect. They unjustly strip an offender of their rights and place them in a guillotine that can be easily set off by anyone and at anytime. Where is the second chance for ex-sex offenders in the present, pending and future laws?”
* * * *
What truly saddens me is the weakness and deterioration of what the sex offense issue is doing to our once, great nation. Across Europe, others are seeing the injustice and disregard of rights, but we ignore this problem and it makes me wonder where humanity is heading….

We have become a hysterical society in which our latest witch-hunt is a sex offender--no matter his/her crime.

Below is a email sent from a foreign advocate to a father of a sex offender:
* * * *
“The tragic story of your son's death is just so sad that it's difficult to explain how. It was very hard to read your letters. It seems almost unbelievable that this can take place in a democracy! From our point of view, there is no justice in this. Not in any way: not for you, your son, the former girl friend – or even the state.

It is an abusive legal system. It seems barbaric. And we are so very sorry that this takes place. That's why it's so important for us to try to neutralize the debate with this…, hopefully making some changes. ….. to show the every day life of the sex offenders, trying to show how they keep on being punished, even after served prison time…..But we will for sure tell the story of the injustice that your son has been exposed to.”
* * * *
I appreciate everyone's commitment and backing to protect everyone's civil rights, plainly as noted in the Constitution of the United States and is presupposed, giving ALL men are “life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.”

"One To See Change" Pages