The Alliance for Constitutional Sex Offense Laws (ACSOL) is dedicated to protecting the Constitution by restoring the civil rights of registrants and their families. In order to achieve that objective, ACSOL will educate and litigate as well as support or oppose legislation.
Important News / Announcements
Janice's Journal
General News Feed
10
Jan
2019
The FBI accessed Playpen and verified that the website contained child pornography, then executed a search warrant at a North Carolina server hosting company that owned the IP address. The FBI seized a server that contained a copy of Playpen. Because of a server misconfiguration, the government was able to gain administrative control of the website. For two weeks, the FBI operated Playpen from...
FACT: More people are now listed on sex-offender registries than are currently in jail in the US. It's an amazing statistic that illuminates one of the darkest corners of our criminal justice system: our fear-based approach to dealing with sex offenders. So why do we have these massive lists? Are they fair? Do they keep us safe? Untouchable, the award-winning documentary that takes an unflinching look at sex offenders, the...
If you have a few minutes, read Florida’s Sex Offender Registration and Monitoring Triennial Review 2018 (www.oppaga.state.fl.us). Even if you don’t live in Florida, it’s an interesting slog thru what governmental bureaucracy thinks is important when it comes to the registry. The highlight of this auditing monstrosity is the attached letter at the end of the report from Fl. Dept. of Law and Enforcement...
09
Jan
2019
[narsol.org - 1/7/19] Michael M . . . A recent study conducted by researchers at the Rochester Institute of Technology, or RIT, is already being cited in Federal Court cases to support the false presumption of a high rate of unreported child molestations by those convicted of child pornography offenses. This is despite the fact that it suffers from exactly the same serious flaws...
07
Jan
2019
Civil rights attorney Adele Nicholas will be the keynote speaker at ACSOL's third annual conference to be held on June 14 and June 15 in Los Angeles. Nicholas has represented the rights of registrants in multiple lawsuits challenging residency restrictions, access to public places and hospital visitations in Illinois and neighboring states in the Great Lakes region. "We are delighted that Ms. Nicholas has...
06
Jan
2019
For most youth, childhood is a seemingly innocent and simple time, typically full of school work, play time and life lessons. But when a child becomes a registered sex offender when they are as young as 10, those years are full of probation, detention and life lessons of another kind: living with a label. Full Article
05
Jan
2019
More than half of the men on federal probation in western New York for child pornography possession had instances of "sexual contact with children that were previously unknown to legal authorities," according to a local study. Though completed early in 2018, the study conducted by researchers at the Rochester Institute of Technology, or RIT, is now beginning to make ripples in federal court. One...
The Bureau of Immigration barred 145 foreigners convicted of sex crimes in their home countries from January to November of the 2018. BI Port Operations Division Chief Grifton Medina said the number of registered sex offenders denied entry is slightly lower than the 165 sex convicts intercepted in the same period of 2017. Full Article
04
Jan
2019
[floridaactioncommittee.org - 1/4/19. Not available on miamiherald.com] An opinion piece in response to a recent article in the Miami Herald was published today. The text of the response and an image of the article as it appeared are below. Your December 31, 2018 article, “Report: Number of sex offenders living in Florida is growing.” correctly points out that the Office of Program Policy Analysis...
04
Jan
2019
[ebar.com - 1/2/19] While his bills aimed at addressing California's housing crisis are expected to be some of the most closely watched legislative fights this year, gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) will also be pushing to pass legislation focused on LGBT issues. ... Another bill Wiener plans to introduce this year would prevent gay male adolescents from having to be listed on...
A convicted sex offender who claims he was innocent is suing St. Clair County State’s Attorney Brendan Kelly and state officials for $5 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages, alleging his reputation within his community continues to be irreparably injured by his registration status. Full Article
03
Jan
2019
Comments that are not specific to a certain post should go here, for the month of January 2019. Contributions should relate to the cause and goals of this organization and please, keep it courteous and civil.
[ussc.gov - 1/1/19] Summary (Published January 2019) This publication examines the application of mandatory minimum penalties specific to federal sex offenses; it is the sixth and final release in the Commission's series of publications on mandatory minimum penalties. Using fiscal year 2016 data, this publication includes analyses of the two types of federal sex offenses carrying mandatory minimum penalties, sexual abuse offenses and child...
[miamiherald.com - 12/31/18] TALLAHASSEE, Fla. The number of sex offenders and predators living in Florida has been rising steadily for more than a decade, according to a new report put together by legislative auditors. The report issued late last week stated that nearly 29,000 registered sex offenders and predators now reside in the state. That's an increase of 53 percent since 2005, when state...
01
Jan
2019
Baby It’s Cold Outside. It was just a wintery song from the late forties, nothing more. A song that’s been sung during the Christmas holidays for decades. Generations grew up singing along with the radio, no one ever had issues with it. That is until now. Now it’s the latest moral holiday debate. The victim of a # movement. Someone or some group decides...
[haaretz.com - 1/1/19] The Knesset on Monday passed into law a bill that prohibits people convicted of sex crimes from changing their name. “The law came about as a response to complaints by women who were shocked to learn they had been in a relationship with convicted sex offenders in the past,” said Meretz MK Michal Rozin, who drafted the law. “This had been...
Florida Bar Association President Michelle Suskauer recently penned a column published in FLORIDA TODAY about needs for reforming the criminal justice system. In her piece, she focused on a number of important issues about mental health, curbing recidivism, re-entry, sentencing and much more. Missing among these targets for reform, however, is the ever-present quagmire dealing with sex offenders, a topic most politicians and justice...
30
Dec
2018
The criminal justice reform bill, hopefully dubbed the First Step Act, represents a real accomplishment — a positive development in otherwise conservative times. It is all the more remarkable that a reactionary president, who ran a tough-on-crime campaign, is now poised to sign the bill. ... Mass incarceration is no doubt the most glaring feature of the punitive turn. But the punitive state is...
27
Dec
2018
[The Dobbs Wire email - 12/25/18] A Pittsburgh criminal court judge has finally submitted her resignation. Judge Donna Jo McDaniel’s expected exit comes after repeated rebukes by a Pennsylvania appeals court, extensive news coverage, the ire of at least one editorial board, and talk of an investigation by the state's judicial conduct commission. First elected to the bench in 1985, McDaniel was driven from...
24
Dec
2018
From the small town (pop. 2,000+) of Sardis, Mississippi came a Christmas Story with a happy ending, sort of. Michael Clay Saripkin, a registrant, served as the Grand Marshal of the Sardis Christmas parade Dec. 11 2018. According to the news article most of the residents of Sardis have no problem with a man with a past being named Grand Marshal by the town’s...