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.
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[The Florida Times-Union] The city has finally taken a giant step toward protecting all its residents by considering a ordinance that will amend the strict sexual offender housing requirements that have put the community at risk. The ordinance in question decreases the distance sexual predators must reside from places, such as schools, day care centers and parks or playgrounds, from 2,500 feet to 1,500...
27
Oct
2017
[reason.com] We are in the midst of a massive mommy moral panic. Across the country, mothers are writing breathless accounts on Facebook of how sex traffickers nearly snatched their children at Target/Ikea/the grocery store. While at Sam's Club, one such post explains, "a man came up to us and asked if the empty cart nearby was ours.…He was an African American with a shaved...
Since 1995, Pennsylvania has had Megan’s Law, which seeks to protect communities by requiring sex offenders to register with the state police, or face arrest if they fail to do so. But a July decision by the state Supreme Court has undermined that once bedrock certainty, and cases like Davies’s are now testing the law’s reach, under which offenders have their photos, addresses and...
A Superior Court judge has denied the demurrer filed by the CA Dept. of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) and canceled the hearing on that topic which was scheduled for October 27, 2017. In addition, the judge scheduled a hearing on the merits of the case for February 9, 2018. "Because the judge did not grant CDCR's demurrer, we will have the opportunity early next year to present legal arguments...
[Richmond Times-Dispatch] A marquee policy initiative of Gov. Terry McAuliffe took center stage in the Virginia governor’s race Monday as Republican Ed Gillespie attacked McAuliffe’s approach to felon rights restoration as charitable to the point of being dangerous and Democrat Ralph Northam pushed back by saying Gillespie should be “ashamed” over his “fearmongering campaign.” The Gillespie campaign rolled out an ad Monday highlighting the...
[quora.com. Scroll down to the comment by Ben Kirssen] I think it is impossible. At least not without some serious collateral damage. The problem lies in the idea to send “all” pedophiles to an island. First you would have to determine who is a pedophile and who is not. That could prove to be tricky. However the last decade some promising ways of identifying...
[theindianalawyer.com] Three convicted Boone County sex offenders can return to their church congregations after the Indiana Court of Appeals determined that churches are not considered “school property,” so state statute cannot prohibit the offenders from going to church, even when children are present. The appellate court handed down that decision Tuesday in John Doe 1, et al., v. The Boone County Prosecutor, in his...
Our communities deserve effective public-safety measures that are based on facts and sound research, not wasteful and counterproductive measures born of fear. We all want to be safe. We have to demand our legislators pass laws that work and actually keep us safe. That's especially true when it comes to sexual offenses. http://thehill.com/opinion/criminal-justice/357096-sex-offender-registries-endanger-the-lives-theyre-meant-to-protect?amp
The City of Simi Valley has formally notified registrants in that city that they are no longer required to post a sign on the front door of their home on Halloween and are allowed to decorate their homes as well as answer their door to children. According to the letter dated October 18, these changes are the result of a decision made on October...
[riverfronttimes.com] Four hours into the armed standoff, the narrow residential street in Arnold is crowded with police cruisers, ambulances and SWAT trucks. Two TV news crews set up in someone's front lawn, training their camera lenses on a boxy armored personnel carrier parked outside a one-floor duplex on West Highview Drive. A TV reporter relays in a breaking news update that federal officials would...
[thecrimereport.org] In 1991, soon after he was sentenced to 56 years in an Ohio prison for a crime he did not commit, Roger Dean Gillispie began pestering fellow inmates to save the tinfoil from their tobacco pouches. He also gathered discarded teabags and cassette tapes—anything he could get his hands on to serve as makeshift building materials. Then each evening, after he returned to...
The plight of registered female sex offenders could be a hard sell to some. Like males who offend, they can and do cause extreme physical and emotional damage to their victims. In addition to prison time, they can also be subject to a long list of lifetime restrictions such as where they can live and work as well as being listed, often publicly, on...
Massachusetts Auditor Suzanne Bump on Tuesday criticized the Sex Offender Registry Board for what she described as a culture of passivity in tracking sex offenders, after an audit found the board did not have a current address for more than 1,700 offenders. Full Article
[syracuse.com] The operators of summer camps, daycare centers and volunteer groups that work with children are a step closer to gaining access to an FBI sex offender database that could be used for background checks on prospective employees and volunteers. The U.S. Senate passed a bill backed by U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer that would close a loophole in the background check system and authorize...
[Washington Post] State officials abruptly removed 132 sex offenders from Virginia’s list of eligible voters last week, reacting to the latest problem emerging from Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s sweeping move to restore voting rights to felons who had served out their sentences. A spokesman for McAuliffe (D) said that the offenders, who are confined in a treatment facility under a form of civil commitment, had...
A marquee policy initiative of Gov. Terry McAuliffe took center stage in the Virginia governor’s race Monday as Republican Ed Gillespie attacked McAuliffe’s approach to felon rights restoration as charitable to the point of being dangerous and Democrat Ralph Northam pushed back by saying Gillespie should be “ashamed” over his “fearmongering campaign.” The Gillespie campaign rolled out an ad Monday highlighting the case of...
[sun-sentinel.com] Despite denying it, Broward and Miami-Dade school districts both have blamed schoolchildren for their own sexual abuse. The Sun Sentinel this week uncovered lawsuits in which the districts claimed children — from ages 8 to 14 — were wholly or partly responsible for what happened to them. The discovery came a week after Palm Beach County Schools came under fire for the same...
WASHINGTON -- The operators of summer camps, daycare centers and volunteer groups that work with children are a step closer to gaining access to an FBI sex offender database that could be used for background checks on prospective employees and volunteers. The U.S. Senate passed a bill backed by U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer that would close a loophole in the background check system and...
23
Oct
2017
Shawnee County sheriff’s detective Dustin Carlat leads the offender registration unit that oversees nearly 900 people in the community who are registered as violent, sex or drug offenders. Full Article
[New York Times] Four women met late last month at a restaurant in a Twin Cities suburb, where they spoke for hours, so intently their waiter had trouble getting their drink orders. Each had a son who had been accused at college of sexual assault. One was expelled and another suspended. The other two were cleared, yet one had contemplated suicide and the other...