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
11
Jan
2017
There is a new bill in Congress HR 61 - Fair Chance for Youth Act of 2017 the purpose being "To provide for the expungement and sealing of youth criminal records, and for other purposes." However, if the offense is a sex offense, that youth would not be eligible for expungement and sealing of youth criminal record. Again it seems that more than the...
11
Jan
2017
The U.S. Sentencing Commission is seeking public comment on proposed amendments to the federal sentencing guidelines. The deadline for public comment is February 20, 2017. One of the proposed amendments is related to first offenders and alternatives to incarceration. The Commission plays an important role in the sentencing of individuals convicted of federal sex offenses, including possession of child pornography. Written comments should be sent to the Commission by...
Therapists in California can be required to report patients who have looked at child pornography on the Internet despite the therapists’ claim that their clients are entitled to confidentiality and pose no threat to children, a state appeals court ruled Monday. Full Article Decision Background:Los Angeles Drug Counselor to Therapists: Don't Out Child Porn Patients Assembly Bill No. 1775
Politicians have a knack for taking on problems that aren’t really problems, proposing solutions that won’t really do anything and then exaggerating the significance of what they’ve just done. The latest Inland politician to do this is Sen. Connie Leyva, D-Chino, who has introduced the “Keep Kids Safe at School Act,” touted by Leyva and her staff as “important legislation to protect school children...
Sometimes when I post about the Sex Offender Registry, I get comments like, “Those scum don’t deserve to EVER live a normal life!” This note below is to remind us that a study of 17,000 people on the registry by the The Georgia Sex Offender Registration Review Board found that about 5% were “clearly dangerous,” and 100 could be classified as sexual predators. Not...
Minnesotans who receive the label “sex offender,” and are determined either a “sexually dangerous person” or “a person with a sexual psychopathic tendency,” now face the potential for life incarceration in a civil commitment facility. The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals recently held the North Star State’s policy of locking up allegedly dangerous persons for an indeterminate period of time is completely rational and...
Last month the supreme court decided State v. Moir. It is a case about how a state sex crime—namely, indecent liberties with a child—fits within the offense tiering system set out in the federal Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA). Full Article
In the past few years, the growth of incarceration and the inequality perpetuated through the US carceral system have become common topics of discussion and debate among academics, politicians, and the general public. Perhaps nowhere are these debates more salient than in the state of California, which houses the largest incarcerated population in the United States. In the most recent election, five out of...
Colorado’s Department of Corrections is wasting as much as $44 million annually because it has not fixed problems in a treatment program intended to prepare sex offenders for release from prison, a recent state audit found.Full Article
FBI agents and prosecutors usually strut inside Santa Ana's Ronald Reagan Federal Courthouse, knowing they've focused the wrath of the criminal-justice system on a particular criminal. But an unusual child-pornography-possession case has placed officials on the defensive for nearly 26 months. Questions linger about law-enforcement honesty, unconstitutional searches, underhanded use of informants and twisted logic. Given that a judge recently ruled against government demands to...
05
Jan
2017
An appeals court on Wednesday reinstated the conviction of a serial child molester from Maryland whose case was held out as a major success of a law to punish sexual predators overseas. Full Article
04
Jan
2017
In Lauren Book's Dec. 11 column, she wrote about the dangers that sexual predators pose to children and admonishes parents to be suspicious of staff at youth-serving organizations. We all want to protect children, so how could such a column be objectionable? Because it is alarmist, misleading and mostly false. Full Opinion Piece Related Lauren Book: UK abuse cases show need to safeguard children
LINCOLN — Reactions ranged from bewilderment to outrage over a Nebraska Supreme Court decision earlier this year that allowed two girls to remain in the home of a felony sex offender. And the decision set a clear precedent, said Brandon Brinegar, the Kearney lawyer who represented the biological father who had tried to remove the girls from the sex offender’s residence. Brinegar said lawmakers...
A City Councilman in Los Angeles, Mitch O’Farrell, has proposed a bill to keep playgrounds “free of creepy activity” by not allowing anyone unaccompanied by kids to enter one. Shamefully, that is already the rule here in my burg, New York City. This has lead to the arrest of two women who dared to eat donuts on a playground bench in Brooklyn (exposing kids...
04
Jan
2017
Comments that are not specific to a certain post should go here, for the month of January 2017. Contributions should relate to the cause and goals of this organization and please, keep it courteous and civil.
Minnesota's program for keeping sex offenders confined after they complete their prison sentences is constitutional, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday, reversing a lower-court judge who said it violates offenders' rights because hardly anyone is ever released. Full Article Decision Related ‘A System That Is Clearly Broken’ The Latest: Official: Sex offender program needs more money
Five registered sex offenders have evaded police and fled the country, it has emerged. Figures from Police Scotland show there are currently more than 4,000 sex offenders being managed in the community and a further 1,283 in custody or in hospital. But five registered offenders who are required to notify the authorities of their whereabouts are wanted by police and are believed to have...
01
Jan
2017
A “modern-day leper.” Those are his words, not ours. Ventae Parrow is branded by the state of Wisconsin as a “homeless sex offender” and, by many in society, an outcast to be feared, warned about, and shunned. He’d have more rights to move freely if he’d killed someone. He’s served his prison sentence (again), but the elaborate network of Milwaukee city ordinances places almost...
01
Jan
2017
CHICAGO — A lawsuit has been filed accusing the state of Illinois of violating the rights of convicted sex offenders by maintaining policies that do not allow a number of them to be released from prison after they have served their sentences, effectively leaving them informally sentenced to life in prison. Full Article
Conviction rates for sexual assault against women are shockingly low, to the extent that, even in a developed nation such as the United Kingdom, only 6 per cent of rape allegations result in a conviction, a far lower rate than for any other violent crime. As The Guardian columnist Julia Bindel puts it, ‘rape might as well be legal’. Disturbingly low conviction rates have...