GRAND RAPIDS, MI - As reported in this Michigan Live report, Three Grand Rapids men on Michigan's Sex Offender Registry have settled a federal lawsuit against the state over housing requirements that restrict where they can live. The settlement follows a wider ruling by U.S. District Judge Robert Cleland in Detroit that found, in part, that "geographic exclusion zones," such as the 1,000 feet provision, to be unconstitutional....
Link to the study: 2016-Grand-Challenge-Registry-Reform [caption id="attachment_562" align="alignleft" width="300"] Homeless[/caption] In this report by prominent social work scholars, we learn some of the failures of the current state of and future expansions to National SORN laws. They have not lived up to their claim to increasing public safety and in fact have contributed to less public safety on a few levels, according to the research into the effectiveness of...
In this New York Public Radio podcast, THE TAKEAWAY for November 09, 2017, host Todd Zwillich talks with ProPublica reporter Ryan Gabrielson. In it he describes the mistaken information that gets injected into court cases that later turns out to be totally false. And worse, there is no mechanism to correct these instances of the court relying on information that turns out to be false at a future date. It is as if...
[caption id="attachment_537" align="alignnone" width="640"] Prison[/caption] Vera Institute of Justice has a wealth of information through their project, Ending Mass Incarceration. It is divided into four action areas, as follows. Reducing the Use of Jails Treatment not Jail Bail and Pretrial Stories and Data Promoting Racial Equality in Prosecution Local Models Bringing Dignity to Life Behind Bars Higher Education Reimagining Prison Solitary Confinement Lessons from Abroad Sexual Assault Young Adults...
Academy of Justice - Arizona State University's Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law Criminal Justice Reform in the United States. [caption id="attachment_514" align="alignleft" width="282"] Justice[/caption] VOLUME 1: INTRODUCTION AND CRIMINALIZATION VOLUME 2: POLICING VOLUME 3: PRETRIAL AND TRIAL PROCESSES VOLUME 4: PUNISHMENT, INCARCERATION, AND RELEASE Reforming Criminal Justice is a four-volume report meant to enlighten reform efforts in the United States with the research and analysis of leading academics. Broken down...
[caption id="attachment_505" align="alignleft" width="300"] Rental Crisis for Ex-felons[/caption] Many ex-felons experience rental discrimination because of their past convictions. "Not For Rent" looks at this problem for many reentering our society after prison. It will be screen next year on the international arena during the Annual Meeting of the Law and Society Association, an interdisciplinary scholarly organization committed to social scientific, interpretive, and historical analyses of law across multiple social...
Right to Travel [caption id="attachment_526" align="alignleft" width="300"] Travel[/caption] Refer to the link below to visit Registrant Travel Action Group's database of foreign lands and the state of sex offender registration to these international destinations. Also, if you have direct experience with international travel for registrants, share your travel experiences with Registrant TAG. Registrant Tag Website maintains a database of International Travel restrictions for registered citizens.
A story that rarely gets published, even rarer to have so much detail about Vicki Henry, Women Against Registry, law enforcement, unconstitutionality of sex offender laws, and more. Read this article by reporter Danny Wicentowski published by Saint Louis Riverfront Times [caption id="attachment_492" align="alignleft" width="300"] Photo by: DANNY WICENTOWSKIDuring Women Against Registry's first national conference, Vicki Henry urges attendees to "find their voice" as activists.[/caption] Vicki Henry Is...
Sex offender class for prisoners violates U.S. Constitution, federal judge rules [caption id="attachment_488" align="alignleft" width="300"] Balance the Scales of Justice[/caption] According to the complaint, the SOMM program is mandatory even for inmates who pleaded not guilty to a sexual crime. The program requires participants to describe in detail any past sexual misconduct, including events not previously reported to police. Inmates are also required to sign a consent form...
When President-elect Trump selected Alabama senator Jeff Sessions to be his attorney general, many conservatives cheered. Immigration hardliners were thrilled to have one of their own in the position, while other conservatives saw Sessions as the type of dynamic presence needed to clean out the Stygian morass of President Obama’s Justice Department. “A sensible pick that promises to restore some integrity to a Justice Department tarnished by eight...
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 would have to act to prevent similar rulings in the future.
That’s just what a state senator from Omaha intends to do in the upcoming session of the Legislature.
“I wouldn’t want my kids subjected to that environment,” State Sen. Brett Lindstrom said this week. “That just doesn’t sit well with me, and it just seems like it’s something we should do to protect kids.”
The senator has drafted a bill that could make it harder for a parent who wants to live with a convicted sex offender to maintain custody of his or her children.
The proposal is in response to an August ruling by the state’s high court that left the two girls in the home of their stepfather, even though he had served a prison term for sexually assaulting a different 15-year-old stepdaughter from a previous marriage. The court ruled against the biological father, who had attempted to remove the girls from the living situation in a small community in south-central Nebraska.
The current law presumes a child is at risk when a felony sex offender occupies the same residence. But it also allows the parent who chooses to live with a sex offender to present evidence that mitigates the risk.
Continue readingRuling that allowed kids in sex offender’s home spurs lawmaker
RENO, Nev. (News 4) — The state is having a hard time keeping track of its most heinous sex offenders because of a new Nevada Supreme Court ruling. Parole and Probation tracks 6,000 sex offenders in the state, with 1,000 on lifetime supervision. Staff make sure they're registered as required by law -- they confirm their address and make sure the offenders have no contact with their victims. http://mynews4.com/on-your-side/nevada-court-ruling-gives-state-authorities-trouble-with-tracking-sex-offenders
[caption id="attachment_429" align="alignleft" width="198"] How Sex Offender Laws Are Failing Us[/caption] My name is Emily Horowitz, and here is my personal website. I am a sociologist, and the author of Protecting Our Kids? How Sex Offender Laws Are Failing Us (Praeger, 2015). I’m interested in promoting research to promote rational and reasonable approaches to laws that pertain to sex offenses. In particular, my work analyzes the way that panic,...
The Tennessee Supreme Court is vacating the child-porn production conviction of a Knoxville man, named Thomas Whited, who secretly filmed his 12-year-old daughter—and 14-year-old friend—showering, going to the bathroom, and undressing. Although the father recorded the bathroom for two months for sexual reasons, the high court vacated his 22-year sentence because what he filmed did not amount to pornography. The girls were not having sex, the high court...
Continuing the one-step-forward, one-step-backward pattern that has characterized the cases examining the constitutionality of state sex offender registry statutes, the Illinois Supreme Court has upheld the provisions of the Illinois sex offender statute compelling disclosure of all “Internet identifiers” just a few weeks after the district court in Florida struck down, on First Amendment grounds, a virtually identical provision in the Florida statute. Here’s the background: Mark Minnis...
Training Workshop - Friday, October 21, 5-8pm FCNL - Friends Committee on National Legislation FCNL is holding a workshop to train and organize anyone who wants to be legislative advocates. Where: Conference room of Friend Richard 801 S. Rancho, Suite E. Las Vegas, NV 89106 Contact: Maiya Zwerling, FCNL Advocacy Team Trainer - Maiya@fcnl.org Who is FCNL? Read about Friends Committee on National Legislation here: - A Quaker...
From the Columbia, SC 'The State' newspaper, an editorial by Don Thurber The Justice Department study also demonstrated that re-offense rates of sex offenders are actually far below other offense groups: Only 3.5 percent of child molesters were convicted of another sex crime during the three-year study period. South Carolina mandates lifetime registration, but a long-term study released last year by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation...
Over 100 Sex Offenders sue Idaho over constitutional challenges The constitutional challenge is on the following grounds: Due Process: Assessed new restrictions without a trial. Equal Protection: Burdens an unpopular group of citizens. Religious Freedom: Restricts some offenders from attending church services. Cruel and Unusual Punishment: Excessive punishment imposed by community notification. Double Jeopardy: New conditions placed on offenders after conviction. Contracts: New non negotiated conditions placed after...
Metamora Films, an independent film company that covers social issues surrounding the sex offender registry and other social justice topics. Matt Duhamel, a former TV news and radio personality, has turned his attention to helping others through the power of independent film. He agrees with the idea that film can help individuals, communities and entire societies by increasing compassion, tolerance, understanding and forgiveness. By learning from his own...
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL "The registries should be for true predators and repeat offenders." The number of Tier 3 offenders jumped from around 300 to more than 3,000 with the change. Now, even Tier 1 offenders will be publicly identified. While well-intentioned, this is where the Nevada law and others like it run off the rails due to an often overly broad definition of a sex offense. Stupid and...
