Professional Survey Request: Registry Compliance Checks

Nicole Pittman, author of “Raised on the Registry,” is seeking information for another investigative project. This is from Nicole:

Dear Potential Participant,

My name is Nicole Pittman and I am a national expert on the harmful application of sex offender registration and notification laws to children. On May 1, 2013, I completed a nationwide investigation into the harmful impact of including children in sex offender registration and notification laws by way of a Human Rights Watch report entitled, Raised on the Registry: The Irreparable Harm of Placing Children on Sex Offender Registries in the US. For more on the report, please click on US: More Harm Than Good.

I am currently volunteering to assist the ACLU’s Criminal Law Reform Project as they investigate sweeps conducted by state and federal law enforcement to check compliance with the sex offender registration requirements. The ACLU is looking to evaluate options to possibly reform these disturbing practices.

Below you will see information on a brief survey I created to help get a sense of the national scope of this practice. Thank you, in advance, for sharing your experiences.

This survey is an informal poll intended to help assess the national scope of home sweeps conducted by state and federal law enforcement officials to check compliance of individuals placed on sex offender registries. There seems to be mounting evidence that many of these so-called “compliance checks” could be considered undue harassment of registrants, both juvenile and adult, and, their families.

It appears that there are reports of problems in Etowah County, Alabama; Panama City, Florida; Long Beach, California; and Santa Clara County, California. I want to hear about your experiences with “compliance checks” there and other counties around the country.

Please fill out this survey ONLY if you have first-hand knowledge of a sweep (meaning that the sweep occurred in your home, or a family member/loved one’s home where a registered sex offender also lived). The information collected through the survey will be used to gather background information for the ACLU National’s Criminal Law Reform Project as they investigate this disturbing practice.

Again, this is an informal poll and the information collected will ONLY be used to assess the scope of the problem. The results of the survey will only be shared with Nicole Pittman and the ACLU’s Criminal Law Reform Project. The survey can be accessed by clicking on the following link https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/NJB9WPZ. The deadline to complete the survey is Wednesday, July 10, 2013 12:00 noon EST.

If you have any questions or concerns. Please feel free to email Nicole Pittman at RaisedOnTheRegistry@gmail.com.

Thank you, Nicole

Written by someone outside of NARSOL

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