Voices and actions for change
By Frank Parlato . . . In response to the Frank Report post, Children of Parents on Sex Offender Registry Are Collateral Damage of Registry, numerous people commented. Some were strongly in favor of keeping the sex registry in place to protect children and others. Several others oppose it and want the sex offender registry eliminated and they have given their…
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By Paul M. Renfro . . . The “sex offense legal regime,” which has developed alongside mass incarceration over the last forty years, has failed. US sex offender registries now list nearly one million people. Federal, state, and local ordinances prohibit convicted sex offenders from living within a certain distance of schools, parks, day care centers, and other spaces where children…
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Releasing the most vulnerable to COVID-19 from our prisons, jails, and immigration detention centers is critical to stopping the spread of the deadly virus in facilities and our broader community. Yet, the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) are not using their authority to safely and swiftly reduce incarcerated populations right now. BOP and DOJ…
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By PARSOL . . . Although we at PARSOL are disappointed in the results of the PA Supreme Court’s decision in Commonwealth v. Butler, which was a 7-0 unanimous decision to separate SVP’s from non-SVPs regarding registry requirements and asserting that Pennsylvania’s SORNA statute is not punishment because of the Commonwealth’s interest in protecting the public from persons with a…
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By Michael M . . . The holiday season will be brightened by an exciting project in New Jersey which will culminate on December 19th, 2019, with a live performance called Banished: A Family on the Sex Offender Registry. The live performance, co-written by Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg, a staff writer for The Appeal, and coLAB Arts producing director, Dan Swern, was produced…
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By Sandy . . . Three of our dedicated volunteers are representing NARSOL at the ATSA conference in Atlanta, Georgia, this weekend. Richard, Michael, and Brendan are talking and connecting, and they and NARSOL’s message are being well received. They have talked with people from almost every state, as well as with representatives of other organizations who have expressed interest in forming…
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Negative Consequences of Public Registration By Brenda and Sandy . . . In 2009, Nebraska adopted the tiering system of the Adam Walsh Act, overnight essentially doubling its public database by pulling previously non-public registrants onto its published sexual offender registry, individuals who had already paid their debts to society and were moving forward with their lives.[1] Many had married,…
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By Timothy D . . . I’d like to share a bright spot of my life and hopefully shine some light on opportunities for others. Two years ago, I saw a group of motorcycle riders escorting bicycle riders for the MS society. They were riding from a suburb of where I live to the Twin Cities, a 150-mile ride. I…
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By Sandy . . . From Aurora, Illinois comes good news: Thanks to litigation filed, the city is backing off its threat to force nineteen registrants to leave Wayside Cross Ministries. Furthermore, a federal judge has ordered the men be registered as living at Wayside. Even though the city insists that the actual threat of the registrants having to leave…
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By Will Mingus, PhD . . . “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” As advocates, we are soldiers of a sort. We fight so that others can live a life free of an oppressive and burdensome system of registration and registration laws. While we may not be called on…
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