Reprinted with permission By Travis Loller, AP . . . Sex offenders under community supervision in Tennessee are required to be in their homes with the porch lights off on Halloween as part of a 10-day curfew surrounding the holiday. They also cannot decorate or give out candy. And offenders are not allowed to take children trick or treating or to…
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By Lenore Skenazy . . . A Boston Herald article is calling for a new Massachusetts law to stop registered sex offenders from participating in Halloween. Such a law would violate the rights of sex offenders, for no public benefit whatsoever. The piece—as random as a piece can be, in that it is not tied to any actual news, crime, or person of…
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Used with permission By Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg . . . Before the police apprehended Steve, he tried to kill himself by cutting his wrists, he told The Appeal. Then 20 years old, he had attempted to sexually assault a 12-year-old girl in California. “I couldn’t believe I had done that,” said Steve, whose name has been changed to protect his identity. “I…
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By Amanda Claire Curcio . . . Arkansas has about 15,800 registered sex offenders — 526 offenders for every 100,000 residents — the second-highest total in the country based on population, recent national research shows. The manager of the state’s sex-offender registry says the numbers are misleading. “It’s not like we have 16,000 sex offenders roaming loose around Arkansas,” said…
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By Sandy . . . Multiple persons on the North Carolina sex offender registry were told that, if they needed to evacuate due to Hurricane Florence, they could not go to a shelter in a school or a church if it had a school or a daycare. Some were told they couldn’t go to any shelter that had children in…
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A tragedy is playing out in North Carolina, a tragedy riding on the storm waves of Hurricane Florence predicted to make landfall along the coastline within a few days. Some areas have already been declared mandatory evacuation zones, and emergency shelters are being established as quickly as possible in what are deemed to be safe areas. The tragedy is that…
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The basis for litigation reform and the results of civil rights litigation vary widely from state to state and jurisdiction to jurisdiction. This presentation examines a number of challenges from the past couple of years and seeks to understand the key constitutional arguments that have been made, what has been successful, and the reason why there are such disparate results…
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By Rory Fleming . . . When large nonprofit organizations otherwise committed to making the American justice system less draconian hire people with violent criminal records, they send a strong message that justice-involved people change, and are capable of not only reentry but success. But these same organizations do not have anyone on the sex offender registry on staff, regardless of…
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By Sandy . . . We’ve all read the testimonials. He was arrested for embezzlement, but he was a good husband, devoted father, and active community leader. She was discovered to be part of a fraudulent art scam, but her employers praised her as a model employee and asset to the company. We recognize that humans are complex; they can…
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From Janice’s Journal . . . In the span of just one week, three courts have issued decisions that significantly harm registrants. Those decisions affect registrants’ marriages, homes and overseas travel. It’s a lot to absorb in a short amount of time. It’s too much to fight at this time. But fight we must in the near future. In the…
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