By Michael Rosenberg . . . This year’s RSOL conference in Atlanta was the author’s first, as speakers from across the country brought to bear upon an audience ready and needful of informative lectures and empathetic, well-sourced thought-pieces a whole host of ideas long overdue. Correction: these ideas have been in existence since the first Dolphin was trapped in the net meant largely…
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Megan’s Law a total failure; harms families, children
By Daniel Walmer . . . It was every parent’s worst nightmare. Seven-year-old Megan Kanka left her New Jersey home on July 29, 1994, for a summer afternoon bike ride around her neighborhood, but she never returned. Instead, neighbor Jesse Timmendequas lured her into his home by promising her a puppy. He then raped and murdered her, dumping her body…
Read MoreA single Supreme Court justice’s stupidity ruins thousands of lives, families
By Steven Yoder . . . In the early 1980s, rehabilitation counselor Robert Longo could hardly have known that his work with convicted sex offenders would make him a minor celebrity. At the time, he was running a program at the Oregon State Hospital to treat and rehabilitate prisoners who had committed sex crimes. It was a new field, and…
Read MoreStates, municipalities ignoring solid facts while increasing residency restrictions
By Jen Fifield . . . In the last couple of years, the number of sex offenders living on the streets of Milwaukee has skyrocketed, from 16 to 205. The sharp increase comes as no surprise to some. There are few places for them to live. In October 2014, the City of Milwaukee began prohibiting violent and repeat sex offenders…
Read MoreNC Supreme Court: access to social networking sites not about speech or First Amendment rights
By David Post . . . As most VC readers know, First Amendment law is dominated by a single question, the 800-pound constitutional gorilla that’s always in the room: What “level of scrutiny” will the court apply to the challenged government action? How much will it demand from the government by way of justification for whatever it was that it…
Read MoreCA-RSOL challenges Halloween sign requirement for sex offenders
By Marty Graham [Reuters] . . . A paroled sex offender in Southern California sued the state’s Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections on Thursday, arguing that rules imposed on sex offenders during Halloween trick or treating violate his constitutional rights. The complaint, which was filed in federal court and identifies the parolee only as John Doe from San Diego County,…
Read MoreSupreme Court consistently relies upon bogus studies about sex offender recidivism
By Ira Ellman . . . Proponents of criminal justice reform never talk about sex offenders. They’re political untouchables subject to lifelong restrictions that continue long past their confinement, restrictions justified as necessary to protect the public from their propensity to re-offend. Two Supreme Court decisions established that justification. But they rely on a scientific study that doesn’t exist. “Frightening…
Read MoreEnjoying brunch with your local Sex Offender
Lenore Skenazy . . . Sunday morning at 10 found me slicing the tomatoes and arranging the cheese platter. My husband was setting up the chairs. At 11, the doorbell rang. And so began my very first sex offender brunch. What exactly is that? It’s a brunch where I invited my friends in the press to meet my friends on…
Read MoreTo save one child …again
By Shelly Stow . . . It has happened again. An airplane has crashed, killing everyone on board, including quite a few children. This has happened too many times in the past and must not be allowed to continue. Clearly it is time to ban all air flights and destroy all airplanes. Appropriate legislation will need to be proposed and…
Read MoreRegistration is cruel and unusual punishment
By Judith Levine . . . If it’s true that all seven of the football players arrested for hazing in the Sayreville, New Jersey, War Memorial High School locker room are students of color, that is one more reason not to prosecute them as sexual felons. I don’t mean not to prosecute them in adult court. I mean not to…
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