Serious questions asked about Tennessee’s sex offender registry

By Levi Ismail . . . Attorneys have called for a change to the Tennessee sex offender registry they said created an unconstitutional punishment as legislators added more restrictions each year. Thomas has lived in Nashville almost all his life, but he’s rarely seen beyond work and the occasional grocery store run. . . . NewsChannel 5 Investigates doesn’t often hear…

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If employment and rehabilitation are important to the TN DOC, why have they made it more difficult?

By Sandy . . . Ask anyone in law enforcement what the ultimate goal of the criminal justice system is, or at least what it should be, and a great many of them will answer, “Rehabilitation.” A search of a few random states on this issue yielded remarkably similar results: NH: . . .  services that promote successful re-entry into…

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Federal Judge rules parts of Tennessee sex offender law punitive

By Travis Loller . . .  NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A federal judge has ruled that parts of Tennessee’s sex offender registration act should not be applied retroactively to two offenders who sued over the law. Monday’s ruling in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee was narrowly written to apply only to the two plaintiffs. But…

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Another victory in Tennessee

By Larry . . . NARSOL is excited to report on another win in the state of Tennessee. In fact, this is the second favorable decision in Tennessee in recent months. We previously reported on another challenge regarding retroactive application of registration requirements in Tennessee which was decided favorably. See Doe v. Rausch, 3:17-CV-504 (TNEDC). This case, Ronald Reid v. William…

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Impacts of Does v. Snyder reach to Tennessee

By Larry . . . The case of Doe v. Rausch contains a very thorough analysis regarding the history of sex offender registration in Tennessee and the developing body of case law in the Sixth Circuit which resulted in a favorable outcome for Doe. Due to the limited scope of the court’s ruling, I think that the chances of an…

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Update on legislation in Tennessee that would force families to separate

By Sandy . . . We first reported on this in June of last year. The Tennessee legislature had just passed a bill, due to take effect July 1, 2019, with a single provision added to an already existing statute: It would disallow the right of parents to be alone with or live in the same home with their own…

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The utter uselessness of sexual offense registries

Used with permission By Michael Hobbes . . . The first time Damian Winters got evicted was in 2015. He was living with his wife and two sons in suburban Nashville when his probation officer called his landlord and informed him that Winters was a registered sex offender. The previous year, when he was 24 years old, Winters had been…

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Families will not be ripped apart in Tennessee

By Sandy and Larry . . . The Tennessee General Assembly enacted a statute which would have forced families to be split apart, and it was scheduled to take effect July 1st. Fortunately, the law has been stopped in its tracks for now. The law states that anyone convicted of a sexual offense in which the victim was a child…

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Tennessee legislation rips families apart

Reprinted in full with permission By Steve Yoder . . . Last Sunday, Jason broke the news to his 7-year-old daughter: He’d be moving out. When a new Tennessee law goes into effect Monday, he will be barred from living with her. The law, Senate Bill 425, also forbids him from being alone with his daughter, meaning he can’t handle…

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New Tennessee legislation will destroy undetermined number of families

By Sandy . . . In some of our border states, children sit in detention camps, taken from their parents and held for a reason deemed good by some in our society. Half the country away in the state of Tennessee, in one week’s time, parents will be taken from their children against their will, also for a reason deemed…

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