Saturday, February 28, 2015

Clueless Showboaters

There is work to be done in the legislative/public policy sphere to protect people from sex trafficking.

Wouldn't it be great if the product of that work actually protects people? As it stands, sadly, politicians are stuck on the erroneous idea of adding punishments for Registered Citizens.

The International Megan's Law bill pending in the U.S. Senate is a prime example of political showboating that will accomplish nothing, according to Chrysanthi Leon, associate professor of sociology and criminal justice and women and gender studies at the University of Delaware.

"The (proposed) law focuses on people listed in sex offender registries (or Megan’s law databases). The core problem with this approach is that empirical research has established that people on the registry are not the ones who will commit new sex crimes," Leon writes.

"The U.S. Department of Justice’s own 2002 study shows this: New sex offenses are much more likely to be committed by people not already caught or registered as sex offenders. When the concern is sex trafficking, this is even more misguided, since no connection has ever been made between the two groups. Despite our fears of sex offenders, there is no empirical reason to expect registered sex offenders to be the ones exploiting children abroad."

Read Leon's op-ed piece at DelawareOnline.

Friday, February 27, 2015

February Issue of Ninety-Five% Newsletter is on Its Way

The February issue of Ninety-Five%, our hard-copy monthly newsletter for donors and friends, is in the mail. It has a story and photos about Nebraskans Unafraid's day in Lincoln educating the Legislature. We send the newsletter to anyone who is giving us at least $5 per month, or is otherwise materially supporting Nebraskans Unafraid.

If you would like to help with a donation, click here.

Thursday, February 26, 2015

Be FEARLESS on March 16















FEARLESS meets 7 p.m. Monday, March 16 at St. Michael Lutheran Church, 13232 Blondo Street in Omaha. We will have a second presentation on research at the University of Nebraska-Omaha. The February presentation was eye-opening and empowering. You should catch this followup if you can.



Because Nebraska law inflicts financial havoc on families, we will focus our discussion on successful strategies for surviving and thriving. Please join us.



Wednesday, February 25, 2015

The Pathetic Intensity of Hatred

Hatred can burn with such intensity that it makes you indifferent to the consequences of your actions. In Wisconsin, a man faces charges of arson, accused of burning down a house that was intended to be the home of a sex offender. If he is convicted, imagine what the hater has done to himself and his family. Tell us again, hater: Who are you protecting? Here is the story.

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

'Predator Alert' Email Scam Prompts Notice from West Virginia Attorney General

West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey has issued a warning so parents will know that those "child predator alert" emails are a scam.

Emails claiming to be a “community safety” alert have been circulating throughout the state and nation. The alert appears to be a personalized warning about a child predator that has relocated into the consumer’s neighborhood, but the warning is really a scam.

“Parents want to protect their children, and these scammers count on that to capture your personal information,” says Attorney General Morrisey. “They have designed the email to catch you off guard and feed off of fear so that you will click on embedded links and enter information without taking time to carefully consider who the email came from, what it contains, and why the sender is reaching out to you. We encourage people to be aware, stay calm, and think before taking quick action.”

Read more.

Monday, February 23, 2015

Local N.Y. Residency Laws Struck Down; Evidence Shows They Weren't Working as Advertised Anyway

New York State's highest court has struck down dozens of local residency restriction ordinances.

Even if they were legal, however, the evidence shows that such ordinances don't work as advertised anyway. Read more.

Sunday, February 22, 2015

Endangering the Public While Doing Vast Economic Harm

Sex-offender laws like the one we have in Nebraska might lead parents to ignore the greatest threats to the safety of their children, according to an article in the Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs.

The Cost of Fear: An Analysis of Sex Offender Registration, Community Notification, and Civil Commitment Laws in the United States and the United Kingdom is a worthy read for anyone who is truly interested in public safety. Author Kate Hynes of the Penn State University Dickinson School of Law painstakingly documents her bottom-line argument: Sex-offender laws in the U.S. endanger the public and do vast economic harm.


Here is an excerpt:




Studies have indicated that sex offenders have among the lowest recidivism rates when compared to all criminals.

Additionally, some of the most dangerous sexual crimes, those involving rape and murder, account for less than three percent of sexual offenses perpetrated in the United States. The perception that many sex crimes against children are the result of strangers prowling around playgrounds is also a misconception.

In reality, ninety-three percent of sex offenders who perpetrate crimes against children know their victims. Children are much more likely to be abused by someone they know and trust, than from an unknown individual holding out candy from a dark sedan. The perpetuated fear of “stranger danger” might actually be giving parents an unwarranted feeling of safety around the people with whom their children are most familiar.
READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE

Saturday, February 21, 2015

The Clueless Associated Press

The Associated Press reported recently that Wichita's Louie the Clown, an amusement park dummy that had been missing 10 years, was found (GASP!) in the home of a sex offender.

The AP offers no word on Louie's condition or whether he was examined for, uh, any damage.

The AP is the outfit that several years ago breathlessly reported that a child had gone missing in a trailer park where lots of sex offenders live. Turned out sex offenders had nothing to do with the disappearance. I don't think The AP was even ashamed for producing such tripe and passing it off as "news."

Meanwhile, here are the headlines on some other stories The AP has in the works:

  • Sex Offender Has Cup of Morning Coffee

  • Light Turns Red, Sex Offender Brings Vehicle to a Halt

  • Sex Offender Prepares to Watch the Oscars

  • Mom Has Chat With Sex-Offender Who is Her Son

  • Guy Walks Down Street, Passes 100s of Sex Offenders But Doesn't Notice Them

  • Gas Prices on the Rise; Sex Offenders Still Filling Up

Friday, February 20, 2015

Latest Study Blows a Huge Hole in Adam Walsh Act Tier System

http://nebula.wsimg.com/c73b9c48bbc3a3d1077edf8e13130de9?AccessKeyId=3EEBADD643CB5C50AB84&disposition=0&alloworigin=1
Just-published research blows a massive hole in any defense of Nebraska's current Adam Walsh Act (AWA) system of classifying former sex offenders.

"The results indicate that the AWA sex offender classification scheme is a poor indicator of relative risk and is likely to result in a system that is less effective in protecting the public," according to the abstract on the research.

READ THE ABSTRACT ON THE NEW RESEARCH

The study conducted by a nationwide panel compares the Adam Walsh Act offense-based "tier" system to older risk-based systems. In 2010, Nebraska moved to the AWA system and threw out risk assessments. As a result, former offenders who had been found to be no- or low-risk ended up on the shaming registry for life and vice versa.

Some takeaways -- the study found:
  • overall reoffense rates for former sex offenders are extremely low;
  • people in the lower Walsh Act tiers had higher reoffense rates than those in Tier III (lifetime registration).
Simply put, the tall stack of scientific evidence in favor of repealing just about all of Nebraska's sex-offender laws is getting taller.

Click here to see Nebraskans Unafraid's recommendations on how the law should change.

From San Diego City Beat: Tier It Up

California has the biggest sex-offender registry in the U.S.—for no good reason

By Kelly Davis

California is one of only four states that require adults convicted of certain sex crimes to register with local law enforcement each year for life. Crime-free for 50 years? Bedridden? It doesn’t matter. This lifetime requirement has turned California’s registry into the largest in the country. There are roughly 800,000 registered sex offenders in the U.S., and around 100,000 of them live in California.

Tom Janenko, a detective with the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department’s Sex Offender Management Unit, says he knows of registrants living in nursing homes, still required to annually let law enforcement know where they’re living. If they can’t come to Sheriff’s headquarters, someone will go to them.

“If they are physically capable of coming in, their caregivers will bring them in in wheelchairs,” Janenko says.

Full story.

Thursday, February 19, 2015

How Do We Protect the Public From Dangerous Politicians Like This One in Idaho?

In Idaho, a politician wants to add crimes with no sexual aspects at all to the list of offenses that get you on the sex-offender registry.

We need to start thinking about how we can protect the public from dangerous politicians (like Robert Anderst of Nampa, Idaho) who come up with these ideas.

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Seth's Blog: 'We need to hate them more'

 In a connection economy, hating the other destroys the hater.


Seth's Blog: 'We need to hate them more'

How Long Do You Have to Wait for That 'Dangerous Stranger' to Come Along?

The answer: 750,000 years.  

Years.

How much hard fact and scientific evidence does it take to overcome fear? If you actually wanted your child to be abducted by a stranger, how long would you have to leave him or her outside, unattended?

"Seven hundred and fifty thousand years," answers Lenore Skenazy, mother of two and founder of Free-Range Kids.

Here's a short piece on Lenore from the New Yorker.

Think of the consequences of paying attention to facts and evidence: There would be no need for scamming predatory websites like Kids Live Safe or Homefacts. The for-profit prison industry might suffer a downturn in the bottom line.

Who does not want you to know facts like those quoted by Skenazy? Well, to name a few:

-- the manufacturers of software that is sold to probation offices to monitor the online behavior of Registered Citizens;

-- makers of ankle-bracelet monitors;

-- producers of local TV news (just listen to the promotions about "keeping your family safe" and "storm teams" and such . . . they need you to be afraid).

The list could go on and on. Suffice it to say that we're surrounded by some powerful interests who profit from our fears -- and they do not want us to have ability to distinguish between legitimate and imagined fears.

Monday, February 16, 2015

BE FEARLESS Tonight

News from the Legislature and the latest on research at the University of Nebraska-Omaha are on the FEARLESS menu tonight.

FEARLESS, exclusively for Registered Citizens and their loved ones, meets at 7 p.m. at St. Michael Lutheran Church, 13232 Blondo Street, Omaha. Park in the east lot and enter through the east door.

Sunday, February 15, 2015

Former corrections attorney says she purposely dropped bombshell

AP photo
Sharon Lindgren (AP)

By Deena Winter | From Watchdog.org
LINCOLN, Neb. — Sharon Lindgren knew exactly what she was doing when she dropped a bombshell into her testimony during a legislative hearing on prison scandals in September.
Why, Lindgren was asked, did she think the state Department of Correctional Services failed to heed a 2013 Nebraska Supreme Court ruling, State vs. Castillas, on how to calculate certain sentences.
“I’d mentioned Payan,” she told the committee chairman, Sen. Steve Lathrop.
“Mention(ed) what?” he asked.
“State vs. Payan,” she replied.
It was a 2009 Supreme Court ruling that putting sex offenders on lifetime supervision constituted punishment and should be decided by a court, not the corrections department. After the ruling came out, two corrections attorneys — lead attorney George Green and Kathy Blum — met with three lawyers from the attorney general’s office to decide how to proceed.
“What was reported back to me from that meeting was they were told — Kathy and George were told and they both confirmed this — that, oh , it’s a decision in a criminal case,” Lindgren, under oath, told lawmakers. “It doesn’t really cover what the department can or cannot do, so just keep on doing it, which sounds very similar to the position that was ultimately taken in Castillas.”
“Do you tell me this because the culture is to ignore the Supreme Court?” Lathrop asked Lindgren later.
“At least it was my understanding the AG’s office advised the department to ignore the Supreme Court or to not apply the Payan case,” she reiterated. “I think it’s just blatant … a blatant violation of the inmate’s rights.”

Digital Darkness and Silence for Sex Offenders in the Information Age

A guest post: Read the entire article for great information about the sex-offender industry and the companies that profit from the law.

by Andrew Extein | from Truthout
"Is my Furby a computer?"
With five months in jail and eight months of parole behind him, and four years of probation to go, Trevor finds himself contemplating the artificial intelligence of a Furby, and its threat to his future.
As a registered sex offender, Trevor must abide by a bewildering array of rules, regulations and restrictions. He was introduced to the maze upon parole: He wasn't supposed to use a computer or the internet, but his parole officer didn't initially inform him of these constraints. Ironically, he found out his parole conditions online.
Later, during a mandatory polygraph test, a police officer slid a pen and paper toward Trevor, demanding that he write down every username and online alias he has ever had. Trevor, a young, self-identified "freaky queer video/net artist," found this request laughable and troublingly out-of-touch.
"They didn't even understand that any time you comment on anything on a site you have to usually create a username, or any of the endless crap you have to create accounts for online," he said. "They still seem stuck in the mid-90s or something, as if I have one email address and one screen name that I use to talk to pedophiles and minors on the internet, like it works that way."

Saturday, February 14, 2015

A Lonely Place: The Truth About Jon Bruning's Unlawful Law

Nebraska State Patrol Wants to Put 12-Year-Old on the Sex-offender Website

The Nebraska State Patrol wants to put a 12-year-old on the state's public-shaming sex-offender website. Fortunately, a federal court has stepped in and at least for now prevented this travesty from happening. Click here to read more.

N.H. High Court Recognizes Punitive Effect of Registration

The New Hampshire Supreme Court, in a narrow ruling, says that lifetime registration is punitive and creates a hardship.

The court took pains to write an opinion that applies only to one individual. But it is significant that the court recognizes the punitive reality of sex-offender registration.

“We are convinced that the punitive effects clearly outweigh the regulatory intent of the act,” Justice Robert Lynn wrote for the court.

This is a breakthrough, similar to rulings in other states where courts are abandoning the convenient lie that sex-offender registration is a benign civil regulation. It is that lie that has permitted politicians to circumvent constitutional provisions against ex post facto laws.

The state and U.S. Constitutions say that it is illegal to pass a punitive law that applies after-the-fact of a criminal offense. For the sake of argument, let's say the Legislature wants to get tough on predatory bankers. It passes a law that says predatory bankers who violate accounting laws should have their right hands chopped off. And because people hate predatory bankers, it's a popular move. Because it's so easy to hate predatory bankers, the Legislature labels the mutilation as simply a civil regulation, not a punishment. That means that the state is free to go out and chop off  the right hand of anyone who ever broke an accounting law. If the mutilation were labeled punishment, the state would be limited to chopping off the right hands only of those who violated an accounting law after the hand-chopping statute took effect.

Sooner or later, someone is likely to come along who says, "Hey, you know, chopping someone's hand off really is punishment, even if you're not calling it punishment."

That appears to be happening now with the punishment that is sex-offender registration. We appear to be returning to sanity after decades of flat-out crazy sex-offender hysteria that has permitted politicians to ignore constitutional provisions. In Nebraska, our attorney general's office was so bold as to simply defy court rulings in its mad pursuit of hammering sex offenders. We should not lose sight of the fact that this crazy activity has not and never will protect anyone from sexual assault.

The significance of the New Hampshire ruling is that it represents one more small step toward getting smart on crime as opposed to being outrageously and ineffectively tough on crime. Here is a story about the ruling.

Friday, February 13, 2015

FEARLESS Features Latest from the Legislature and UNO Researchers

BE FEARLESS on Monday and join us for an update from the Legislature and a presentation on recent research findings at the University of Nebraska-Omaha.

FEARLESS, which is exclusively for registered citizens and loved ones who accompany them to a meeting, meets at 7 p.m. Monday, February 16, at St. Michael Lutheran Church, 13232 Blondo Street, Omaha. Park in the east lot and enter through the east door.

FEARLESS is primarily for you to connect with others in similar circumstances and to share ways and means of surviving and thriving despite Nebraska's hate-list website. This Monday, the team that represented Nebraskans Unafraid at the Legislature for the hearing on LB 290 will share some experiences: We visited the offices of all 49 state senators and delivered testimony at a Judiciary Committee hearing. Find out how we were received by joining us on Monday.

Basis of the testimony was the good factual information coming out of the University of Nebraska-Omaha School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, and the researchers will present some of their recent findings at FEARLESS.

If you need another reason to come out and join us, there's free food and beverages.

Thursday, February 12, 2015

Watch Hearing on LB 290 Live Online

Nebraskans Unafraid will have representatives at today's Judiciary Committee hearing on LB 290, and we'll have a full report in the next issue of Ninety-Five%. But you can watch the hearing live online, starting at 1:30 p.m. Central Time today, at this link.

LB 290 represents the first step in the Legislature to correct the illegal sex-offender laws passed back in 2009.

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Former Sen. Lathrop Calls for Federal Investigation Into Corrections Case

By Deena Winter | From Watchdog.org

LINCOLN, Neb. — Former state Sen. Steve Lathrop is calling for a federal investigation into allegations former Attorney General Jon Bruning’s office advised the state corrections department not to heed a 2009 Nebraska Supreme Court ruling that the state could not order sex offenders to be supervised for life but must leave that to juries.
AP file photo
AP file photo
WAR OF WORDS: In September, former Attorney General Jon Bruning blasted corrections lawyers for saying his office advised them not to heed a Supreme Court ruling on supervising sex offenders. Internal documents indicate otherwise.
Lathrop, who led a legislative investigation into prison scandals last year, released a statement Tuesday saying, “It is time for the U.S. attorney to fully and fairly investigate what has occurred in the Department of Corrections and the Attorney General’s office.”
Nebraska Watchdog reported Monday that contrary to what former Attorney General Jon Bruning told reporters in September, internal documents obtained under the state public records act indicate his office did advise corrections to continue assessing whether sex offenders should be placed under lifetime supervision.

Bruning Himself Admits the Public-Shaming Site Lists People Who Are Not Dangerous

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

'You Can't Punish People for Crimes They Have Not Yet Committed'

More on the Minnesota class-action lawsuit against a civil commitment program that sentences former offenders to life in lockup: The Marshall Project blog examines the issues.

Here are a few excerpts:

  • “You can’t punish people for crimes they have not yet committed,” says Daniel Filler, a professor at Drexel University’s Kline School of Law. 


  • Public perceptions of the untreatable pedophile are also largely unfounded. There are a small number of dangerous, intractable predators, but in general recidivism rates for most sex offenders are actually lower than those for other violent crimes.


  • The politicians of this great State must now ask themselves if they will act to revise a system that is clearly broken, or stand idly by and do nothing, simply awaiting Court intervention. (Quote from U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank).

Monday, February 9, 2015

Documents Support Allegations That Bruning's AG Office Told Corrections Staff to Disregard Supreme Court Rulings

Jon Bruning
The office of former Nebraska Atty. Gen. Jon Bruning, architect of Nebraska's current draconian sex-offender law, told the state Department of Corrections to effectively disregard state Supreme Court rulings on sex offenders.

That's according to a report today by Nebraska Watchdog.

Last September, Bruning denied allegations that his office told corrections officials to pay no heed to the Supreme Court rulings. He declined to comment today on the Nebraska Watchdog story. Documents obtained by Nebraska Watchdog under the state's open records law support the allegations.

Remember, Bruning is the guy who gleefully touted his plans to "drop a hammer on sex offenders."

Makes us wonder what should be dropped on a chief law enforcement officer who tells state employees to disregard court rulings.

Here's the complete Nebraska Watchdog story.



Former FBI Agent: Vast Majority of Child Sex Assaults Committed by Family and Friends

High-profile former FBI agent Jim Clemente, who worked primarily on cases involving sexual assaults of children, has this to say about child victims:

"The vast majority are victimized by people they know and people they love." That means that sex-offender registries protect no one.

Asked to quantify "vast majority," Clemente said (based on his experience) 99.99 percent. Monster predators and stranger danger have worked their way into the lexicon. But they are words that took those who work with children way down the wrong road. Click here to read more.

Sunday, February 8, 2015

Minnesota Lawsuit Tests Civil Commitment

" . . . it's really important that our system of justice doesn't decide things on whether we think the people are hateful or awful."

-- Minnesota attorney Dan Gustafson, who represents the plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit against Minnesota and its medieval civil commitment program.

Trial begins Monday in federal court in Minnesota in a complicated class-action lawsuit that holds out the possibility of restoring justice to a system that destroys lives in the name of public safety.

Minnesota's civil commitment program funnels former sex offenders into lifetime imprisonment after they have completed their sentences. For two decades no one has cared because it is so easy to hate former offenders. Now the former offenders are fighting back.

"Part of the problem in this case is that no one has the political will to take this on," Gustafson said, noting the failure of proposed reform legislation that either died in committee or was never voted on because the issue is a political minefield.
"None of the political leadership in this state has any interest in being the person labeled as the legislator or the attorney general or whoever that supported the notion of treating sex offenders better," he said. "It's easy for me to say because I'm not running for elective office, but to me, justice is the more important concept."
Read TwinCities.com / Pioneer Press columnist Ruben Rosario's advance column on the trial by clicking here.

Saturday, February 7, 2015

Friday, February 6, 2015

Protecting the Public in Wisconsin vs. Fear-Mongering in Nebraska

Instead of wasting his time on anti-sex-offender publicity stunts, the Chief of Police in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, helped facilitate a community workshop that reviewed scientific facts about sexual offenders.

Oshkosh Police Chief Scott Greuel provided information about research that shows residency restrictions are dumb and do not work. (Contrast that with Douglas County, Nebraska, Sheriff Tim Dunning, who pulls "compliance check" stunts to play on public fear).

READ OSHKOSH NORTHWESTERN COLUMNIST DAN RYLANCE ON THE WORKSHOP

Chief Greuel stressed two facts:

  • Approximately 93 percent of all sex crimes are perpetrated by offenders known to the victim prior to the offense.
  • The majority of sexually abused children are victimized by someone well known to them and approximately 60 percent of offenses take place in the victim's home or the home of someone they know.
These facts scare Dunning and others who like to keep people afraid of things like "stranger danger." There is no political hay to be made by telling folks that their kids are in fact at greatest risk from people in their own families or from close friends. They're at greatest risk in their own homes -- not in the parks or the schools falsely "protected" by Nebraska residency restrictions.

If these facts ever got out in Nebraska, people would begin to realize there is no reason to regulate where former offenders sleep, or whether they go to parks or libraries. And if people started to realize stuff like that, there would be fewer community fears to manipulate in hopes of getting votes or grubbing more law enforcement grant money.

The only thing that might happen is Nebraska might start truly protecting children with laws and public policies that represent substantive solutions.

As it stands, Nebraska sex-offender laws are a sham generally supported by people like Dunning, who are supposed to be protecting -- not manipulating -- you.

Thursday, February 5, 2015

Hearing on Proposed Changes to Sex-offender Law is Set for Thursday, February 12

The Nebraska Legislature's Judiciary Committee will hear testimony on LB 290, a bill that would bring Nebraska sex-offender law into minimal conformance with a years-old federal court ruling against the state, on Thursday, February 12.

Click here to read the introduced copy of the bill. Click here to read the court ruling that prompts the bill -- very instructive in terms of U.S. District Court Judge Richard Kopf's low opinion of a Nebraska law and the process that brought it about.

The hearing is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. in Room 1113 of the Nebraska State Capitol Building in Lincoln. Get there early if you want a good seat. If you want to testify, you can sign up to do so using forms that will be available in the hearing room.

LB 290 is a good start but it does not go far enough. Click here to see the additional changes endorsed as necessary by Nebraskans Unafraid (NU). If you plan to be in Lincoln for the hearing, you also should stop in to see your own representative -- give him or her a copy of the NU position paper. Click here for guidance on how to identify and talk with your elected representative.

This is your chance to have your voice heard by those who hold the reins. If you stay home, then you better also shut up and stop complaining about the law.

Nationally Recognized Expert on Sexual Offending is FEARLESS Guest



Nationally recognized expert on sexual offending Lisa Sample, PhD, and colleagues from the University of Nebraska-Omaha School of Criminology and Criminal Justice will be guest presenters at the February meeting of FEARLESS.

Dr. Sample's team documents how the State of Nebraska damages families and imperils public safety with its fear-based ineffective laws regarding Registered Citizens. Click here for documentation.

FEARLESS meets at 7 p.m. on Monday, February 16, at Saint Michael Lutheran Church, 13232 Blondo Street, Omaha. Park in the east lot and enter through the east door.

BAD WEATHER POLICY
If the Omaha Public School District cancels classes on February 16 because of unsafe weather conditions, FEARLESS will not meet.

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Nebraskans Unafraid's Six Steps to a Safer Nebraska

Every Nebraska child, as well as every Nebraskan, has a right to be safe and secure within her or his own home.
Nebraskans Unafraid believes that this right extends to Registered Citizens, their partners and their children. Current Nebraska law deprives families of Registered Citizens of their safety and security. To cure this,
Nebraska law regarding sexual offenders should be changed to reflect the following:
·         Registered Citizens whose offenses occurred before January 1, 2010 (the effective date of LB 285), and who have not reoffended should be subject to provisions of Nebraska law as it existed on December 31, 2009, thus abiding by the State and U.S. Constitutions’ prohibitions on ex post facto punishments.
Why? Harmless people whose offenses are years in the past are re-punished by LB 285. Research by the University of Nebraska-Omaha shows that LB 285 does not increase public safety, creates joblessness and homelessness, and harms innocent family members. A federal judge determined that the Nebraska Legislature’s intent with LB 285 was to add punishment. LB 285 should not be applied to anyone whose case was adjudicated prior to the law’s effective date.
·         Eliminate one-size-fits-all public notification via website and any other means that exposes innocent families to public scorn and vigilante action.
Why? Research proves that such websites do not protect the public and in fact make communities more dangerous. The vast majority of sexual offenders will not re-offend.  Research shows that public notification forces homelessness and joblessness upon Registered Citizens, thus increasing the chance of re-offense. It does not even make sense to talk about putting “dangerous” former offenders on a website because Nebraska does not pay attention to whether an offender is dangerous. Nebraska instead uses the Adam Walsh Act tier classification system. The tier system specifies length of time on the registry based upon crime of conviction. People who have been evaluated and found to be low re-offense risks nonetheless are on the Nebraska registry for life. Conversely, people who were evaluated and found to be high-risk are in the lowest Adam Walsh Act tier and some day will be off the registry.  According to a study by Kelly Bonnar-Kidd, Ph.D., and published in the American Journal of Public Health:
Sexual violence is a significant public health problem in the United States. In an effort to decrease the incidence of sexual assault, legislators have passed regulatory laws aimed at reducing recidivism among convicted sexual offenders. As a result, sex offenders living in the United States are bound by multiple policies, including registration, community notification, monitoring via a global positioning system, civil commitment, and residency, loitering, and Internet restrictions.
These policies have led to multiple collateral consequences, creating an ominous environment that inhibits successful reintegration and may contribute to an increasing risk for recidivism. In fact, evidence on the effectiveness of these laws suggests that they may not prevent recidivism or sexual violence and result in more harm than good.
·         Eliminate the requirement that a Registered Citizen register at more than one county sheriff’s office.
Why? Sophisticated information technology gives all of law enforcement instantaneous access to data, and there is no need to enter it twice.
·         The length of time that an individual is required to register should start at the date of conviction.
Why? This is typical practice. Extending an individual’s time on the registry has no demonstrated public-safety benefit, but it does cost taxpayers more in law enforcement and corrections resources. If a practice does not enhance public safety, it should be ended.
·         Extend the time period for reporting changes of residence to seven days (instead of the current three) following the change. Extend to seven days the number of days a registered citizen is permitted to travel without notifying law enforcement. Permit such notifications to be made by telephone or email, instead of exclusively in person. Return to the practice of a single annual information verification, conducted by mail or online.
Why? Three days is unreasonable, especially for individuals who must travel to other states on short notice (such as the unexpected death of a family member). The current system is needlessly burdensome and wasteful for both Registered Citizens and law enforcement.
·         Stop the expansion of crimes that make perpetrators subject to sexual-offense sanctions and consider trimming the list.

Why? Our ever-more-draconian sexual offending laws have led to an ever-expanding list of offenses that are registerable offenses.  Under current Nebraska law, offenses that are not sexual in nature now require an offender to register. In a recent legislative session, there was an attempt to criminalize kissing.