Colorado lawmakers advanced a proposal this week to place fewer youths who commit sexual offenses on the state registry, and to partially seal that registry from the public.
The proposed changes are informed by research showing that harshly penalizing juvenile sex offenders often does nothing to improve public safety or rehabilitate the offenders.
The proposed bill was endorsed Thursday by four of five voting members of an interim committee of state lawmakers convened to consider changes to how Colorado criminal and juvenile justice systems treat people with mental illness. The committee comprises members from both parties and both chambers of the legislature.
The draft that committee members voted to introduce next year expands significantly the discretion of judges not to require juveniles to register as sex offenders. It also allows people adjudicated — a synonym for “convicted” used in juvenile cases — for multiple sex offenses to petition to deregister, and for “lookbacks” by courts that may want to remove someone from the registry, or add someone, depending on new information that may surface.
According to The Washington Times, possibly some good news for juveniles out of Louisiana: The Louisiana’s Supreme Court has sidestepped, for now, the question of whether juveniles convicted of sex crimes can be required to register as sex offenders for the rest of their lives, but the majority said the requirement is unconstitutional and should be changed by lawmakers.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/oct/23/court-sidesteps-issue-on-juvenile-sex-offenders/
Do copyright laws allow us to copy links for news articles to other websites?
I’ve never heard of a link violating copyright. Quite the opposite, where a link takes the reader directly to the copyrighted source.
Smart thinking
Meanwhile Florida is double talking out the sides of there mouth. Note their own admission of the punitiveness of theses registries.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s application for that money, which The Appeal obtained through a public-records request, uses the size of the registry to sell the state as a leader in punitiveness. In one section, the agency touts the more than 700 percent growth in the number of people on its registry since its inception in 1997 and its continuing expansion. “Florida currently has one of the largest registries in the country and enjoys national recognition as a leader and model in the strength of sexual predator and offender laws,” the agency notes.
It was amusing when I the line: “…research showing that harshly penalizing juvenile sex offenders often does nothing to improve public safety or rehabilitate the offenders.” How the hell does it improve public safety or rehabilitation of adult sex offenders??? Apparently they are alleging otherwise!
WOW David I was just going to type the same thing almost word for word even starting off with “How the Hell……..” LOL You took the words right out of my mouth and probably most who read this on F.A.C
Huge double standards by whoever made the statements that it is bad for young people but fine to ruin adults lives.