A New Year For RSOL (Full Release)

January 22, 2013
Contact: Sandy Rozek, Communications Committee
713.303.4037
correspondence@reformsexoffenderlaws.org

RSOL—Reform Sex Offender Laws, Inc.—is pleased to welcome the New Year with some timely and aggressive legal action. Directed by our Legal Committee, we are supporting our Pennsylvania state affiliate, Pennsylvania RSOL, in challenging sections of Senate Bill 1183 (Pennsylvania’s new sex offender registration requirements) on multiple constitutional grounds. Two press releases have been issued relevant to this issue.

 

Additionally, a letter has been mailed to ten-year registrants throughout the state of Pennsylvania advising them of our action and encouraging them to contribute their moral and financial support to our efforts.  We also encourage them to join National RSOL as well as their local chapter if they have not already done so. 

 

National RSOL has issued press releases in New Mexico and in Texas.  In those states, we oppose bills which propose new requirements and restrictions on registrants using social networking sites.   Elements of both states’ bills are clearly unconstitutional, and similar bills and laws in other states have been overturned.

 

Our second major effort in the new year will be a membership drive!   RSOL’s Planning Committee has examined several membership models and is in the process of designing one that will facilitate the furtherance of our vision, mission, and goals.

 

The formulation of vision, mission, goals, and belief statements, also spearheaded by the Planning Committee, is nearing completion. They are each posted on the website, www.reformsexoffenderlaws.org, as soon as they are approved by the full Admin Team of nine members, in accordance with our bylaws. Vision, mission, and goals are posted and can be viewed by going to the website. Work on the belief statements is nearing completion.

 

The new year will see new undertakings for RSOL, but our established and valuable current practices will continue as well.  For example, our Prison Project sends theDigest, in both electronic and paper format, to incarcerated offenders.  The Digestreaches people (more each month!) in both federal and state institutions, so the Prison Project continues to grow.

 

The Conference Committee has been at work on our next national conference since the close of last year’s fourth and largest-attended one in Albuquerque, NM. The 2013 conference will take place over Labor Day weekend in Los Angeles, California, and we anticipate an even larger attendance for this fifth national conference.

 

This year will also see increased efforts at collaboration with other organizations whose goals complement those of RSOL. Using all available resources, we will continue to seek legislation that is based on facts and evidence-based research and laws that adhere to our Constitution while providing protection for every man, woman, and child in our nation.

 

 

RSOL promotes the elimination of sexual abuse and the preservation of civil rights for all individuals through the use of effective legislation based on empirical research. We envision sexual offense laws based on equal justice and respect for the dignity of all people, protection from retroactively applied punishment, and the establishment of fact-based laws and policies that protect our communities.

Pennsylvania Adam Walsh Act Requirements To Be Challenged via RSOL

Sex Offender Registration Requirements to be Challenged 
 

December 20, 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Larry Neely
RSOL Legal Committee

 

Reform Sex Offender Laws Inc. (RSOL) plans to soon challenge sections of Senate Bill 1183 (Pennsylvania’s new sex offender registration requirements) on multiple constitutional grounds.

Today marks the beginning of enforcement of a controversial new state law that purports to protect citizens from registered sex offenders. RSOL’s executive director Brenda Jones stated, “It is disappointing that Pennsylvania’s lawmakers chose to ignore the lessons learned when Ohio proceeded down this same disastrous path more than five years ago.” Ohio was the first state to be deemed AWA complaint, but the courts subsequently have found several aspects of Ohio’s new law unconstitutional. After expending millions of taxpayer dollars defending an unconstitutional law, Ohio was forced  to revert back to the old registration system for those sentenced prior to the new law’s enactment.

Jones stated that provisions of Pennsylvania’s new law “transform what is supposed to be a non-punitive, civil regulatory measure into a form of lifetime probationary supervision for most persons on the registry,” which RSOL believes to be blatantly unconstitutional. “And further,” she continues, “all individuals on Pennsylvania’s registry will see their registration periods dramatically increase, with the majority becoming life-timers. This,” she emphasized, “is a violation of the ex post facto clause.”

Jones stated that although the new law was touted by its supporters as necessary to bring Pennsylvania into compliance with the federal Adam Walsh Act (AWA), “It does little if anything to improve public safety, and any marginal benefit achieved is at the expense of trampling over our most cherished constitutional protections.”

Jones concluded her remarks by saying, “It is most unfortunate that RSOL must undertake such a challenge, but make no mistake about it; we cannot and will not stand by while public policymakers shred the constitution and disregard their oaths of office.”


RSOL promotes the elimination of sexual abuse and the preservation of civil rights for all individuals through the use of effective legislation based on empirical research. We envision sexual offense laws based on equal justice and respect for the dignity of all people, protection from retroactively applied punishment, and the establishment of fact-based laws and policies which protect our communities.
 

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