OnceFallen.com's new website is up and running

 Finally, the OnceFallen.com website has been updated to be compatible with mobile phones. The info on the website is the same but has a slightly new look. Gone are the options on the left side of the screen; it now has the "drop down tabs" (that I admittedly hate but that's what all modern sites have). Also, the site links outside the main page have changed, so if you link directly to any of my webpages, you may wish to update that. 

I still need to make a couple of minor updates, but as of today, the site is fully operational. Thanks to all who helped me make this update possible, from those who donated for the updates, and those who worked to update the website. 

Housing list updates: 4/7/21

Some of the housing is new, and some are updates. As noted on oncefallen.com, I'm unable to update my site for a while, so check back for more updates. The rest of the list is still available on OnceFallen.com

FLORIDA

Diverse Housing LLC

PO Box 580635, Orlando, FL 32858

Ph. (407) 800-2275

www.diversehousing.com

 Michael Murphy, Owner

Details: Price for shared rooms start at and averages around $450 per mo. Price for individual rooms start at $550 per month and averages around $600 per mo. Rental includes use of furnishings (new bed, used dresser, and used night stand).  Common area is furnished with essential kitchenware, appliances, and dining area.  Use of washer and dryer is also included at all locations. Assistance is provided for the following: completion of initial food stamp application and transportation to first visit of Sheriff’s Office (for registration), DMV, and Probation Offenders and Predators are accepted.  Male and/or females may be accepted.  Couples may be accepted on a case by case basis.  All housing is located in the Orlando area, Orange County, FL.  Security Deposit and First Month’s rent due to move-in. NO admin, application, or processing fees are charged.

Project SOAR Recovery Residences Inc

1231-1235 NE 15th Avenue, Ft. Lauderdale FL 33304

800-992-0381 extension 0 (toll-free)

954-900-9980 extension 0 (local)

www.projectsoar.us

info@projectsoar.us

LiveChat with a Specialist 24/7 on our website

Since 2010, Project SOAR Recovery Residences has provided transitional supportive housing for men in the South Florida area. Our primary goal is to provide a clean, safe, sober, and responsible environment to recovering alcohol and/or substance abusers which will, in turn, support recovery. As a state certified recovery residence through the Florida Association of Recovery Residences (FARR), a member of the National Alliance of Recovery Residences and BBB Accredited with an A rating, we are committed to only accepting those individuals who are serious about their recovery. We have 12 locations throughout Fort Lauderdale and proudly accept registered sex offenders, including those with the predator designation at five of our communities that are most commonly approved. Our program fee ranges anywhere from $110.00 to $155.00 per week with a $150.00 admission fee. Prospective residents may apply online at www.projectsoar.us or give us a call at 954-900-9980 extension 0 - we'd be happy to help!

PENNSYLVANIA

Sunday Breakfast Mission

302 N. 13th St., Philadelphia, PA 19107  

215-922-3316      

Just For Jesus Outreach

14530 PA-28, Brockway, PA 15824

814-265-0243

Infinite Ministries

207 Highland Ave. Chester PA 19013

267-291-5871

Redemption Housing

PO Box 6326, Philadelphia PA 19139

267-908-6850

Bethesda Project: Our Brother’s Place

907 Hamilton St., Philadelphia PA 19123

215-985-1600

Forgiven Ministries, Inc.

518 Plum St., Erie PA 16507

814-451-0479

Hearken House Ministry

Patrick M Matthews

79 S Franklin Street, Chambersburg PA 17201

Phone - 717-552-2891

Fax- 717-251-3163

Email-  patrick@hearkenhouse.org

www.hearkenhouse.org

Stepping Stones to Freedom

PO Box 5621, Belleville PA 17004

email- info@sstf.info

http://sstf.info

717-447-0546

New Person Ministries

PO Box 223, Reading, PA 19607

610-777-2222

info@newperson.org

http://cr-so.org/

NOTE: Can only accept those convicted in the following PA counties- Adams, Berks, Bucks, Ciumberland, Dauphin, Franklin, Juniata, Lebanon, Lehigh, Northampton, Perry, Schuylkill, & York.

WISCONSIN

Conklin Real Estate LLC

819 N 23rd Street

Milwaukee, WI 53233

Phone: (414)-342-1550

Cell: (414)-791-5315

Fax: (414)-342-1560

Bob@conklinrealestate.com

Details: This is a company with properties all over the city, and some properties available are open to RCs. 

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: OnceFallen.com to enter transitional period to modernize website, most services to be unchanged

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT CONCERNING ONCEFALLEN.COM'S WEBSITE

On 31 March 2021, the service I have been using for over 13 years will no longer support the software I have used this entire time to update the website. The site has to be "modernized" for mobile phone compatibility. So, for a few weeks, OnceFallen.com will not be updated with the latest information as the necessary changes are made. The website will remain online but in a "frozen" or "archived" state until these changes are made. This means I won't be able to update my most frequent pages, namely my Housing Lists and my Corrlinks ICoN monthly newsletters. However, this website is NOT shutting down, and I'll continue to provide the same assistance I have done during this period of transition. Until the changes are complete, I will post any important info, like new housing leads and ICoN monthly newsletters, at this blog. 

I have made numerous updates to the website and will continue to make updates until the end of the month. 

My latest update for the PDF version of "Your Life on The List", the March 2021 Version, is available on my site now at:

http://www.oncefallen.com/files/Your_Life_on_The_List_PDF_Free_March_2021.pdf

To see the list of changes made to the book:

http://www.oncefallen.com/files/YLOTL_Edits_March_2021.pdf

Politicians can't reform the Criminal Justice System when they don't even know what it does

There are plenty of things to laugh about regarding this weekend's "Conservative Political Action Conference", like the nightmare-inducing Trump "Golden Calf" statue (that was made in Mexico) or that the CPAC stage is shaped like the "Odal Rune" worn on the collars of Waffen SS units during World War II. It is hard to believe, but I actually read a positive CPAC-related story. 

I have to admit, it just feels odd spotlighting a Florida politician with good intentions trying to get conservatives interested in Criminal Justice reform. It feels like talking about the Cleveland Browns being Super Bowl contenders. 

From Florida Politics:

"Donalds, in his first term representing Florida’s 19th Congressional District, addressed the topic of criminal justice, both in messaging and policy.

With experience running for, and winning, contested primary elections in the Sunshine State, the Southwest Florida Republican made what he called “two very important acknowledgments” about the kind of policy people wanted.

'First, a system that punishes and completes the punishment of those who do wrong,' Donalds said.

But that punitive approach is only half of it, the Congressman added.

Conservatives should “'appreciate that people who have broken laws are still American citizens and there must be a conduit for them to come back into society.'”

I'm not knocking Rep. Donalds's good intentions here, but the concept that this current system of punishment can ever somehow be "completed" is a foreign concept. to those running the system. Sure, some justice reforms have been made, but they've been largely symbolic and mostly for a select few criminal convictions. 

The highly touted First Step Act has a long list of crimes blocked from obtaining good time benefits, including nearly all sexually-based offenses. The Second Chance Act of 2008 also excluded sex offenses from any beneficial program it created. Registered Persons are banned from many jobs and public places, with some state being worse than others. Florida, the home state for Rep. Donalds, has an abysmally poor record for the treatment of Registered persons. 

People convicted of sex offenses are routinely excluded from criminal justice reform measures. Meanwhile, legislators still find the time amidst the pandemic to expand sex offense registries or to add new prohibitions on the rights of Registered Persons. 

Anti-Registry activists have stated for years that the punishment should end at the completion of a court-imposed sentence. But we like to pretend the sex offense registry is not punishment. We love to pretend that those indefinitely detained (Abu Ghraib-style) in "civil commitment programs" are "patients" receiving treatment. We continue to punish long after the completion of a court appointed sentence while simultaneously denying it is indeed punishment. If it looks, waddles, quacks, and floats like a duck, legislators and courts declare it is a cow. 

Well-meaning criminal justice reformists are seemingly unaware of the fact that the punishment doesn't end the day someone is released from prison or supervision period. I don't know if they are honestly ignorant or willfully overlooking the harm their laws have caused. 

Rep. Donalds told conservatives they should “want to be tough with crime but understanding of the condition of the human being,” to show that “opportunity even exists if you’re rebounding from the worst spot in your life. Everybody has the redemptive ability within them if they actually think the people around them want them to be redeemed." 

Right now, that's wishful thinking. Society has to change their viewpoint and it has to be addressed everywhere from the courts and legislators to the mass media. Despite our efforts in recent years, one look at the average comment section of a news story is enough evidence to prove we have a long ways to go. I haven't forgotten that sex offense registry laws are heavily supported by both of our main political parties, either. Both parties have harmed Registered Citizens and their families by espousing nonsensical, revenge-driven laws.

Criminal justice reform is a noble idea, but unless we are included in that idea, then these words ring hollow. Still, it is refreshing to hear someone from the state with one of the worst track records for justice reforms say these words. 

What does a Biden/Harris presidency mean for the Anti-Registry Movement?

 WHAT A BIDEN/ HARRIS PRESIDENCY MEANS FOR RCs

These past four years have truly brought out the worst in American politics, and in many ways, that nightmare is over. However, a transition of power in the White House has meant little to us in the past and will likely not matter this time, either. 

First, consider the fact passing tough-on-crime laws have been a bipartisan effort. Democrat President Clinton signed Megan’s Law in 1996. Republican President Bush signed the Adam Walsh Act (AWA) in 2006. Democrat President Obama signed International Megan’s Law (IML) in 2016. While Republican President Trump never got the chance to sign such sweeping legislation tied to registration laws, he signed FOSTA-SESTA — the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act and Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act. Both these laws have led to massive internet censorship and helped exacerbate the existing wave of human trafficking panic. (Of course, the 2010s were a decade of various sexual panics from campus assault scares to the #MeToo movement to the PizzaGate/ QAnon conspiracy theories.) And while people were touting Trump’s passage of the First Step Act, very few provisions benefited anyone convicted of anything but petty drug-offenses, as violent/ sex offenses were excluded from most beneficial provisions of the Act. 

This brings us to Democrat President Joe Biden. In Joe Biden’s first Presidential campaign in the 1980s, he ran on a tough-on-crime campaign and had been on the Senate Judiciary Committee since 1981, helping to pass tougher sanctions on drug offenses during Republican President Reagan’s “War on Drugs.” 

Biden has been instrumental in the creation of Sex Offense Legislation on the federal level. Joe Biden helped create the controversial Omnibus Crime Bill of 1994, which he largely wrote and shepherded through the legislative process as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. The 1994 “Biden Crime Bill” as (Biden himself has called it as recently as spring 2020) created the Jacob Wetterling Act, mandatory minimums, and mass incarceration. Biden defended his passage of the bill during his campaign, claiming it decreased crime (a claim disputed by many criminologists.) 

Biden has referred to the controversial AWA as the “Biden-Hatch Bill.” (Orrin Hatch, R-UT, also was a supporter of the defunct Dateline TV series “To Catch a Predator” and the vigilante group Perverted-Justice.) During the passage of the AWA, Biden stated, “Plain and simple: This legislation will help save children's lives. Sexual predators must be tracked and parents have a right to know when these criminals are in their neighborhoods. We've done a lot to protect our kids against SOs - creating the NCMEC in 1984, enacting the Biden Crime Bill in 1994, and enacting the Amber Alert system in 2003 - but it is not enough. We must do more. The AWA will help prevent these low-life sexual predators from slipping through the cracks.”

Vice-President Kamala Harris is a former sex crimes prosecutor in CA. As DA, Harris co-sponsored a state law that would have banned SOs from social media sites. And as AG, she presided over “Operation Boo,” a mandatory curfew for all homeless SOs on Halloween. Conservative media attacked her for deciding against enforcing a 2000 foot residency restriction law for SOs on parole, which passed by popular vote as part of the state’s “Jessica’s Law. However, the AG office only decided against further enforcement of the restrictions due to In re Taylor, Docket # S206143 (CA Sup Ct, 3/2/2015), which ruled that San Diego Co’s restrictions were unconstitutional as applied. Harris knew that any further enforcement would lead to more lawsuits and decided to no longer enforce the law. 

On the one hand, the powers of the President and Vice-President to pass any laws by Executive Order. (An executive order is a type of written instruction that presidents use to work their will through the executive branch of government.) But Sex Offense Laws have been passed by legislation, not by Executive Orders. But if a federal Sex Offense bill is placed on a President’s desk, be it Trump’s, Biden’s, or whoever is elected in 2024 and beyond, I doubt it will get vetoed.

Part of the problem is Sex Offense Laws have the support of both sides of the political aisle. Conservatives fulfil their moralistic, tough-on-crime agendas, while liberal receive their “justice” for alleged and real crime victims and the belief they are protecting the vulnerable. On a related note, Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell has a long record of rejecting criminal justice reforms, and had to be pressured by both parties just to get the First Step Act on the floor. This is why registry reform is a hard sell. It is not impossible, since some harsh laws have been scaled back, although most reforms were merely responses to lawsuits. Still, the leader of this country has great influence over public policy, so two tough-on-crime candidates leading this nation could be bad news for registry reformists. 

OnceFallen.com's annual report for 2020 shows record levels for assistance

ONCE FALLEN ANNUAL REPORT 2020 

Since 2016, OnceFallen has published an annual report which tracks the assistance given to and given by OnceFallen.com. While the COVID-19 pandemic altered the focus of Anti-Registry activism this year, demand for assistance reached all all-time high.

MAJOR EFFORTS BY ONCEFALLEN

Despite the global pandemic, OnceFallen still assisted in a number of events throughout the year.

SURVEY & REPORT ASSISTANCE: OnceFallen promoted the Veteran’s Survey conducted by Shawn Rolfe and Emily Horowitz, sending the survey to dozens of federal prisoners. In addition, OnceFallen has conducted its own survey related to the COVID-19 registration issue. OnceFallen also monitored announcements from LEOs to maintain a list of closures during the initial pandemic wave in the spring of 2020. OnceFallen also counted the number of employed registrants in Delaware to determine a 36% unemployment rate for RCs in 2020 in DE.

DENVER PROTEST: OnceFallen assisted in the planning and participated in the protest against the Millard v Camper decision in the 10th Circuit, a bad ruling that denied the registry is punitive. OnceFallen also designed the brochures handed out during the event.

YOUR LIFE ON THE LIST, A REGISTRY SURVIVAL GUIDE: In September 2020, “Your Life on The List” by Derek Logue was published by Amazon.com. The guide was created to help prisoners and the recently released navigate the myriad of “sex offender” laws in place. The guide contains a comprehensive summary of the laws of all 50 states plus DC and the territories and other useful resources for Registered Persons. A PDF version can be found for free on OnceFallen.com while printed versions can be ordered from Amazon.com.

FINANCIAL CONTRIBUTIONS RETURNED TO NEAR 2017/2018 LEVELS

After two years of steady contributions to OnceFallen’s Anti-Registry efforts, there was a huge dip in financial contributions in 2019. For 2020, donations returned to levels still below but closer to 2017/2018 levels. (A new laser printer of unknown value was donated as well.)

The primary expenses for OnceFallen in 2020 included the annual website fee, the protest in Denver, the material needed to send prisoner requests (ink, paper, envelopes, stamps), copies of books for distribution, and a new computer. Because donations exceeded expenses for 2020, OnceFallen ends on a slight surplus (as opposed to ending on a deficit in 2019). Thus, OnceFallen does not plan on hosting a fundraiser to start the upcoming year.

PRISONER OUTREACH SERVICES INCREASED AT RECORD PACE IN 2020

Prisoner outreach has taken over as OnceFallen’s primary function in 2020. OnceFallen offers the Informational Corrlinks Newsletter (ICoN) through the Corrlinks email system (a correctional email system used by the BOP and a handful of states, such as Wisconsin), answers requests for various guides such as the ACSOL 50 state visitor’s guide (a revision was made independently in Oct. 2020) as well as the newly released registry survival guide. See the resources I provide at http://www.oncefallen.com/icon.html

Subscriptions to the ICoN increased from 473 at the end of 2019 to 637 at the end of 2019 to 637, and increase of 164 subscribers (a 34.67% increase). This marks five years of increasing growth in the Corrlinks network, with 2020 having the largest increase in new subscribers. Here is the growth over the past 5 years:

• ICoN Subscribers 2016: 155
• ICoN Subscribers 2017: 221 (+66, 41.7%)
• ICoN Subscribers 2018: 350 (+129, 63%)
• ICoN Subscribers 2019: 473 (+123, 35%)
• ICoN Subscribers 2020: 637 (+164, 34.7%)

A total of 220 individual first contacts came from prisoners or those in civil commitment centers (109 through Corrlinks and 111 by mail).

A total of 285 postal letters arrived in 2020 and while not all letters come from prisoners, nearly all are requests for info related to the OnceFallen prisoner outreach. This year broke all previous records for letters received.

• Letters to OnceFallen 2013: 43
• Letters to OnceFallen 2014: 43 
• Letters to OnceFallen 2015: 73 (+30, 69.7%)
• Letters to OnceFallen 2016: 121 (+43, 65.7%)
• Letters to OnceFallen 2017: 184 (+63, 52.1%)
• Letters to OnceFallen 2018: 172 (-8, -1%)
• Letters to OnceFallen 2019: 175 (+3, 2%)
• Letters to OnceFallen 2020: 285 (+110, 62.9%)

NEW CONTACTS FOR ONCEFALLEN HIT RECORD LEVELS IN 2020

In 2020, OnceFallen assisted 476 individuals who reached out for assistance. About 46.2% of those (220 of the 476) were prisoners/ civilly committed. This is the most total contacts in any year overall and the largest increase since OnceFallen was founded in 2007.

• New Contacts 2016: 291
• New Contacts 2017: 422 (+125, +42.1%)
• New Contacts 2018: 401 (-21, -5%)
• New Contacts 2019: 336 (-65, -16%)
• New Contacts 2020: 476 (+140, +41.7%)

For 2020, I kept up with the nature of requests to help me better serve those who make inquiries. Some of these may overlap because people sometimes make multiple requests. Also, some folks contact me occasionally with later requests.

• ·         Legal Questions: 105 contacts. This includes everything from questions about particular state laws or a specific topic like residency laws or IML, or for requests like attorney lists or activist contacts for a particular state.
• ·         Housing issues: 94 contacts (housing list or advice). Three housing providers, however, contacted me requesting removal from the housing list, and those three aren’t counted here.
• ·         General Info: 62 contacts. This includes contacts for a variety of reasons, like calls from those from people soon to be convicted or from family members of registrants who don’t know what to expect, or advice on finding employment or other resources.
• ·         ICoN-specific inquiries: 59 contacts. Direct questions related to the ICoN/ Prisoner services.
• ·         Resources: 54 contacts. These are direct requests for specific printed guides or books from prisoners. An underestimate since only initial inquiries are counted. Many inmates request multiple guides. This number is expected to go down in 2021 since many resources are contained within the registry guide book created by OnceFallen.
• ·         Veteran’s Survey requests: 15 contacts.
• ·         COVID-related issues: 9 contacts.
• ·         Harassing calls: OnceFallen received threats of violence and harassment from seven vigilantes in 2020.

New contacts by month: 72 in Jan., 33 in Feb., 37 in Mar., 30 in Apr., 38 in May, 54 in June, 37 in July, 46 in Aug., 40 in Sept., 35 in Oct., 40 in Nov., 25 in Dec.

People from a total o 41 US State, one US Territory and Canada contacted me (185 contacts were of unknown origin.) Most contacts by state/ nation: FL (26); CA (23); OH (21); TX (21); NY/VA (14 each); IL (13); PA (12); WI (11); CO (10); AL/GA (9 each); MD/NC (8 each); NJ (7); AZ/IA/MO/OR (6 each); AR/KY (5 each); KS/MI/MN/NE/SC (4 each); ID/IN/LA/TN (3 each); DE/MA/OK/UT/WA/WV (2 each); MS/NM/NV/SD/WY/US Virgin Islands/ Canada (1 each); unknown (185). No contacts from AK, CT, HI, ME, MT, ND, NH, RI, or VT of the known contacts were made in 2020.

New Contacts by means utilized: email (153), Corrlinks (109), Postal Service (107), Phone call (64), Text Message (30), Facebook (11), and LinkedIn (2).

ONCEFALLEN VISIBILITY

OnceFallen.com received 253,132 visitors in 2020. OnceFallen.com counts actual visits, not “hits”, to determine users to the site.  

• OnceFallen.com Visitors 2016: 133,491
• OnceFallen.com Visitors 2017: 228,275 (+97,484 or +71%)
• OnceFallen.com Visitors 2018: 334,687 (+106,412 or +46.6%)
• OnceFallen.com Visitors 2019: 218,040 (-116,647 or -25.9%)
• OnceFallen.com Visitors 2020: 253,132 (+35,092 or 16.1%)

At least 24% of visitors to OnceFallen.com use the site multiple times throughout the year.

In total, 2262 free PDF copies of “Your Life on The List”, OnceFallen.com’s registry survival guide and overview of each state/ territory registry laws were accessed. Since OnceFallen gave full distribution rights (and profits) for the physical copies on Amazon.com to Reset Missouri, they would have data on number of physical book sales; thus, I don’t know how many books sold through Amazon. 

Appearances of Derek Logue or OnceFallen.com doubled from 2 in 2019 to 4 in 2020. Two OpEds written by OnceFallen in The Crime Report, and one in the Lincoln Journal Star. The other appearances were in South Florida media after Derek Logue defeated Florida State Senator Lauren Book on 1st Amendment grounds in the Florida Appeals Court.

Print copies of "Your Life on The List", the OnceFallen registry survival guide, now available on Amazon

For the past 6 weeks, I've been offering free PDF copies of "Your Life on the List", OnceFallen/com's registry survival guide for free on the website. If you aren't aware of that, the free PDF version is at:

http://www.oncefallen.com/files/Your_Life_on_The_List_PDF_Free_Version_08302020.pdf

Since this guide was created with prisoners and those new to the registry in mind, many of whom cannot access the Internet, printed versions were announced as soon in coming.  However, there had been delays on print copies of the book for various reasons.

But FINALLY, printed copies of "Your Life on The List" can be ordered from Amazon.com for $12.95

The link to the printed copy is at:

https://smile.amazon.com/Your-Life-List-Derek-Logue/dp/B08JB1XL3X/ref=sr_1_1

Please note that I'm not making any money from this sale (not even a penny), as I have offered full distribution rights to Reset Missouri, an organization that assisted me in editing the book and is using the proceeds to establish transitional housing. Thus, all profits go directly to them, not to me or OnceFallen.com. The book is priced reasonably to get the info in the hands of people and not to make a profit.

In the near future, I'll offer a handful of signed copies that can be bought directly from me. I'll make that announcement when I have copies of my own available for those who want to buy a signed copy.

FEEDBACK FROM READERS

Since this book was written with the returning citizen and new registrants in mind, it is encouraging to hear positive feedback:

"I just want to thank you for your book 'Your Life on the List'.  I have been 'locked up' since Christmas of 2008 and will be releasing to Halfway House in January.  In my incarceration, I've seen both state and federal prison and can say that I'm scared to death of what awaits in the 'free world'. I had my sister order your book with the intention that when I left, I'd leave it to the guys around here so that they could pass it around.  However, after staying up last night and reading through it, I think I might just have to order another copy to leave here and take my original copy home with me.  The book is well written, gives fact instead of just one person's opinions on what is out there, and the best part, gives resources to contact to help us get on our feet before we leave the walls of prison and stay upright when we get out. Thank you for your work and dedication to this issue.  I look forward to leaving prison behind me and with the Grace of God, will be able to get out, get a job, find a home and live MY life on the list in the most productive and peaceful way that I can. Thank you again for your fact filled book.  Every registered or soon to be registered person needs to read this one!!!" -- John G.

"Awesome Awesome Book My Friend. I just finished reading Your book(borrowed) and I loved it. I'd like to buy two of them as soon as You can sell a few, or give Me a address to send a check.. I have no way of ordering from Amazon right now. Thank You and God bless." -- Donald K. 

                                                          

Ruth Bader Ginsburg and what her passing means for Registered Persons (with update regarding Amy Coney Barrett)

 Ruth Bader Ginsburg and what her passing means for Registered Persons

Derek W. Logue of OnceFallen.com

US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away on September 18, 2020, and with her passing, a fierce fight over the next nomination begins. When Scalia passed away in 2016, the Republicans argued we should let the voters decide the next Supreme Court Justice with our Presidential vote, but before funeral plans for RBG were even announced, Mitch McConnell has vowed to announce a replacement in record time.

Many folks within the Anti-Registry Movement lean to the right politically, but conservative justices have not been our allies. For many years, Justice Kennedy was the swing vote on an evenly divided SCOTUS, leading to many 5-4 decisions. To understand what losing a liberal justice has means for our cause, you must understand the political alignment of the justices and how that impacted many SCOTUS cases:

Kansas v Hendricks, 521 US 346 (1997): A 5-4 split, with conservative justices Thomas, Scalia, Rehnquist, and O’Connor joining Kennedy in upholding civil commitment based on a lower standard for commitment and a lower burden of proof. Justices Ginsburg joined Breyer, Stevens, and Souter in dissent. 

McKune v. Lile, 536 US 24 (2002): A 5-4 split, with conservative justices Thomas, Scalia, Rehnquist, and O’Connor joining Kennedy in denying the Kansas Sexual Abuse Treatment Program violate inmates' Fifth Amendment privilege against compelled self-incrimination. Justices Ginsburg joined Breyer, Stevens, and Souter in dissent.

Smith v Doe, 538 US 84 (2003): A 6-3 split, with conservative justices Thomas, Scalia, Rehnquist, and O’Connor joining Kennedy and liberal justice Souter in denying the Alaska sex offense registry is punitive and thus violating the ex post facto clause. Justices Ginsburg wrote the dissent, joined by Breyer and Stevens. 

“What ultimately tips the balance for me is the Act’s excessiveness in relation to its nonpunitive purpose,” Ginsburg wrote in her dissent. “The Act applies to all convicted sex offenders, without regard to their future dangerousness. And the duration of the reporting requirement is keyed not to any determination of a particular offender’s risk of reoffending, but to whether the offense of conviction qualified as aggravated. The reporting requirements themselves are exorbitant: The Act requires aggravated offenders to engage in perpetual quarterly reporting, even if their personal information has not changed. And meriting heaviest weight in my judgment, the Act makes no provision whatever for the possibility of rehabilitation: Offenders cannot shorten their registration or notification period, even on the clearest demonstration of rehabilitation or conclusive proof of physical incapacitation. However plain it may be that a former sex offender currently poses no threat of recidivism, he will remain subject to long-term monitoring and inescapable humiliation.” (Citations omitted.)

Kennedy v Louisiana, 554 US 407 (2008): A 5-4 split, with liberal justices Ginsburg, Stevens, Souter, and Breyer joining Kennedy in a majority opinion declaring a person cannot be executed for a sex offense where no death was involved. Conservative justices Roberts, Alito, Scalia, and Thomas feels it is perfectly fine to execute a Registered Person if his offense did not result in death. 

Packingham v North Carolina, 582 US _ (2017): While this decision was unanimous on upholding a registrant’s right to social media (8-0, as Justice Gorsuch was not a part of the vote), the conservative justices Roberts, Alito, Roberts, and Thomas wrote a concurring opinion that state states should be allowed to regulate activity on certain websites. 

US v Haymond, 588 US _ (2019): In a 5-4 split that ruled 18 USC 3583(k) violates the Fifth and Sixth Amendments by imposing a mandatory minimum punishment on a criminal defendant upon a finding by a preponderance of the evidence that the defendant engaged in certain criminal conduct during supervised release, Ginsburg joined liberal justices Breyer, Kagan, and Sotomayor and conservative justice Gorsuch in the majority opinion. Conservative justices Alito, Roberts, Thomas, and Kavanaugh dissented. The case involved a Registered Person sentenced on a parole violation based on a “preponderance of the evidence” finding the registrant’s computer may have recently contained illicit photos. 

While this pattern has not been universal (See US v Comstock, 560 US 126 (2010), where only conservative justices Alito and Thomas rejected the majority opinion that Congress had the constitutional authority to enact the Adam Walsh Act under the Necessary and Proper Clause), the majority of landmark cases impacting Registered Persons have been divided, with liberal justices more likely to vote against registry laws and other draconian sanctions.

This upcoming battle for the next Supreme Court nominee affects Registered Persons more than you realize. With Ginsburg’s death, only liberal justice Breyer and conservative justice Thomas remain from the Rehnquist court that gave us the Smith v Doe decision. However, John “Price Club” Roberts was the man who argued for the state of Alaska in Smith v Doe. We’re currently left with three left-leaning justices – Sotomayor, Kagan, and Breyer. The conservative justice voted to uphold the registry, uphold civil commitment, and even voted to execute registered persons. Even when they voted for free speech in Packingham, they failed to commit fully to that belief by writing a concurring opinion. 

A conservative majority is not great news for registry legal reforms. That is evident by a quarter-century of landmark legislation listed in this article. Many of us continue to hope to see Smith v Doe overturned in our lifetimes. In my opinion, having a sixth conservative justice would pretty much kill that faint glimmer of hope. 

ADDENDUM: Trump’s pick, Amy Coney Barrett, will not be good news for us, confirming what I already suspected. In Beley v. Chicago, for example, she wrote an opinion rejecting a homeless man’s claim that the city’s refusal to register him under the Illinois Sex Offender Registration Act (SORA) deprived him of due process. The reason he wanted to be registered is to avoid an arrest, conviction and up to five years in prison for failing to register. The homeless man’s attempt to register was rejected by the city of Chicago because he had no identification card or proof of an address. He was later arrested for failing to register.

In her decision, Coney Barrett was unforgiving: “[S]aying that one has the right to register under SORA is like saying that one has the right to serve a sentence or the right to pay taxes.” She rejected the suggestion that the government must “provide due process . . . for actions that create the potential for a later loss” of the man’s freedom from incarceration due to a SORA violation. Coney Barrett identified no “way in which the possibility of incarceration burdens” a homeless person. Case dismissed.

WAR's Denver Protest and why Public Demonstrations matter

Women Against Registry is hosting a public demonstration in response to the recent 10th Circuit decision:

JOIN WOMEN AGAINST REGISTRY (WAR) IN A PEACEFUL PROTEST OF THE 10TH CIRCUIT MILLARD v RANKIN DECISION

DATE: THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2020 from 8:00am to 2:00pm

PLACE: 10th Circuit Courthouse, 1823 Stout St, Denver, CO 80257

SUMMARY: The 10th Circuit in the August 20, 2020 decision denies the registry is NOT punitive, a decision contrary to the findings of the Ohio Supreme Court, Pennsylvania Supreme Court, the 6th Circuit Court, and the US District Court of Colorado. Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter called this decision “a major victory for public safety advocates”; for those of us who have endured hardships as the result of inclusion on the public sexual offfense registry, this decision is an insult and a denial of real-life struggles. The registry looks like punishment and feels like punishment. American society considers the public registry as a part of the punishment. This protest is a demonstration against this horrible 10th Circuit ruling. We KNOW the registry is not only PUNITIVE, but CRUEL AND UNUSUAL PUNISHMENT as found by the US District Court in Colorado. Registered Persons, loved ones of Registrants, and anyone who believes the 10th Circuit got it wrong is welcome to attend. For more info or to commit to attend, you can send an email to 10thcirteam@warfamilyfoundation.org or you can contact me at iamthefallen1@yahoo.com for more info. You can also donate to either OnceFallen directly (Paypal email for OnceFallen is the same), or if you prefer, send your donations to Women Against Registry.

WHY DEMONSTRATIONS ARE IMPORTANT

Demonstration are integral parts of our efforts to reform the registry. There is no one singular action we can take to change the laws. This Anti-Registry Movement has come to believe in recent years that lawsuits are the Madden NFL Hail Mary pass strategy to lead us to ultimate victory, but the 10th Circuit just intercepted that pass and now it is going the other way. You can't win the game on a single strategy. Football is a complex sport. There are running plays and passing plays, trick plays where you fake the run or fake the pass, and sometimes, a big play is a matter or improvising when the designed play breaks down. 

Our movement should learn to value every play we make. The long ball pass in football is exciting but those are not often successful, especially the last second Hail Mary. Yet, it feels like that is all our movement values. Lawsuits are great when successful, but then we hit a bad 10th Circuit ruling or a 6th Circuit ruling, then you realize that the lawsuit strategy is not sufficient if we cannot mix things up a bit. 

I have personally been a fan on public awareness campaigns. They are underutilized in our movement in large part because people fear being recognized and assaulted. Having engaged in such events in Florida, Long Island, California, and Oregon, I have seen none of this happen. With the COVID concerns still taking place, you can wear a mask and sunglasses to hide your identity; we will be in front of a federal courthouse, so there will be DHS or other federal agents patrolling the area to keep people safe. My past protest experiences have been largely positive, too. People behave differently face-to-face than they do online. People who approach us seem more willing to listen to the message. With enough people attending, the media will  cover the event, and it will give us a chance to spread our message to a larger audience than the passersby at the event itself. 

We as a movement need to get out of the mindset that no single event is good if it is not going to instantaneously change the registry. A football game is never won on a single play, but a culmination of all the plays made in the game. Sometimes that one yard run up the middle of the field made the difference. We needs to stop thinking in terms of either-or (lawsuits OR protests), we need to start thinking in terms of both-and (lawsuits AND protests). Where do the courts get their opinions? Would you believe that judges are humans that get their same ideas from the same places the rest of us do, primarily the media and internet? If we're going to educate the public, we have to educate everyone-- judges, lawmakers, the media, and the general public. 

This ios especially important given the way people have responded to the events of this year. Thanks to outlandish conspiracies like QAnon, there has been a renewed focus on increasing punishment for Registered Persons. We need to provide a counterbalance to the QAnon believers. This make this upcoming event important, so support it by donating to WAR or to OnceFallen, or better yet, donate your Thursday, September 24th plan and join us in person. 

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: "Your Life on 'The List'" - A Survival Guide for Registered Persons -- is now available as a free PDF; New article on OnceFallen discusses the MSOP Moose Lake Civil Commitment Center

http://www.oncefallen.com/files/Your_Life_on_The_List_PDF_Free_Version_08227020.pdf

At long last, I have finished my registry survival guide and I'm making it a FREE PDF download on my website. A printed version for those who cannot download it is in the works, and I hope it will be available through Amazon.com in a couple of weeks. You can download the PDF from the front page of my site if the link above does not work. (I'm enclosing it as an attachment as well.)

I'm asking those of you who have your own websites to please do not post my book to your website without my consent; out of respect for my work, I ask that you refer folks to my site to download the page.

This book contains mostly articles I have written in the past so most of the materials are copyrighted. The PDF version and the print version will be the same but the pages will be numbered differently in the print version (due to being in a 9x6 inch format).

Your Life on “The List”: 2020 Edition

Book Description

“Your Life on ‘The List’” is a survival guide for individuals facing inclusion on the public “sex offender” registry. This guide provides an overview of common laws Registered Persons may face after conviction/ release from incarceration. This guide also provides useful information on finding housing, employment, travel issues, legal rights, and other advice and resources specific to Registered Persons. This guide also contains a list of transitional housing programs and a comprehensive overview of the sex offense registry laws of all 50 state and US Territories; the legal overview covers the registry, residency/ presence restriction laws, community notification, relief from the registry, parental rights, and other laws applicable to Registered Persons (complete with legal statute numbers).

Your Life on “The List” is an indispensable tool for newly registered or soon-to-be registered persons. This book is available for free as a PDF at OnceFallen.com. This guide was created primarily for prisoners and those on probation/ parole/ supervised release who are not allowed internet access. However, those interested in the myriad of laws a Registered Person must endure will also find value in this book.

“Minnesota State’s Other Prison”: The Inside Story of the MSOP-Moose Lake Treatment Center

http://www.oncefallen.com/msop_moose_lake.html

Don't forget to read my newest OnceFallen.com piece on the MSOP Moose Lake Civil Commitment Center while you are at it. I discuss the establishment and operation of the facility, and the toll it has taken on both staff and inmates at the detainment center.