News From the States
Alain Levesque, alain360@fastmail.fm
Dear friends,
The second Annual RSOL National Conference is now over, and just like last year, it was a pleasure and an honor to meet all of you! We had some great time together, and we learned a lot from the excellent speakers that were invited this year! Many of you lobbied on the 28th, and I know that the experience was extremely beneficial, and will help you in your future lobbying efforts in your states!
June was the month of the 3 W’s for RSOL, as we welcomed new organiers in Washington, Wyoming, and West Virginia! In Washington, Kelly Ball was officially added to our list of organiers, although she had been active in the state for a while, working in close association with Avendora, our other organizer. In Wyoming, an other very active and experienced woman, Elizabeth Batton, joined our team. In addition to her work for sex offender reform, “Liz” is a member of the “Coalition Against Violence” and has great experience as a political activist. Finally, RSOL now has an affiliated group in West Virginia, led by Carson Gray. WV was one of the 10 last remaining states to have never been represented by RSOL, and we are proud to now count on a dynamic coordinator in the state.
Anyone wishing to get involved in Washington, Wyoming, or West Virginia should contact Kelly (doulakb@hotmail.com), Liz (deltiger2000@yahoo.com), or Carson (wvcarsong@yahoo.com). And now, here are your News from the States:
Alain Levesque
alain360@fastmail.fm
KEY: Blue indicates a Current Report in this Issue
Alabama - State Organizer: Anthony
Alaska - Neighboring State Contact: < href="mailto:alain360@fastmail.fm">Alain
Alain is a temporary contact for Alaska. We are seeking a permanent State Organizer for this State
Arizona - State Organizer: Tina
Since I started last month, I have been learning alot of AZ laws by a few people who have contacted me. I met with a women who has spent years dealing with her son's incarceration and I received a lot of paper work of AZ's laws etc. I have begun to write to my area's congress(wo)men with letters regarding laws of SO's. I am also about to start writing letters to the registered SO's in my area; Tucson, Marana, Oro Valley. Letting them know I am here, and so is the RSOL group.
I have a new co-organizer located in Phoenix who will hopefully work with the Phoenix area. And I also have been in contact with another women whose boyfriend in incarcerated and wants to help the RSOL soon.
It's a slow process at this time, with basically just me, but I am pushing on for this great cause.
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Arkansas - State Organizer: Austin
California - Sate Organizer: Linda Gallagher
Colorado - State Organizer: Bennie
Connecticut - Neighboring State Contact: Howard and Rita
Delaware/a> - Neighboring Sate Contact: Thomas
District of Columbia - Neighboring Sate Contact: Patricia
Florida - State Organizer: Colette
The Florida Action Committee continues on its quest to establish as a 501 3. The mission statement for their group is being defined with action planning to follow. Florida will have the two persons attending the DC conference. We plan our first state conference for late July or early August of this year.
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Georgia - State Organizer: Kelly R Piercy
Guam - Neighboring Sate Organizer: Kelly R Piercy
I am establishing email contact with our members in Guam.
Hawaii - Neighboring Sate Contact: Kelly R Piercy
Idaho - Neighboring State Contact: Shelley
Illinois - State Organizer: Renate and Tonia
Indiana - State Organizer: Kimberly
Kansas - State Organizer: Michael
Kentucky - State Organizer: Jennifer
Louisiana - State Organizer: Debra
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Maryland - State Organizer: Thomas
This is my first report as co-coordinator with Tom, but I’ve been getting our group organized since about mid January of this year, when Maryland’s legislature started piling on the bills. None of us really knew what we were doing, but we knew we HAD to do something! Only about five of us were even ready and willing to testify at committee hearings and NONE of us knew how. The New Mexico RSOL group graciously “loaned” us paralegal Larry Neely, who has been absolutely indispensible in getting us up to speed. With his assistance we were able to make a decent showing during General Assembly and even got some laws stopped or “improved”. Of course, we couldn’t block all of them. Maryland is now mostly compliant with SORNA and the AWA.
After we recovered from General Assembly, we spent May preparing to grow our membership base by sending out a letter to the 381 people in the lowest offender level. Why that group? They have the most to lose from the retroactive increases in registration term and other punitive changes. The letter was very detailed about how the new laws would affect them and how exactly they are unconstitutional. Then we encouraged them to join our group, speak out, and possibly become a plaintiff in the lawsuit we hope to bring against the state. Our letter is going viral in some areas, being passed around in therapy groups or to registered friends or neighbors. Our membership has gone from just under 20, to over 60!!! Now all we have to do is get them all active!
We sent out a confidential questionnaire just this week, for people who want to become plaintiffs. Our plan is to select the best person or persons, with cases that Joe Schmoe at the bar and Susie Soccer Mom would say, “They’re registered for 25 years… for THAT?” All the rest of us are going to contribute to our (yet to be created) legal fund, as far as we are able, since EVERYONE will benefit from a win. The ACLU here has also expressed some interest, as have the Maryland Public Defenders.
Next on my list is to hold an actual meeting, at least via teleconference, and find people willing to take on some of the tasks I simply cannot do, like researching current events, checking legislators’ public stances regarding sex offender issues, managing donations, building a public web site, and so on.
Brenda Jones, Families Advocating Intelligent Registries (FAIR)
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Massachusetts - State Organizer: Joel
Michigan - State Organizer: Francie
Minnesota - State Organizer: Fima
Mississippi - State Organizer: Dave
Dave is the temporary contact for Mississippi. We are seeking a State Organizer for this State.
Missouri - State Organizer: Dennis and Donna
In June Missouri had its first state wide conference call. Vicki ran the call. The call focused on bill changes that we want to see happen. It was decided that in order to go forward with positive results, professional help is needed. We will contact all attorneys, therapists, and counselors that we have had dealings with to see if they can help us create a new bill. A committee was also formed to rewrite the bill(s) currently in existence. We also continue to work on our letter writing campaign to registered sex offenders. Our supporters are also working on an accurate recidivism rate for the state of Missouri. We still are in the discussion stage for our own state conference.
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Montana - Neighboring State Contact: Shelley
Shelley is the temporary contact for this State. We are currently seeking a State Organizer for this state.
Nebraska - Neighboring State Contact: Kyle
Nevada - State Organizer: Ruth
New Hampshire - State Organizer: Laurie
New Jersey - State Organizer: Terry
New Mexico - State Organizer: Alice and Lloyd
New York - State Organizer: Howard and Rita
North Carolina - State Organizer: Linda and Chris
Linda in NC
North Dakota - Contact Mandi at: Reform Sex Offender Laws - North Dakota
Ohio - State Organizer: James and Dolly
Oklahoma - State Organizer: Mary
Oregon - State Organizer: Shelley
Pennsylvania - State Organizer; Frank
Puerto Rico - Neighboring State Contact: Kelly R Piercy
Rhode Island - Neighboring State Contact: Joel
South Carolina - State Organizer: Sandra
South Dakota - Neighboring State Contact: Kyle
Tennessee - State Organizer: David and Andrea
Texas - State Organizer: Mary Sue
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Vermont - Neighboring State Contact: Laurie
Virginia - State Organizer: Temporary Contact - Alain levesque
Washington - State Organizer: Avendora
West Virginia - Neighboring State Contact: Jennifer
Wisconsin - State Organizer: Nathan
Wyoming - Contact Mary: rsolwyoming@yahoo.com
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