Families of SOs Community Group
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Hi fellow SOs and families of SOs. Could sure use your help. My husband is being released in 8 weeks from CA prison and we thought our plan was for him to come home to AZ where we both live. I had an opportunity to meet with his CA parole agent and really like her. She's got humanity in her. I talked to my husband' perspective AZ parole agent who will interview me to see if my husband can be transferred to AZ. The problem is this AZ parole officer is already acting very authoritarian as though my husband is scum and high risk. I asked him if he read my husbands file to see he is -1 on the Static scale and he send it did not matter. Also AZ will send fliers to all of our neighbors of our home address, his picture and crime. Ugh. We are now wondering if we should stop the interstate compact and figure it living in CA. And my biggest question is... can cancel the interstate compact once my husband gets to AZ if it feels intolerable. Both states will out the gps monitor on my husband but I don't know if it is just for parole or for longer. Thanks everyone. Truly appreciate the support here.
Your husband and your family would be best served to stay out of Arizona, and I will tell you why---
When sex offenders ponder the state they might want to live, it is always prudent to notice the political climate in that state and the mindset of the people who live there. Most states that are conservative politically are “tough on crime” and not good states for felons, including sex offenders. These states pass laws that burden offenders in general and usually are not the best states for offenders. Most all your Bible Belt states are in this category, as these states imprison a higher percentage of their citizens than the more progressive states.
Arizona is very conservative and the mindet there is that many people dislike minorities---blacks, Hispanics, etc----and sex offenders are minorities. Any state that would elect and re-elect a racist bigot such as Joe Arpaio has a mindset not conducive to sex offenders.
California and Arizona both have lifetime registration. But California has a huge advantage over Arizona. They have a state chapter out there with a fabulous attorney name Janice Bellucci who is nothing short of Wonderwoman without the cape. She has filed dozens of bills in an effort to ease the burden on sex offender registrants. This woman is a holy terror and she has stopped much of the California legislation---mostly residency restrictions and the Halloween ordinances----by filing lawsuits and she has won most of them.
So you have an advocate and an active state chapter in California, which you will likely never have in Arizona. You have a good chance that Janice will sponsor legislation to make life easier for registrants. You will never have that in Arizona.
Here is a link to their state chapter. It was formerly called CaliforniaRSOL, but has since been renamed. This state chapter is a large group of California registrants that really unite and have some power there in California, especially with Janice ready to file lawsuits.
http://tinyurl.com/ybfc4aqy
California has by far the strongest state chapter for the reform of sex offender laws with Texas second.
Several months ago, Janice filed a bill in California to create a tiered registry, which might enable your husband to be removed from the registry at some point. You do NOT have that hope in Arizona.
Here is a link to a page that has several articles about the tiered registry in California. I am not privy to the elements of your husband’s case but he might be able to be completely removed at some point.
http://tinyurl.com/ycmyxl5a
http://tinyurl.com/y7cumh69
Janice was the attorney in California that was responsible for the tiered registry, which is an improvement over what they had before. It enables some registrants some relief at some point.
The tiered registry was amended a couple of times and went in and out of committee a few times, but it was passed.
Now to some of your questions----
You said, “I talked to my husband' perspective AZ parole agent who will interview me to see if my husband can be transferred to AZ. The problem is this AZ parole officer is already acting very authoritarian as though my husband is scum and high risk.”
The attitude of the PO in Arizona is probably just a taste of what you can expect in that state.
You asked, “And my biggest question is... can cancel the interstate compact once my husband gets to AZ if it feels intolerable.”
Here is a link to the most frequent questions regarding Interstate Compact. Notice the question, “Can I transfer back to the state where I transferred from?”
http://tinyurl.com/y929h9xp
“Yes, an offender may request to return via a request for reporting instructions submitted to the sending state as long as the offender is not under active criminal investigation or charged with a subsequent criminal offense.”
Resource: Rule 4.111
Darcey, to make sure I would access the CaliforniaRSOL site using this link---
http://tinyurl.com/ybfc4aqy
Ask all your questions over there and see if they agree with me. You can find a contact link or use this link to ask them questions---
http://tinyurl.com/yaocs64j
As far as GPS monitoring, I am not sure how California handles it. It probably depends on the severity of his offense and while I am fairly sure he will have it while on probation or parole, I am not sure that it is lifetime in California. That is another question you can ask over at the California site.
I have a old friend from California who knows the laws very well. She is heavily involved with the California chapter and she is super smart. Her internet name is ThoughtAsWeak. If you want to talk to her, she posts at this web site. Actually, this is the website I post at the most often, but I do come over to DS a few times a day to check my messages.
The link for the site she is on is---
http://tinyurl.com/hz2rzkd
You can create an account over there and look around. There are a lot of folks over there than can help and understand the sex offender laws. I post at this site quite often, but I travel around to several forums. I go where people need help.
If you send a message to ThoughtAsWeak, tell her REW sent you. She knows who REW is as I helped her husband when he first went to prison. She is a marvelous lady and can answer all your questions about California.
If you ever need me, please do not hesitate to contact me.
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Contrary to popular belief, not everyone hates sex offenders. There are still some compassionate people on this planet who have not lost their humanity. Most sex offenders are not evil people, but rather folks who made a terrible mistake in judgment. Actually, there are no bad people, only bad behaviors.
I went through the entire system from prison for almost a decade to registration for 13 years---and I was not even guilty. I KNOW the pain and confusion the system causes in people and the fear it elicits. This is why I try to help.
I hoped I have helped. ThoughtAsWeak knows more about the California situation than I do since her husband is in prison there and she is an advocate for that state.
But I would definitely stay out of Arizona.
If you ever need me, do not hesitate to contact me.
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Another thing to keep in mind is that states like Arizona have a tendency to pass more and more burdensome sex offender legislation every year or so. And when they pass these additional laws to affect registrants, the new laws will most likely be applied retroactively to those convicted before the law’s enactment. So, year after year, the laws could pile up and the registrant will have more restrictions to contend with.
For example, I was released for prison in 2000 with no restrictions except to register once a year for 10 years. In 2003, they passed the residency restrictions, around 2007 they passed the buffer zones, and a couple of years later they added the identification on the driver’s license; all these additional restrictions affected me. All these laws affected me b/c the registry was considered a CIVIL scheme to protect the public and not punitive.
They can pass all the civil laws they want and apply them retroactively. They cannot pass a punitive law and make it retroactive; if they did, it would violate the ex post facto portion of the constitution and be an illegal law.
When I was released from prison in 2000, my registration requirements were to register once a year for 10 years. In 2007, without a court hearing or any due process, the Oklahoma legislature decided to change my registration requirements to every 90 days and require me to register for life. Again, the registry was considered a set of civil laws and civil laws can be applied retroactively.
In 2013, a man by the name of Starkey sued the state of Oklahoma, claiming that parts of the registry had become punitive and the Oklahoma Supreme Court agreed. As a result of it being ruled punitive, they could not change my registration requirements as they did in 2007, so I reverted back to my original registration requirements of once a year for 10 years and was able to be removed in 2014.
But the fact that a state can just willy nilly change someone’s registration requirements without due process is an example of how states pervert the law. It is legal since most courts have ruled that the sex offender registry is civil in nature, and not punitive. A few states have ruled that it is indeed punitive, but Arizona is not one of them. So Arizona can continue to expand the law year after year.
At least in California you will have an advocate in Janice and the CaliforniaRSOL group to fight these additional laws. You will never have that in such a conservative state as Arizona.
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