Citizens for Criminal Justice Reform – New Hampshire

Boynton Beach, Florida — August 11, 2026 — The Florida Action Committee (FAC), a statewide nonprofit organization advocating for evidence-based criminal justice policies, today announced the filing of a sweeping federal lawsuit challenging Florida’s sex offender registration and restriction scheme as unconstitutional.

Filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida (Case No. 4:26-cv-00388-MW-MJF),

Brandon James Furlough

In 2007 I was convicted of a crime of a sexual nature. I immediately accepted responsibility, served a prison sentence, and completed supervision, What remained—and remains–is lifetime sex offender registration and everything that comes with it. I did not fully comprehend what that would mean until my son was born in 2016.

I grew up as the only boy in a family of two sisters. My father left when I was young. I know firsthand the demons that can haunt a young man wondering why his dad is not there. I will not have my son feel that because I chose not to show up. I choose to be there for him. The problem is that sometimes the law makes that choice illegal.

Years ago, my son had an appointment that took place at a school. Since I had finished my sentence and supervision requirements, I thought I was good. I was not. They let my son and his mother inside and called the police on me. Luckily, the officer understood that I had not knowingly walked into a situation that could get me charged again, and I was allowed to leave.

That experience stayed with me because it showed me how easily trying to be a father can become a criminal act. Choir, sports, band, parent-teacher conferences, school events—if they happen where I am legally prohibited from being, I cannot simply walk in and support my son like another parent. I can be charged with another felony for doing so.

I have tried working around that reality. Once, just so I could watch his baseball game, I sat on a sidewalk in a neighborhood I did not know because I could not go where the other parents were. The awkward looks were enough to prevent me from repeating that. Indiana has also

recently considered legislation that would make taking my son to parks a felony. He loves parks–walking trails, rolling down big hills, playgrounds, swings. Those are ordinary childhood memories. For us, ordinary things can become illegal.

I am not sure I cope with it, honestly. I write. I work building business organizations. I spend as much time with my son as I can. Mostly, I keep pushing forward because I have to change this for him. Where I am not present, it is not because I choose to be absent. I want to be there, I can be there, and I would be there. The law is the barrier.

That is what gets lost when people talk about registries and restrictions. The registry has my name on it, but my son feels its consequences too. He has done nothing, yet he can lose memories, experiences, and time with his father because of something I did before he was even born.

I am not dismissing accountability. I am asking when enough is enough. If society believes people should pay forever, then they should be kept locked up forever. But if they are released, they should be allowed to rebuild, work, grow, have a family, and live differently. What are we accomplishing when punishment to parents becomes punishment to their children?

That is a major reason I wrote An American Sex Offender: A Father’s Fight to Be There After a Mistake That Never Ends. Knowing how society looks at sex offenders, I wrote under the pen name Brent Jovani Falcone because I wanted the story to have a chance to be seen before the label ended the conversation. I wrote it in hopes that maybe we can do better than pretending people never change and that children do not suffer from the consequences.

Imagine something that you did as a teenager following you decades later; then imagine explaining that to your child and why it means you cannot show up for something important to him. If I am to be anathema, so be it. But I will make this truth known.

SOURCE:  https://www.narsol.org/2026/08/path-of-anathema/ 

WASHINGTON D.C (WCIV) — Rep. Nancy Mace introduced legislation Thursday that would allow the federal government to impose the death penalty on people convicted of raping or sexually assaulting children.

The bill, titled the Death Penalty for Child Rapists Act, is intended to expand capital punishment eligibility to several federal child sex crime statutes and to the rape of a child under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, according to the press release.

“We have zero mercy for child rapists,” Mace said in a statement. “Those who prey on our most vulnerable deserve the harshest consequence we can deliver. No predator should be allowed to walk away from the most unthinkable crimes against children.”

The proposal would amend Title 18 of the U.S. Code to authorize capital punishment for aggravated sexual abuse of a child, sexual abuse of a minor, and abusive sexual contact involving a child. It would also apply to childrape offenses prosecuted in the military justice system.

Mace framed the legislation as part of her broader effort to increase accountability for sexual abuse crimes, pointing to her calls for transparency surrounding the Jeffrey Epstein case and for consequences for anyone who “conspired or collaborated” with the convicted sex trafficker.

The bill is expected to draw significant legal and political scrutiny. The Supreme Court ruled in 2008 that imposing the death penalty for the rape of a child where the victim does not die violates the Eighth Amendment, a precedent that could complicate any attempt to expand capital punishment for such crimes. Mace did not address the ruling in her announcement.

It was not immediately clear whether the measure has support from House GOP leadership or whether companion legislation will be introduced in the Senate.

SOURCE:  by Colin Russell  ABC NEWS

• Thu, February 26, 2026 at 5:00 PM
• Updated Thu, February 26, 2026 at 5:00 PM

As a case manager for the Department of Veterans Affairs, Stephanie Jerstad once had a client die in transitional housing after being rejected by 212 different nursing homes in Illinois and Indiana.

None of them would take the man because he was on a sexual offender registry for a long-ago offense.