This is only a partial list of ISSB's Lobbying History in California
|
ISSB members are currently focusing on the same legislative issues as the National Association to Protect Children (Protect.org),* the same wonderful organization that sponsered California SB33 (See below), and are now focusing on the federal issues below. We strongly encourage you to join PROTECT.org today!
 Fund Child Rescue!
Officials know how to locate and rescue untold thousands of children from child pornography traffickers. Demand action now!
|
 Sunlight & Accountability
All the laws in the world won't protect children if they're never used. It takes transparency and accountability. |
 Stronger Penalties
It's time we make the penalties fit the crime. |
 Alicia's Law
Alicia Kozakiewicz is a survivor. Now she's protecting other children from Internet predators and chil |
*The buttons above are pasted directly from the PROTECT.org website.
|
 |
| California State Capital Building, May 28, 2009 |
|
|
AB 612
In 2008 and 2009, ISSB members lobbied in favor of AB 612, written by Assemblymember Jim Beall. AB 612 is a bill to prevent unfounded theories from being used to take children away from their protective parents and placed into the custody of their alleged abusers. Family courts are currently allowed to ignore evidence of abuse, and place child into custody of their abusers without investigating the abuse allegations. This has lead to several children being murdered or committing suicide, and it needs to be stopped.
AB 612 was effectively killed by the California State Senate Judiciary Committe, who amended the bill to the point that it became meaningless. Assemblymember Jim Beall still lists the bill on his home page, but was unable to bring it any closer to passing in 2010.
|
 |
| Celebrating the passage of SB 33, California's Circle of Trust Bill: Alison Arngrim from Protect.org, Andrea Ransdell from ISSB, Betsy Salkind from Protect.org |
|
|
SB 33: California's Circle of Trust Law
Andrea Ransdell and more than a dozen other ISSB members lobbied, along with Protect.org activists, including Grier Weeks, actress Alison Arngrim, comedian Betsy Salkind, and Bikers Against Child Abuse to pass California's Circle of Trust Law, SB 1803 in 2004, and SB 33 in 2005. (Most ISSB members choose not to post their pictures or names on the ISSB website for personal and/or legal reasons)
The Circle of Trust Law reverses California's previous "Incest Exception" law. Before SB 33 was passed, even though adults who raped someone else's child would go to jail, adults convicted of raping their own children would be sent back home to live with the victim, thanks to an Incest Exception Law that had been passed in 1981. The courts wanted to believe that it was OK to send the child home with her convicted rapist, but victims of this 1981 law came forward to testify about the repeated abuse, and the huge betrayal they felt after being sent back home after the conviction to suffer more sexual abuse. SB 33 passed, thanks to Senator Jim Battin--and thanks to ISSB members and hundreds of other supporters. Rapists are no longer given free reign to "grow their own victims." California's Circle of Trust Law has set a precedent for passing similar bills in other states.
Please read more about SB 1803 and SB 33 at The Zero: 2004/2005 California Circle of Trust Campaign and on the Protect.org website at What the passage of the Circle of Trust Bill Means to America
|
 |
| Andrea Ransdell speaking at the Bill signing ceremony for AB 2893, September 2006 |
|
|
AB 2893
In 2006, several members of ISSB wrote letters and lobbied in support of AB 2893 (Mountjoy) , a bill which made it a little more difficult for convicted, registered sex offenders to have unsupervised custody of their own victims. As it was originally written, AB 2893 would have made it impossible for registered sex offenders to re-gain custody, but the bill had to be weakened it to get it through the committees.
The final version of AB 2893 which was signed into law states that, if a judge decides to award unsupervised custody to the person who molested that child, a written explanation for the decision has to be filed with the decision. This will make it possible for the child's lawyer to appeal the decision. The law previously allowed family court judges to award unsupervised custody without any explanation at all, and this made it almost impossible for the child's lawyer to file an appeal, which unfortunately had resulted in children becoming severely depressed and even committing suicide.
The new law is not very strong, but AB 2893 is setting a precedent to help pass stronger laws to protect children in the future.
Andrea Ransdell, who, in 2006 was the Legislative director of ISSB, had the opportunity to speak at the bill signing ceremony for AB 2893
|
|