Pennsylvania State Representative Aaron Bernstine recently announced plans to close a gap in the state’s child protection laws. Unlike adoption and foster care, surrogacy currently allows people who are listed on the “sex offender” registry to become legal parents without background checks or judicial review. His bill targets the person who is the biological parent (sperm or egg donor). After…
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The Pennsylvania Association for Rational Sexual Offense Laws (PARSOL) celebrates a major legal victory for workers with criminal records following yesterday’s decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Phath v. Central Transport LLC. The court reversed the district court’s dismissal and held that Pennsylvania’s Criminal History Record Information Act (CHRIA) protects job applicants even when…
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Completing a mandated sex-offense treatment program can be one of the most challenging parts of parole or probation. For many, it feels less like a class with a clear start and finish and more like an ongoing process of digging deeper into one’s own choices, beliefs, and coping strategies. This can create a unique frustration. People often share that they…
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Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes horrified the world, and they should have. The scale of his abuse, the power he wielded, and “the system” failures that allowed him to keep offending are deeply disturbing. When his name appears in the news, it is often preceded by three words: “convicted sex offender.” Those words are accurate, but they also carry a hidden danger…
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Joan Goodwin has been obsessed with the stars for as long as she can remember. Thoughtful and reserved, Joan is content with her life as a professor of physics and astronomy at Rice University and as aunt to her precocious niece, Frances. That is, until she comes across an advertisement seeking the first women scientists to join NASA’s space shuttle…
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Following months of development, the Pennsylvania Association for Rational Sexual Offense Laws (PARSOL) is excited to share the launch of the PARSOL Statewide Wiki. This collection of resources has been curated for Pennsylvanians with sexual harm convictions and affected by the “Pennsylvania Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act” (PA SORNA), sometimes (inaccurately) referred to as “PA Megan’s Law.” “This new…
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NOTE: This article and its contents apply only to the case mentioned, not to anyone with same or similar situations. Please do not apply the court’s ruling to your individual case without an attorney or court instructions in writing. [Armstrong County, PA] On Dec. 3, 2025, Judge James J. Panchik of the Court of Common Pleas of Armstrong County, ruled…
Read More![PARSOL Board Chair Josiah Krammes speaks at the PA Capitol Rotunda flanked by State Reps. Emily Kinkead and Tim Briggs (28 Oct 2025) [John Dawe/PARSOL]](https://parsol.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/stuckIn1995_rally_header.avif)
HARRISBURG, PA – October 28, 2025 – The Pennsylvania Association for Rational Sexual Offense Laws (PARSOL) Advocates gathered at the Pennsylvania Capitol Rotunda today to mark thirty years since the enactment of Pennsylvania’s Megan’s Law and to call for modernization of the state’s sexual offense laws which were signed into law by then- Governor Tom Ridge on October 21, 1995. “Our…
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Atlanta, GA – October 20, 2025 – The National Association for Rational Sexual Offense Laws (NARSOL) proudly announces that John Dawe, Managing Director of Pennsylvania Association for Rational Sexual Offense Laws (PARSOL) and NARSOL’s Marketing Director has been named 2025 Advocate of the Year. The honor was presented during the 2025 NARSOL National Conference held this past weekend in Atlanta, Georgia. “John’s…
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This year marks the 30th anniversary of Pennsylvania’s registry. Thirty years. That’s three decades of a policy born in the “tough-on-crime” panic of the 1990s, still alive today despite overwhelming evidence that it doesn’t make communities safer. As a PRR, I know what it means to live under a system that has barely changed since its inception. At its core,…
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