My First Year of Attending a NARSOL Conference

As a caregiver for my husband, I was never able to attend a NARSOL Conference.  With his recent passing and having the conference so close to Florida (Atlanta), I was finally able to attend.  It proved to be one of the most uplifting experiences I have ever had.

You could not find a nicer group of people attending and the safest group of people I know to be with.

With people from all over the country, much information was shared between the various states represented.  What I was hearing was a need to begin uniting people throughout the country to concentrate more on Washington, D.C., whether it is Congress or the perfect case to go before the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the horrible 2003 decision.

Florida Action Committee had more attendees (36) than any other state.  While we were proud to be such a powerful advocate at the conference, we strive to help more people from other states to become involved in a national push toward D.C.  One of our FAC board members is now actively involved with NARSOL to make this happen, with his first state being Alabama (one of the worst states for a PFR to live in).

Members from other states have also asked that FAC share with them next year how to write a Call to Action.  We take for granted this united effort in contacting political leaders, but other states have no idea where to begin.

It is not about how good FAC looks to others (and I can assure you that other states are noticing what is happening in Florida and want to follow the examples of what all FAC members are doing), it is about uniting people throughout the entire country to fight the injustices that have come out of D.C.

It comes as no surprise to people that our Gail Colletta received the Lifetime Achievement Award.  Gail was surprised by the honor and humbly gave the credit to all our members who actively meet with political leaders, write letters or emails, make phone calls, and assist in the daily/monthly running of our organization.

An emphasis was made by some of the presenters to train those present in best practices in dealing with one’s legislators.  This information was noted by FAC board members and will be used in our upcoming delegate and committee meetings, along with the 2025 session.

When I first joined FAC in 2019, there were times when everything looked hopeless.  I wondered why we would send board members to the various conferences.  It is all about networking—it really makes a difference.  Janice Bellucci attended the conference as a presenter and is committed to helping Florida when her bandwidth will allow her to do so.  NARSOL is committed to helping Florida, along with other states.  Now we just need to determine the best way to ask for their assistance.

FAC presented Emily Horowitz, with the Jeanne Baker Humanity Award for her book on From Rage to Reason. FAC has been sending her book to some political leaders in the state and hopes to raise funds to give a copy to every legislator after the election in November.  On behalf of FAC, Emily emails every recipient of her book to offer assistance/dialogue with them so they can have a better understanding of the punitive nature of the registry.  (One of our FAC board members is interviewed in Emily’s book.)

Meghan Mitchell, one of the authors of the first-of-its-kind meta-analysis study of 25 years of findings of the Sex Offender Registration and Notification (SORN) evaluations and their effects on recidivism, was a presenter this year.  Eighteen research articles including 474,640 formerly incarcerated individuals were used in her study.  (Journal of Experimental Criminology, “The effectiveness of Sex Offender Registration and Notification: A meta-analysis of 25 years of findings”, Kristen M. Zgoba and Meghan M. Mitchell, September 2021)

Mitchell’s findings have been shared numerous times by FAC with reporters and political leaders—a powerful study.

NARSOL’s next conference will be in Grand Rapids, Michigan, June 26-29, 2025, and the early bird price is $179.  At first, I thought no way am I traveling that far to the conference, but I learned so much from the presenters and networking that I am starting to save up my money to make the conference.  I also want to be a part of the fellowship—seeing the faces that go with the names.

Sarah