Sex Offender Issues

IN - How likely are sex offenders to re-offend?

2009-11-22T13:19:00.000-05:00

View the article here

11/22/2009

By ALICIA GALLEGOS

Studies suggest rates lower than popularly believed.

SOUTH BEND — Sex offenders are often seen as incurable deviants who lurk in the shadows, waiting to prey on unsuspecting innocents.

But the term "sex offender," is actually much more complex, experts say, and a myriad of misconceptions exist about common traits associated with the population.

Not only that, but according to recent studies, recidivism rates for sexual felons may be lower than most people believe.

"The public doesn't quite understand recidivism," says Dr. Adam Deming, a psychologist and director of the Sex Offender Management and Monitoring Program. "They tend to believe all will recidivate."
- And why do they believe that? Because the media and politicians continually cite bogus or outdated statistics, why? Maybe so they can continue to "look tough" on crime and get the votes they need?

"It varies tremendously," adds Dr. Jeff Burnett, a Mishawaka doctor who specializes in sex offender treatment, psychological evaluations and psychosexual assessments.

Community members often want to be cautious and conservative when assessing the danger of sex offenders because sexual assault and abuse can be so devastating.

But that caution, Burnett says, can at times lead to an overestimation of the risk.

Before delving into exact recidivism rates, it's essential to first define the word.

In some studies, recidivism is explained as a reconviction for a sexual offense. In others, it relates to an offender being charged with a new sex offense. Other statistics measure recidivism based on arrests for any new type of crime, and some gauge recidivism based on violations of conditional release requirements.
- My definition of recidivism, for sex offenders, is the commitment of a new sexually related crime. Many are rearrested for technical violations, but not new sex crimes.

The different ways to measure recidivism make the simple question of how often sex offenders re-offend not so simple.

Length of time is also important to consider when reviewing recidivism, notes a 2004 recidivism study conducted by Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Canada. The study included parts of the United States.

"For all crimes ... the likelihood that the behavior will reappear decreases the longer the person has abstained from that behavior," the study said.

In a 1994 study by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the study found if sex offenders were re-arrested for a new sex crime, it was likely to happen within the first 12 months of their release.

In the first three years of being released, the study found that 5.3 percent of sex offenders had been rearrested for a sex crime.

The more recent Canadian/U.S. study showed overall recidivism rates based on re-convictions, were 14 percent after five years, 20 percent after 10 years, and 24 percent after 15 years.

"Most sexual offenders do not re-offend over time," the study found. "This may be the most important finding of this study, as this finding is contrary to some strongly held beliefs."

In short, after 15 years, 73 percent of sex offenders had not been charged or reconvicted of another sex offense.

All offenders are also not equally likely to reoffend.

Child molesters are 13 percent more likely to reoffend than rapists, according to the study.

In addition, Brunett lists three risk factors leading to a greater chance of recidivism. Offenders whose victims are male, unrelated to them, or a stranger are more likely to repeat their crimes.

Age of the offender also plays a role. The older the sex offender, the less likely they are to reoffend.

"Younger people are more impulsive," Burnett notes.

Other misconceptions include that all sex offenders were abused as children. In reality, only one third of sex offenders have abuse in their past, Burnett says.

And although cases where strangers sexually assault victims are usually more publicized, Deming points out that victims much more often know their perpetrator.

Recidivism rates of sex offenders are also not set in stone, according to the recent Canadian/U.S. study.

"The rate of sexual reoffense is quite likely to change over time due to social factors," the study says, "and the effectiveness of strategies for managing this population."

"That old law about ‘an eye for an eye’ leaves everybody blind. The time is always right to do the right thing." - Martin Luther King - United States Constitution | Bill of Rights

FL - Thank You to Pure Mercy for helping out the Julia Tuttle residents (God Bless You!)

2009-11-22T01:38:00.001-05:00

Pure Mercy Web Site
Julia Tuttle on Twitter

This organization/charity cooked a ton of food for over 39 homeless offenders living under the Julia Tuttle Causeway, and gave them a grill to cook out on. That is so awesome!

About Us:
David - My father was an Independent Baptist pastor in Pinellas County for most of my life. I was saved at the age of 9, and baptized some time later. I was in church every time the doors were open and attended a couple of different Christian schools. Needless to say, I grew up in a home where “Living Right” was required, because “people were watching.” Just because I grew up in a pastor’s home and worked in the church, didn’t mean that I paid as much attention to what my father and other pastors said from the pulpit as I should have. I was never really challenged to make what my father believed real in my life or to study and find out what I believed.

I became interested in pornography when I was about 14 or 15. My interest soon became an addiction. This continued, even while attending 3 different Bible Colleges, and throughout my first marriage. Not being satisfied with what I saw and read, I began a series of affairs during that marriage. Still not satisfied, I acted out in a number of other ways, each a little bolder than the last. This included strip clubs, lingerie shops, and prostitutes. As I look back God was trying to get my attention gently for years. For instance, a prostitute and I had a couple of near misses with the police department. I also experienced the embarrassment of calling my father, the pastor, and borrowing money to pay for one of my forays to a local lingerie shop because my credit card was declined. Naturally, he expected an explanation. Not surprisingly, my marriage soon failed, although I didn’t care because I was in the middle of my third affair at the time. Obviously, I was slow to catch on to what God was trying to say to me.

Bobbi - I grew up in New York, the youngest of 4, in an upper middle class home. Mom had accepted Christ later in life, and Daddy was an atheist, not accepting Christ until I was in my twenties. Like David, I accepted Christ as a child, so church and God were always a part of my life, but only as far as it suited me. This lifestyle set me up for unwed motherhood, a failed marriage, and personal disgrace. I played the part well, you know, church on Sunday, but anything goes the other days. In 2003, I moved what was left of my family here to Florida to be near my sisters and my mother. I just knew this was going to turn my life around. Well it did, but not how I planned it! After some serious indiscretion on my part, God was finally able to get my attention.

David - My “fun” lifestyle came to a screeching halt when God was forced instead to smack me upside the head with a 2x4. Many call this 2x4 the “Pinellas County Sheriff’s Department”. What finally got my attention was my arrest for improperly touching a teenage girl that I was tutoring. By God’s grace, my charge was minor. However, it was not without cost. Monetarily, the cost was at least $10,000. But it cost much more than that. It cost my family and me some friends, it caused strain in my family and it has cost me a couple of job opportunities. However, because of His amazing grace and mercy, God chose to bless me, by bringing me back into a close relationship with Him. First I had to come to a place where I realized that I would never be able to find what I was searching for outside of Him. When I gave my desires to God, wholly and completely, He began to heal me from the addiction through the pure mercy that I found in His unconditional love.

Bobbi - About the same time, December 2003, I finally surrendered to the Lord’s sovereignty as a result of a very real encounter with Him. On my way to church that day, I felt the unmistakable challenge from Him: Would I relinquish to Him everything, even my children? Whether I was truly born again before that, I do not know, nor do I suppose it matters. What I do know is, since that day, I have chosen to submit to His will in every area of my life. I’m not going to lie to you and tell you that this submission has been easy. Matter of fact, anyone who knows me, knows better.

One of the things I submitted to the Lord was my singleness. I reached the place where I sincerely submitted His right to send the man of His choosing, or no man at all. To be honest, I expected this to be a long way off in the future. I thoroughly enjoyed my life in the church Singles group. Some of the friendships I found there are a blessing to me, even to this day. One of the special friendships was with David. We knew each other in the group and had many friends in common. Then, we had occasion to begin praying for two mutual friends who were dating. This mutual concern drew us closer as friends. One evening, God led David to share with me his struggle, and his vision for future ministry. He has since told me that he expected me to turn tail and run. But the Lord prompted me to act differently. I chose instead to give him a big hug, and a promise to pray for him.

David - Like Bobbi, I had surrendered my singleness to God and was fully expecting to stay in the Single’s ministry for the rest of my life. Really, who would want someone like me? The night that Bobbi gave me that first hug, changed that whole perspective and revealed to me the love Christ had for me. One Wednesday night, as I came into the church Fellowship center for dinner, a sudden, heart-wrenching thought hit me. “How many of the men and families in this room have been hurt by someone’s involvement in pornography or other sexually addictive behavior? How many men are in danger of doing what I’ve done or have already done it?”

Bobbi - I began to pray for David, his ministry, and as any good member of a singles’ group would, for his future wife. I prayed that God would prepare them both for His Kingdom purpose. Something strange began to happen in my heart. It was as if God was preparing me, because I was that woman. Okay, so that doesn’t sound like a big deal, but I left a couple of minor details out of my history. That failed marriage I glossed over? It ended when the state troopers came to remove my ex-husband from our house because, unknown to me, he had molested my daughter from the age of 13 until 15. And, since I moved here to Florida, my teenage niece came to live with me, under similar circumstances. So, all this is to say, that the ravages of sexual sin have been a recurring theme in my life, one that I hope and pray none of you ever have to face. But, praise God, He has brought me through, to a place of forgiveness and to an abundant life, beyond anything I could have hoped for. Believe me when I tell you this: the last man I wanted to marry was one with a past like David’s! Like I said, God brought me through it; however, I had no intention of going back. But, as is often the case, God had other plans. About a month after I began praying for David’s future wife, and having a sinking feeling it was me, God opened David’s eyes.

David - Like I mentioned before, I’m sometimes slow to catch on to things; however, sixteen months after that first hug we stood in front of our family and friends and committed the rest of our lives to each other. One of the miracles in all of this is that Bobbi’s daughter, with whom we had shared my story, was willing to look past it and stand as her maid of honor. Another incredible blessing to me personally came this past Christmas when she introduced me to her West Wing coworkers as her stepdad. I would have never imagined that God could redeem the huge mess I had made of my life and allowed me to experience such blessings.

As our relationship has deepened, we have realized the uniqueness of where we both have been. This thought has turned into a burden to share with others what God has brought us out of. We are convinced that sexual addiction is one of the things holding the church back, that it is one of Satan’s footholds in the lives of the men of the church. This is due in part to the deep shame and unforgiveness that so often accompanies sexually addictive behavior.

Recently, God has extended our healing by allowing us to become involved in Celebrate Recovery. We often wonder if something like this would have helped either of us earlier on. Regardless, Bobbi and I have spent much time in prayer and God has lead us to begin a ministry that would provide support for men, and their families, whose lives have been torn, and their hearts broken, by this hidden addiction. This ministry is called Pure Mercy as we believe that by God’s grace and His Pure Mercy hearts and lives can be healed.

If you have been hurt by this addiction, our hearts go out to you and we want to help. Maybe you know someone that is struggling with this or maybe you are the one needing someone to stand beside you in this battle, someone who understands how you feel, and how you got to this place you never intended to be.

"That old law about ‘an eye for an eye’ leaves everybody blind. The time is always right to do the right thing." - Martin Luther King - United States Constitution | Bill of Rights

FL - Sheriff: Sex Offenders Must Go

2009-11-21T23:10:00.000-05:00

View the article here

11/21/2009

By Shoshana Walter

A tent city in Auburndale was shut down, and some sex offenders living there face another move because of county rules.

AUBURNDALE - A group of sexual predators uprooted Thursday from an Auburndale tent city have moved to a nearby mobile home park, but they must move out by Wednesday or face arrest.

Park owner Lori Crump, who has allowed the group temporary residence there, criticizes the county ordinance requiring the men to move, saying it has increased the number of homeless sexual predators.

The ordinance, passed in 2006, imposed more restrictions on sex offenders and predators. As a result, residences that are less than 1,000 feet from school bus stops and churches, including Tropical Moon mobile home park, are off limits to predators.

Supporters have said the ordinance is for the protection of the public, but critics say that it's had the opposite effect, actually increasing the likelihood of further offenses.

On Thursday, officials shut down a tent city in a private orange grove off Reynolds Road, and sent the offenders and predators living there packing.

Seven of the 18 homeless went to Tropical Moon, which is less than 300 feet from a school bus stop. Many sex offenders already live, lawfully, in the park. But a few of the seven homeless are classified sexual predators, making their presence a violation of county rules and a problem for law enforcement.

Polk County Sheriff (Contact) Grady Judd says they have until Wednesday to move. If they don't, he said Saturday, they will be arrested.

Crump, a former Florida Department of Corrections (Contact) probation officer who worked with sex offenders, opened the park two years ago because she saw a need for sex offender housing.

She and others say the county needs a better solution.

With 7,000 bus stops across the county, critics say the ordinance has made it difficult for offenders to find places to live. And a transient lifestyle increases the chances an offender will reoffend.

"Law enforcement does a pretty good job of monitoring, but it's not the Department of Corrections' job to find them a home," Crump said.

Florida law defines predators as repeat sexual offenders, sexual offenders who have used physical violence, or offenders who've victimized children.

"That is not the kind of individual I want living under bridges and under roads," Crump said.

She says she does not know where the group staying in her park temporarily is going to go, but chances are high they'll soon rejoin the ranks of the 59 sex offenders currently listed on a state registry as homeless in Polk County.

Judd says there's no reason they can't follow the law.

"Predators and offenders live all over the county. I don't want to listen to their whining. They're felons. They're either going to comply, or they're going to find a place to live in the Polk County Jail."

"That old law about 'an eye for an eye' leaves everybody blind. The time is always right to do the right thing." - Martin Luther King - United States Constitution | Bill of Rights

DE - Del. State Police Employee Arrested (For entering false information on a sex offender!)

2009-11-21T14:58:00.000-05:00

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11/19/2009

DOVER (AP) - Delaware State Police say a state police employee has been charged with entering false information about a sex offender into a state system.

Thirty-year-old Finisha E. Mills of Dover surrendered to troopers on Thursday. She is charged with eight counts of entering false information into the Delaware Justice Information System. She was released on $25,500 unsecured bail.

Troopers say Mills intentionally filed false information about a registered sex offender's status several times since July. Troopers say the offender had reported being homeless, but a search of Mills' home found evidence that the offender was living there. Troopers say the offender and Mills were in a relationship.

"That old law about 'an eye for an eye' leaves everybody blind. The time is always right to do the right thing." - Martin Luther King - United States Constitution | Bill of Rights

CA - Civil Commitment for Sexually Violent Predators

2009-11-20T22:08:00.000-05:00

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Listen (Wait for icon next to link)

11/16/2009

Earlier this month, the California Supreme Court heard arguments in a case regarding whether Sexually Violent Predators can be civilly committed in California for an indefinite period of time. A ruling by the state high court will determine the constitutionality of Proposition 83, better known as Jessica’s Law, passed by state voters in 2006.

This episode of Law in 10 features the attorney who argued the state’s case on behalf of civil commitment in “People v. McKee,” Deputy Attorney General Bradley Weinreb, an adjunct professor at California Western.

"That old law about 'an eye for an eye' leaves everybody blind. The time is always right to do the right thing." - Martin Luther King - United States Constitution | Bill of Rights

FL - Barbara Farris - Vigilante on a campaign to kick offenders out

2009-11-20T08:51:00.001-05:00

Automatic Captions in YouTube Demo (SWEET!!!)

2009-11-20T08:33:00.000-05:00

YouTube has a new, simple to use, ability to enter what is said in a video, into a text file, then upload that to add Closed Captions to your videos.

Here is their video about this, and below is a sample video, and the text I used for the video.

Video Link

Video Link

This is the text (as I entered it) for the video above!
You might want to take a second or a third look at some of the phone applications you have installed.

It's about bad info in, potentially dangerous info out.

I checked a top selling iPhone app called Offender Locator.

I used a free version of it, that only gives you 10 names.

Only on 13 tonight, what I found out, should scare you.

It could accidentally target you as a sex offender.

Is your name Tony [bleep]?

No, he's a moved.

Does it concern you that someone may think that this may be the house of a registered sex offender, and it's not?

This tiny iPhone app called "Offender Locator," targeted his house among 10 others within a miles radius of News Channel 13, as a home of a registered sex offender.

The real sex offender, moved a month ago.

He's registered with law enforcement at a new address.

And that's not all that's wrong.

Sargeant Bill Deheart tells me, Jerome McKay Lawrence, has been dead since 2008.

[bleep] that's an incorrect address, he's moved to an incorporated apartment across town.

Six out of ten on this iPhone Offender Locator list are wrong.

Springs police has it right on their sex offender list.

For the neighborhoods, it's, people may be in fear of a registered sex offender living there, when in fact, they may have moved on.

Do you think someone could be hurt because of it?

I hope not!

So, I called Offender Locator president and CEO Trip Wakefield to reconcile all this.

How accurate is your Offender Locator?

It's a, one of the most accurate ones out there.

How would you react to that 6 out of the 10 within a mile radius are wrong

There are 50 states, it's a, it is a, it's not an easy task to keep it updated in real time.

By any means, and that's why if you read our terms and conditions, it spells that out clearly.

This is more a, use as a guide.

And, I kept pressing about where the Offender Locator info is coming from.

It's not from law enforcement, like Springs or the Pueblo police, or the El Paso or Pueblo county sheriff's offices.

All I kept being told is, the data is coming from state registries.

The research I've done on it, I can't determine exactly where they are getting it from.

And check this out, just last night, Offender Locator executive Trip Wakefield emailed me.

Now he writes, the Offender Locator information comes from the Colorado Bureau of Investigations.

And he told me during our phone interview, that it wasn't from law enforcement.

Wakefield also says, that it takes 2 to 6 months to update the info.

He writes, as of tomorrow, Colorado's information will be 100 percent updated on that iPhone app.

Well as of this afternoon, 4 people with wrong addresses, were still on the Offender Locator.

Including, the dead man.

So, I compared it to the CBI web site, it's 100% right, and the dead offender isn't on there.

I posted links to the CBI and Colorado Springs police sex offender web sites on KRDO.COM.

They'll be online for you minutes after News Channel 13 at 10.

And, by the way, they're free!

"That old law about 'an eye for an eye' leaves everybody blind. The time is always right to do the right thing." - Martin Luther King - United States Constitution | Bill of Rights

CO - Test Drive an iPhone App about Sex Offenders

2009-11-20T07:28:00.000-05:00

View the article here

Garbage in, garbage out. Just a company wanting to exploit people's fear to make a quick buck, IMO. People are gullible, and will buy anything.

11/20/2009

COLORADO SPRINGS - Another proof-positive to make sure you don’t believe everything you read on the internet or on your phone. I did some research on a popular iPhone application that’s called the Offender Locator. You load it on your phone, set a location and within a mile you find out which registered sex offenders are living near you. I took this app for a spin and discovered it had some flaws.

I used the free app that only allows you to get 10 offender addresses. Colorado Springs Police Sgt. Bill Dehart researched the ten names that I got back from the Offender Locater. Of the 10, six addresses of the people on the Offender Locater were wrong. Another surprising revelation of the list one of the offenders was dead and had been for a year, others moved and another was in jail.

The Colorado Springs Police Department had the right information about all these registered sex offenders, Offender Locator did not.

I contacted Offender Locator CEO, Trip Wakefield, to make sense of the discrepancies. He told me that his company constantly updates their information.

“There are 50 states, it’s not an easy task to keep it updated.” Wakefield added, “That’s why if you read our terms and conditions it spells it out clearly, this is more of a guide.”
- I think it's more of a way to make some quick cash!

At first Wakefield and another company executive didn’t know where the information was coming from during my conversations with them. I asked specifically if it was from law enforcement. Both told me it was from something they referred to as a “registry.” I kept pressing and finally one day before my story aired, I received an email that said the information was from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. Wakefield added in the email, “Colorado is just one of the states that is being updated and by Friday, November 20th it will be the freshest state we have on record.”
- Yeah, because of a news agency exposing the incorrect info.

I checked the CBI site and the iPhone app Thursday night to see if there was still any discrepancy. Previously, there were six names wrong on the Offender Locator a week ago when I checked. As of right now, four of them are still on the iPhone app including the man who died. The CBI site has all the names right.

Video Link

"That old law about 'an eye for an eye' leaves everybody blind. The time is always right to do the right thing." - Martin Luther King - United States Constitution | Bill of Rights

CA - Not In My Backyard

2009-11-19T20:24:00.003-05:00

View the article here

11/13/2009

Documentary focuses on Sex Offenders - KCLU special report explores effects of “Jessica’s Law”

THOUSAND OAKS - They sleep under bushes and bridges and in trash dumpsters in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. They are homeless sex offenders on parole and there’s a growing army of them throughout California.

KCLU News will broadcast a one-hour documentary called “Not in My Backyard” at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 19. Produced and reported by KCLU Special Projects Reporter John North, the program will explore two provisions of “Jessica’s Law” --- residency restrictions and GPS tracking of sex offender parolees.

The documentary also looks at GPS monitoring of sex offender probationers by the Ventura County Probation Department. It features interviews with parole agents, probation officers, a California Department of Corrections official, the California Sex Offender Management Board chairperson and several homeless high-risk sex offender parolees.

According to the professionals who supervise and oversee the management of sex offenders, the stress caused by being homeless increases the risk that they’ll commit another crime.

The statewide public safety issue is the result of “Jessica’s Law.” Approved by 70 percent of California voters in November 2006 as Proposition 83, a get-tough-on-sex-offenders initiative, “Jessica’s Law” has residency restrictions that have created a 2,000-percent increase in homeless sex offender parolees.

The restrictions mandate that convicted child molesters cannot live within a half-mile of a school or park where children gather and all other convicted sex offenders can’t live within a lesser distance of 2,000 feet. In many urban areas of the state, these “predator-free zones” preclude most compliant housing and, consequently, the sex offender parolees become homeless.

KCLU is the National Public Radio station serving Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. KCLU broadcasts at 88.3 FM in Ventura County and at 102.3 FM and 1340 AM in Santa Barbara County . KCLU is a public service of California Lutheran University.

YouTube Playlist

"That old law about 'an eye for an eye' leaves everybody blind. The time is always right to do the right thing." - Martin Luther King - United States Constitution | Bill of Rights

TX - Man found in parking lot ID'd

2009-11-19T19:52:00.000-05:00

View the article here

11/19/2009

A man found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head in the Victoria Wal-Mart parking lot Wednesday has been identified.

_____, 46, was a Belgrade, Maine resident.

According to Maine's online sex-offender registry, _____ was convicted of gross sexual assault of a child younger than 14 and of unlawful sexual contact.

Maine state police had contacted the Victoria Police Department Wednesday because _____ was missing and his cell phone had been traced to Victoria, Lt. Jason Cross said. A suicide note was found in a journal inside _____'s car, where he died.

Justice of the Peace Robert Whitaker pronounced _____ dead Wednesday and did not order an autopsy because, he said, the death was obviously a suicide.

"That old law about 'an eye for an eye' leaves everybody blind. The time is always right to do the right thing." - Martin Luther King - United States Constitution | Bill of Rights

MN - Job market even tougher for ex-offenders

2009-11-19T19:31:00.001-05:00

View the article here

11/19/2009

By Rupa Shenoy

St. Paul - Finding a job in this economy is difficult, and with a criminal background it's even more so. At the same time, foundations are cutting funds for ex-offender work programs.

Terrence Blanton's interview for a sales job with a company in Brooklyn Park was at 3 p.m. He got there at 2 p.m. just in case.

At 5:30 p.m., the clean cut 49-year-old emerged from the building. He stood in the business strip's darkened parking lot, shaking his head.

"It's really rough right now," Blanton said. "When I was in there I didn't think it would be this hard."

Blanton is an ex-offender. It's always been difficult for people with records to find jobs, but in this economy, it's even more so. At the same time, foundations are cutting funds for ex-offender work programs. Experts say the situation threatens public safety and may lead to increased crime rates.

Blanton had checked the box that asked if he had a felony when he filled out the job application online. When a woman from the company called, he told her about his record. She said it was OK, that the company accepted ex-offenders.

But now Blanton has doubts. He hasn't found a full-time job in the nine months since he was released from prison, and some consider his crime the worst of the worst.

"It was criminal sexual conduct," Blanton said. "That's something I can never live down. It was so terrible. Even though it was like a drug transaction gone bad she said no ... that night she said no. It was that simple. And I didn't take no."

Blanton was raised in public housing and has done three stretches in prison. His first was five years in California, for burglary.

In 1994 he moved to Minnesota to live with aunts and cousins. Within a year he was arrested on the criminal sex offense. He said he was high on crack. The state sex offender registry said he used a weapon. Blanton spent ten years in prison for the rape.

He was released in 2004, but soon went back for doing drugs. He got out in early 2008, but returned to jail for a parole violation on September 7.

"I was drinking. On my birthday, and I wasn't supposed to be drinking," Blanton said. "And there were consequences -- five months. It was inexcusable. On the day of my birthday I went to jail. Last year."

Now, Blanton's been out since March. At first, he had a full-time job at a supermarket but was fired when he was caught smoking pot.

Blanton said he's been sober since then. He had one temporary full-time at a potato chip factory.

"I did everything -- bag chips, stack chips, pick chips; everything with chips. Gross," he said. "But when you work, it just raises my self esteem. Give me confidence. I'm doing [it] for me. No one else is doing for me, paying my bills. Make me feel good."

He's no longer on parole and the state doesn't require drug tests. He's only been able to find a few temporary or part-time jobs. He's applied for hundreds of full-time positions and has gotten a handful of interviews. Each time he has to explain his past.

"I don't know; it's real hard to try to explain away sexual assault. That's the worst part I hate is having to do an interview with a lady, knowing I committed a sexual assault against a lady," he said. "The reactions vary. You can tell the reaction. It's a difference I don't know how to explain it but you can tell."

"I just try to sell myself to the employer, let them know I am different. I won't, God willing, commit no crime, let alone a sex offense. I don't think that I'll ever do anything like that again. But on the flip side of that, I thought that before, and it happened," he said.

Minnesota has an unusually high number of recently released ex-offenders looking for jobs, because the state keeps people out of jail when possible. It ranks second to last among all states for its population of people in prison, according to a report published earlier this year by the Pew Center.

The report relied on numbers collected through the end of 2007. It found about 19,000 adults were incarcerated in Minnesota. That's 1 in 211.

At the same time, about 134,000 people in Minnesota were on supervised release. That's 1 in 30 adults. The Pew report said only three states have more people on probation or parole.

Keeping people out of jail makes economic sense: it costs much more to incarcerate, as opposed to putting someone on probation. But that means there's a greater public safety risk if the population's needs aren't met.

The vast majority of people on probation or parole in Minnesota live in the Twin Cities metro area.

"Well what does that really mean?" said Dennis Avery, director of adult reentry services for Hennepin County. "Well, it means in community corrections we are supervising offenders who in other states would be prison bound."

Avery said employment is one of the biggest factors in keeping people from committing crimes again and returning to jail, so a job can be a condition of probation or parole.

"A person with a job, a person with a place to stay and a person who's in a good relationship with their family, that's a person I want living next door to me," he said. "I don't want a person that's come out of prison that doesn't have any of those things living next door to me because that's a time bomb that's just ticking and waiting to go off. When you have nothing to lose, then why couldn't you revert to a life of crime?"

More criminals mean more victims. Without jobs, ex-offenders are more likely to commit crimes.

But everyone's having trouble finding a job right now. It's a bad time to need a second chance. Nation-wide unemployment is at a 26-year high.

Avery said unemployment for Minnesota ex-offenders usually hovers between 45 to 55 percent. A study of about 200 people on parole showed that rate may now be at 56 percent.

Sarah Walker is seeing those numbers play out. Walker is CEO of 180 Degrees, a Minneapolis residential program that works with ex-offenders. She also represents the Minnesota Second Chance Coalition, a group of nonprofit leaders and justice system advocates.

"Anecdotally, what I'm hearing from ex-offenders is it is harder to find jobs," she said. "For me it's an issue of public safety. If the message they continue to be sent is you're never going to be employed, there are no opportunities out there for you, the incentive for them to participate in civil society is decreased. And that makes us all less safe."

When someone commits crime after crime, cycling in and out of prison, it's called recidivism. The state's data on recidivism ends in 2007. The recession began late that year. Before the recession, about a third of people with felonies returned to jail within three years.

University of Minnesota sociology professor Chris Uggen said it's probably going to get worse. That means crime rates go up.

"The statistics on recidivism are fairly stable and fairly grim," Uggen said. "We know that a good portion of those who are released are going to reoffend. My prediction would be that you'll be seeing more recidivism in all likelihood, although it all depends on how much support is there for folks."

Unfortunately that support is eroding. Most ex-offender service organizations depend on funding from foundation grants or state contracts. Those usually last for one or two years. So far, that timing has protected many groups during the recession.

But several of those grants and contracts are running out. Foundations are renewing them at lower funding levels or not at all, and state contracts are diminishing.

The impact is being felt hard.

The Amherst H. Wilder Foundation, based in St. Paul, just cut its jobs program for 3,000 people re-entering society from prison.

Sarah Walker of 180 Degrees said nearly every organization that works with ex-offenders is struggling for funding. That includes juvenile shelters, churches, halfway houses and workforce training programs.

"I think really the largest effect of the recession is going to be in the decline in services," she said. "And we're going to see that trend across the board. Even programs that aren't entirely going away are going to be reducing services and reducing capacity."

There aren't many other places for ex-offenders to look for help.

Their families can't provide the support some used to; they're struggling because of the economy too. Many ex-offenders can't go to school, either because they don't have money for tuition or can't afford to stop earning money.

Halfway houses allow ex-offenders to stay for only 60 days. And it's tough for them to find an apartment, partly because many counties stopped providing ex-offenders with money for their first and last month's rent in a new apartment. Landlords felt more comfortable renting to ex-offenders when they knew those two months would be paid.

These barriers leave many ex-offenders with some pretty grim choices: a homeless shelter or prison.

And Terrence Blanton understands why someone would end up back in jail.

"I been through so many companies and filled out applications, and it's a let down to a degree because they say we're gonna call you, we're going to call -- and they never call," he said. "You call and check up and they haven't made up their minds yet."

"You have to really be strong because you can easily say I want to go back to street life and do that stuff. For the most part I just keep pushing. They say no, the next person says no, I just keep going. Somebody is going to say yeah."

Blanton heard back from the company and got the job he interviewed for. He would've been selling knives, but when he started orientation this week, they told him he'd have to buy the knives first, and he walked out.

So, he's still looking for a job.

"That old law about 'an eye for an eye' leaves everybody blind. The time is always right to do the right thing." - Martin Luther King - United States Constitution | Bill of Rights

FL - Attorney says Lee County sex offender law is unconstitutional

2009-11-19T13:53:00.000-05:00

View the article here
Read the full ordinance here (PDF)

11/11/2009

By Jeremiah Jacobsen

FORT MYERS - A Fort Myers lawyer is fighting to throw out a new law meant to protect your kids from sex offenders.

On Thursday, a Lee County judge will hear arguments about whether Lee County's "Child Safety Zone" ordinance is unconstitutional. Attorney Peter Aiken (Contact) says the law is far too broad to be fair.

"I'm a grandfather in this community. I have two little grandkids," Aiken said. "I don't have a problem in the world with real laws, with real penalties."

But Aiken says the "Child Safety Zone" law makes it too difficult to understand where offenders can and can't be.

"The problem with a law like this, which I call a feel-good law, is it makes the public feel good and feel safe, but it doesn't do anything," Aiken said.

Aiken represents 57-year-old _____, the first person arrested under the ordinance, after visiting a Lehigh Acres swimming pool in July.

The law orders offenders to stay 300 feet from areas "where children congregate" like schools, parks, and beaches; but Aiken says the language is so vague, offenders don't know where they can be legally.

"If you read this ordinance technically, you can't go to McDonald's, because McDonald's has the playground out front."

Lee County Sheriff Mike Scott (Contact) was one of the law's leading supporters before it passed in March.

"The sympathy in terms of restrictions would not lie with the person who did the violating, it should lie with the victim, in the light of protecting future victims," Scott said, during an interview on the subject with WINK News last January.

But Aiken says Florida law lumps all sex offenders together in one category, whether the past crime involved a child or not.

"This law deals with anybody that's been convicted of a sex offense and has been labeled a sex offender, regardless of how long ago, regardless of the conduct," Aiken said.

Aiken says _____'s crime nearly 20 years ago didn't involve a child; yet the attorney says this ordinance is like punishing his client for life.

"A lot of these people are living clean, productive lives, with children, with families. It's not fair," Aiken said. "It is absolutely, 100-percent, not fair."

Aiken says sex offenders are already subject to tough laws and regular visits by deputies.

The sheriff's office says it will let the legal process go forward without speculating on an outcome.

Video Link

"That old law about 'an eye for an eye' leaves everybody blind. The time is always right to do the right thing." - Martin Luther King - United States Constitution | Bill of Rights

CA - Threats against parole agent in Jaycee Dugard case prompt move

2009-11-19T13:34:00.000-05:00

View the article here

11/19/2009

By Roman Gokhman

ANTIOCH — The parole agent who supervised kidnapping and rape suspect Phillip Garrido has been moved to a different location because of threats against him and his family, the state corrections department said today.

California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Spokesman Gordon Hinkle said the agent and his family were moved shortly after Jaycee Dugard was discovered and Garrido and his wife, Nancy, were arrested Aug. 26.

The move was "due to security concerns that the department had," Hinkle said.

Hinkle said the agent's name leaked to the public, prompting the transfer. Hinkle would not say where the agent was transferred.

His children had to be taken out of school because of threats.

"He had received serious threats to his personal safety," Hinkle said. "There were threats of several kinds, but I can't divulge ... the details."

The Garridos have pleaded not guilty to abducting then 11-year-old Dugard outside her South Lake Tahoe home in 1991 and holding her captive in the backyard of their Antioch home for nearly two decades.

Phillip Garrido was a registered sex offender on federal parole for kidnapping and rape. The agent who was moved was the latest in a series of parole officers who supervised him.

"That old law about 'an eye for an eye' leaves everybody blind. The time is always right to do the right thing." - Martin Luther King - United States Constitution | Bill of Rights

Sex Offenders In Homeless Shelter? It's A Scare Tactic

2009-11-19T13:19:00.000-05:00

View the article here

Yep, another one of those goldilock numbers!

11/19/2009

By Helen Ubiñas

Anybody want to own the hair-on-fire statistic that 50 percent of the homeless men who will use the no-freeze emergency shelter proposed for downtown Hartford are sex offenders?

Anyone?

I tried to track down who floated that idea. But so far, no takers.

Not our number, said Mike Zaleski, head of the downtown business improvement district.

His recollection: It came from city staffers during a conversation about the impact a shelter at Center Church might have on downtown residents and businesses.

Really not sure, the city's chief operating officer, David Panagore, said when I asked him the source of the number. Later, he said his staffers merely told residents and business owners that based on a one month survey of one city shelter there was a possibility that a portion of the homeless men at the emergency shelter would be sex offenders.

If that's really the case, something clearly was lost in the translation because that alarming stat even made it's way into hysterical e-mails from residents who couldn't believe anyone would consider "a facility which the City estimates will be 50% percent utilized by registered sex offenders."

Truth is, I dismissed the figure at first. I was more interested in dealing with the claims that putting a shelter in the heart of downtown would somehow kill economic development. Plus, I thought, who would believe such an outrageous number?

But then I'm watching the nightly news and there's a local anchor repeating it as though it's fact. And I come in Wednesday morning to e-mails from people in an understandable lather about a shelter that's going to be "overrun with sex offenders."

Being the diplomatic lad that he is, Zaleski said city staffers were merely trying to be realistic about the homeless population who would likely use the shelter.

Actually Mike, reality has very little to do with the picture they painted.

The truth is they'd have to be clairvoyant to know who's going to use the emergency shelter on any given night. The men seeking a warm bed on a cold winter night will likely show up a few hours before the doors open. It could be a roomful of sex offenders, I suppose. But it could also be a roomful of veterans with no criminal records.

What we have here people is a scare tactic — and it's working.

If freaking people out over the potential hit to economic development isn't enough, then float a rumor about a bunch of criminals moving into a shelter near you.

Speaking of, another rumor was that the majority of Center Church members voted against the shelter and were still being saddled with it. But the Rev. Paul Goodman told me more than 80 percent of the members voted for it.

It was by no means an easy decision, he added. Even he struggled with the idea. But in the end, voting against the temporary shelter didn't keep with the spirit of the church's mission.

Here's the reality. Will some of the homeless men who use the shelter also be sex offenders? Probably. According to 2008 figures from the Hartford Police Department, there are 56 registered sex offenders living in the city's 10 shelters that service hundreds on any given night.

Should resident and church member concerns about safety be taken seriously and addressed? Absolutely.

Brian Baker, assistant director at South Park Inn, said he understands the apprehension. Housing sex offenders in homeless shelters isn't just an issue in Hartford, but nationally.

In Georgia, homeless sex offenders with nowhere else to go were living in the woods until they were recently ordered out. And in Connecticut, there's been talk about building housing specifically for sex offenders. Except no one's stepping up to build it in their town. Totally understandable.
- Don't forget about Florida, and the Julia Tuttle Causeway, where at one time, over 100 ex-offenders were forced by the probation and parole departments to live there.

But until we find a solution, letting people freeze to death because of misinformation isn't a good one.

"That old law about 'an eye for an eye' leaves everybody blind. The time is always right to do the right thing." - Martin Luther King - United States Constitution | Bill of Rights

Postal Service to block 'Dear Santa' letters to North Pole, Alaska

2009-11-19T11:28:00.003-05:00

View the article here

UPDATE: This has been started back up. (See here)

11/19/2009

The U.S. Postal Service (Contact), citing security and privacy concerns of children, will no longer forward "Dear Santa" letters to the Alaska town of North Pole, putting in jeopardy the town's 55-year-old volunteer letter-answering effort by the town.

The concern is that names, addresses and other private information about small children could get into the wrong hands.

Postal Service officials note that a postal worker last year in Maryland recognized a volunteer in the agency's Operation Santa program as a registered sex offender, the Associated Press reports.

The Postal Service now prohibits volunteers in such programs to have access to children's last names and addresses.

Mayor Doug Isaacson says the Postal Service is "running roughshod" over the city of North Pole, whose identity is tied to Christmas, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports.

"What grinch would conceive of something so sinister?" Isaacson tells the paper. He says businesses and civic organizations in the town of 2,200 gear up for the program every year "when we're able to really demonstrate the spirit of Christmas."

Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Contact) has called on the postmaster general to scrap the new policy.

Agency spokesperson Pam Moody says the Postal Service still runs the giant Operation Santa Program in which children can have their letters to Santa answered, and the restrictions do not affect private organizations running their own letter efforts, the AP reports.

What has changed, she says, are the generically addressed letters to "Santa Claus, North Pole" that for years have been forwarded to volunteers in the Alaska town. That program will stop, unless changes are made before Christmas.

That program began in 1954 when air traffic controllers at a nearby base began responding to letters to Santa from children of military servicemen overseas, the newspaper says.

Another postal service spokesman, Ernie Swanson, tells the Daily News-Miner that the letters — as many as 150,000 annually — will still be delivered to the North Pole post office, but he's not sure what postal workers will do with them.

"If it becomes what we consider waste, we'll have it recycled," Swanson, in Seattle, tells the paper.

Video Link

"That old law about 'an eye for an eye' leaves everybody blind. The time is always right to do the right thing." - Martin Luther King - United States Constitution | Bill of Rights

UK - Three people beat Birmingham sex offender to death, jury told

2009-11-19T08:52:00.000-05:00

View the article here

11/19/2009

Two men and a woman beat a Birmingham man to death after he was recognised as a sex offender, a court was told.

Victim _____, aged 49, was targeted because someone at the Birmingham hostel where he was living had seen him on a sex offenders’ wing in prison, it heard.

Dominic Maynard-Francis, 23, Darren Stevens 30, and Rebecca Gordon 20, all deny murdering Mr _____.

James Goss QC, prosecuting at Birmingham Crown Court, said the victim suffered from Huntington’s disease, a hereditary illness affecting the central nervous system which impairs person’s ability to walk and talk, although it was only at its early stages.

He had moved in to the hostel for single homeless people in Mansel Road, Small Heath, in December last year and had been there for about six weeks before the attack.

He said another resident believed he had seen Mr _____ in prison and it was the case that he was on the Sex Offenders’ Register.

Mr Goss said that on January 25 this year the three defendants had been drinking and had been told Mr _____ was a “nonce”, a slang word for someone who interfered with children.

As a result they went to his room on a number of times and repeatedly assaulted him. Another resident living opposite heard his screams and later saw the defendants laughing, said Mr Goss.He said the resident also saw Gordon hitting the victim with a chair.

Mr _____ was found lying unconscious with severe head injuries and eventually died three weeks later after also contracting pneumonia.

"That old law about 'an eye for an eye' leaves everybody blind. The time is always right to do the right thing." - Martin Luther King - United States Constitution | Bill of Rights

Blog Feed and email subscriptions

2009-11-18T23:03:00.001-05:00

We had an issue with our feed for this blog, and had to recreate it. So anybody who has subscribed to this blogs feed or via emails, will have to resubscribe.

The new feed URL is: http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/jPcH

And if you were subscribed via emails, you will have to sign up again on the right hand side of the blog, below.

Sorry for any inconvenience.

"That old law about 'an eye for an eye' leaves everybody blind. The time is always right to do the right thing." - Martin Luther King - United States Constitution | Bill of Rights

OH - The Plight of Homeless Sex Offenders

2009-11-18T22:53:00.002-05:00

View the article here

11/18/2009

By Mark Horvath

Last winter shelter season, my eyes were opened to the horrible plight of sex offenders living on the streets. Our street outreach team was called to find shelter for a man. He was a registered sex offender, so he wasn't allowed to stay at the winter shelter. He had done everything right, reported to the police and the shelter workers. But there was no shelter that would allow him to stay.

No matter what you think of the crimes this man committed, he had served his debt to society and was adhering to the terms of his punishment. Still, finding housing - even emergency shelter - proved nearly impossible.

Up until that time, I had rather a hard stance on this subject. I thought sex offenders were dangerous, a threat to society. Who cares if they have to continue paying for their crime once their jail time is up? But one look into this man's eyes gave me different point of view; he was so filled with hopelessness, so beaten down from trying to survive. It's a difficult memory.

I met Tim in Cleveland, Ohio. He's trying to make something of his life. But as a sex offender, it's nearly impossible for him to find the help he needs.

I don't know what Tim did to become a registered sex offender. But I believe an equally heinous crime might be our own society allowing people like him to suffer on the streets, sex offender or not.

Video Link

"That old law about 'an eye for an eye' leaves everybody blind. The time is always right to do the right thing." - Martin Luther King - United States Constitution | Bill of Rights

PA - Former Monroe GOP state committeeman John Curtin granted parole

2009-11-18T22:30:00.000-05:00

View the article here

Yep, another republican, and another slap on the wrist compared to Joe Q. Public!

11/18/2009

Former Monroe County Republican state committeeman John Curtin has been granted parole. Curtin was sentenced in May to six to 18 months in county jail after being found guilty on sexual offense charges.

Curtin served the minimum sentence without incident. He will be taken back to Monroe County Correctional Facility and will be released from there.

Curtin will live in Stroudsburg with his mother and brother.

In 2007, a jury convicted Curtin of sexual assault and contacting or communicating with a minor to commit a sexual offense (both felonies) and indecent assault, providing alcoholic beverages to minors and corrupting minors (misdemeanors).

The charges stem from an August 2005 incident in which Curtin, then 20, sexually molested a minor, then 17, outside the Budget Host Inn in Stroudsburg, according to police.

The incident happened during a drinking party attended by some partygoers who were underage in a hotel room rented by Curtin.

Curtin admitted to renting the room and providing the alcohol, but has denied the sexual offense charges.

Conditions of the parole are that he will stay away from Ramsey School, near where his family lives, and any other school; his Internet use will be monitored; and he will attend sex offender treatment.
- Will he be a sex offender and on the registry?

"That old law about 'an eye for an eye' leaves everybody blind. The time is always right to do the right thing." - Martin Luther King - United States Constitution | Bill of Rights

MI - Detroit man accused of marching naked 15-year-old son into lot, killing him over dispute

2009-11-18T21:57:00.004-05:00

View the article here

What a sick man! Well, I hope he spends the rest of his life in prison. Now his wife lost her son, and possibly her husband!

UPDATE: see the last video below.

11/18/2009

By DAVID N. GOODMAN

HIGHLAND PARK - A 37-year-old father irate over hearing his 15-year-old son had sexual contact with a 3-year-old girl made the teen strip at gunpoint, marched him to a vacant lot and shot him to death despite pleas from the boy and his mother, a relative said.

Michigan authorities filed a first-degree murder charge Wednesday against Jamar Pinkney Sr. in the shooting death Monday of Jamar Pinkney Jr. in the Detroit enclave of Highland Park.

Defense attorney Corbett O'Meara said prosecutors should consider evidence of the father's state of mind over the sex abuse report.

"If something were to happen that would cause a reasonable person to lose control of himself, that is something the prosecution would have to take into account," O'Meara said outside Highland Park District Court.

Tensions were high in the courtroom Wednesday as the handcuffed suspect was led into the room for the arraignment, which lasted less than a minute.

"No, No, No," one female relative cried before a police officer escorted her out.

Judge Brigette Officer entered a not guilty plea for Pinkney, who's also charged with assault, and ordered him jailed without bond until a preliminary examination Dec. 1.

"This is something that's hard to deal with for all the parties concerned, including the police," police Chief Ted Caldwell said afterward. "Highland Park is a small city. These are people who have been members of the community for years."

Caldwell said the sexual misconduct allegation that led to the confrontation wasn't part of the police investigation.

The shooting happened Monday night in a vacant lot in the once-prosperous city of 16,000, where decay, abandonment, fires and demolition have eaten away at many of the sprawling homes. Highland Park recently exited years of state financial oversight.

Visitors built an impromptu memorial at the shooting site. Two votive candles sat amid 10 stuffed animals, including two white teddy bears with red hearts embroidered with, "I love you."

The boy's mother, _____, told the Detroit Free Press that her son told her he had improper sexual contact with the girl.

"I called and told his father. This isn't something you sweep under the rug," she said.

_____ said the elder Pinkney arrived at the home with a gun, ordered his son to strip and marched him outside despite her protests.

"He got on his knees and begged, `No, Daddy, No,' and he pulled the trigger," _____ said.

_____ did not immediately respond to a message Wednesday from The Associated Press seeking comment.

Video Link

Video Link

"That old law about 'an eye for an eye' leaves everybody blind. The time is always right to do the right thing." - Martin Luther King - United States Constitution | Bill of Rights

IA - ACLU Asks U.S. Supreme Court to Review Iowa's Sex Offender Residency Restriction

2009-11-18T20:22:00.000-05:00

View the article here

This is an old law suit, but the highlighted statement shows the intention of these laws, and should be grounds to get the laws ruled unconstitutional, because the intent is punishment, by this ladies own words! You will also notice, this law suit is 4 years old, and we still have the same problems!

09/29/2005

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: media@aclu.org

DES MOINES -- The Iowa Civil Liberties Union (Contact) announced today that its is asking the Supreme Court to overturn Iowa's unprecedented law that restricts where sex offenders with victims under the age of 18 can reside. The Court will likely decide by the end of the year whether to hear the case.

As the second state in the nation to pass such a law, Iowa restricts nearly every registered sex offender from residing within 2,000 feet of a school, day care facility or registered in-home childcare provider.

"This law is not only a law enforcement nightmare, but it also breaks up families, separating parents from their children, causing homelessness and -- unless changes are made -- will likely cost the taxpayers of this state millions," said ICLU Executive Director Ben Stone. "Our jails and prisons likely are going to be filled with law-abiding citizens who served their sentence years ago, but who will be incarcerated again simply because they cannot find a place to live under this law," he added.

When the law went into effect in July 2002, the ICLU quickly filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of all affected sex offenders and succeeded in getting a ruling from U.S. District Court Judge Robert Pratt in February 2004 that the law was unconstitutional. This past summer, a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals overturned the ruling. The full court of appeals declined to rehear the case by a one-vote margin.

The ICLU maintains that the residency restrictions are ineffective because they do not focus on offenders who are a threat to small children and do not prevent predators from traveling to areas where children could be abducted.

At the same time, the statute amounts to the unconstitutional punishment of "banishment," the ICLU said. Indeed, maps of Des Moines and many Iowa municipalities show there is hardly anywhere for a sex offender to live.

Typically entire cities are blocked off because of the number and size of circles drawn around targeted facilities and homes.

Since September 1 of this year, law enforcement officials have been scrambling to commence enforcement of the law. Most jurisdictions have been sending law enforcement officers to the doors of registered sex offenders telling them they have to move or face arrest.

The ICLU said it is important for people to realize that the law is sweeping in whom it covers, both in scope and time.

"The 2,000-foot rule applies equally to all kinds of people who don't fit the public perception of the typical sex offender," Stone said. "The law covers cases where a 19-year-old had sex with a 15-year-old, as well as persons who pled guilty to exposing themselves at a party. And, perhaps most significantly, the law has no time limit -- middle-aged fathers with wives and children who have had no criminal convictions for decades are being forced to leave their families."

In its petition for appeal, the ICLU urged the Justices to review the statute promptly because towns and cities across the nation are quickly adopting laws and ordinances banning sex offenders from living in their jurisdictions. In fact, it has been reported that the eastern Iowa town of Ely, which did not have a school or day care, passed an ordinance banning sex offenders from residing in nearly the entire town. Similar legislation is being passed or proposed in many states.

For example, in a September 15, 2005 interview with the South Florida Sun Sentinel, Florida State Representative Rep. Susan Goldstein, who recently introduced such a bill in the Florida legislature, said the goal is "to get these people out of our neighborhoods and hopefully out of our state."

The name of the ICLU litigation is Does I, II & III v. Miller, et al. The case was originally filed in the U.S. Court for the Southern District of Iowa, Case No. 3:03-cv-90067. The lead counsel for the ICLUF is Phil Mears from Iowa City, Iowa.

"That old law about 'an eye for an eye' leaves everybody blind. The time is always right to do the right thing." - Martin Luther King - United States Constitution | Bill of Rights

FL - Sex offender's home destroyed

2009-11-18T02:53:00.002-05:00

View the article here
UPDATE: Two burn Davie mobile home after eviction notice

11/18/2009

By RACHEL HATZIPANAGOS AND SOFIA SANTANA

A suspicious fire burned down the mobile home of a registered sex offender, but Davie police say they don't think the man was targeted.

Davie Fire Rescue responded to the fire at the mobile home in the 400 block of Southwest 132nd Avenue about 7:45 a.m. Monday.

The blaze destroyed the mobile home in Western Hills Estates. No one was inside at the time.

The cause of the fire was under investigation Tuesday, and it is considered suspicious, said police spokesman Greg Gasse.

However, the fact that sex offender _____, 24, lived in the home is not playing a role in the investigation, he said.

"They are aware of his status, but they don't think [the fire] has anything to do with that at this time," Gasse said.

In February 2008, _____ was arrested on two counts of fondling a child between 12 and 16 years old in the Davie house.

Police said a 13-year-old girl told them _____ held her down and assaulted her in a bedroom of the home.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement said adjudication in _____'s case was withheld and he registered as a sex offender at the Davie address on Friday. Subscribers can receive e-mail alerts from FDLE that tells them whenever a sex offender moves into their neighborhood.

Richard Fogaros, 38, a parent of two children, 9 and 7, said he received such an e-mail over the weekend while he was out of town. He did not want to comment on what could have caused the fire.

"I wouldn't want to speculate," Fogaros said. "But we are coming to a point where I'm going to have to sacrifice my children's freedom and outside time. Where they [sex offenders] are living is closing in on our area."

Davie requires sex offenders to live at least 2,500 feet from where children gather, such as school bus stops and playgrounds.

Police said that because _____ had just filed his registration as an offender, they had not had a chance to check whether he was complying with the ordinance.

Ten sex offenders are registered within a mile of _____'s address.

Several people lived in the home, Gasse said, but their relationship with _____ was not clear.

The home is registered to _____'s father. Neither he nor _____ could immediately be reached for comment.

"That old law about 'an eye for an eye' leaves everybody blind. The time is always right to do the right thing." - Martin Luther King - United States Constitution | Bill of Rights

MA - Sex offender ban sought for homeless shelters

2009-11-18T02:39:00.000-05:00

View the article here

11/18/2009

By David Abel

The most dangerous sex offenders would be barred from staying at homeless shelters under a plan proposed by advocates for the homeless and endorsed by key legislators.

As the state’s steep budget cuts have forced organizations that help the homeless to cut beds, staff, and programs, the advocates for the needy say banning sex offenders would allow shelters to save money on security, open up space for others, and make shelters safer.

The Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance (Contact), which represents 90 organizations that provide services to the homeless, has urged state lawmakers to add shelters to an increasingly long list of residential bans for many sex offenders. They are already barred in some communities from living near schools, day-care centers, parks, playgrounds, libraries, or nursing homes.

While those who study sex offender recidivism rates say such residential restrictions are counterproductive, state lawmakers who support the proposed legislation argue that it also would fix a loophole in the law, which for five years has required the most dangerous sex offenders to post their names, addresses, and photos on a public website. They say too many sex offenders bypass the law by listing a homeless shelter as their address when they live elsewhere.
- Your laws are what is making people homeless, due to the residency restrictions, cannot get and keep a job, etc.

"There are some really bad people, and we have to provide protections against them," said Senator James E. Timilty (Email), a Walpole Democrat who co-chairs the Joint Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security and sponsored the legislation. "I think we have a superseding need to protect the public. I would suggest it’s not fair to the families who are recently homeless to have them living next to sex offenders."
- I'm sure you have some really bad homeless murderers, gang members, ex-drug dealers, ex-DUI offenders, and others as well, yet they are welcomed with open arms. And it's not fair to trample on ex-sex offenders rights and deny them a warm place to stay either, yet you do it, why? To look good to the public? To "look tough on crime", because you do not have the balls to oppose these laws? This is the kind of cruelty and hate you get when they start kicking God out of everything. One day, your rights will be stomped on as well, mark my words on that!

In a review yesterday of 162 Level 3 sex offenders - those with a high risk of committing sex crimes again - who list addresses in Boston on the state’s online registry, the Globe found that at least 74 percent reported they were living at homeless shelters.
- Maybe it's because the media and politicians have stirred the fear-mongering pot so much, nobody wants to house or hire a sex offender, much less a level 3, so of course they are going to become homeless, because they cannot legally stay any where, nor get or keep a job! Now you want to kick them out of the only places they can possibly go to get out of the cold! Wow, the world is very cruel!

The state uses 27 criteria to classify someone as a Level 3 sex offender, including how inmates behaved in prison and whether their victims were children.

"This is the only solution to make our communities safe and allow the registry to work properly," said Joe Finn, executive director of the Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance.
- But the community is NOT safe, it's a placebo to make them "feel safe," and nothing about these draconian laws are "working properly!"

"Even in the best of times, we don’t have the capacity to deal with these issues, but the recent cuts exacerbate the problem and make it difficult for shelters to raise money when their work is getting undermined because of the perception that we’re somehow harboring or attracting sexual offenders to our communities," he said. But those who treat sex offenders and monitor recidivism rates say such residential restrictions make it more likely they will commit future crimes.
- So you are creating homeless people, and possibly creating more crime, to keep the prison money making complex running!

Tracy Velazquez, executive director of the Washington-based Justice Policy Institute (Email) and author of a report, "The Pursuit of Safety: Sex Offender Policy in the United States," said Massachusetts would be one of the few states to pass such a restriction. Florida also bans sex offenders from homeless and hurricane shelters.
- Just because another state does it, doesn't make it morally and ethically right! Florida is forcing offenders to live under bridges, and at one time, over 100 were under the Julia Tuttle Causeway, yep, sounds ethical and moral to me... NOT!

She said if the bill becomes law, Massachusetts would join other states in making it more likely that a sex offender ends up on the street. In 2000, she said only five states had residential restrictions limiting the proximity of an offender to a school, park, or nursing home; now 30 states have such restrictions, forcing many into homelessness.

"If the purpose of this ban is to continue to punish and effectively banish people after they’ve done their time and paid their debt to society, then it’s a pretty effective policy," she said. "If it’s to increase public safety, then banning registered sex offenders from shelters is counterproductive. It will make it harder for law enforcement to keep track of their whereabouts, and harder for them to meet their basic human needs, which in turn makes it harder for them to live successfully in the community." She and others said research shows there’s no link between where sex offenders live and whether they commit new crimes.

Jill Levenson, a professor of human services who researches sex crime policy at Lynn University in Florida, said a study she completed last year of 330 sex offenders who live near schools and day-care centers in Florida found that they were no more likely to re-offend than other former convicts.

"The risk that sex offenders might pose in shelters for women and children may make sense, but to ban them from any shelter would have to be balanced with the need to provide social services to sex offenders," she said. "If someone is homeless, despondent, and desperate, they’re more likely to resume a life of crime."

Others questioned the constitutionality of banning sex offenders from shelters, which are often obligated by state contracts to accept just about anyone they have room for who presents themselves as homeless.

Officials at the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts (Email), which has opposed similar residential restrictions from Barnstable to Lynn, argue that they impose additional punishment after convicts have served their time.

"Just as a matter of public policy, these restrictions make no sense," said John Reinstein, legal director of the ACLU of Massachusetts. "Do we want to cut them loose entirely, so we don’t know where they are? What does someone do with no place to live, and they can’t go to a homeless shelter? And what are the implications for public safety and the sex offender law, which requires them to register where they live?"
- It is my belief, that they want them all in jail or prison, to keep the prison business running, and not out on the street, so they make laws so draconian that they force people to become homeless, and thus back into jail or prison. And so they can look "tough on crime," and appease the sheeple!

Shelter officials say they were stung this month when the state cut $2.7 million from homeless shelters.

The ban on sex offenders in shelters is being offered as an amendment to the crime bill, which is expected to see Senate action today.

Shelter officials said they shouldn’t be stuck with a problem that stems from inadequate state services for sex offenders.

"This bill is necessary because emergency shelters aren’t really equipped to handle sex offenders," said Peter Duda, executive of the Lowell Transitional Living Center (Contact), noting they often end up as long-term residents because it’s difficult to find housing and jobs. "We’re not funded to provide the appropriate supervision. These people should be appropriately tracked, and it shouldn’t fall on the shelters to do that."
- So maybe you should spend the money training them on how to deal with ex-sex offenders who are simply trying to survive?

Officials at other shelters said recent crimes allegedly involving homeless sex offenders - including an assault last month at Massachusetts General Hospital and a break-in last spring at a woman’s apartment in Quincy - have given their shelters a bad name.
- Why? Did you shelter have anything to do with it? No, the states draconian laws is the problem!

Mark Alston-Follansbee, executive director of the Somerville Homeless Coalition (Contact), said he worries that a sex offense at his shelter, which is in a church, would result in the program’s closure.

"All it takes would be one offense for our program to be run out of the church, and out of the town," he said. "We’re trying to push back to the state, saying they have to figure this out. It’s their responsibility, and they’re asking us to do something that shelters were never intended to do."
- They don't want to figure it out, that is obvious. They want to keep people living in fear, and the prison business running to bring in money.

"That old law about 'an eye for an eye' leaves everybody blind. The time is always right to do the right thing." - Martin Luther King (United States Constitution, Bill of Rights)

FL - Inmate Release (Stop putting people in jail for stupid reasons, and this might not be an issue!)

2009-11-17T23:26:00.000-05:00

Video Link

"That old law about 'an eye for an eye' leaves everybody blind. The time is always right to do the right thing." - Martin Luther King (United States Constitution, Bill of Rights)

Overblown Fears - #7 - Web Predators!

2009-11-17T21:32:00.000-05:00

View the article here
See here about the "1 in 5" number

By Andrew Holbrooke

The rise of social-networking sites like Facebook and MySpace was a two-part story for many parents. Part one was excitement over how easy it is to connect with people. Part two was pure fear. There seemed to be an infinite pool of monsters waiting to pounce at the other end of our modems. At least, that’s what shows like To Catch a Predator and Law & Order: SVU seemed to suggest. Well, perhaps this post can serve as part three: truth and reconciliation. Considering that I write about my children online, using their real names and pictures to boot, I think I can say with some certainty that worry over Web predators has been a bit overblown. But don’t take my word for it. Earlier this year a task force created by 49 state attorneys general concluded the same thing. It is still more dangerous to take your kid to the grocery store than it is to write about them online, or let them surf the Web. I think social media has actually done so much more good than bad in terms of bringing people together, especially in my online community where we write to connect with other people and to reflect on the absurdity of everyday life with the hope that the people who read it will find similarities in their own routine. We write to feel less alone, and this scary technology has made all of that possible.

"That old law about 'an eye for an eye' leaves everybody blind. The time is always right to do the right thing." - Martin Luther King (United States Constitution, Bill of Rights)