Sex Offender Issues

View the article here

More of not listening to the experts. Why do we continue to ignore the experts who have treated sex offenders for many years? Are we hear to protect children or not? Sex offender therapists will tell you, like below, that these laws will not work, and increase the danger, yet idiots in office continue to ignore the experts and pass draconian laws, why? What is the real agenda here?

07/27/2007

Many join move to restrict residency, saying they don't want to be the last

Despite experts' concerns that such laws might increase sex offender recidivism, a growing number of Wisconsin communities are passing laws banishing offenders from living in all but small pockets of land.

Repeating the domino effect seen in other states, many elected officials say they don't want to be the last to close the door and risk becoming a "dumping ground" for offenders.

"It's the 'everybody else is doing it so now we need to do it' " rationale, Cudahy City Attorney Paul Eberhardy said. "I don't think that makes good law."
- So I guess if other states became communist, then you'd follow along as well? Insane!

Milwaukee, Cudahy, Racine, South Milwaukee and Oak Creek are considering ordinances that would block registered sex offenders from living within a certain distance - usually 1,000 to 2,000 feet - from schools, parks, pools, movie theaters and a list of other places where children congregate.

Waukesha and Town of Brookfield officials have begun researching the issue. A group of Brown County communities has been discussing options after Green Bay made about 93% of that city off-limits for sex offenders to live.
- Yeah, as long as they do not make 100% off limits, then they are constitutional. Who cares about being cruel and unusual, which these laws are. These people are evil, brain dead, idiots who do not care about protecting children, they only want to push offenders away and let someone else deal with them. They don't want to SOLVE the problem.

Other places that have approved residency restrictions - all since November - include Franklin, West Allis, Glendale, Bayside, Menomonee Falls, Little Chute and Algoma.

Brookfield Town Supervisor John Schatzman said there should be a statewide law to prevent a patchwork of municipal ordinances. At least 30 states have passed varying restrictions on where sex offenders may live or loiter, including all of Wisconsin's neighboring states except Minnesota, according to the National Conference of State Legislators.

But in Wisconsin a joint legislative committee has rejected the idea of severely limiting housing options for sex offenders, persuaded by law enforcement and treatment experts who say such well-intentioned moves in other states have caused more damage than good.

Creating 'safety zones'

Recent studies have not shown a correlation between where a sex offender lives and recidivism, said Charles Lodl, a Mequon psychiatrist who has treated sex offenders for 25 years.
- It's because nobody is doing the studies, and it's a known fact that sex crimes almost always occur in the family or someone close to the family. So if you want this to stop, then STOP MOLESTING YOUR KIDS!

The joint legislative committee, however, has introduced a bill (AB 332) that would create "child safety zones" - sites where children congregate that certain sex offenders would be prohibited from entering while on probation, parole or extended supervision. The zones would apply to persons convicted of first- or second-degree sexual assault of a child or engaging in repeated sexual assault of a child.

Child safety zones also are included in most local ordinances restricting where sex offenders can live. But municipalities are imposing them on anyone convicted of a much longer list of offenses and for a longer time: as long as they have to register as a sex offender rather than when they finish serving their sentence.

The proposed state bill would increase registered offenders' reporting requirements, improve notifications to colleges and universities and add more photos and information about the state's online sex offender registry, which now includes 19,589 names.

State Rep. Garey Bies, a Republican from Sister Bay who co-chaired the study committee, said statistics showed an increase in offenders absconding from supervision and treatment in states such as Iowa and Oklahoma after housing bans were imposed.

"I personally would rather have a system where you keep them in public view," Bies said.

Some Iowa offenders unable to find housing there have moved to southwestern Wisconsin, he said.

The Iowa state prosecutors and sheriffs' associations supported overturning the state's housing restrictions, saying they tended to separate offenders from support systems and created a greater risk of reoffending. But the U.S. Supreme Court let stand a federal appellate court ruling that declared Iowa's law constitutional. Appeals in other states are pending.
- Again, ignoring experts, prosecutors and sheriff's. Why? What is the real agenda here? The law is UNCONSTITUTIONAL period, if you were upholding the Constitution, which you are not.

Lodl said blocking offenders from moving into homes where they have support systems or away from treatment providers could make it more likely they will commit a new crime.
- But do they care? No! Why? This makes kids in more danger, like the experts have said over and over and over again.

The laws have raised other questions such as the impact on property values in the scattered pockets where offenders can live. The Wisconsin Realtors Association persuaded Green Bay to drop a provision that would have prohibited anyone from knowingly selling a sex offender a home in an excluded zone.

Establishing appeals

South Milwaukee has removed churches and libraries from its proposed list of off-limit sites, but other communities - including Franklin and Glendale - are requiring offenders to get written permission before attending a religious service. Lodl said one sex offender he counsels has been asked to stop coming to church.
- And thus violates a persons freedom to practice their religion. If you are labeled a sex offender, you lose your job, cannot find a new job, cannot go to church, are humiliated every where you go, harassed every where you go, your family and children suffer the same, and you are basically exiled and made into a leper. And they say it's not punishment and is constitutional!

Green Bay has set up an appeals board of citizens, appointed by the mayor, who decide whether to grant waivers to the residency rules. There are no black-and-white standards. The panel weighs the offender's record, treatment history and other factors.

Since the board formed in May, seven of eight appeals have been granted, assistant city attorney Jonathan Nitti said. State officials must get permission to place offenders in state-operated transitional housing facilities in areas now marked as off-limits. So far, all placements have been approved.

In the Town of Algoma - the first in Wisconsin to enact residency restrictions - action was prompted by residents learning about a 25-year-old child molester in their midst. He moved from his parents' home after neighbors rallied against him, even though he would have been allowed to stay under the new law.
- See, this is harassment, plain and simple... It doesn't take a rocket scientist or brain surgeon to see these laws are unconstitutional and punishment. It's just we have a corrupt government system that is broken and is in desperate need of an enima!

He's now in an apartment in Oshkosh that doesn't have residency rules.

That leaves one offender in the town, a longtime resident convicted of child pornography possession who can stay where he lives but would face the restrictions if he wanted to move.

Town supervisor Dan Mingus said he doesn't believe talk that housing bans will drive offenders underground, saying that's where they want to be to find new victims.
- Give me a break! Anybody can say this, but the news and other facts prove this is a fact, if you'd do some homework. You are not about protecting the public, but about punishing offenders, which is unconstitutional!

But he agrees it will worsen an already difficult problem of finding housing for sex offenders.

"That's a real serious, legitimate point - where are they going to live if community after community kick them out?" he asked.
- Why are you allowing the community to "kick them out?" If it's within the law for them to stay there, then arrest the people harassing the offender. It's harassment, and that is against the law, period!