Southern Center for Human Rights - Sex Offender Info
02/12/2012
By Kyle Martin
Georgia’s sex offender laws are clear in some respects.
They explicitly say, for instance, that sex offenders have to register once a year on their birthday and let the sheriff’s office know every time they plan to move.
What confuses the public, those on the registry and even law enforcement, are the different time periods that dictate what privileges sex offenders are allowed, said Columbia County sheriff’s Investigator David Rush.
People call him in an uproar for instance, when a sex offender moves into a house across the street from a church or school. But that’s allowable if the sex offense occurred before 2003.
“A lot of times, people don’t like the answers they get,” Rush said.
He is charged with keeping tabs on all the sex offenders in Columbia County. He also heads the regional sex offender task force for the Georgia Sheriffs’ Association. The state affiliation brings him in contact almost daily with investigators around the area who have a question about sex offender law or related issues.
On a recent morning, Rush took a reporter along for one of the regular trips he makes through the county to check on its 90 registered sex offenders. (Neighboring Richmond County holds about 375 of the 20,440 sex offenders registered in Georgia.)
The law doesn’t require these checks, but Columbia County is one of many sheriff’s offices that specifically dedicate someone to this task. Rush divides his sex offender checks according to zones; on this morning, he covers a large area that starts in Harlem.
- Just imagine all the money he is spending on gas to go around, and find out the person is not home. It's just throwing money down the drain. It seems more appropriate to me, to go after 6pm, when most people, who have a job, will more than likely be home.
His first stop is a squat rectangular house with a long gravel driveway on George Walton Drive. Most of the sex offenders are at work during these daytime checks, and that’s the case with this one. Rush returns to his car, makes a check on his clipboard and pulls back onto the road.
As the tall pines zipping by the car windows give way to shopping plazas, Rush explains that some of the confusion in the law stems from the fact that residency restrictions are based on the time the offense was committed, not a conviction date.
The changes in 2010 break things up further. Anyone who committed an offense before June 4, 2003, does not have to follow any restrictions on where they can live or work. An offense committed between 2003 and June 30, 2006, means an offender cannot live within 1,000 feet of facilities “providing services or programs directed toward persons under 18 years of age.”
The restrictions on offenses between July 1, 2006, and June 30, 2008, are the familiar ones that keep offenders from living within 1,000 feet of a child-care facility, church, school, playground, etc.
For offenses after 2008, “public library” was added to the list, and the law keeps offenders from volunteering at a child care facility, school or church.
“It’s somewhat confusing because of the different time periods we’re dealing with,” Rush said. “Most people are familiar with the old law.”
In about an hour he has visited four homes, plus chatted with a sex offender taking a stroll along the roadside. Each meeting is less than five minutes, just a friendly, but obvious, reminder that someone is watching their actions. Rush has developed a rapport with most of these offenders after four or five years.
“They know I’m fair. I tell them when I first register them to call me with any questions,” Rush said. “Do whatever you’re supposed to do, and there are no problems.”
Most of them follow that advice, but there are absconders. Rush recalls the time he got lost trying to find a house deep in the woods off a dirt road. After several passes, Rush realized that the sex offender’s house had been bulldozed. That’s what folks in the investigation business call a clue, he jokes.
Failure to comply with the terms of the sex offender registry is a felony that carries a penalty of up to 30 years in prison. It’s also a felony that carries up to 20 years in prison to give false information about a sex offender’s whereabouts to an investigator. Rush reads that law to friends and family members who hesitate with their answers.
Years of working in tandem with sex offenders has bred some sympathy for their situation. As Rush pulls into different driveways, he gives a brief biography about the disabled veteran living in the house or the unemployed sex offender struggling with his wife’s medical bills. There’s the stigma to live with, too, especially in small towns with a long grapevine.
“They know how the general population feels about them. They stay in their homes, but when they got out in public, occasionally somebody will say something,” Rush said.
These guys can have these checks stopped if the law is worded with a specific number of checks, like if the law says the offenders info shall be checked annually. I complained and threatened suit when they kept verifying me even though the law was explicit on the word annual.
ReplyDeleteI went to the original article, and at the time, I noticed the comments went quiet after leabillings- funny thing how all these supposed "child advocates" quite down when an ACTUAL victim speaks. Good for you LEAH! As you so well articulated, you're only a victim for as long as you allow yourself to be.
ReplyDeleteWhyworrynow:
ReplyDeleteYou are exactly right. There is no law in Georgia that states that people listed on the nanny government Registry have to submit to any checks or verifications at any time, anywhere, or about anything. People listed on the Registry do not have to allow agents of the criminal governments to contact them at all.
If you live in Georgia and are on the list, do NOT ever cooperate with these checks. There is no raeson to allow the criminal government to contact you. Do not allow them to visit you at home, where you work, or where you go to school. Heck, build a wall around your home. Or a fence. They are wasting very limited public resources on their nonsense, so help them out a bit and don't allow it.
Remember, the laws are immoral. The people who support them are just a bunch of people who cannot leave other people alone. Some of them are terrorists. People on the list should never give any indication that the laws are acceptable.
That is not exactly true. If the person is on probation or parole, they have to submit to the checks, and if the police want to enter their home to look around, they have to comply with it.
ReplyDeleteIf you are off probation or parole, then all you should have to do when they come by, is verify who you are, and possibly sign a piece of paper, that is all. You do not have to allow them in, or answer any of their questions. Just tell them who you are, show them your license if they ask, sign the paper, if asked, and that is all.
I am not a legal expert, but I am not sure if you even have to sign the piece of paper. It's only their job to come by and verify you live there, that is all.
Legally you are not required to sign that paper but you would be foolish not to. If you don't sign they will go to your neighbors house and have them sign. If they really wanted to be a dick they could go to your employer instead. Best to be indifferent towards these people. With that said never let them in your house unless u are on probation. Be polite and simply say "no you may not."
ReplyDeleteYes, I should have clarified my comments. However, I think it is pretty much a given that people know, or certainly should know, that if you are on probation or parole then there is a long list of requirements that you must follow. And of course, that can be a very, very long list and some requirements can apply only to you and no one else. Having said that, if I were on probation or parole, I would not assume that I had to allow law enforcement to visit me at my home or anywhere else. If probation or parole officers visited, you would surely be required to speak with them but I'm not so sure that you would be required to speak to just any law enforcement officer who shows up at your home and wants to speak with you. Again, it is not a legal requirement in Georgia so it would have to be in the terms of your probation or parole. I would certainly look into it.
ReplyDeleteIf you are not on probation or parole, you have no legal requirement to even allow them on your property (even if it is rented). You do not have a requirement to speak to them. You do not have a requirement to sign anything. I definitely recommend not signing anything. If you do want to sign something for some reason, then you have to read the entire thing and make sure everything is accurate.
I think if you are visited you should just tell them that your attorney told you not to sign anything and you would appreciate it if instead of wasting tax dollars running all over visiting people that they instead try to do something about reducing the number of sex crimes being committed.
Scott:
ReplyDeleteI don't think people should sign anything at their homes, places of employment, or anywhere else except at the locations where they are supposed to Register. Signing it does nothing for you and it sends the wrong message. It implies that you are accepting of the Registries.
Say a county has 500 people Registered. What do you think would happen if every one of those 500 people refused to sign anything? People have to stand up for themselves. WE have to stand up and say "This is wrong and immoral and I am not going to accept it."
I've seen this quote before: Find out just what the people will submit to and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue until they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress. Frederick Douglass, civil rights activist, Aug. 4, 1857.
I don't have time right this second to see if it is an accurate quote or not, but I think it is a great one and I believe it. The people who support the Registries and the idiotic BS that they have enabled are simply and mostly just a bunch of people who will not leave other, fellow citizens alone. It is up to us to tell them where to shove it.
Lastly, who cares if they go to the neighbors or an employer? F them. I've told law enforcement myself to do that. I told them that those rednecks are the people who want the Registries, let them deal with it. Go talk to them and quit talking to me. Your good, decent neighbors won't care. And the other neighbors can go F themselves. Same with an employer. If you have an employer who cares, work somewhere else.
If your neighbors sign anything, they really are fools.