NY - Sex offenders lurking in the shadows on Staten Island

Original Article

Notice the scary title?

12/10/2012

By JACK RYAN

STATEN ISLAND - There are 296 registered sex offenders living on Staten Island. Some are supervised by parole officers. Some are supervised by probation officers. But most are not supervised by anyone.

"The public just assumes that somebody is watching them," said Carole Weaver, a spokesperson for the State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision. "That's not necessarily so."

The Parole Department supervises 30 of the registered sex offenders on Staten Island, while the Probation Department currently supervises 63 of them.

The remaining 203 sex offenders are not supervised by any agency.

This year, as in the past, parole officers on Staten Island visit the homes of each of the 30 sex offenders they supervise. They will search their homes -- they don't need a search warrant -- for magazines, DVDs, computer records, drugs or anything that can constitute a violation of parole.

In Suffolk County and some other jurisdictions, Parole requires sex offenders to meet on Halloween at a central location where they watch training videos designed for such offenders. They don't leave until trick-or-treating time is over.

This year, as in the past, the agency was particularly vigilant on Halloween. Ryan Dodge, a spokesman for the Probation Department, said that on "On Oct. 31, a probation officer (visited) the residences of those who were convicted of abusing children and remind them that they are subject to a curfew and restricted from participating in any Halloween activities and from opening the door for any trick-or-treaters."
- Even though there has never been a case where a child was sexually abused by a known sex offender on Halloween.  It's a waste of time and money!

But what about the sex offenders who are not being supervised?

IT'S UP TO PARENTS

There are no restrictions on those sex offenders not under supervision, even the pedophiles.

Read the entire article

---