Thank you all for your helpful comments.

Gerald, well said. You are right on. It was a high lite in my life when I was able to reestablish a relationship with my victim. We both get along fine and enjoy ourselves in frequent times together. Most sex offenders are not bad people, just folks who let emotions overcome them for a short period of time.

Recidivism is low because the vast majority of sex offenders are good people who did something that they are horribly ashamed of. Drug dealers are not ashamed. They were just doing business. Thieves are not ashamed. They stole from people who could afford it. Armed robbers brag about how tough they are with a gun in their hand. Sex offenders lay low in prison, not wanting anyone to know what they did. Many sex offenders admit everything to the police when confronted, precisely because they are so ashamed of themselves. They realize that the few moments of sexual pleasure that they engaged in illegally just weren’t the many years of lost freedom it cost them. All we want now is to be left alone to live our lives. My last 3 years in prison were spent in a sex offender treatment unit. The sex offenders weren’t stealing from each other. They weren’t fighting with each other. They weren’t allowing themselves to be “hardened” by their prison time. They were damn good people.

Good points Dustin. What do you say to those that say the only reason ricidivism is so low is because of the harsh punishment received after conviction which includes intensive therapy and a spot on the registry, sometimes for life. These people believe that without that, the recidivism rate would be sky high. I don’t believe it, but don’t know how to counter their unsubstantiated way of thinking. I can say with all sincerity that the “counseling” my husband is receiving consists of continually filling out safety plans just in case a whole host of ridiculous scenarios might occur in his daily life. It all consists of “What ifs?”

Unfortunately Dustin, you are correct. While my counselor was sincere in his efforts, I was ‘rehabilitated’ long before I even started his sessions. All it took for me to be ‘rehabilitated’ was coming to accepting my wife’s death and recognizing the wonderful family I had been blessed with. While I had to endure sessions for a few years it was a chance for me to be educated on the situations that many face in this life. My faith and dedication of friends got me through. I was released from probation eleven years early by the court in Virginia, much to Florida’s disappointment.

@Bea, please don’t make the mistake of thinking that treatment programs have anything to do with rehabilitation. Rehabilitation was accomplished by conviction 90+% of the time, as shown by recidivism studies, and the very few sexual recidivists among registrants are certainly not helped or deterred by the court ordered programs.

The only purposes of treatment programs are to further burden the registrant and to facilitate blatant efforts to keep them running in and out of prison/jail throughout the entire parole/probation period.

Be aware that most court-ordered treatment providers are LPCs, not psychiatrists. Many consider themselves junior g-men and keep people in their programs out of sheer spite or on orders from the PO. But mostly they’re just milking their “patients” as long as they can. They either don’t know or don’t care about anything to substantiate anything they push in their programs and normally dismiss any challenge to their suppositions or conclusions.

They do the same crap to every sex offender on parole in Michigan, and parole is a 2-year ordeal. They do have a rule here where your parole agent can give you permission to be in the presence of a child with another responsible adult present, but I didn’t see them giving permission to anyone on parole that I knew. What it really does is make the children think that they have done something wrong.

What value is scientific evidence when politicians with little effort can use paranoia to ‘prove their points’ and justify their ‘service’ to the community? Evidence of proof is slowly evaporating in this country.

My husband is currently on probation. (6 months in of a 2 year period). My issue with this prohibition against even talking non directly about the grandsons to me or their parents is what purpose does it serve anyone who is involved? I asked the counselor if she could provide any clinical evidence that this helps rehabilitate him or keeps anyone safe and she said she knew of none. It’s just nonsensical restrictions that I’m sure you are all familiar with. I guess it’s just too much to ask anyone involved in this charade to provide any scientific evidence that any of it helps anyone except those getting paid to dish it out.

What manner of supervision is he on that he can’t speak on the phone about a child 18 years after a CP case that ended in 2 years of probation? That doesn’t make sense based on my experience. My conviction was also CP, also 18 years ago. My sanctions other than registry ended in 2006.