Carol Nesteikis, 66, has never committed a crime. But for two years, from six in the evening to six in the morning the next day, she lived under de facto house arrest with her 32-year-old son, Adam. It wasn’t because she wanted to. The home itself was a kind of punishment, she says.
Adam was sentenced to 10 years on the sex offender registry and two years of probation in Illinois for exposing himself to a neighbor, something Nesteikis says he was coerced to do by a man who was abusing Adam. Since the victim of Adam’s offense lived nearby, Adam was required to move out of his family’s house the same day he pleaded guilty—and for two years was ordered to remain inside his new quarters during the evening.
Adam has an intellectual disability, however, and functions with the mind of a 10-year-old. He would starve on his own, Nesteikis says. She and her husband had to move away with him, and spent $150,000 to find and maintain a home that meets another requirement of Adam’s probation: he must live at least 500 feet away from school property and daycare centers. His curfew, Nesteikis says, became their curfew.
It’s a fate shared by many parents of people with intellectual disabilities and sexual convictions across the country. Because the children often can’t understand and comply with the rules and restrictions of their sentences, it falls on their guardians to suffer the financial, social and psychological burdens of the crimes.
Illinois is as fu¢ked up as Floriduh when it comes to “sex offender” panic. Sadly this POS AG Kwame Raoul (D) just got elected this year. Just think of all the parents and family members who don’t have the resources to do what Carol did. Their loved ones become homeless and are further victimized by the state.
Remember, in Amerikkka, the so-called “justice” system is a highly profitable venture. Soulless politicians whore themselves out to the prison industrial complex, creating laws that criminalize normal behavior to keep the wheels of “justice” grinding the flesh of the poor and creating a revolving door with endless probation and registration requirements. Only when this form of cruelty becomes unprofitable will it end.
JZ you are spot on!!!!!!
What ever happened to the laws pertaining to letting the time fit the crime. The person that reported it was probably laughing about it at the time.
I am so glad FAC decided to file a law suit on behalf of the people not on the registry. This story is typical of a lot of families that are helping someone that is on the registry.
I can’t figure out why a neighbor would file a report against a person with a disability of this kind. Why didn’t they talk to the parents first? I’m sure they have seen worse on TV. One show that comes to mind is on Netflix, called Shameless. No one should be exposing their self in public but people need to know why they have done it, before calling the law. If this boy had been in his backyard target practicing with an AK47, he no doubt would have had the law called on him but the whole nation would not have been notified about it, his parents would have not had to move or bare all the other expenses it takes to keep a loved one that is on a sex registry.
My son has intellectual disabilities and is just now entering adolescence.
This is the kind of state cruelty that keeps me awake at night.
only America thinks it is acceptable to sentence someone for a crime they will never understand they committed. how is it acceptable?