This post by Diane DIamond has some good points and also some “off the mark” points. Excerpts of the good are below, but go to the site and read the full article. If anyone feels compelled to correct her on some of her mistakes (such as the use of the word Pedophile), her information is on the bottom.
While the requirements and restrictions vary from state to state, it is undeniable that this system is destroying lives and taxing both public safety and social welfare programs. It’s a lifelong sentence, straight out of “The Scarlet Letter.”
Registrants must check in with law enforcement for decades after the offense. Their case details and personal information is shared with the public, including where they work and live. This, of course, is information any employer or landlord will see. The registrant cannot travel without checking in with another police department, nor can he or she be anywhere near where a child might be (even if their offense didn’t include a child). This can include their own home, a school, a fast food restaurant, a church, a theater or a mall. This can greatly restrict where a registrant can work or live. It can also make them targets of vigilante justice.
In 1999, a high school student in Oklahoma jokingly flashed female classmates and was arrested for indecent exposure. He was jailed for four months and ordered to register as a sex offender for at least a decade. The kid committed suicide a month before his 20th birthday.
In 2002, a woman in Georgia was convicted of sexual offenses for allowing her 15-year-old daughter to have sex in their home. She was not sentenced to jail, but she was forced onto the sex offenders registry. Three of her children were put in foster care, and she had to leave the family home to live in a trailer “way off on a dirt road.”
In 2016, Ernest Leap of Oakview, Missouri, finally won a gubernatorial pardon for a crime both he and his two sons insisted never happened. For 27 years, Leap had to live with the moniker “child molester,” following a most ugly divorce. Ernest had won custody of his young boys, but they would later tell the court their mother had forced them to lie about their father’s molestation.
Its cases like these that make it clear every state needs to follow Michigan’s lead and check the fairness of their sex offender registries. Cut the bloat, and focus monitoring on the most dangerous sex criminals among us.
Ms. Martin has my blood boiling on her article. I am waiting to see if my comments are accepted as they are a little on the lengthy side.
Since many FAC members are not able to post for various reasons, I will gladly post member’s comments under my name as long as the comments are FAC appropriate. I will mention that the comments are coming from a registrant but no FAC site names will be given.
Leave your comments to Ms. Martin’s articles as a reply here and I will post them for you.
Thank you.
https://www.portsmouth-dailytimes.com/opinion/46789/ohio-sex-offender-registry-needs-to-stay
Ms. Martin’s comments about one particular registrant apparently is referring to oncefallendotcom.
Grateful to our Media Chair, as always, for raising our awareness of these articles and taking on heartburn on our behalf.
I do not see where there are ANY comments to the article, but then maybe I have to follow the Facebook link or something. I, for one, would welcome seeing your comments. Feel free to use any of the following.
…
It is tragic that many sex crimes still go unreported. Yet there is no evidence— none, zero— that a disproportionate number of these unreported crimes are perpetrated by those who have already been held to account— e.g., those who have been required to register. The notion that most people on the registry are at high risk to re-offend, has been debunked by mountains of Justice Dept data and relegated to urban legend. To dismiss all this data out of hand with the observation that “studies are flawed” suggests a disinterest in searching for the truth.
If you are looking to public sex registries to help protect your children against sexual abuse, you are taking your eye off the ball and giving yourself a false sense of security.
You have to click on “Load Comments” and then give it a few seconds. You do not have to be on social media. They are not posting my original comments, though.
I like what you had to say and have added it under my name.
They would not let me post your last two paragraphs, Jacob. That is disappointing.
Why not? I do think the word “sex” will throw a comment into moderation so use “s_x” or something. That’s unbelievable but I think it’s the case.
I am trying your suggestion. Thanks.
Thank you soooooooo much! Your suggestion worked.
I just dropped a couple of comments there.
I would encourage everyone to do the same. It is very easy. You can use DISQUS.
There should be 100+ comments countering the nonsense. On every article.
ieee, I have tried repeatedly to respond to Reality Bytes attack on me that I am a “sexually confused, moronic, snowflake”. His comments do not bother me in the least, but he is horribly misinformed on probably everything in life. I have shortened my responses so that it will not be declined because of being too lengthy, but have attempted to share some research-based facts with him and other readers. The paper is declining all of my responses to Reality Bytes but accepting the many responses of others. This is very disappointing that this paper does not want the facts put out there — only people attacking others without any substantiating support. No wonder they ran Ms. Martin’s opinion — they are not interested in the facts. I am going straight to the paper with my complaint.
To view the comments, click on “download comments”. It might take about 30 seconds before they come in. It might also tell you that it is having trouble and ask you if you want it to “retry”, but about that time is when they finally come in.
I just posted at the Portsmouth Daily Times Facebook page, concerning my disappoint in not allowing research-based facts to be used in their comments’ section to refute some of Ms. Martin’s feelings-only based comments.
They underestimated you, SarahF, confusing you for the type who gives up easily.
Florida needs the registry, I mean what else are they going to do about feeding the coffers? Who else are they going to blame as the bad man? How would they ever get by if they actually had to you know work for a living? Maybe actually do some real policing, maybe some real defense trials, or maybe some real correctional reevaluating. Wouldn’t that be something? One can dream, yes one can dream!
Do not know where to place this but this has been going around the internet the past few days with millions of people praising the inmate.
Jonathan Watson, 41, admitted in a letter obtained by the Mercury News and published on Thursday that he beat 48-year-old David Bobb and 62-year-old Graham De Luis-Conte with another inmate’s cane on Jan. 16.
The assault on the inmates, both of whom were serving life sentences for assaulting children under 14, came just one week after he was transferred to the California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison in Corcoran.
Although he never referenced either inmate by name in his letter to the Mercury News, Watson said he was angered by “Molester No. 1,” who allegedly taunted other inmates by watching children’s programming in the prison dorm area.
Why isn’t anyone making the argument that Megan’s Law contributes to climate change? All the unnecessary travel those on the registry have to make to the local pig shop bi-annually and quarter for some. Not to mention all the feckless compliance sweeps and address verification visits from the cops. It all adds up to environmental and toxic CO2 WASTE.being spewed into the air that CHILDREN BREATHE!
Public safety tool my ass.