“Never feeling safe”. That is the best descriptor to concisely describe how my wife feels every day on the registry. No drive she takes, no time with grandkids anywhere but home, no trip to the doctor or outing with friends does she feel entirely safe from the what ifs. Mostly what if she fall prey to the traps of the laws and finds herself by no fault of her own someplace she is not supposed to be. Her anxiety is real and sometime palpable. Her PTSD is real. I hate it for her that she has to live this way. I hate it for everyone that has to suffer this indignity.

I’m so sorry Brandon. My son faced this same thing, but he volunteered his time. It was with a Triumph motorcycle showroom. He loves motorcycles and was hooked up with the owner by a 12 step member. My son spoke directly with the owner previous to him starting work for them. Told him everything that happened. He volunteered his time at race events, and on the showroom floor. The owners wife even gave him a free motorcycle helmet. He noticed he was not being asked to help as often, then the owner texted him and told him he was not allowed to volunteer for them. Not sure what happened, but I thought it was not very professional of the owner to text him. I believe that someone got wind of what my son had done, maybe it was even someone within the work circle, but I still find it sad that someone is a great employee until their case is finalized and they are put on a list. So sad. This is not the way a free society should function. Eliminate the registry and return to civility towards our fellow man.

Consider the case of Josh Harris. He was famous. He had professional connections, a recognizable name, and years of successful television work behind him. But then came the jealous competitor, the media outrage machine, and the manufactured scandal. Decades after the fact, they dredged up a youthful relationship with a teenage girl—a relationship that was likely consensual, and where she may well have misrepresented her age. For this, he must now be publicly shamed and stripped of everything he built?

Let us unpack that logic.

If Harris’s crime had been murder, drug trafficking, arson, drunk driving, or even vehicular manslaughter, he would have kept his career. He might even have been celebrated as a “tale of redemption,” his past transgressions forgiven in exchange for a compelling comeback narrative. But because his offense involved sex—and because society has been conditioned to treat sexuality as the ultimate taboo—he became unemployable.

The hypocrisy is staggering. Congress members who pay hush money for sex crimes using taxpayer funds remain in office. Clients of Maxwell and Epstein continue to walk free, their names protected, their careers intact. The rules apply selectively, and the public tolerates this disparity because they have been told whom to hate and whom to forgive.

This reveals an uncomfortable truth: most people do not care about justice. They care about their own position within the mob. They will gleefully participate in the destruction of others, provided the injustice keeps them safe from becoming the next target. It is a sad commentary on humanity—that we ignore systemic unfairness until it knocks on our own door.

Humanity has not evolved. We are de-evolving, and that is not opinion. That is fact.

That is truly a blessing, and a model for other companies to follow. Christian businesses should be leading the way in this regard, but sadly many are in name only.

I work for a company like yours, with most employees coming from a second chance prison reentry program, and we have grown 20X in revenue since I first started. Business owners, let that sink in! Some of the hardest working, most loyal, untapped talent lies waiting for their chance to shine, but who will give them a chance?

May God bless you and your employer for putting actions behind their words.

Eventually, I was able to find a second chance company and was able to apply online with the help of my recovery sponsor. I’ve been working there for the past two and half years. It’s not my trained career field, but I have full-time employment. For that I am grateful and fortunate. I needed to be persistent and creative in working a solution and of course, I had to endure a lot of no’s before I finally got a yes.

As a side story… About nine months ago there was a plant wide meeting, we were told a supervisor, and several employees were fired that day and not allow them into the building. Shortly after the announcement, I was called in to the HR office and was told an investigation had been conducted and I was mentioned during that investigation. The fired supervisor had looked me up and told several employees of my registration status and my charges. They subsequently shared with other employees until one of my coworkers heard about it and reported it situation to management. HR wanted to know if I felt I had been directly harassed by anyone regarding my past. It was not the first time I had heard about it, I didn’t have any overt harassment, I did have some side-glances in the breakroom on occasion which I could not be sure of but I was surprised management took it so seriously. This company fired a well-liked supervisor and good producing employees, some of which had been with the company for over fifteen years. Some companies say they are a second chance company until they find out what you did, and others truly do give you a second chance. Again, I count myself as fortunate and grateful.

Acccording to Merriam-Webster dictionary, PFRs and the community are using the word Punishment wrong when it is continually thought of as a “legal” definition #1 (below) or #2b (below) when it needs to be classified under #3 (below) for the registry and its outgrowth by the government’s and society’s use of the registry concept (which is extended under Punish #2a (below).  

This is what RBG, Judge Matsch, et al have alluded to but others won’t hear of it as they stay within the legal lane of thought on it. IMO, the argument needs to be moved from a legal point and to a personal action by others, e.g., treatment is not a medial treatment, but an overall treatment of the person by other’s and their actions.  

Punishment (noun)

1: the act of punishing

2a: suffering, pain, or loss that serves as retribution

b: a penalty inflicted on an offender through judicial procedure

3: severe, rough, or disastrous treatment

Punish (verb)

punished; punishing; punishes

transitive verb

1a: to impose a penalty on for a fault, offense, or violation

b: to inflict a penalty for the commission of (an offense) in retribution or retaliation

2a: to deal with roughly or harshly

b: to inflict injury on : hurt

I hope the forum can see the analogy I am presenting and it is applied by others who deem people need to be continually punished for wrongs that have long been adjudicated already.

I’m in the same boat. The PTSD I experienced this time around has taken a toll. I wasn’t prepared to lose everything and be retroactively forced to register: The healing process won’t kick in yet. Loss of income and sudden de socialization is punishment.
Death threats from neighbors who I don’t know in the dark. Who / how huh? It’s a hurricane of hate. I never imagined nor did the district attorney in the original case this would evolve into a hit list. It wasn’t what he wanted to happen. Wow.

I remember it distinctively and it’s like somebody flipped a switch. It was the first significant step toward America becoming a paranoid police state that we find ourselves in now. The creation of the department of Homeland security and the Patriot act coupled with a technological revolution, that we’re still trying to figure out, changed America forever. Everything became digitized coupled with a slow erosion of constitutional rights. They have used the registry as an excuse to ignore the Constitution for decades now. The amount of money these various surveillance entities receive each year from the government is staggering. The pattern is there. The recent uproar about the flock cameras is just the tip of the iceberg. It’s the surveillance that people don’t see that is truly overwhelming and unacceptable. Good luck with your research!