OPINION & EDITORIAL
Sex offenders deserve to be rehabilitated, not exiled
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Also by Bassey Etim:
- Religion: Does it benefit society? (November 29, 2007)
- Do Democrats take minority votes for granted? (November 15, 2007)
- It's the media, stupid: Political coverage misleads (November 8, 2007)
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by Bassey Etim
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Your roommate’s bedroom is full of garbage bags. They’re supposed to be full of paper, but it smells like a rotting burrito. One day, you find his garbage piled up in front of your door. "Me and my girlfriend enacted a new policy to keep our room from smelling so bad," he responds to your yelling. "No new garbage allowed within 15 feet of my room." If you’re really clever you’ll respond, "What are you, Green Bay?"
The difference between this simple analogy and Green Bay’s recent sex offender ordinance is that people aren’t garbage. Still, city officials embrace your roommate’s logic. The Green Bay City Council voted to bar sex offenders from moving in within 2,000 feet of schools, parks and "any other place designated by the city as a place where children are known to congregate." In practice, it bans sex offenders from the city.
Of course, Green Bay is just part of a trend that has been sweeping the nation. In the absence of substantive evidence that the restrictions actually work, maybe we can blame lazy cable news coverage. After all, the 24-hour outlet handbook for slow news days has only two pages: good looking missing people and car chases (here’s looking at you, MSNBC). Indeed, America is experiencing a bout of paranoia over sex offenders. While some of the reforms are common sense, others are just common politics.
Time for a quick case study: In 2005, Gov. Jim Doyle signed "Amie’s Law," which allowed police to release information about sex offenders who committed crimes as juveniles. That was a common sense measure that enabled law enforcement to warn the community about criminals who have to be released, but haven’t been rehabilitated. Back then, the chief of staff for Amie’s Law co-sponsor Rep. Donald Friske, R-Merrill, told me they were confident police wouldn’t abuse the directive.
"Law enforcement does not have an interest in crying wolf over a nonthreatening registrant on the sex offender list," Tim Gary said.
On the other end of the spectrum, all Mayor Jim Schmitt could say in defense of Green Bay’s law is that the city houses more than its fair share of sex offenders. There is no moral fortitude in locking these people out and pawning them onto more considerate communities. What if everyone followed this example? Do we create a sex offenders' island? Or do city councils with common decency get stuck with a glut of offenders?
Plus, Human Rights Watch recently completed a two-year report that criticizes measures like Green Bay’s. In practice, these municipalities only strip offenders of the ability to rehabilitate in the communities where they have personal connections.
Still, it's easy to understand why public figures are uncomfortable mounting any defense of sexual predators. It's uncomfortable to me, and I once endorsed Donald Trump for president (just to make a point, mind you. Feel free to scan the archives). Nonetheless, there is no greater calling for a democracy than to craft justice that the citizenry accepts and to guarantee liberty for those who abide by those rules. On these counts, Green Bay’s government has failed miserably. These people have paid off their debt to society, and if offenders are still dangerous, communities should take steps to keep these people in jail longer by lobbying for changes in sentencing guidelines.
Of course, these bills are popular with politicians who use irresponsible rhetoric to cow opposition into silence. They don’t consider the long-term impact of their legislation, and of course, offering real solutions that are harder to explain — like rehabilitation — is rarely politically expedient. Protecting children will always be popular, and I don’t doubt the motives of Green Bay’s city council, but lawmakers have an obligation to be responsible stewards, even in the midst of a public scare.
Innovation hasn’t exactly been a hallmark of our government of late. We pump money into cavernous facilities where dangerous criminals stew only to exit more jaded and hardened. Still, we can’t figure out why our crime rates are skyrocketing.
That said, the media has largely left this issue derelict. It is our job to negotiate uncomfortable terrain and discover truth with facts. Yet this debate has been one-sided, with TV and newspapers for the most part taking the easy way out by telling horror stories about repeat offenders, while ignoring why it happens in the first place. I love hearing about the lives Amber Alerts save, but how many lives has the failure of our correctional system to rehabilitate cost? It is not as marketable a story, but it's just as important.
Bassey Etim (betim@badgerherald.com) is a senior majoring in political science and journalism.
Linda Wagner (September 27, 2007 @ 7:04am):
For the readers convience.
Sex Offender Laws May Do More Harm Than Good
http://www.hrw.org/
The Adam Walsh Act
The federal Adam Walsh Act, passed in 2006, will exacerbate the problems with state sex offender laws. It forces states to either dramatically increase the scope and duration of registration and community notification restrictions -- including requiring states to register youths as young as 14 -- or lose some federal law enforcement grant money. Compliance with the Adam Walsh Act will preclude states from adopting more carefully calibrated and cost-effective registration and community notification policies. At least some states are debating whether the costs of complying with the law outweigh the benefits. Human Rights Watch urges reform of the Adam Walsh Act.
Listen to Patty Wetterling:
http://hrw.org/audio/2007/english/us09/usdom16819.htm
Anonymous (September 27, 2007 @ 10:16am):
An excellent piece.
For too long, votes have been more precious than children, permitting politicians to ignore the greatest threats to our children--abuse at the hands of family/friends, and at the hands of those who have never been caught and convicted--in favor of things that make parents "feel better." Politicians, and the activist groups that drive them, pretend those nearly 90% of all sex crime victims don't exist. They don't fit the popular narrative.
--Harvey
Anonymous (September 27, 2007 @ 10:44am):
Very good article Bassey. Keep up the good work!
Anonymous (September 27, 2007 @ 11:58am):
Liberals are to blame for the lax laws that allow sex offenders to go out and commit the same offense over and over again. I just read where Elton John was busted for possession of child porn. And we're supposed to support gay rights? Not anymore. Lock 'em up and throw away the key!
Linda Wagner (September 27, 2007 @ 12:02pm):
Politicians didn't do their homework before enacting these sex offender laws. Instead they have perpetuated myths about sex offenders and failed to deal with the complex realities of sexual violence against children.
Sarah Tofte, researcher for the US Program of Human Rights Watch and author, "No Easy Answers."
Andrew Wagner (September 27, 2007 @ 12:07pm):
My view completely Bassey. Green Bay is my hometown and when they first considered passing this was appalled. Good stuff and glad to see more publicity on this issue.
Anonymous (September 27, 2007 @ 12:16pm):
Overall, I agree, our "correctional" system is a failure and carries an ironic name. The US has the highest incarceration rate per capita in the world, but we're not confidently heading toward a safer nation, we're heading only to more incarceration, more jails, and more criminals.
With specific regard to sex offenders, I sympathize with Green Bay. If an offender moves into your neighborhood, TRY to sell your house. I wouldn't move my family anywhere near them, especially when there are just as nice neighborhoods without sex offenders. Your house is going to 1) devalue or 2) never sell.
Anonymous (September 27, 2007 @ 12:45pm):
"Liberals are to blame for the lax laws that allow sex offenders to go out and commit the same offense over and over again. I just read where Elton John was busted for possession of child porn. And we're supposed to support gay rights? Not anymore. Lock 'em up and throw away the key!"
I think it's hilarious that you're comparing gay individuals to pedophiles, because you're wildly mistaken.
Anonymous (September 27, 2007 @ 1:07pm):
"I wouldn't move my family anywhere near them. Your house is going to 1) devalue or 2) never sell."
Hey, 30 years ago I heard the same thing said about black people!
Angie Manderfeld (September 27, 2007 @ 1:55pm):
Unfortunately for sexual victims of a serial offender, they know first-hand about the unfeasibility of rehabilitating rapists and pedophiles and the danger they cause when left to roam in society. For the greater good, lock them up.
Anonymous (September 27, 2007 @ 3:55pm):
"I just read where Elton John was busted for possession of child porn. And we're supposed to support gay rights? Not anymore. Lock 'em up and throw away the key!"
You know, far more straight folks get busted for possession of child porn than gay folks. Maybe we should lock up all the straight people and throw away the key.
Anonymous (September 28, 2007 @ 8:43am):
Nice to see all the sex offenders on here throwing thier rhetoric around.
God forbid if someone tries to protect thier children from the failings of the justice system ( released offenders).
Sex offenders cannot be cured, just as alcoholics cannot. They can only concientiously refrain from that activity.
How often do alcoholics 'fall off the wagon'?
Sex offenders damage peoples souls. How do you repair that? Rehabilitation to accept sex offenders as normal citizens?
Yeah! Thats it! We are the bad guys, and need to be rehabilitated because we cannot accept that sex offenders should be able to run around doing whatever they please.
We should do what Iran does to sex offenders, then we wouldn't even be discussing this.
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