Opinion
Offenders need not be damned
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Also by Andrew Wagner:
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- Sexual abuse not protected by Constitution (April 11, 2008)
- South trying to rewrite history (April 4, 2008)
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Few crimes create more fear among community members than sexual offenses.
Not surprisingly, this fear and the ability of politicians to take advantage of it has resulted in inconsistent and incomprehensible policies toward sex offenders. Such policies often not only decrease the ability of offenders to reintegrate into society but also call into question some of the basic principles on which our judicial system is based.
Earlier this week, an Associated Press story detailed the situation of a group of sex offenders living under a bridge in Miami. The offenders said that the passing of local laws about where offenders could live — akin to other cities’ bans on living within 1,000 or more feet of a church, school or other community area — prevented them from getting housing elsewhere. Thus, 19 of the offenders created a communal living space under the bridge and registered the location with their probation officers as their place of residence. Before being told last week to move out, the men had lived under the bridge for an entire year.
Last March, spurred by Green Bay’s march toward implementing strict restrictions on where sex offenders could live, I wrote an opinion column decrying this practice of legislating segregation. Later, in September, fellow columnist Bassey Etim wrote an excellent column on the continuing spread of these restrictions throughout the nation. The situation in Florida is the exact kind of outcome that Mr. Etim and I warned about: Despite serving their sentences, these released offenders have little hope for reintegration into society after they are released.
Unfortunately, the restrictions on where sex offenders can live are not the only aspect unique to their situation. Even when a particular town or city allows an offender to settle down, he or she is often the subject of a neighborhood meeting that notifies everyone of the potential danger they may present.
In Wisconsin, the addresses of all the state’s sex offenders are readily available via a purpose-built website. One Wisconsin legislator even suggested making sex offenders put specially colored license plates on their cars.
If they aren’t becoming less dangerous in prison, then the ongoing efforts to isolate them from society once they are released certainly aren’t helping them further adjust to a different style of life outside of prison.
Honestly, I find these practices baffling. What is the point of releasing an offender if he or she won’t get a chance to normally reenter society? Won’t the isolation and contempt of their neighbors only increase the likelihood of re-offending?
Taken together, the laws that single out sex offenders have the effect of being another dividing line in our society. This type of law seeks to specifically discriminate against a defined group after they have already served what should be a substantial punishment. This type of law seems particularly foolish considering the fact that sex offenders are among the least likely of felons to ever commit another crime. Reports from Washington and Tennessee correctional systems hold up this fact, as well as a massive 1994 study by the United States Department of Justice.
In the future, absent a court decision striking down residency restrictions or a change in the trend toward enacting them, there doesn’t seem to be anything to stop communities from enacting restrictions on any felon. After all, they are far more likely to re-offend than a sex offender.
Unfortunately, the effect of this would be to create a batch of second-class citizens. Of course, in many states felons aren’t really even citizens because they are no longer allowed to vote. But that’s a topic for another day.
Now, I am open to compromise on this issue. Perhaps more freedom after a release for the first sex offense should be compromised with lifelong punishments for second-time offenders. This way, their fates are in their own hands. An offender can choose the path of reintegration after his or her first crime or face a life sentence, hard labor or a firing squad, for all I care.
I decided to shed light on this issue once again because I think the situation that occurred in Florida is deplorable and should be avoided at all costs. The criminal justice system has enough problems with it already. In the future, it should not be used to hound and segregate offenders for their entire lives after they have paid an appropriate punishment for their actions.
Andrew Wagner (awagner@badgerherald.com) is a junior majoring in computer science and political science.
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“First they came…” is a poem attributed to Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984) about the inactivity of German intellectuals following the Nazi rise to power and the purging of their chosen targets, group after group.
When the Nazis came for the communists, I remained silent; I was not a communist.
When they locked up the social democrats, I remained silent; I was not a social democrat.
When they came for the trade unionists, I did not speak out; I was not a trade unionist.
When they came for the Jews, I remained silent; I wasn’t a Jew.
When they came for me, there was no one left to speak out.
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US Constituion… No state shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or confederation; grant letters of marque and reprisal; coin money; emit bills of credit; make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts; pass any bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law impairing the obligation of contracts, or grant any title of nobility.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billofattainder
“A bill of attainder, is a legislative act which inflicts punishment without judicial trial and includes any legislative act which takes away the life, liberty or property of a particular named or easily ascertainable person or group of persons because the legislature thinks them guilty of conduct which deserves punishment.”
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When I was 18 I was convicted of having sexual contact with my 15 year old girlfriend. Her Mother invited me to stay with them for a few weeks on vacation. On this vacation, her Grandmother discovered the relationship and called the police. Today, 10 years later, everyone involved deeply regrets their choices. I have since then married (not the girl in question) and had 4 great kids. We live in Florida and I recently had the pleasure of my drivers license being stamped with sex offender notification. My 8 year old daughter came home crying last year saying “The other kids are teasing me, they say my Daddy’s a rapist and their parents will never let them play with me”. I have not had so much as a speeding ticket in the last ten years. All that I ask is that sex offenders are given a hearing to determine if they are an ongoing threat. Even constant monitoring is preferred to this Scarlet Letter.
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You’re a very wise young man.Thanks for a excellent written article. Mom of 3
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Yes, they broke the law. But they have paid their debt to society. I agree with 10:58, we should hold hearings to determine if former sex offenders are repeat risks. We still live in a country of laws and rights.
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Look, any sensible person can see that these policies are idiotic at best. The problem is that politicians are in charge of correcting them, and no politician is going to take action for fear of being labeled “soft on sex offenders”.
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The Fallen One www.oncefallen.com
Please check out my website to get the facts about sex offender laws. Have you ever played a game you can never win? That is life as a sex offender. The law dictates where you live and work, who you live with, and where you can go. They plaster you on the internet and in your community, castrate you, lock you up in funny farms, even execute you now, because you there is some risk you “might” re-offend. Studies consistently show these laws are ineffective, inefficient, and counterproductive. I cannot even be proven this law has saved “just one child.” Do we risk destroying the lives of millions for the sake of “just one child?”
Sadly, when you allow the rights of one unpopular group to be diminished, you open the door for other groups or even yourself to have your rights taken away. This scenario has played out throughout history, and those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it!
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I’m glad 10:58 can live with his children. Without going into details, we have a similar story. My child and I moved out 6 years ago and do not live with my husband/her father since they changed the law retroactively, requiring him to register. I am too afraid of vigilantism. He doesn’t have a job, we live in poverty and fear. It’s insane. He is not a threat to society. We let parents read our court case and they will be in shock.
There is such hysteria. We’re spending millions and millions to track all SOs. What is really ironic is that once caught, SOs are unlikely to reoffend and most new cases of abuse are perpetrated by family and friends. I see oncefallen has those stats on his website and there is no need to repeat them here.
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Thank you for your article. Unfortuantely, while “any sensible person can see that these laws are idiotic at best,” America consistently proves itself to be populated by people who are less than sensible.
I’m a woman about to go into a situation described here—my significant other is undergoing a sentencing for an underage relationship he had before he met me. Now I have to worry about whether to marry him or not once this is all over—I’ll have to worry about vigilantism or my kids being abused at school. How this helps the “victim” of his actions (a relationship, I might add, that she initiated and drove—she only cried victim when he tried to end it because she was too young), I don’t know.
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Sex crimes are the among the worst crimes the can occur so shouldn’t there be huge consequences for them? I realize that some of your offenses were minor but come on, 18 and 15, you should have known better. That is a pretty significant age difference and I can understand why some one would be pissed off enough about that to call the cops. Knowing your circumstances and what could possibly happen is always the best idea. Maybe you should have let the parents or grandparents know. You knew that what you were doing could get you in trouble and if you didn’t, well, shame on you. Life is not fair but for the sake of the people around these offenders it is better to err on the side of caution. And maybe think twice next time you’re going to fool around with a freshman in high school your senior year.
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I was puzzled by this comment. You chose to use sex between an 18 yo and a 15 yo to be an example of some of the worst crimes that can occur? I personally have worked with 2 time murderers, life long drug dealers that target middle school kids and even a shooter at a multiple school shooting. I’m sorry to disagree but two teens fooling around do not come close to being a worst crime. The sad part though is we can easily track that 18 yo sex offender and limit where he lives and works but the drug dealer and murderers have no tracking or limitations on them. And you know that drug dealer would never sell drugs to any kids across the street at the nearby school.
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All I know is when I take my 4-year-old granddaughter to visit my son, her 21-year-old father, in prison, neither one of us screams in abject terror at the very sight of him. Yet he has lost freedom to pursue happiness, freedom to pursue an education, freedom to live where he chooses, freedom to vacation, freedom to speak on the internet, freedom to parent, etc. (perhaps what he can do is a shorter list). A lifetime denial of freedom in what I once erroneously thought was the Land of the Free. To paraphrase a man much sager than I, “Let these people go.” At the very least, let the lawmakers who have not sinned cast the first stone.
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The poster “Fallen One” is Derek Logue, a registered sexual predator, who lives in Cincinnati. He was convicted of sexual crimes against an 11 year old girl. He was 23 at the time. He says on his website oncefallen.com that his crimes with the 11 year old were consensual. He is a danger to children.