News & Noteworthy: Articles Concerning Sex Offender Issues: Recidivism

News & Noteworthy: Articles Concerning Sex Offender Issues ©
Sex Offender Housing Limits: Problems, Consequences and Authorities.
Last addition or change: 3-22-2007

	*Kansas Department of Corrections: [Twenty Findings of Research on Residential Restrictions for Sex Offenders and the Iowa Experience with Similar Policies]*
	*Marcus Nieto and Professor David Jung: [The Impact of Residency Restrictions on Sex Offenders and Correctional Management Practices: A Literature Review]*
	*A Visionary:*"'People have to live somewhere,' she [Lisa Graybill] said. 'Literally, physically, you can't not be somewhere. If their very presence is illegal in 95 percent of your town, how likely is it that every single person of the wide, wide net to whom this ordinance is going to apply will be able to comply with it?'" Lisa Graybill, Texas ACLU
	*Judges that have struck down such laws:*
•	*New Jersey, Lower Township: "... She (Judge) found that while municipalities have the right to adopt ordinances related to public health, safety and welfare, “such authority is not without limit.” Armstrong ruled that while the township said the ordinance was created to protect the community, and not as a punishment, “A close examination of the specific provisions of the ordinance does indeed suggest that the intent was punitive.” “(The ordinance) assumes that all sex offenders pose the same degree of risk,” Armstrong wrote in a 48-page ruling. Armstrong, referring to Megan's Law, said the state already provides comprehensive and far-reaching standards that regulate the lives of convicted sex offenders, who are classified according to their likelihood to reoffend." News Article*
	*Problems, Myths, Statistics:*
•	*WELL INTENTIONED BUT HAS SEVERE CONSEQUENCES: Sex offender housing limits (preventing sex offenders from living within xx feet of schools, day cares, etc.*) are a well-intentioned effort to keep the children of our communities safe from sex offenders. However, housing limits have significant unintended consequences that effectively decrease community safety.	11, 22
•	CONTRARY TO RESEARCH: [Lawmakers and] the media claim that sex offender housing limits will protect children. They claim that 1) all sex offenders will reoffend; 2) sex offender treatment does not work; and 3) strangers commit all sex offenses. Research does not support these myths, but there is research to suggest that such policies may ultimately be counterproductive.	1
•	*NO CORRELATION BETWEEN RESIDENCY LAWS AND RECIDIVISM*: Research shows there is no correlation between housing limits and reducing sex offenses against children. [Further, housing limit laws fail to recognize household demographics in cases of incest (2.2 children per household) and the social impact on siblings.]	10, 5
•	*RECIDIVISM RATE ALREADY LOWER THAN OTHER CRIME TYPES*: The 2003 Department of Justice study on Sex Offender recidivism shows a very low recidivism rate.	4
•	*RECIDIVISM RATE OF NON-SEX OFFENDERS SIX-TIMES HIGHER THAN SEX OFFENDERS. RESIDENCY LAWS DO NOT AFFECT THEM*: The 2003 Department of Justice study on Sex Offender recidivism also shows that non sex offenders released from prison commit six-times the number of sex offenses than previously convicted sex offenders in the same time frame. Sex offender housing limits do not affect non sex offenders released.	4
•	*RESIDENCY LAWS ARE NOT APPLIED TO OFFENDERS CONVICTED OF SEXUAL ABUSE UNDER CHILD MALTREATMENT LAWS: An estimated 872,000 children were determined to be victims of child abuse or neglect for 2004. The rate of victimization per 1,000 children in the national population has dropped from 12.5 children in 2001 to 11.9 children in 2004. More than 60 percent of child victims were neglected by their parents or other caregivers. About 18 percent were physically abused, 10 percent (82,700) were sexually abused*, and 7 percent were emotionally maltreated.	30
•	*RESIDENCY LAWS DISCRIMINATE BETWEEN PROPERTY OWNERS AND RENTERS*: Some housing limit laws make status or economic distinctions between property owners and those who rent dwellings or apartments and force those who rent to move at the end of a renewable lease. This flys in the face of logic if the premise of the laws are protecting children. At times landlords are penalized for renting or renewing a lease when a registered sex offender is in the household.	.
•	*RESIDENCY LAW EXEMPTIONS RESULT IN PROBLEMS ENFORCING LAWS: In Michigan offenders who live in proscribed zones (Student Safety Zones) -before their law was enacted- are exempt and allowed to live in that zone. Further, if a new school opens any offenders living in its proscribed zone before school opened are also exempt and allowed to live in that zone*. However, those exempt offenders, are not permitted to talk to a minor within any prohibited zone, and that includes their own children in their household. Minors offenders ARE PERMITTED to speak to minors WHEN THEY ARE IN SCHOOL, but prohibited from speaking to minors if they are NOT IN SCHOOL -and- are in a prohibited zone. Both adult and minor offenders ARE PERMITTED to speak to minors if they are not in a prohibited zone. "Speak" means to initiate or maintain contact.	6
	*Consequences of Housing Limits (New Problems Created):*
•	*INNOCENT FAMILIES AFFECTED*: In a 2003 Department of Justice study of victim / offender relationships the study shows, that 46.5% of the offenders of children (those under 18), were immediate family members (incest). Lifetime housing limits on these offenders also affect the families including siblings. The U.S. Census Bureau, 2004 American Community Survey shows, in households with children, there are an average of 2.2 children in each.	5
•	*VICTIMS AFFECTED*: A significant number of offenders have married or have been reunited with their victims; and, in those cases, the lifetime housing restriction is imposed on the victims as well as the offenders.	10
•	*FAMILIES SUFFER HARASSMENT*: Often as the result of registration and public registry offenders lose jobs and cannot find places to live. Then they become homeless or live with family or friends if they do not live in a proscribed zone. Then family or friends suffer harassment because of their address in the registry.	25
•	*OFFENDERS ARE EXILED TO RURAL AREAS*: In Iowa after sex offender housing limits became law and offenders sought housing in permissible areas that created clusters of offenders mostly in rural areas. Many of these rural areas have little or no law enforcement, and are so far out of town that there is no transportation for offenders to get to services to accommodate their needs, and many are left with out their support systems.	26
•	*OFFENDERS STOP REGISTERING & GO INTO HIDING*: In Iowa [and Florida] after sex offender housing limits became law the number of sex offenders unaccounted for doubled. This proves damage to the sex offender registry and does not improve public safety.	10, 11, 20, 22
•	*SCARCE LAW ENFORCEMENT IN RURAL AREAS*: The protective effect of housing limits is theoretical and does not warrant draining scarce law enforcement personnel to enforce laws. Law enforcement availability is sometimes nonexistent in the rural areas where offenders must to move to.	10, 22
•	*PROSECUTION OF SEX OFFENSES IS AFFECTED*: Many Iowa prosecutors have observed that the numerous negative consequences of the lifetime housing restriction has caused a reduction in the number of confessions made by offenders in cases where defendants usually confess after disclosure of the offense by the child. In addition, there are more refusals by defendants charged with sex offenses to enter plea agreements. Plea agreements are necessary in many cases involving child victims in order to protect the children from trauma of the trial process.	10
•	*CAUSES OFFENDER MOVEMENT*: Implementation of housing limits has been by, first lawmakers then local police conceptualizing a circular protective zone. No prior sex offender may live within the protected zone. The radius set by law and measured as the crow flys. That has caused problems for offenders because there are no visible markings. Some offenders had to move after receiving police approval, and others because of a few yards.	23
•	Florida: New construction of a mega-church in a once rural area, where sex offenders had moved to because of older/other residency laws elsewhere, would now force those sex offenders to move again.	27
•	*CAUSES OFFENDER SUPPORT SERVICES TO MOVE*: Tennessee: A new state law designed to protect children is forcing a counselor who helps sex offenders to move his business out of town. William Tillery is a licensed clinical social worker. His office in Maryville sits only a few feet from Fort Craig Elementary School. But his location puts him in violation of the law. "Sex offenders can not receive treatment within 1,000 feet of a school playground, daycare center and lots of other places."	29
	*Parole and Probation Issues:*
•	*NO ACCOMODATIONS FOR PAROLE OR PROBATION NEEDS*: There is no accommodation in the current Iowa statute for persons on parole or probation supervision. These offenders are already monitored and their living arrangements approved.	10
•	*CONTRARY TO ESTABLISHED TREATMENT AND REHABILTATION METHODS*: [A Housing Limits policy] is contrary to well-established principles of treatment and rehabilitation of sex offenders. Parole or probation goals are severely impaired by the housing restriction, compromising the safety of children by obstructing the use of the best known corrections practice.	10
•	*HOMELESSNESS*: In Illinois sex offenders began returning to prison from parole because of the difficulty they faced finding housing.	20
•	*OFFENDERS DO NOT COMMIT CRIMES IN SAFETY ZONES WHERE THEY LIVE*: Based on the examination of level three re-offenders, there were no examples that residential proximity to a park or school was a contributing factor in any of the sexual re-offenses noted… Enhanced safety due to proximity restrictions may be a comfort factor for the general public, but it does not have any basis in fact…it appears that a sex offender attracted to such locations for purposes of committing a crime is more likely to travel to another neighborhood on order to in secret rather than in a neighborhood where his or her picture is well known.	3
•	*INCREASED PAROLE AND PROBATION COSTS FOR THE STATE*: Having such restrictions in the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul would likely force level three offenders to move to more rural areas that would not contain nearby schools and parks but would pose other problems, such as high concentration of offenders with no ties to the community; isolation; lack of work, education and treatment options; and an increase in the distance traveled by agents who supervise offenders. Again, no evidence points to any effect on offense rates of school proximity residential restrictions.	3
•	Since blanket proximity restrictions on residential locations of level three offenders do not enhance community safety, the current offender-by-offender restrictions should be retained. Proximity restrictions, based on circumstances on an individual offender, serve as a valuable supervision tool…Most of these supervision proximity restrictions address the issue of the offender associating or interacting with children or minors, rather than where the offender resides.	3
	*Law's Intent Other Than Protecting Children:*
•	… The revised proposal, slated for council vote Aug. 14, would prohibit sex offenders from living within 1,500 feet from any school, child care facility, community center, park or *common open space* in the 2.7-square mile borough.	28
	*Homelessness:*
•	….some offenders are attempting to comply by providing descriptions of where they are actually living….”under the 7th street bridge,” “truck near river,” “rest area mile marker 149,” “Flying J, in truck,” “in tent, S side of I-80,” “RV in old K-Mart parking lot,” “I-35 rest area,”….Two listed Quick Trips…. For the first time, sex offender treatment providers tell us, sex offenders are absconding in larger numbers.	11, 22
	*Americans with Disability Act:*
•	Housing limits law fails to make provisions for reasonable accomodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act.	24
	*Other Organizations Opposed to Residency Restrictions:*
•	The California Coalition on Sexual Offending (CCOSO): "The 2000 foot residency restriction on all California Sex offenders and allowing local communities to create their own sets of restrictions. This measure will almost certainly result in the same chaotic situations and unintended, undesired consequences as are being seen in Iowa where initial proponents of such a measure have now, after experiencing the impact of its implementation, courageously changed their minds about its usefulness. Furthermore this restriction does not address the fact that the overwhelming majority of child victims are assaulted in their own homes or in the home of the offender – not school yards, parks, playgrounds etc."	12
	*Resolutions:*
•	The Colorado Department of Public Safety, Recommendation 1: Shared Living Arrangements appear to be a frequently successful mode of containment and treatment for higher risk sex offenders and should be considered a viable living situation for higher risk sex offenders in the community…. Recommendation 2: Placing restrictions on the location of correctionally supervised sex offender residences may not deter the sex offender from re-offending and should not be considered as a method to control sexual offending recidivism.	2
•	When a brutal sexually violent crime occurs, such as the one that occurred in Iowa last year, our societal tendency is to focus all our resources and energy on stopping offenders. The long-term solutions to eradicating sexual violence from our society, however, do not lie in measures taken to stop re-offense, but rather in preventing sexual violence from happening in the first place.	11
•	Housing restrictions have passed in most localities with little resistance. Child safety is rightly the primary concern when sex offender restrictions are imposed. It seems to make sense that decreasing access to potential victims would be a feasible strategy to preventing sex crimes. There is no evidence, however, that such laws are effective in reducing recidivistic sexual violence. On the other hand, such laws aggravate the scarcity of housing options for sex offenders, forcing them out of metropolitan areas and farther away from the social support, employment opportunities and social services that are known to aid offenders in successful community re-entry.	1, 22
•	Despite overwhelming public and political support, there is no evidence that proximity to schools increases recidivism, or, conversely, that housing restrictions reduce reoffending or increase community safety.	1
•	a tight web of supervision, treatment and surveillance may be more important in maintaining community safety than where a sex offender resides.	2
•	… the Board of the Iowa Coalition Against Sexual Assault joined the Iowa County Attorneys Association in stating that these unintended consequences warrant replacing the residency restriction with more effective measures.	11

--- Resources ---
(Note: [brackets indicate an addition] to more completely explain what is occurring.)

1:	Sex offender residence restrictions. A Report to the Florida Legislature, October 2005, Jill S. Levinson, Ph.D.
2:	Report on Safety Issues Raised by Living Arrangements for and Location of Sex Offenders in the Community; Colorado Department of Public Safety, Division of Criminal justice, Sex Offender Management Board
3:	Level Three Sex Offenders Residential Placement Issues, 2003 Report to the Legislature, Minnesota Department of Corrections
4:	Recidivism of sex offenders released in 1994, Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report, Published Nov. 2003, Langan, P. A., & Levin, D. J. NCJ-198281 ".. within 3 years of release 5.3% of the sex offenders were rearrested for another sex crime and 3.5% of them were reconvicted." (page-2) Further, while the rate of sex offenses committed within three-years for the 262,420 released non-sex offenders was lower, 1.3% (3,328 of 262,420 committed a sex offense following released) than for sex offenders released, due to the numbers of non-sex offenders released they committed six-times the number of sex offenses than did sex offenders. (page-1) See also our combined CHART
5:	Recidivism of sex offenders released in 1994, Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report, Published Nov. 2003, Langan, P. A., & Levin, D. J. NCJ-198281. Chart on page-36 of study shows 46.5% of the offenders of victims under 18 were family members. i.e., cases of incest. See also our combined CHART
6:	MCL 28.735 Registered individual residing in student safety zone; prohibited conduct; violation; penalties; exceptions, 3(a)(b)(c)(d)(e) "... However, this exception does not apply to an individual who initiates or maintains contact with a minor within that student safety zone." However, minor offenders are permitted to talk to other minors ONLY during SCHOOL ATTENDENCE: 3(a) "... However, the individual may initiate or maintain contact with a minor with whom he or she attends secondary school or postsecondary school in conjunction with that school attendance." Yet, those minor offenders may not speak to another minor if they are in a prohibited zone OFF SCHOOL PROPERTY, but it is OK for, minor offenders and adult offenders, to speak to minors if they are not in a prohibited zone.
10:	Statement on Sex Offender Residency Restrictions in Iowa, A Report to the Iowa Legislature, February 2006, Iowa County Attorneys Association
11:	Iowa Coalition Against Sexual Assault
12:	The California Coalition on Sexual Offending (CCOSO) Press Release and Letter to Governor: February, 2006
20:	Sex offenders missing from registered addresses, by Charles Sheehan, Chicago Tribune staff reporter (3-31-06) "... About two years ago, more sex offenders began returning to prison for parole because of the difficulty they faced finding housing, said Jorge Montes, the chairman of the Illinois Prisoner Review Board. In Illinois, child sex offenders may not, for example, live within 500 feet of a school and paroled sex offenders cannot share a building not licensed by the state. There is growing concern that state laws may have had the unintended consequence of making sex offenders avoid registering with authorities, Montes said. "I think we may be seeing a backlash of those efforts," he said. "Maybe we have been too successful, and these people are now eluding the system, not obeying the rules because they are damned if they do and damned if they don't."
21:	IL Sex Offenders: 3/4 Give False Address by New Media Producer: Kerry Corum (3-31-06) "... State (Illinois) law requires sex offenders to register with police. But some contend that laws restricting where sex offenders can live have prompted many to elude the system because of difficulty finding a place to live."
22:	Iowa's Residency Rules Drive Sex Offenders Underground, by MONICA DAVEY, New York Times (3-15-06) "... For years a layover for budget-conscious motorists and construction crews, the motel has lately become a disquieting symbol of what has gone wrong with Iowa's crackdown on sexual offenders of children. With just 24 rooms, the motel, the Ced-Rel, was home to 26 registered sex offenders by the start of March. "Nobody wants to have something associated with sex offenders right beside them," said Steve Boland, a farmer and father of two who learns about his newest neighbors every few weeks when sheriff's deputies stop by with photographs of them. "Us showing the kids some mug shots sure wasn't going to help," Mr. Boland said. "How were they going to remember that many faces?" ..... "It has rendered some offenders homeless and left others sleeping in cars or in the cabs of their trucks. And the authorities say that many have simply vanished from their sight, with nearly three times as many registered sex offenders considered missing since before the law took effect in September. "The truth is that we're starting to lose people," said Don Vrotsos, chief deputy for the Dubuque County sheriff's office and the man whose job it is to keep track of that county's 101 sex offenders." ..... The statute has set off a law-making race in the cities and towns of Iowa, with each trying to be more restrictive than the next by adding parks, swimming pools, libraries and bus stops to the list of off-limits places. Fearful that Iowa's sex offenders might seek refuge across state lines, six neighboring states have joined the frenzy. "We don't want to be the dumping ground for their sex offenders," said Tom Brusch, the mayor of Galena, Ill., which passed an ordinance in January. But even as new bans ripple across the Midwest, the rocky start of the Iowa law — one of at least 18 state laws governing the living arrangements of those convicted of sex crimes — has led to a round of second-guessing about whether such laws really work. [snip] *Michele Costigan, whose driveway is right across Highway 30 from the Ced-Rel in this rural stretch just outside Cedar Rapids, said she had stopped leaving any of her four children at home alone, had told them to dial 911 if anyone they did not recognize pulled into the family driveway, and was considering moving. "If the point of his law was to make us safer, we are not," Ms. Costigan said*. Even more worrisome to law enforcement officials in Iowa, the restrictions appear to be leading some offenders to slip out of sight." ..... Of the more than 6,000 people on Iowa's registry of sex offenders, 400 are now listed as "whereabouts unconfirmed" or living in "non-structure locations" (like tents, parking lots or rest areas). Last summer, the number was 140. "When it comes down to it, we would rather know where these people are living than to have the restriction," said Deputy Vrotsos. He said that he devoted at least 20 hours extra a week, along with the work of two clerks, to administering the new state law. Last fall, Deputy Vrotsos told about 30 of the offenders that they would have to move to meet the requirements of Iowa's law, which he said made about 90 percent of the city of Dubuque off limits. Some complied, he said, moving to trailer parks, across the Mississippi River into Illinois, to motels or, in the case of one man who had been living with his parents, to a truck at the Ioco Truck Stop on the outskirts of town. But at least three of the offenders have disappeared, Deputy Vrotsos said, giving false addresses or not providing any address at all." Florida: Some molesters cannot be found by Leon Fooksman, South Florida Sun-Sentinel (4-22-2006) "... Before registered sex offender Kenneth Schmidt disappeared from authorities late last year, he attempted to live by the rules, police said. Schmidt, 40, ...., lived in his Lake Worth home without bothering anyone but was forced to move in October when officials discovered he lived too close to a school bus stop. He found another home in Lake Worth a month later, but it, too, was too close to a park, bus stop and a child-care center. "He got tired of looking and took off," Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office Detective Larry Wood said. Schmidt joined a fast-growing list of sex molesters and pedophiles in Palm Beach County whose whereabouts have become unknown in recent months, possibly because of intense public scrutiny into their lives, investigators said. The Sheriff's Office detectives report that there are now 27 male offenders and predators who can't be located, up from about 15 in December out of 865 registered offenders living in the county."
23:	Court: Sex offender must move, by Denise Wilson, Post staff reporter (10-9-05) Ohio ".... A Green Township sex offender has been told he must vacate his home of 14 years today because it is a few yards too close to a school. .... His house is actually more than 1,000 feet from the school, but his backyard puts the property within the 1,000-foot limit." Man challenges sex offender law, by KTEN News (2-4-06) Oklahoma. "..... A lawsuit filed on January 23rd in Oklahoma City federal court alleges the man was notified in November that he must leave his home even though Oklahoma City police signed off on the purchase more than nine months earlier."
24:	A sex offender's story: 'Just find me a place to die': Fear, desperation set in for some registered sex offenders who must move, by Bonnie Harris, DesMoines Register (11-1-05) "... has rickety bones, an oxygen tank and a shameful past that's worn him down more than bad health ever could. What he did with two 13-year-old girls nearly a decade ago put him in prison for nearly five years and on the Iowa Sex Offender Registry. But ____, 73, wouldn't be in the fix he's is now — three days from being a homeless man on crutches — had he not switched apartments in June 2004." ..... "____ would have been exempt from the eviction proceedings that face roughly 300 others in the city, but he accepted his landlord's offer to switch apartments and have more room to park the electric scooter that helps him get around. He moved his belongings from Apartment 311 to Apartment 312. The front doors are 2 feet apart. The units share a kitchen wall. The move took less than an hour. But it was a move nonetheless, according to the law, and now _____ must go."
25:	Life as a registered offender affects offender and family, by Samantha Epps, Anderson Independent-Mail (4-2-06) South Carolina "Often when the phone rings at an elderly Anderson man’s house, the call is not for him. Prank callers are on the telephone line at least once a week trying to hurl obscenities and other insults at his son, who is a registered sex offender. "I hang up," the 85-year-old Anderson man said. "I don’t listen. "You can’t trace the calls because they call from pay phones." His son, who was convicted in October 1997 of committing a lewd act upon a child under 16, is required to register annually as a sex offender. The 56-year-old offender lives with his elderly parents."
26:	New law creates clusters of sex offenders, by Lee Rood, Register Staff Writer (1-29-06) Iowa "Now the 24-room Ced-Rel Motel is full, courtesy of Iowa's 2,000-foot law that has left people convicted of sex crimes against children few other places to live. Since September, convicts have filled the no-frills inn, paying $450 to $525 for a month's stay and the ability to say they are abiding by the law's controversial, and often confusing, restrictions. "If the politicians want to take four more years debating this thing, that's fine with me," said Jeff Selzer, motel manager and landlord to the pariahs. "These people are really good about paying rent." ... "The convicts are also gathering in sizable numbers in mobile home parks, run-down apartment buildings, missions and halfway houses throughout Iowa, as the laws have pushed sex offenders to the outskirts of most towns and cities. At least nine reported as of early last month that they were living at an Amerihost Inn and Suites on Northeast 14th Street just outside of Des Moines. Seven rented apartments in a drafty building behind an auto body shop in Coralville. Seven shared rooms at a halfway house in Council Bluffs. Six bedded down at the Sioux City Gospel Mission. Today, clusters of four or more offenders can be found at nearly two dozen locations around Iowa." ... "But it's not a good thing to those sex offenders who complain that their crimes did not warrant a lifetime's surveillance, as the 2,000-foot law requires. Nor is it to those who treat sex offenders, who say such restrictions cut off offenders from jobs, housing, transportation, treatment and other support that enhance their chances for successful rehabilitation." ... Feeling less certain about offenders' whereabouts, the sheriff said he now feels like he has to check on all offenders in the county three or four times a year, regardless of their crimes. "It's a tremendous amount more work for us," he said."
27:	Church foes cite sex offenders' proximity, by Wes Smith \| Sentinel Staff Writer. "EDGEWOOD -- Objectors to a proposed "megachurch" cite the typical concerns about increased traffic into this tiny city. But opponents have come up with a new twist on the usual "not in my backyard" protest. The proposed Orlando Church of Christ complex should not be built on Holden Avenue because there are two registered sex offenders living within 1,000 feet of the proposed site, resident Dean Hubbard, 56, says. The city's sex-offender ordinance, like most, prohibits registered sex offenders from moving that close to churches and schools. But Hubbard thinks it should work both ways -- that a place of worship should not be allowed to locate within 1,000 feet of the homes of registered sex offenders. If city officials don't enforce the 1,000-foot rule both ways, "the ordinance is just hollow politicking," Hubbard said. Linda Winter, head of the city's zoning board, didn't seem to think that Hubbard's contention held water. The city ordinance governing registered sex offenders is meant to keep them away from churches, not vice versa, she said. An attorney for Orlando Church of Christ also questioned Hubbard's interpretation of the law. "The ordinance is designed to ensure the safety of the children of the city of Edgewood against sexual predators," lawyer Heather Ramos said. "*It doesn't say we can't build a church because they live nearby. They are the ones who would have to move.*"
28:	Residents angry over sex offender zones by Margaret Matray Staff Writer (7-26-06) "common open space" would include empty fields: " ... The revised proposal, slated for council vote Aug. 14, would prohibit sex offenders from living within 1,500 feet from any school, child care facility, community center, park or common open space in the 2.7-square mile borough. ..."
29:	Does new sex offender law put community more at risk? by Catharyn Campbell, 6 News Reporter. "... Now, Tillery and his patients have to meet at a building in Knoxville. He says he has looked at several other locations in Maryville and Alcoa but all are in violation of the law. "We now have sex offenders driving 50 to 150 miles at night to go to treatment. When they are on probation, they are not supposed to be able to do this because we don't want them running around at night." The court usually refers sex offenders to Tillery. He says his evaluations have even convinced judges to put dangerous offenders behind bars. "If we have sex offenders out there that are not receiving treatment or evaluations, then the community is at least 10 times more at risk." Tillery says the State Sex Offender Board is also upset with the new law. The group is scheduled to write a letter to the state legislators, asking them to amend the legislation."
30:	Chapter 3 "VICTIMS," Figure 3-3 and Table 3-6 Child Maltreatment Report 2004

Copyright ©2003-2006 L. Arthur M.Parrish. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy "There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one striking at the root." - Henry David Thoreau - "I know in my heart that man is good. That what is right will always eventually triumph. And there's purpose and worth to each and every life." RR