Blanket sex offender bans? Judge says no
CHICAGO (AP) — A federal judge in Chicago says a corrections department ban on telephone contact between a mom with a sex-crime conviction and her 17-year-old daughter should be lifted.
The Chicago Daily Law Bulletin says Tuesday’s ruling is in a lawsuit filed for Robin Frazier and four others. It argues automatic, blanket bans on all contact by sex offenders with all children sometimes defy common sense.
Frazier was convicted of having sex with a 17-year-old girl who wasn’t a relative. Frazier was an authority figure as the girl’s counselor, making the encounter a crime under Illinois law. Frazier recently began supervised release, when bans on contact kick in.
Defense attorney Adele Nicholas says a “generalized fear” sex offenders will offend again isn’t justification enough to ban phone contact in individual cases.