Also published at the Joliet Patch Publication By Sandy . . . Much has been made recently of an apartment building in Joliet, Illinois, housing six individuals on the Illinois sex offense registry. Joliet’s mayor Bob O’Dekirk has consistently supported attempts to have the men removed. He has been very vocal about this. Frustrated by a federal ruling superseding the…
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Also published at delaware online. By Margaret Hawkins . . . House Bill 306 is before the Delaware State Legislature. For the 4,500-plus Delawareans who appear on the state Sex Offender Registry, the proposed legislation changes the “Restrictions” designation on the front of their driver’s licenses from the current “Y” to “SO.” The bill retains the words “Sex Offender” that already appear on the back…
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By Sandy . . . Over the past almost ten years, I have written many editorials and expository articles based on things that are happening in the world of our advocacy, especially things involving consequences of being on the registry. Looking back at our archived Digest copies, the first one I find there in which I wrote such a piece…
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By Steve Yoder . . . The Oklahoma City Police Department pulled off a social media coup on July 7. “Meet the top 10 most wanted individuals being sought by our Sex Offender Registration Unit,” the department posted on its Facebook page. “It’s important we keep tabs on these guys (and gal), so help us find them.” The post engaged…
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Published 3/5/2020 at the Portsmouth Daily Times By Sandy Rozek Melissa Martin (2/28/20) makes an eloquent but often erroneous case in favor of sexual offense registries. These registries have been in place in every state for twenty to thirty years. Many studies have been done evaluating the effectiveness of them and their contribution to public safety. The results are overwhelmingly…
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Updated 12/20/19 By Sandy . . . For persons listed on a sexual offense registry, homelessness is sometimes a reality, and the uncertainty of finding emergency shelter or homeless facilities that welcome registrants is even more of a reality. I have for a week been identifying such places, and, even though I am sure there are more – many more, I…
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By Michael McKay . . . Hawaii is one of 20 U.S. states that does not currently have residency restrictions of any kind for people on the sexual offense registry. That, however, may be about to change. Legislators in Hawaii are considering a bill that would make it illegal for any person on the sexual offense registry to reside within…
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By Tamara Wolk . . . It’s probably not often that a group of people ranging from pastors to city and county government, law enforcement, judges, social services, citizens and the homeless gather in one location to try to understand and solve a serious problem together. That’s what happened at Ringgold Baptist Church the cold afternoon of Thursday, Nov. 15.…
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Used with permission By Guy Hamilton-Smith . . . Oscar Wilde, writing from his cell in the Reading Gaol where he was imprisoned for homosexuality at the end of the nineteenth century, observed that “society reserves for itself the right to inflict appalling punishments on the individual, but it also has the supreme vice of shallowness, and fails to realise what…
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By Sandy . . . If every shred of evidence showed that traffic lights, while costing large amounts of resources to install, did nothing to decrease auto accidents and actually created a host of undesirable consequences, would cities still install them at every major intersection? This is exactly what happens with the creation of what are euphemistically called “child safety zones.”…
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