Correctional Forum

Human Rights Watch Report on Sex Offenders

This month Human Rights Watch released a report that unambiguously demonstrates that our policies regarding sex offenders are seriously flawed. If you have time to read the 146-page document, you're probably less stressed than we are. If not, we present some of the most revealing excerpts.

Unfortunately, our research reveals that sex offender registration, community notification, and residency restriction laws are ill-considered, poorly crafted, and may cause more harm than good:

• The registration laws are overbroad in scope and overlong in duration, requiring people to register who pose no safety risk;
• Under community notification laws, anyone anywhere can access online sex offender registries for purposes that may have nothing to do with public safety. Harassment of and violence against registrants have been the predictable result;
• In many cases, residency restrictions have the effect of banishing registrants from entire urban areas and forcing them to live far from their homes and families.

The evidence is overwhelming, as detailed in this report, that these laws cause great harm to the people subject to them. On the other hand, proponents of these laws are not able to point to convincing evidence of public safety gains from them.

Human Rights Watch also points the problem of juvenile offenders.

Canadian sex offender has a hard time with re-entry

The case of Thane Moore, who has served his full sentence for a violent assault on a 21-year-old woman he hitched a ride with, is causing consternation and media coverage now that he's trying to decide where to live -- in part because the parole board considers him a high risk to re-offend. Oddly, it sounds like Moore is calling a lot of the shots. It also seems odd that the press is divulging so much of his story.

Prince Edward Island sex offender undecided about new home

[Photo of Prince Edward Island by angela7dreams]

A Field Day for Democrats -- But Is It Justice?

As most everyone knows by now, uber-Republican Idaho Sen. Larry Craig plead guilty to disorderly conduct after a vague encounter with an plainclothes police officer in a Minnesota airport bathroom. Craig, a longtime opponent of gay rights, had been rumored to be gay in the past, and has now denied such claims. Pro-gay-rights advocates are understandably gratified that the hypocrisy of Republican rhetoric continues to be exposed, but there's something tragic about reading Craig's arrest report, criminal complaint and guilty plea (available here via CNN). Good thing for Craig this is just a misdemeanor. If he were convicted of a sex offense, his life would be over.

Tuesday's International: Headlines

France: Brother of French justice minister jailed for drug dealing: Rachida Dati (pictured) has made tougher sentencing on repeat offenders one of her priorities as justice minister. Her brother, Jamal, is one such offender. His sentence of one year, considered very tough in France, is a result of her new policies. [Expatica.com]

Ethiopia: Four Journalists Released From Prison on Conditional Pardon: The Committee to Protect Journalists, which named Ethiopia as the world's worst backslider on press freedom this year, welcomes the release of the writers who covered civil unrest. [allAfrica.com]

Barbados: Prison warders not paid since February: But they still have to pay for bus fare. [The Nation Newspaper]

France: French prison doctor gave paedophile Viagra before attack: A bizarre case of a repeat offense in France is bringing about talk of life imprisonment and chemical castration for sex offenders. Sarkozy is under great political pressure. [New Zealand Herald]

You decide:

We're not sure what to think, but you can decide for yourself: Is the community reacting to a local sex offender's release, or is it just an unhappy coincidence that his home plans are being rejected while the community tries to pass a law further restricting where sex offenders can live locally?

Local sex offender's release suffers setback [The Intelligencer]

[image by foreversouls via flickr]

Sharpton weighs in on Wilson incarceration

Supporters of Genarlow Wilson held a rally yesterday in Douglasville, Georgia, to protest his imprisonment. Wilson was convicted of aggravated child molestation for participating in consensual oral sex with a 15-year-old girl at a New Year’s Eve party in 2003. He was 17 at the time. The case drew the attention of civil rights activist Al Sharpton, who came to speak at the rally. From MSNBC.com:

“This boy is not only her son, he’s your son, he’s my son,” Sharpton told the cheering crowd from the steps of the Douglas County Courthouse. “We’re here today because what affects you affects all of us.”

Sharpton also held a prayer vigil for Wilson with the members of his family and community.

The case took a turn last week, when a Douglas County judge ruled that Wilson was not eligible for bond, which means he'll stay behind bars until an appeal is completed. Judge David Emerson cancelled the July 5 bond hearing on the arguably draconian ruling that a person convicted of aggravated child molestation is not eligible for a release bond. The crime, one of Georgia’s so-called “seven deadly sins,” carries with it a 10-year prison sentence. Last year, Georgia's legislature reduced Wilson’s conviction to a misdemeanor, which is punishable only by a year in prison, allowing for an appeal on the case.

Dr. Francys Johnson, the Southeast Regional Director of the NAACP, called the decision “the latest series of rulings that strains common sense and leaves the overwhelming impression that the system is working overtime to keep Genarlow Wilson behind bars.”

State Attorney General Thurbert Baker filed a request for expedited review of the case, which was rejected. The earliest date the case could be heard by a court is now October, and it may be as late as April of next year until it happens. Wilson, now 21, has been in prison for more than two years.

Rally in Cumberland County

Residents of a New Jersey neighborhood are up in arms over a plan to turn a prison into a facility strictly for sex offenders. Republicans and Democratic lawmakers put partisan politics aside and led rousing speeches to a crowd of people who say they don't want these criminals in their communities. South Woods State Prison, New Jersey's largest prison, would house 358 sex offenders who have served their sentences, but are being detained because of a perceived risk of recidivism. They are currently housed in North Jersey facilities. Residents said they would consider moving out of the neighborhood or even out of state to protect their children, though apparently they didn't entertain the same consideration before now, when just murderers were their next-door neighbors.

Prison neighbors rally against sex offender plan

[Image of the interior of the New Jersey statehouse.]