Its time to make lawmakers prove their purpose is public safety and not further political punishment!5-2-2011 Oklahoma:
NO one wants to be caught defending sex offenders. But what if continuing to prosecute them does more harm than good?
Lawmakers are considering a bill that would further restrict where sex offenders can live. The bill was requested by Oklahoma City police officials who are concerned about a mobile home park that's housing sex offenders.
Hands-Up Ministries uses the 14-acre mobile home park to provide housing for sex offenders who have jobs and are trying to re-establish their lives. Three offenders share a three-bedroom mobile home and must receive regular treatment in addition to keeping a job.
Rep. Colby Schwartz, R-Yukon, said police want to clarify an existing law that was designed to keep sex offenders from living together. Police said such arrangements make it more difficult to investigate potential criminal allegations. House members gave easy passage to Senate Bill 852, which now goes back to the Senate.
Police concerns are understandable. But this case also presents an opportunity to question whether laws restricting where sex offenders can live are effective in protecting the public.
Having sex offenders who are out of compliance with the terms of their release and living together is undoubtedly a bad idea. But we're among those concerned that housing restrictions could have the side effect of persuading convicted sex offenders not to register as required by law. That would be dangerous.
Sex offenders are prohibited from living near parks, schools and day care centers. That makes it difficult for them to live in metro areas dense with such places and where jobs are more available.
“Across the country, studies are not showing changes in sex crime rates can be attributed to those policies,” Jill Levenson, a professor at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Fla., told the Miami Herald last year at the five-year anniversary of a young girl's death that prompted more sex offender restrictions.
Experts also have pointed out that most sex offenders are family members or family acquaintances — not the man or woman who lives across the street.
In this case, it was suggested the ministry could simply build dormitories that meet the law's requirements. The ministry director fears the law could put him out of business or result in the men staying in tents on the property because they need to keep a job. “The only way they can do that is if I help them.”
Lawmakers should typically listen to law enforcement officials, whose boots-on-the-ground experience is critical to making good policy. But they shouldn't ignore bigger questions about whether policy is having its intended effect or perhaps needs fine-tuning in order to consider whether separate restrictions should apply depending on the offender's crime. ..Source.. by Oklahoman Editorial
"Lawmakers should typically listen to law enforcement officials, whose boots-on-the-ground experience is critical to making good policy." Law enforcement is guilty in the first degree of furthering legislation which exclusively benefits law enforcement to the demise of everyone else. Lawmakers are guilty of purchasing votes from law enforcement unions also to the demise of everyone else. This incestous relationship has driven state budgets into the red. real estate values into the, well, real estate and millions of foreclosed homeowners into the street. Yes, lets talk about making good policy.
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