BALTIMORE —The list of sex offenders on Maryland’s sex offender registry is shrinking because of a Maryland Court of Appeals ruling in June.
The ruling said corrections officials are legally required to remove the names of offenders who committed their crimes before 1995, when the state registry was created. The court ruled that Maryland can’t make those offenders register after the fact. Full Article
The same thing should happen here in California. Hat’s off to the Maryland Court of Appeals. 1,400 seems like a small number, but there are only 8.000 registrants in that state. But it’s a start, and hopefully other states; like California, will stand up and take notice. I take pleasure knowing that many aren’t happy about this, but then again, these are people that don’t seem to be able to differentiate between right and wrong.
The fact that Adam Rosenberg; executive director of the Baltimore Child abuse Center makes the statement “Oh, there is no question in my mind that dangerous people’s names are being taken off the list,” seemingly without any evidence to back his claim up indicates a lazy man, unwilling to stay informed on matters that directly affect his chosen field. I would not consider this man an expert, especially when empirical evidence clearly demonstrates that if this is what he truly believes, then he doesn’t know what he is talking about.
The flip side of the issue is Fred Berlin, associate professor at John Hopkins School of Medicine said “there’s very little data now showing that the sex offender registry has done anything to reduce sexual recidivism.” Removing these people from the registry isn’t going to place these people in any more danger that their imaginations already conjure up with allot of help from men like Adam Rosenberg. I hope California will dig deep and find the wisdom to realize the same truth the Maryland Court of Appeals realized.
This is hopefully going to start a trend throughout the Nation.