Source: newstalk870.am 1/13/26
According to information released by 8th District legislators Senator Matt Boehnke, and House Reps Stephanie Barnard and April Connors–as well as Kennewick Police–the sex offender home is coming to Kennewick.
The operator of a similar facility in Walla Walla has applied to have one in Kennewick
Since 2017 Joe Fields has operated Joe’s Place in Walla Walla, where as many as 9 registered mostly low-level sex offenders are voluntarily housed. That facility began just after creation of the state’s STAR Program or Succesful Transition and Re-Entry Program.
It is supposed to get offenders on track (according to the Walla Walla Union Bulletin), following their incarceration.
Now, Kennewick Police and 8th. District Legislators have released information the Fields has applied for and purchased a home in Kennewick to begin a similar program.
The location is at 5304 West 8th. Ave. The 8th District Reps are furious that they were notified about the project by the Department of Social and Health Services after the home was purchased, and the process was under way.
Provided the facility does not geographically violate laws for being too close to schools, parks, daycares or other sensitive facilities, Legislators said cities and counties cannot prohibit or restrict this kind of facility. It is not known how many offenders will reside there, and the information released by Legislators did not give a timetable as to when it will be operational.
Boehnke, Connors and Bernard released comments about the facility, saying citizens of Kennewick should have a right to weigh in with their opinions on having such a facility in their city, or neighborhood.
“We strongly oppose dangerous individuals being placed in our neighborhoods through a system that shuts communities out and provides no meaningful notice or opportunity for local input. Current state law allows this to happen, which means the law is not working as it should for the people of Washington. We will be working closely with city officials to review our state’s RCWs and identify changes needed to …
Love the little map they added. 1.1 miles from a school – oh, the horror!
Most of those listed on the big nanny government supported by Scarecrows, Tinmen/Tinwomen, and Cowardly lions are not dangerous to society. Use your brain, grow a heart, and stop being cowards towards your unjustified fear(s) and emotions. Start living in reality or start writing fantasy novels since you love fiction so much.
They should be notified prior to property being bought for such business. Really? Do you want that with all businesses or only the one(s) you will scream about out of irrational fear?
On the “positive” side, relatively-speaking, it does add credence to the argument that the Registry is punishment and creates mayhem.
Again, this would be ENTIRELY avoided without the registry. There are halfway houses everywhere in the country, and most people have no idea what kind of crimes the people in them committed–many of the people living in them would seem pretty scary to these people if they just read their rap sheets. The government chooses to show every regular Joe in these towns only where people who have any kind of conviction related to sex reside, and is committing libel by claiming that these people are uniquely dangerous when there is no evidence for this. When the government lies and says the six people living in this halfway house are, uniquely among all ex-cons, especially dangerous, it’s no surprise that people overreact. This is just more chaos created by US government lies.
I have a relative who lived in a halfway house for crimes related to substance abuse and endangering her children (in a pretty serious way, not simply neglect). She lost custody of her children for nearly a year, but at some point one of them was allowed to stay with her in the hallway house, and she’d walk her to and from school every day, which was presumably close to the halfway house. My assumption is that no one in that California school cared about this because the halfway house didn’t show up on any maps as housing people with crimes related to sex. Instead, it had many people with crimes related to child abuse. If people knew that, some of them might have protested–but they didn’t know it, and as far as I know no (unrelated) children at the school have been harmed by any of the residents of the halfway house. My point: Take away the registry, which is based on lies, and this problem goes away.
So glad they’re “strongly oppose dangerous individuals being placed in our neighborhoods.” I am too! Too bad they’re not trying to get the actual dangerous people and instead targetting law abiding citizens.
They should be more worried about those who have not been caught (yet) in the community instead of those who are working to better themselves in a group home or on the registry.
Funny that their map shows part of male body, so they should have to register as PFRS for showing a joystick for the community to see.