We’re Rethinking Prisons. Is It Time to Rethink Sex Offender Registries?

“Despite their failure to prevent or interrupt injury to children, registries are resilient. People want to feel safe, and policy makers are invested in delivering these feelings.”

When police arrived at her house to arrest her on May 8, 2013, Tammy Bond turned to her niece and said: “Aunt Tammy did something wrong.” At age 45, she had a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old. She was convicted of aggravated criminal sexual abuse and, like 26,000 others in Illinois, required to register as a sex offender for the rest of her life.

She has great difficulty finding housing or employment. She cannot eat in fast-food restaurants with playgrounds. If a recent Chicago ordinance had passed, she would have been banned from public libraries during the summer. No other conviction results in this level of interference with daily life once time behind bars has been served. Full Article (correct link)

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This is an excellent article – one of the few that deals with the issue in depth.

Unfortunately, the link from this post to the full article seems to be broken.

Here’s the full URL:
http://inthesetimes.com/article/18862/rethinking-prisons-rethinking-sex-offender-registries

“Another registered sex offender who created an agency explicitly to employ people on the registry.”
I like that idea.

Good article. Though it highlights a number of contradictory statistics and evidence used to support the barrage of laws and procedures currently in place. While I am glad it does so, I am not hopeful about the right people realizing just how powerful this information could be in questioning the validity of everything used to support the status quo regarding these issues.

if sex offender Registries are effective how can I be sex offender? The registry was created in 2006, I committed my crime in 2010, but that’s not possible! because the registry is supposed to keep people safe!

Whatta bunch of bullship. If ‘policy makers deliver’ then why not registry for Higher rated repeated crimes onto the public.?
Why aren’t ‘policy makers’ warning the public they are in MORE danger of being ‘sex’ assaulted from someone NOT in a registry.???
Where’s the keeping the public safe from the over ,97,% not in registry..? That’s over 9 out of ten times its NOT registry connected.
Proves coward ‘policy makers’.