MINOT — House Bill 1231, introduced by state Rep. Jason Dockter, would create a petition through which convicted sex offenders could petition the courts to remove themselves from the state’s offender registry, which Attorney General Drew Wrigley’s office maintains.
This is an excellent idea. We ought to do away with the offender registry, as it is a resource-hogging exercise in futility, but let’s talk about the legislation before us first.
“After seven years of registration, a sexual offender assigned a low-risk level by the attorney general may petition the sentencing court or the district court for the district in which the offender resides for an order relieving the offender of the duty to register,” the bill states.
Currently, the minimum amount of time offenders must register is 15 years, though the courts can assign the requirement for life. It’s routinely applied to all manner of offenses, from the grotesque to incidents of consensual sexual contact between teenagers (e.g. a 14-year-old and a 19-year-old).
The registration requirements are truly onerous, both for the offenders and for law enforcement. It’s not just a matter of keeping state officials apprised of a current address. Offenders must also register phone numbers, social media accounts and new relationships. Even mistakes and inadvertent omissions ca
Wow! Knock me over with a feather. A conservative lawmaker in a conservative state proposes a common sense bill and an opinion writer not only agrees with it but recognizes that the registry is wasteful and backs up his statements with actual data.
SHOCKED! A law maker actually admitting that the Abomination is an “Exercise in futility” “Resource hogging”, that the requirements are “onerous” and it is applied to situations that in no way suggest danger to others?
Falls short of calling for the death of the Pogrom, but it is a step in the right direction. Perhaps a path to start mentioning all the other counter-productive, cruel and dangerous aspects? The unemployment and homelessness it makes unavoidable, along with the the extra ostracism that creates? Impact to families? Perhaps how the vigilantism endangers all?
There’s lot of very good reasons to end this resource hogging, onerous, counter-productive, dangerous, indiscriminately destructive exercise in futility, and not one legitimate reason to keep it.
This also makes me hopeful that CA will accept the CASOM tier reassignment suggestions. Who knows, maybe this the first step in a Nationwide moment towards more rational laws on this subject?
Wait what?? Did I read that right? We’re not in April are we?