To our Elected
Representatives and Members of the Media:
Dear Sir or Madam,
I realize the following missive is a bit long, but I believe at the end you
will agree with many of the folks in government and the media who I have sent
it to, it was well worth the time. I send it to provide some background
on the issue with the hope you will benefit from the thousands of hours I have
spent researching the subject for an upcoming book. As I, and others,
stated to the
Of the 2,533 registered offenders in the ten metro area counties around
This will be the largest FORCED RELOCATION of American citizens since the Japanese-Americans
internment during World War II. Does no one care about these thousands of
innocent family members? What about due process for them, is that denied
solely based on who or what a family member is? Are we on a slippery
slope towards ideas and actions many of our parent’s fought against in European
or Pacific battlefields?
Let’s look at the cost to Georgians. In January, the Iowa County
Attorneys Association issued a “Statement on Sex Offender Residency
Restrictions in
In
Based on everything I am seeing in my research, unless we change the
current paradigm (net results of HB1059) the cost to the state budget will be
overwhelming. Taking into account the cost of incarceration, welfare for
the family, lost tax revenue and continued post release assistance for the
offender and his family, the total for a 10 year sentence (for failure to find
a place to live) will be around $480,000 per offender. This figure is
based on national averages from the DOJ.
Using the
As stated, in March, I spoke to the Georgia Senate Judiciary Committee and
presented much of what is below. I hope you will find it useful as you
continue to craft legislation on this issue facing Georgians and Americans.
What is the difference between Jerry Burke Inman, John Evander Couey or Joseph
Edward Duncan III and over 90 percent of the folks on a Sex Offender
Registry? To answer this question, we need to look at the intent of
Megan’s and Jacob’s Laws. They mandated a SOR (sex offender registry) and
community notification for states, designed to keep track of the high risk or
most violent and predatory offenders. The men mentioned above are
high-risk or predators. Additionally, they were intentionally absconding
from the system at the time of their most recent crimes. (In Mr. Inman’s
case, he is registered in two states, his
When one looks at the facts, the truth is subjugated to myths. Here are
some examples:
Myth – All sex offenders are
child molesters and all child molesters are predators.
Fact – The FBI-UCR, National
Crime Victimization Survey reveals that only 23% of sex crimes are against
someone under 18; and the Bureau of Justice Statistics shows that predators
represent around three percent of all sex offenders and child killers are less
than one percent of all offenders.
Myth – All child molesters
are pedophiles.
Fact – Pedophile means
someone attracted to and obsesses of pre-pubescent children. Studies by
the U.S Department of Health and Human Services show that less than twenty-nine
percent of sex offenses are against children under age twelve.
Myth – Strangers are lurking
at school bus stops or around playgrounds looking for children to molest.
Fact – According to all
reliable resources, around 90% of all child molestation cases involve someone
who is a family member, or someone who is close to or trusted by the
family. Additionally, in 95% of the cases presented for indictment, the
defendant had no criminal history, in other words, they were not Registered Sex
Offenders.
Myth – Depraved adults
commit all sex crimes.
Fact – Over 40% of sex
crimes committed against someone under 18 are by a juvenile; most are
consensual sex by teenagers, others are older siblings acting out against a
relative.
Myth – Sex offenders have
the highest recidivism rate (some quote 95%) and allowing them back into
society is a mistake.
Fact – Again, according to
the U.S. Dept. of Justice and other studies done since 1994, sex offenders
commit another crime, of any kind, at a rate of just thirteen percent, while
those convicted of property theft reoffend (steal again) at an average of
75%. People convicted of drunk driving will reoffend at a rate of 51%,
while a convicted murderer will reoffend at a rate of 41%. Ex-convicts
with a non-sex offense charge are 87% more likely to commit a sex offense than
a convicted sex offender in therapy is.
Myth – Sex offenses are
increasing and are becoming an epidemic in our society.
Fact – Using the Bureau of
Statistics, U.S. Dept. of Justice own figures, over the past 16 years, sex
offenses have declined around 35%. What you are not told is state and
local governments receive federal funds (Byrne Grant and LEBG) based on the
number of people they have on sex offender registries, creating a financial
incentive to add more names each year. As proof, from 1998 to 2001,
Myth – Sex offender
treatment is too high and ineffective.
Fact – Sex offender
treatment cost is exponentially lower than incarceration and has proven to be
an effective way to monitor sex offender activity. The statistical
average nationwide of incarceration is around $22,000 per year per
inmate. Factor in the cost of welfare for the inmates family members, and
the cost jumps to $48,000 per year. The cost for treatment and community
monitoring is less than $5,000 per year per offender. It is just more fiscally
responsible to treat low risk offenders different, and it preserves tax revenue
for government treasuries.
Myth – All sex offenders are
the same.
Fact – Sex offenses are as
varied as the people who commit them. It is irresponsible to cast a broad
net and classify all sex offenders the same. Categorizing all offenders,
the same is a miscarriage of justice and impacts society adversely by wasting
law enforcement resources on low risk offenders in place of a concentrated
effort to track high-risk offenders and predators. Additionally,
according to the American Psychological Association, around 50 to 70 percent of
allegations made in child custody, contested divorce or disputed domestic cases
are false. In other words, there was never a sex abuse case in the first
place and defendants were pressured into plea bargains due to lack of competent
counsel, or to avoid certain conviction at trial.
In case people are not convinced, they just need look at NBC’s Dateline.
Chris Hansen of Dateline quotes “1 in 5 online teenagers are approached about
sex”. However, he never tells rest of the story. The survey he
quotes shows that in over 70% of the time it is other teenagers, not adults
trolling the internet for sex, who are approaching them. A lie of
omission is still a lie. This does not make children safer since parents
are unaware of the facts.
Many as a means to harass offenders use community notification. Since
1993, thirty-nine offenders have been killed because their identities were published.
According to the Jacob Wetterling Foundation (www.jwf.org)
• Community Notification is not about chasing sex offenders
out of our neighborhoods.
• Experts agree that sex offenders are less likely to
re-offend if they live and work in an environment free of harassment.
• Most offenders return to their original area of residence,
or they are released to an area because they have family support there, or
because they have found a job in that area.
• Many sex offenders live in an area due to its proximity to
their therapy provider; sex offenders in therapy have the lowest recidivism
rate. Chasing them away from their therapist and support network is not
in the best interest of public safety.
A report to the Unites States Senate Judiciary Committee by SOhopeful
International (www.sohopeful.org) stated, “It is because of these
misunderstandings about the real nature of sex crimes, victims of sex crimes
and sex offenders that Federal and some State governments are spending large
sums for ineffective policies that do not increase public safety.” The
public needs to be more concerned about high-risk sex offenders and absconders,
not the low risk offenders who are working hard to comply with their probation
and therapy guidelines or who have paid their debt to society and are on the
Sex Offender Registry by law. Because of law enforcement needing to
spending precious resources tracking low risk offenders, two girls, and a young
woman are now dead. Additionally, hysteria created by media
misinformation and hyperbole, has a devastating and demoralizing effect on the
families of low-risk offenders, including the unintended practice of revealing
the identity of victims of intra-familial abuse, traumatizing children a second
time.
Roughly, 90 persons (out of 100) who are deemed low risk for re-offending must
register (some for life) as a sex offender. Why do the media and
politicians want to put all sex offenders in the same group? What has not
been publicly discussed is the impact of registration on those 90% of
registrants. Specifically their families and children - many times
(remember DOJ stats show 40%), the offender is a child, and the victim is a
younger sibling. These victims are doubly victimized when their family or
older sibling is humiliated and ostracized.
The SOhopeful International web site brings to our attention the plight
registered sex offenders children or siblings must face. “Children
cry themselves to sleep at night knowing that Daddy has to sleep in his car at
a rest stop in below zero temperatures because some politician decided that
even though Daddy's therapists deemed him no threat to any children, Daddy
can't live at home.
Children who are forced to move over and over due to harassment at school each
time a fellow student's parent sends to school a stack of flyers of Daddy's or
brother's SOR listing (*this is illegal in most states) and gets beat up at
school after school, losing all social support structure that is so crucial for
healthy development.
How can you look into the eyes of a child and tell them that they somehow
deserve to be homeless, harassed, beaten, humiliated, stigmatized and made a
pariah for the remote chance at saving some other child? Whose children are
worthy? Only those of others? Or do the children of registrants
even count?”
Let’s replace myths, lies, and fear mongering with rational thought and truth
through education programs and factual reporting. Let’s tell the truth
about proximity laws, they are unjust to wives and children, parents or
families of low risk offenders and do not make society safer, they encourage
high-risk offenders to abscond. Additionally, they go against the
original intent of Megan’s Law. Because of new harsher proximity laws in
many states, intra-familial offenses will go unreported in order to keep
families together. The victims and offenders of unreported intra-familial
offenses, who do not receive therapy, create opportunities for more offenses
and victims. How in the world can this make children safer? The
good news is that there are solutions, we can put an end to the panic and
better manage sex offenders. Some of these solutions are outlined below
and are just a starting point for a safer society for all families.
The SOhopeful International report to the United States Senate Judiciary
Committee offers these solutions; they include a common sense approach to
low-risk intra-familial offenders:
• Treatment of high-risk separately from that of low-risk
offenders.
• Civil commitment for high-risk offenders and predators.
• Treatment programs for low-risk offenders and victims.
• Prevention programs for teens and young adults to prevent
sex abuse through development of successful coping skills and through
understanding of appropriate boundaries.
I advocate these measures and in taking them a step further. To insure we
protect all families we should also:
• Employ standardized national reporting and risk level
guidelines making monitoring easier for law enforcement.
• Implement a five-tier risk level; to include NO RISK, LOW
RISK, MEDIUM RISK, HIGH RISK, and PREDATOR.
• Immediate removal of community notification for NO RISK
and LOW RISK offenders (teenage consensual sex and one time intra-familial)
increasing its effectiveness to law enforcement, state corrections, and the
courts.
• Develop better training and standardized investigative
techniques, creating an accurate litmus test to determine false allegations
(the American Psychological Association estimates this around 30 to 70% where
custody dispute is involved in a divorce) from factual sex abuse cases.
• Provide separate sex offender correctional facilities and
mandatory ATSA (Association for the Treatment of Sexual Offenders) approved
therapy prior to release.
• Assess risk level prior to reentry into society, implement
GPS monitoring and bi-annual assessment of medium risk offenders until their
determined risk is lowered.
• No parole life sentences for second (non-technical)
offenses and deliberate absconders.
• For NO RISK and LOW RISK offenders, provide education
programs and skills training, to increase employability making re-entry back
into society more certain.
A five-tiered risk level system allows offenders to earn the right to return to
society. It separates risk level in an understandable fashion, making
enforcement more efficient and community notification more
understandable. It allows jurist to consider the merits of each
individual case and rule appropriately. Additionally, parents (notice the
onus is on the parents not the government) will know how safe their
neighborhoods are and better able to educate their children who to avoid.
The following are a description of proposed risk levels:
NO-RISK - someone who has
completed their sentence and therapy successfully, had no technical violations,
and is waiting for the required time on the statue to expire. Not
required to be on Registry or included in banned locations or proximity laws.
LOW-RISK - someone who is on
probation, or parole, or been released, with a single count non-aggravated
charge and intra-familial victim, is in good standing in therapy, no failed
polygraphs, and no technical violations for two years. Not required to be
on Registry or included in banned locations or proximity laws.
MEDIUM-RISK - someone who is on
probation, or parole, has passed polygraphs, but continue to exhibit red flags
to therapist, or someone who has had a technical violation within the past two
years, or someone who has been granted probation or released from prison with a
non-aggravated charge and intra-familial victim. Must pass two polygraphs
per year. May be required to wear GPS monitor if deemed a higher risk to
re-offend based on assessment tests, can be removed from GPS when determined
risk level is lowered. Is on Registry and included in banned locations
until risk level is lowered. Primary level for offenders entering the
system, allows for lowering based on initial psychological assessment.
HIGH-RISK - someone on probation,
or parole or someone who is just being released from prison with aggravated
charges, has red flags to therapist, and has had an extra-familial victim or
multiple victims. Required to wear a GPS monitor until risk level
lowered. Must pass three polygraphs per year, is on Registry, and
included in banned locations for up to 15 years after successful completion of
therapy.
PREDATOR - someone convicted
with multiple victims, or someone who is not responding to therapy, or has
exhibited themselves to be a danger to society or has had a second
offense. The predator is put in civil commitment until they prove they
are no longer a threat. Predator is required to wear a GPS monitor if
released. Must pass four polygraphs per year, is on Registry, and
included in banned locations for life or until three independent assessment
tests deem them to have a lower risk level.
We also need to increase the penalties for using the registries to harass
or intimidate offenders. These actions are nothing more than
vigilantism. Registries are most effective when individuals use them to
educate their children of where offenders are living in a neighborhood.
Currently in most states, it is only a misdemeanor offense and it is never
enforced. Individuals who use the registry to notify others of an
offender’s presence in a neighborhood should be charged with felony reckless
endangerment, punishable by up to five years probation, community service, and
restitution.
We must have more faith in ourselves than in government to solve the sex abuse
problem. Citizens, communities, journalist, media personalities, and
legislators should demand a National Sex Offender Public Policy Forum to address
these issues. This would help state and local governments formulate
workable, cost effective laws that protect the rights of all citizens.
Forums should include mental health professionals, jurist, law enforcement and
corrections personnel, victims and their families, offenders and their
families. The offender’s families are secondary casualties of
ill-conceived laws. In lieu of fostering a fearful witch-hunt mentality
for advertising dollars and higher ratings, the media needs to step up to this
societal challenge. They should strive to dispel the myths and create the
environment for policy and subsequent legislation to succeed, creating a safe
society for all children.
Why are we comfortable with myths than facts? How does demonizing an
entire group of people create value for society? What is next for sex
offenders and their families? Internment camps fashioned after the
“relocation centers” for Japanese Americans during World War II. Where is
Edward R. Murrow when we need him most? Please, for the sake of women and
children, support and push for a National Sex Offender Policy Forum.
Thank you,
A Recovering Offender
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