Dear Mr. Andrews,
In reply to your Op-Ed by Stan Hall I submit the following with the hope you will print the facts.HB1059, like all the other legislation across the country have NOT SAVED ONE CHILD. You, nor Mr. Hall nor I can name one, period end of story. These feel good laws only serve to promote the careers of politicians and provide copy for the media. For them, it is a win-win that overlooks FACTS and common sense. Here are the facts concerning HB1059, I have been sending this to all the media outlets in Georgia and around the country, in an effort to wake people up.
Christopher Barrios did not have to die, but he did, why? If we look at the events of the 2006 Georgia legislative session, we can find answers.
1. Had the Georgia Representatives (led by Jerry Keen) and Senators (led by Eric Johnson) listened to Dr. Gene Able or Dr. James E Stark, and the other experts who spoke at the hearings last year, Christopher Barrios might still be alive today.
2. Had they listened to the RSO’s (Registered Sex Offenders) who spoke at the hearings last year, Christopher Barrios might still be alive today.
3. Had they implemented and funded RISK ASSESSMENT and a risk level system for ALL the current RSO’s and not just the new registrants after July 1, 2006, as was recommended to them, Christopher Barrios might still be alive today.
4. Had they listened to the experts in Law Enforcement, and not forced Law Enforcement to spend all their resources on chasing LOW RISK offenders away from churches and employment, Christopher Barrios might still be alive today.
5. ALL the Laws and Restrictions in the WORLD will NOT STOP someone who wants to offend, the Sex Offender Registry does not make children safer, and neither do SAFETY ZONES; however, THERAPY DOES. Offenders in therapy have the lowest recidivism rate. Had the legislators used common sense in place of political posturing, Christopher Barrios might still be alive today.
6. Because they FAILED to LISTEN to the experts, because they FAILED to LISTEN to Law Enforcement, because they were looking for election year sound bites, they are JUST AS RESPONSIBLE for the death of Christopher Barrios as the perpetrator is.
Again, I ask the people of Georgia to LISTEN to the experts, and force their elected representatives to do the same. Within the past year, these experts have voiced their concern about the new laws, well-intentioned lawmakers are enacting. Here is what they are saying.
“What you’re doing is pushing people more underground, pushing them away from treatment and pushing them away from monitoring, you’re really not improving the safety, but you are giving people a false sense of safety.” -- John Gruber, Executive Director of the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers
“It may be time to do away with sex offender registration laws altogether. At the very least, the federal government should commission research to study the laws’ effectiveness. In the meantime, several changes should be made. States should differentiate between serious and non-serious offenders and only require registration of the most serious offenders. Next, public access to online sites should be dismantled, and registries should be kept at the local police stations. This would provide at least a minimal screening process to those seeking inquiries… Lastly, we should experiment with restorative justice models such as what has happened in Canada where sex offenders moving into a community meet with members of the community in a public forum facilitated by a trained mediator. This type of forum gives the community an opportunity to meet the offender face to face and express their concerns and for the offender to show the community that he is earnestly seeking to change his life.” -- Rachel King, Professor of Law, Howard University School of Law, Washington, D.C.
“Though laudable in their intent, there is little evidence that recently enacted housing policies achieve their stated goals of reducing recidivistic sexual violence. In fact, there is little research at all evaluating the effectiveness of these policies. Furthermore, these policies are not evidence-based in their development or implementation, as they tend to capture the widely heterogeneous group of sex offenders rather than utilize risk assessment technology to identify those who pose a high danger to public safety.” -- Jill S. Levenson, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Human Services, Lynn University
“I would rather have someone who has committed a sex offense be going to work every day, come home tired, have a sense of well-being that comes from having a regular paycheck and a safe home, as opposed to having a sex offender who has a lot of free time on his hands.” -- Richard Hamill, President, New York State Alliance of Sex Offender Service Providers
“We're not aware of any evidence that residency restrictions have prevented a child from being victimized.” -- Carolyn Atwell-Davis, Director of Legislative Affairs, National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
“Therapy works for these people. Let them be punished for their crimes, let them out and let them get on with their lives. Let them work. Let them have stable homes and families and let them live in peace. Harassing them, making them move and continually punishing them does far more harm than good. A sex offender in therapy with a job and a place to live is less of a threat than one that is constantly harassed.” -- Robert Shilling, Detective, Crimes Against Children Division, Seattle, WA
There is not a shred of evidence tough laws and residency restrictions have saved one child. There is however, corroboration from the experts, that Sex Offender Registries and “safety zones” are doing nothing more than giving the public a false sense of security.
Again, I call for a National Sex Offender Policy Forum. Georgia can pave the way by holding a Georgia Sex Offender Policy Forum. These forums would be comprised of treatment providers, law enforcement, jurists, victims, offenders, and their families. With the recommendations from this forum, legislators will know what laws need to be written, or amended to insure the safety of our children.
Why are we all in deep denial about this problem? As long as citizens rely on uninformed politicians, the misinformed media and myths about sex offenders, all children remain at risk. We need to come to terms with our denial and seek real solutions, and we need to do it today. How many more Christopher’s, Jessica’s, Dylan’s, Megan’s, Polly’s, and Jacob’s have to die before we WAKE UP?
At the end of the day, we are all responsible; we are all involved in the safety of our families and have an investment in the outcome of this discussion.
###
I encourage you both to do just an hour or two of research, and educate yourselves. If you both really want to make children safer, then help me educate parents with the FACTS, not the MYTHS. If you both really want to make children safer, then join me in calling for a National Sex Offender Policy Forum.
Finally, by way of copy to Mr. Hall; while I do admire your zeal, I wonder if you realize that by demonizing an entire group of people, based on the actions of a few, you are in fact laying the ground work for your children, and grandchildren, to live in a society without the same constitutional protections you and I enjoy? Is fear-mongering really worth the price of liberty? What would Jesus do in this situation?
Kind Regards,
###
This is the Op-Ed by Mr. Hall:
I thought about Mr. Rogers and the song when I was thinking about the on going argument about where sexual offenders can and cannot live. Frankly, I thought that we had settled this issue last year, but apparently not. The current law has some very strict language about where convicted sexual offenders may live. When the law was written, everyone thought that this law was a good idea. It would keep offenders away from the areas where children commonly gather. The law prohibits convicted offenders from working, living, or loitering within 1000 feet of child care facilities, schools, churches, bus stops or other areas where minors might congregate.
So what’s the problem? Well, U.S. District Court Judge Clarence Cooper has already blocked the enforcement of the school bus stop portion of the law, based on a lawsuit filed by our old friends at the ACLU. Don’t you just love them? They are always standing by waiting to protect the rights of the downtrodden. In this case, apparently the downtrodden are sex offenders. I guess that we should be glad that the ACLU is around for this purpose because most of us just do not have the time to worry about sexual offenders. We are a little predisposed trying to worry about our children and trying to protect them from sexual offenders. I suppose balance is important. While the enforcement of the bus stop provision has been blocked while the constitutionality of the law is being debated, some offenders who live near churches have been forced to relocate. I am a firm believer that the church is exactly where most of these people should be. But, I cannot feel sorry for those who have been relocated so that children can attend church without fear. If we truly reap what we sew, we should also know what to expect when the crop is harvested. We cannot act surprised or blame the system because of poor life choices we make. And we most certainly cannot expect the rights of the convicted to overshadow the rights of the innocent, even when it comes to church.
I really had to test my gag factor when I read a statement by the other party named in the lawsuit, attempting to have the sex offender law overturned. According to a report in the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Lisa Kung, who is the Director of the Southern Center for Human Rights, said that the law should be overturned based on three main flaws. According to the report, Kung stated that the law clumps everyone together, it is harmful to the public because it creates instability and that is destroys families. Wow, Ms. Kung, is there a chance that the law might do a few other things as well?
How about these? It protects innocent children from some fairly disgusting individuals. It clumps everyone together. If these clumps, as you call them, are a clump of sexual predators, at least we will know which clump to keep our kids’ away from. And using your last argument, how about the chance that it creates stability and it protects families. You want to talk about destroying families, take a peek at the wide swath of family destruction that occurs after a sexual predator comes through the house. But as always, according to some, the concerns of the victims and their families should always come just below the concerns of the offender and their families.
If there are flaws in the law, based on practical enforcement issues, or hardships on law enforcement agencies that may be caused by the current language, then we should fix it. But, changing laws that are in place to protect innocent people from sexual offenders because the law causes the convicted offenders hardship is appalling. Mr. Rogers welcomed everyone to his neighborhood and hoped that everyone might be his neighbor. But, I have to think that even Mr. Rogers would have second thoughts about his invitation to new neighbors if he knew they were hurting the very thing that he loved more than life itself; the children. Maybe he would, but most of us are not nearly as forgiving.
Fix the law... Don’t overturn it! Because if we do, we will all be singing a new song that has a lot more to do with locked doors and vacant playgrounds than our brand new neighbor.
Well good readers, is it not time we have a united call for a National Sex Offender Policy Forum?
