23 Nov 2006
Some Curbs on Sex Offenders Called Ineffective, Inhumane

Apparently Georgia has gone beyond even Iowa when it comes to insane regulations on "sex offenders". Some gems:

Among those swept up under its definition of sex offender are a 26-year-old woman who was caught engaging in oral sex when she was in high school, and a mother of five who was convicted of being a party to a crime of statutory rape because, her indictment alleged, she did not do enough to stop her 15-year-old daughter's sexual activity.

The city of Indianapolis recently passed one of these laws, and we're a bit worried out here in the "doughnut counties" - we're afraid that they're literally exporting their child molesters, along with the harmless kinds of offenders mentioned above, to us! So there are local ordinances under consideration as well - pushing the offenders further out. Where I'm sure they'll soon get worried as well. Where does it stop - the border? The Yukon? Costa Rica?

This is nothing short of nuts: you can't put somebody in prison for a crime and then let them out after their term is up and tell them they can't live anywhere. If we're going to keep this kind of nonsense up, we'd better start building more prisons, because that's where most of these folks will end up again.

Scarier still are proposals to expand this kind of "Scarlet Letter" thinking to other crimes - such as "drug dealing". Which in most states is possession over a certain minimal amount, even when no sales activity actually takes place. Get caught with a few joints (or giving your boy/girl friend some fun) in high school and prepare to live the rest of your life in Greenland or Antarctica.

"Unjust" doesn't do this justice.

Under a new Georgia law, thousands of registered sex offenders, even the old and feeble, could be pushed from their homes and hospices.

(link) [Washington Post]

07:46 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link