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Home / Montana GOP AG Candidate – Improve Sex Offender RegistryMontana GOP AG Candidate – Improve Sex Offender Registry
Last Updated on Friday, 23 May 2008 01:09 Written by rslcpol Friday, 23 May 2008 10:50
From the Missoulian:
As an attorney, I know that statistics aren’t always the whole story and that often there aren’t simple solutions. Unfortunately, the statistics about sexual predators in Montana do tell an alarming story: There are more than 4,000 sexual predators living in Montana, putting Montana second in the nation for offenders per capita, according to the nonprofit group Family Watchdog.
The statistics go further: according to the Center for Sex Offender Management, 13 percent of child molesters and 19 percent of rapists commit another sexual offense within five years and another 10 percent of child molesters and 22 percent of rapists commit a nonsexual violent offense within five years.
This is a serious problem n but it’s not being taken seriously enough by our current attorney general.
The law requires that photos and other significant information be posted on the Montana Sexual Offender Registry; however this requirement has been neither met nor enforced for over 60 percent of the individuals on the registry. Ironically, many of the missing photos can be easily found on another state web site administered by the Department of Corrections. The photos exist n it just hasn’t been a priority for this attorney general to get them posted.
The Montana GOP Primary is June 3rd. The Republican candidates for attorney general are Tim Fox and Lee Bruner.
Every new law passed, Adam Walsh Act, Jessica’s Law, residency restrictions, sets a former offender up for failure. I use the word FORMER offender because when one looks at the FACTS, they will find that approximately 95% of ALL first time offenders never commit another sex crime. In fact, California’s recently released recidivist rates, put out by the Department of Corrections, states that LESS than 4% Recidivist rate. N.Y. 2.1%, and on and on it goes.
I don’t like the term registered sex offender or sex offender because it implies they are continuing to offend. The vast majority are not.
From state to state, you will find recidivism for first time offenders to be in the single digits.
What needs to be done?
Do away with residency restrictions for those who have completed their contracts with the courts. They finish parole without another sex crime, paid their fines. Allow them to have stability. To be able to have a home and job is vital not only to them but to society as well. We deserve that. We’ll be safer and the families, wives and children of former offenders can live a normal life. I have no problem with a harsher sentence for a repeat offender, or a violent rapist especially those who did not know their victim. They are the few and the rare. 90plus percent of all new sex crimes are committed by individuals NOT on the registry. They are mostly family members or known to the family. We need to focus on PREVENTION and EDUCATION.
The law makers are NOT doing that because it’s an easy issue when your low in the polls and to come out against a polititian who IS trying to make us safer is accused of coddling sex offennders. Wake up people.
The Adam Walsh Act needs to be declared unconstitutional and some day will be. It was done behind closed doors as (get this), noncontroversial, thanks to Mark Foley and a few others. Congress never got to to debate one word of it. The AWA is another form of punishment under the guise of regulatory legislation. And it most certainly “Does More Harm than Good.”
States are threatened under the federal guidelines of the AWA that if they do not comply they will loose a percentage of their Byrne grant money that goes into law enforcement. A HUGE problem here is it is costing states hundreds of millions , if not billions of dollars to impliment this law in order to save a few million. It makes me wonder where the real money trail leads. Computer tracking systems? I wonder if Bill Oreilly, Mark Foley and law makers across the country port folio is heavy in this type of investments. (Just a thought), but follow the money and I think we could come up with something.
It’s a huge mess all the way around. Ohio and other states are spending millions in court cases that are challenging the constitutionally of the AWA and other states are saying No to it’s implementation.
beware of those who yell the loudest. Mark Foley was one of them while at the same time looking to bugger underage children (pages).
I told a friend of mine today that there is only one vermin I hate more than a cockroach, that’s a politician screaming “sex offender law. Get tough, get tough.”
Well, all the myths and hysteria has done nothing but increase votes and ratings. They protect no one.
Roger Werholz, Kansas Correctional Secretary, says, “Sex offender Laws don’t work and they actually make things more dangerous.”
I totally agree with him as I have studied the issues. He also says, “What we want to do is not so much what makes us feel safer but ACTUALLY MAKES US SAFER. It’s not what the sex offender deserves, it’s what we deserve. We deserve to live in a community in a state where we are as safe as possible.”
My personal opinion is that John Walsh has done so much damage to the Constitution and Bill of rights that we are all in jeapordy.
All I can say is BEWARE of the politicians who get elected by being “Tough” on crime. They have all done enough damage.