IL - Elgin police want new sex offender registration law

Original Article

07/09/2014

By Elena Ferrarin

Members of the Elgin Police Department have asked local state officials to craft legislation that would supersede a court decision they say makes it more difficult to enforce the Sex Offender Registration Act.

Officers from the department's resident officer program and crime-free housing unit are in charge of keeping track of Elgin's approximately 120 registered sex offenders, Elgin police Lt. Frank Trost said.

Sex offenders must notify the local enforcement agency of their residence within three days of moving. Most have to do that for 10 years; sexual predators must register for life. Failing to register once is a Class 3 felony, and a Class 2 felony thereafter, Trost said.

However, the August 2013 ruling by the Second District Illinois Appellate Court regarding a case in Aurora means that police, in addition to having to prove sex offenders are not living at their registered address, have to prove they have been living elsewhere for more than five days, Trost said.
- Remember, people are innocent until PROVEN guilty, so you must prove someone is guilty, not the other way around!

Consequently, Trost said, police now have to allocate extra time and resources -- through surveillance and record-checking -- to prove residence at the unregistered address, which is especially burdensome if the sex offenders moved out of town, Trost said.
- Aww, too bad!  Police, politicians and the public are the ones who want these unconstitutional laws, so now you should have to deal with it like those who are affected by the laws have to.

"It's a small percentage (of sex offenders) that try to go off the record, but I can think of three within the last six months that were directly affected by that ruling," he said. "The hours involved can be pretty intensive."

One case involving a sex offender who was living in Aurora without registering there required about 25 hours of work over three weeks, officer Robert Engelke said.

Trost, Engelke and other officers met with state Rep. Anna Moeller and state Sen. Michael Noland in late June to push for new legislation.

Moeller and Noland said they'll be looking into the issue.

"From my initial conversation with police, it does sound like it is a burden and it takes a lot of time and resources for the police departments to track these registered sex offenders down," Moeller said.

"I'm going to be looking into how we can fix that, if possible with legislation, but I need to do more research first to understand where in the statutes we need to fix that," she said.

Noland said he will be doing research in the next couple of weeks.

"The fact that police have to prove this individual is at a specific address, I think may be a little too burdensome for the police, and not fair to the public, because we have to ensure their safety," he said.
- So are you saying you want to just assume the person in question is guilty?

He also noted the appellate court opinion was delivered by Judge Joe Birkett, the former DuPage County state's attorney.

In Elgin, the police department conducts at-home checks of sex offenders twice a year, even though state law requires it only once a year, Trost said.

Sometimes, it's hard to say whether someone truly lives where they say they do, officer Shelley Mendiola said.

For example, one sex offender's home had only a mattress on the floor and no stove, although there was a working bathroom, she said. In that case, the only way to be certain is to set up surveillance, she said. Police also can get clues about sex offenders' whereabouts via Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, officer Rob Hartman said. Illinois bars registered sex offenders from using social networking sites.

Elgin's major investigations division used to be in charge of the sex offender program until spring 2013, when it was assigned to ROPE and crime-free housing officers, who have closer ties with the community, Trost said.

"(Sex offenders) are human like we are, so you want to create a rapport with them," Engelke said.

IL - UNITED STATES v. SIEGEL

Original Article

Excerpt:
Defendant Siegel was convicted of child sexual abuse, and the conditions of supervised release imposed on him—all for the entirety of his life remaining upon completion of his prison sentence—include a ban on the possession of legal or illegal material that “contains nudity” and the use any mood-altering substance, and a requirement that he undergo a sexual-offender treatment program. Defendant Norfleet was convicted of distributing illegal drugs. The conditions of supervised release imposed on him (for an eight-year period commencing with his release from prison) include a ban on the use of mood-altering substances and on excessive use of alcohol, and a requirement that he undergo substance-abuse treatment and cognitive behavioral therapy. These are only a few of the discretionary conditions of supervised release imposed on the two defendants.

Read the rest of the article

IL - Chicago police fail to register sex offenders 601 times in just three months

Original Article (Audio available)

05/28/2014

By Rob Wildeboer

On February 13 of this year, _____ went to the Chicago Police Department Headquarters to register as a sex offender. He was one of 22 people who were turned away that day because the office was simply too busy. That’s according to police records. A month later, on March 21, _____ was approached by Chicago police officers on the West Side of Chicago.

According to an arrest report, _____ wasn’t doing anything illegal but was “loitering in an area known for narcotic activity.” Officers ran _____’s name and found he had failed to register. _____ told the officers he had tried to register on February 13 but had been turned away. He was arrested anyway and is now in the Cook County Jail, where it costs taxpayers $52,000 a year to house him.

I first heard about sex offenders being prevented from registering a few months ago. I spent several days waiting in line with offenders outside the criminal registration office at Chicago police headquarters. I couldn't believe it when officers came out of the office and told dozens of men who had been waiting for hours that they might as well go home because the office was too busy to register them all. Then the officers warned the men that they could be arrested for failing to register even though they’d just waited for hours in line to do just that.

I went back several times and saw the same scenario play out.

'Setting people up to be violated'

“It’s like they’re purposely setting people up to be violated to go back to jail. You can’t conclude nothing else but that,” said _____ as he tried to help his brother register back in February.

Another frustrated man who just gave his name as Terry said, “We’re the guys that are trying to do the right thing. We’re showing up here, we’re trying to do the right thing; we’re trying to follow the law to the letter of what’s on that piece of paper and they turn us away and say, sorry, but you can still be arrested. Yeah, well, how are we supposed to feel?”

Police records detail the failure

As officers turned offenders away, they wrote down the names of the offenders who had shown up. Using the Freedom of Information Act, WBEZ got copies of those lists. The lists have fields for name, date, time, several other things and then one space for “reason for being turned away.” In the first three months of this year the office turned people away 601 times, and in that space for the reason it put “capacity.”

In the first three months of this year the office turned people away 601 times and in that space for the reason it said, “capacity.” On some days, like January 14th for example, no one was turned away. But on February 14, 31 people were turned away because the office was at “capacity.” On March 4, 34 people were turned away; on the 5th, 27 people; on the 6th, 26 people.

A semi-reluctant advocate

“These registrants try and follow the law. They try and report and register and fulfill their duties but the police department doesn’t let them and the police department isn’t fulfilling their responsibility to the public,” said attorney Patrick Morrissey in a recent interview in the lobby of the Cook County criminal court building at 26th and California. He had just come from a hearing where he was representing a sex offender who is currently in the Cook County Jail for failing to register.

A year and a half ago Morrissey was in his law office when he got a call from a sex offender who was having trouble registering with the Chicago Police Department. Morrissey was outraged, though his boss, who happens to also be his dad, was not too interested in getting involved in the issue. Morrissey pushed ahead anyway.

“By the City of Chicago refusing to register people and causing them to walk the streets unregistered subject to arrest, is unconscionable,” said Morrissey. “You know it doesn’t only harm these people who have to register and who are subject to arrest, but it harms the public because it detracts from what this law is about, about keeping track of people.”

It’s also costly, not for the police department, but for the taxpayers who have to fund the county jail where it costs $52,000 a year to house inmates. Morrissey has a client who went to the Chicago police registration office and was turned away and then later arrested for failing to register.

“He was in the Cook County Jail from about July of 2011 until April of 2014,” said Morrissey. “I think there’s a lot of people who are currently in the Cook County Jail on a failure to register charge.”

Morrissey is right. According to the Cook County Sheriff’s office, on April 25 of this year, there were 190 people in the jail on failure to register charges.

One of them was _____, the guy I mentioned at the top of the story, who wasn’t doing anything illegal but was approached by police, and when they ran his name they found he had failed to register even though he’d tried to register.

In another example of penny wise but pound foolish, on January 22, police records show that _____, a homeless man, was turned away from the registration office because, not surprisingly, he didn’t have the hundred dollar fee sex offenders have to pay once a year. He was arrested less than two weeks later, February 3, for failure to register and is in the county jail, where he’s costing taxpayers $143 a day.

Or take _____. He went to police headquarters March 4, 5, 6 and 7. The records show that each time the Chicago police refused to register him because they were too busy. Finally on March 10 he made it into the office and he was arrested because something called an investigative alert had been issued for him. The Chicago police had been looking for this guy and for a week he’d been standing in a line outside CPD headquarters.

Just one more example: On March 4 _____ went to register and was turned away. He returned on the 5th but police failed to register him again. The note on the police sign in log says he was turned away because he needed a sign language interpreter. So he wasn’t registered. He’s since been arrested and is now in jail for failure to register.

Little information and some misinformation from Chicago Police

For several months WBEZ has repeatedly requested an interview with Police Supt. Garry McCarthy to have a substantive and thoughtful discussion about this complicated issue and for several months, he has refused, and he continues to refuse. Instead of insightful conversations we’ve gotten dismissive emails. We’ve also gotten written statements containing misleading information that minimizes the extent of the problem.

For example, in February, department spokesman Adam Collins sent us a 14-sentence statement saying the police department proactively sends the names of registrants who were turned away to the “Illinois State Police so they know the individual came in to register and he or she should not be subject to arrest.”

According to Tracie Newton with the Illinois State Police, which maintains the sex offender registration, that list from CPD is absolutely useless. Newton says CPD just started sending lists over one day without any discussion or explanation and there’s nothing in the statutes that allows the state police to do anything with the lists.

This past week, Collins sent another email statement saying the department is expanding the registration office and construction should be done by August. Collins provided no details about how much the project will cost or whether there will be additional officers detailed to that section. He also provided no explanation for the hundreds of men that have been turned away from the registration office and have been arrested or are subject to arrest.

IL - Ex-Illinois lawmaker (Keith Farnham) charged with child porn possession, in graphic federal complaint

Keith Farnham

Original Article

04/29/2014

An Illinois state lawmaker who resigned his House seat in March was charged Monday with possession of child pornography, in a federal complaint that detailed graphic online chats.

Former Rep. Keith Farnham, a 66-year-old Democrat, was accused of having two child porn videos on a computer seized from his state office.

The complaint described alleged online chats between an email address linked to Farnham and others in which they discussed their child porn preferences.

"12 is about as old as i can handle. i love them at 6 7 8," read one message, allegedly from the address associated with Farnham, in a chat from November.

The same user, in a chat later that month, also allegedly recalled sexually molesting a 6-year-old girl.

The complaint contains graphic details about pornographic images and videos allegedly traded and sought by Farnham; some of the images were of children under 10 years old and at least one is an infant, the filing said.

According to the Chicago Tribune, Farnham twice co-sponsored bills that would toughen penalties for child porn offenses.

The lawmaker has not been arrested but is scheduled to make an initial appearance in U.S. District Court in Chicago on Wednesday. Farnham has not responded to requests for comment.

Several computers and electronic storage devices with child pornography were discovered in searches on March 13 at Farham's office and home in Elgin, just west of Chicago.

Farnham, who was first elected in 2008, resigned his seat on March 19 -- days after the search warrants were executed. He said at the time that he had to attend to "battling serious health issues."

Suspicion fell on Farnham after authorities linked an email used to trade child pornography online to the then-legislator, the complaint said.

A conviction on a single count of possession of child pornography carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

See Also:

• Farnham campaign touted his record ‘targeting predators’

IL - Petitioners: Release of sex offenders who lack housing

Original Article

When did homelessness become a crime? The very laws the ignorant politicians have passed is what is causing this. Where is the ACLU on this?

04/03/2014

By Edith Brady-Lunny

SPRINGFIELD - A petition filed with the Illinois Supreme Court by 17 prison reform advocates seeks to end a state policy that has forced more than 1,000 sex offenders to serve their parole in prison because they lack approved housing.

Currently, 1,100 sex offenders are being held in state prisons under a "turnaround" policy used for almost a decade by the Illinois Department of Corrections and the Prison Review Board. The policy bars release of a sex offender until housing deemed suitable by the state has been secured.

In a petition filed by lawyers with the MacArthur Justice Center at Northwestern University School of Law and the Uptown People's Law Center, inmate _____ challenges his prison stay beyond his April 12, 2013, scheduled release.

Advocacy groups signing in support of the petition included The John Howard Association, the League of Women Voters of Illinois and the Illinois Public Defender Association.

Advocates argue that the policy unfairly punishes inmates who don't have the resources for a home.

"We stand strongly for the proposition that, in the modern day, the state of being poor, indigent or homeless is never valid cause for imprisonment," advocates said in their petition.

IDOC spokeswoman Stacey Solano said the agency is following the law by holding inmates during their mandatory supervised release, formerly known as parole.

"Public safety is the core mission of this agency. Under the law, sex offenders must have appropriate and approved housing prior to parole. If they are unable to find an approved host site, IDOC will continue to house them until an appropriate site is found or until their discharge date, as IDOC cannot keep an offender past that date," said Solano.

Alan Mills, with The People's Uptown Law Center, said Wednesday that several decisions by state officials have contributed to the problem.

A law that makes it illegal for more than one sex offender to reside in the same facility bars two former inmates from living in the same apartment building, regardless of the size of the complex, said Mills.

The state's pool of transitional housing accommodates only 26 offenders on mandatory supervised release and none of those units is in the Chicago area where the largest number of the state's inmates return.

"Everyone is responsible for this problem and we think the courts should do something to straighten it out," said Mills.

Incarcerating 1,100 people beyond their sentence costs the state about $2.4 million a year, based on IDOC's current per-capita cost of housing an inmate.

A change in the "turnaround" policy would have the added benefit of making more space in an overcrowded network of prisons, said Mills.

In addition to delaying an inmate's return to the community, the practice also means that when the individual leaves prison, they are not under the supervision of a parole agent. There are requirements to register with local police who conduct residency checks, but the more frequent monitoring of a parole officer doesn't happen.

After a tour of Pontiac Correctional Center with a group of lawmakers in February, IDOC Director Tony Godinez said more than 1,000 inmates were eligible for parole "but we can't release them because there's no place for them to go."
- So basically you are holding them against their will simply because they are homeless!  Do you also do that for all the other homeless folks?  Of course you don't, so this is unconstitutional!

The state of Illinois has not yet filed its response to the petition.

According to the Illinois State Police, 180 registered sex offenders reside in McLean County, with nine listed as non-compliant with registration rules and four whose locations were unknown.
- So?  What does this have to do with the article?

McLean County Public Defender Kim Campbell said its very difficult for sex offenders to locate appropriate housing.
- And why is that?  Because of the unconstitutional residency restrictions that's why!

"We have no transitional housing here and the shelters won't take sex offenders. Homeless registrants must register where they are staying every seven days. If they don't have a home it's safe to say reporting every seven days and paying fees is difficult," said Campbell.

The consequences of a violation are serious.

"Technical violations of those requirements can land them back in prison for years. Registration (prison) terms of 10 years to life," said Campbell.
- Which in many cases is more time than their original sentence!  The punishment doesn't fit the crime which is also unconstitutional!

IL - Teens and the Sex Offender Registry – No Good Outcomes for Anyone

George Timberlake

Original Article

02/04/2014

By George Timberlake

Last week, I hailed a taxi in Washington, D C, and asked the driver to take me to the Keck Building for a meeting with a committee of the National Research Council. The cabby recognized the address and asked if I was a scientist. I explained that I am a retired judge and that applying science and research to juvenile court could make us all safer, save taxpayer dollars and improve the futures of kids in the justice system. He said, “That makes sense but just how can that happen?”

The day before, the Illinois Juvenile Justice Commission (IJJC), which I chair, released its nearly two-yearlong study entitled “Improving Illinois’ Response to Sexual Offenses Committed by Youth” (PDF). So, I used it as an example. We found that the number of sexual offenders in our juvenile justice system is very small — 232 arrests in 2010 — and 50 percent of those kids were 14 years old or younger.

The offenses charged were the alleged result of a very wide range of behavior from inappropriate exposure to touching or fondling to sexual penetration. Furthermore, national and Illinois studies reveal that the vast majority of these youth have not acted in response to a deviant sexual arousal or a focused intent to harm others. The victims in the majority of these cases are family members or persons known to the youth.

I continued my “taxi-ride speech” by re-counting the study’s findings that these kids very rarely commit another sex offense and that individually structured treatment is extraordinarily effective. Finally, the study concluded that sex offender registries for juveniles do not increase public safety and often interfere with positive outcomes for both victims and offenders. The report recommends that Illinois’ categorical registry requirements of 10 years to life should be abolished.
- The same applies for adult registrants.  They have a low recidivism rate and have the same issues with housing, employment, etc.

The cabbie asked several pertinent questions, and I told him about adolescent brain development: that kids lack the ability to exercise impulse control, to think of consequences and follow the best course of action. Teenagers are extraordinarily subject to peer influence and genuinely cannot make moral judgments to dictate their behavior. They cannot assess risks, consider future consequences, evaluate rewards and punishments nor react to positive and negative feedback.

He said that he understood how the findings lead to the conclusion about registries. Perhaps because he was a black man in his 60s, he was in a better position than most in realizing that law and practice do not always create justice and public safety.

In the week prior to my D.C. taxi ride, I met with many interested parties to preview the IJJC’s report. While meeting with a former prosecutor, I explained that our report revealed that treatment is effective if it is based on adequate assessment of a youth’s risk of re-offending with a validated assessment tool such as JSOAP or ERASOR. The treatment should be community-based, family-focused evidence-informed and attentive to the needs of the victims and their families while promoting offender accountability. For those few high-risk kids, intensive, specialized and sometimes residential treatment should be available and utilized.

The report recommends training for all juvenile justice system stakeholders; developing adequate and informed standards for sex offender risk assessment; creating a qualification method for treatment professionals and establishing case-planning methods for all those court personnel who deal with youth who have sexually offended.

Finally, based upon low re-offending rates and victim and offender therapists’ agreement that sex offense stigma interferes with successfully treating their clients, the IJJC recommends removing young people from the state’s counter-productive sex offender registry.
- As said above, the same applies to adult registrants as well.

That last recommendation caused the ex-prosecutor to comment and question. He understood the findings from his career in the justice system — the few sex offense cases in a prosecutor or judge’s career make a strong impression and they usually involve a very young offender in a family, peer or neighborhood situation. He had no knowledge of caseload numbers, recidivism rates or treatment effectiveness but was unwilling to abandon registration. As with many court professionals and the public, he believed that registries somehow make us safer.
- We don't think that's reality.  It's called self-preservation!  If one stands up for today's modern day leper and scapegoat, it could ruin their career and reputation!

The contention that registration can somehow prevent future sex crimes simply is not supported by evidence. On the contrary, we found that registries and their requirements can damage the futures of victims and offenders. If the principle of “Do No Harm” applies to the justice system, we must find common ground to protect public safety, exercise fiscal responsibility and create positive outcomes for victims and offenders.

My cab driver understands that. Now, we just have to convince our elected representatives.

IL - Commission recommends removing juvenile offenders from sex registries, bolstering treatment

Original Article

03/25/2014

By JOHN O'CONOR

SPRINGFIELD - Requiring juveniles to register as sex offenders impairs rehabilitation efforts for a crime that very few of them ever commit again, a study released Tuesday says.
- The same applies to adults as well, if you look at the facts!

The Illinois Juvenile Justice Commission's report recommends ending the practice of making offenders younger than 17 add their names to sex-offender registries, which can negatively affect an offender for years. Every juvenile convicted of a sex crime must register, and 70 percent of the 2,553 currently registered must do so for life, the report said.

The 150-page review of laws and treatment practices regarding juvenile sex crimes calls for the state to abolish the categorical requirement for young offenders' registration. The report, which the General Assembly requested in 2012, says sex crimes committed in youth are seldom repeated in adulthood and that individualized, community-based treatment plans are highly effective and more productive than incarceration.

"Automatic, categorical registries do not protect public safety," commission chairman George Timberlake, a retired chief circuit judge from Mount Vernon, told The Associated Press. "There's no evidentiary basis that says they do and more importantly, they have very negative consequences in the effects they have on the offenders' life, and perhaps the victim's life."

Timberlake said the victim, often a family member, loses confidentiality through offender registration and can also suffer from not being able to resume a familial relationship with an offender who is required to register. He added that a registry might be appropriate based on risk. Many states offer courts flexibility.

The report recommends developing statewide standards and training for courts and law enforcement professionals for intervening with young sex offenders and victims. It also calls for a consistent assessment tool for evaluating risks an individual juvenile poses. Also, the report says, offenders whenever possible should be kept in treatment programs in their homes that involve parents as opposed to locking them up.

There were 232 juveniles arrested for sex crimes in Illinois in 2010, down from 434 in 2004. Timberlake said only a few dozen of those were incarcerated for their crimes. He said locking the juveniles up should be a last resort for reasons including the state Juvenile Justice Department not having enough money to provide proper treatment.

More than half of juvenile sex offenders are younger than 14, he said.

"They're very young," Timberlake said. "Most of this conduct can be explained by a lack of maturity, literally, developmental disabilities, a lack of social skills, or that they were abused themselves."
- And by today's mass hysteria.  Many of these "crimes," in the old days, would not be considered a crime!

IL - Search warrant for former Elgin lawmaker's (Keith Farnham) office sought child porn

Keith Farnham

Original Article

03/21/2014

By Ray Long and Maura Zurick

SPRINGFIELD - Federal agents sought evidence of child pornography last week when they seized computers from the Elgin district office of former state Rep. Keith Farnham, who resigned Wednesday, according to a search warrant released Friday.

In addition, a federal agent on Thursday took a laptop computer that Farnham used in the Illinois House chamber, and last week agents removed a computer from a legislative office building next to the Capitol, according to the documents and an interview with a state technology official.

Asked about the child pornography matter, Farnham, 66, said Friday in a phone interview: “I can’t comment about any of it.”

Farnham has not been accused of any wrongdoing. Randall Samborn, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Chicago, said no charges have been filed and refused further comment.

Farnham handed in his resignation on Wednesday, saying he was “battling serious health issues for a number of years.” He had won the Democratic primary on Tuesday, running unopposed.

Democratic leaders from the area will choose Farnham’s replacement.

The federal investigation came to light last week when authorities acknowledged search warrants were executed at Farnham’s Elgin district office and home. Several computers and equipment were seized at Farnham’s district office, as well as a computer from his office near the Capitol, according to federal records obtained by the Tribune using the Illinois Freedom of Information Act.

An attachment to the March 7 warrant to search Farnham’s district office indicated agents were searching for “documents in any format and medium pertaining to the possession, receipt or distribution of child pornography” as well as computer files, copies and negatives of child pornography or any documents that depicted minors “engaged in sexually explicit conduct.” Agents also sought accounts tied to any Internet service provider or computer file sharing, according to the records.

The Thursday request for the laptop Farnham used in the House chamber came from an agent with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, part of the federal Department of Homeland Security, said Tim Rice, who oversees information technology for the General Assembly.

“They basically made a request, and I consented to it,” said Rice, executive director of the Legislative Information System, which oversees electronics in the House.

Farnham took office in 2009 and received $74,569 in pay in 2013, according to comptroller records.

IL - Crowded Chicago Police office forces sex offenders to violate parole

Waiting outside in the cold

Original Article

03/03/2014

By Rob Wildeboer

The Chicago Police Department forces sex offenders to violate their parole. I know that sounds crazy. I thought it was crazy when I first heard about it, but I’ve spent a lot of time in the last two weeks with sex offenders waiting -- for hours and hours -- outside police headquarters and watching a Kafkaesque process play out.


Every morning sex offenders start lining up at 6, while it’s still dark out, sometimes even earlier than that, and I probably don’t have to remind you how cold it’s been this winter. _____ was one of a couple dozen men on a recent morning.
- We're sure they don't care.  Ex-offenders in other states have froze to death due to not being allowed into shelters during cold weather.

“It’s freezing out here,” said _____. “Man, I had frost bites today. Somebody gave me some gloves to put on my hands.”

It’s often like this, with the men stomping their feet on the cold concrete, trying to stay warm. For some reason, there’s no waiting room. A small vestibule acts as a makeshift waiting room but there are 20 guys stuck outside. By 10:30 a.m. all of the men are cold and frustrated. “I been here since 7 o’clock waiting in line trying to see these people to keep me from being locked up,” said _____.

Ambulance needed

On this morning an ambulance was called for one of the men because he had numbness in his feet. After that, the men were allowed to wait in the main lobby of police headquarters but that’s the exception to the rule.

People convicted as sex offenders have to register once a year. It basically means they have to go to the police department registration office and update their personal info and show proof of their current address. And if they move, they have to go back to re-register within three days. If they enroll in school they have to re-register within three days. If they change jobs they have to re-register within three days.

There are a lot of requirements and in Chicago, and they can be nearly impossible to meet, not because the offenders don’t want to meet them but because of the way the Chicago Police Department runs the registration office.

When I met _____ in line it was his third time trying to get in the office to register. “Every time we come here they have us standing in this line out here in this cold,” he said.

_____ was turned away the other two days because the office doesn't have the capacity to process all the sex offenders who show up to register, and _____’s worried the same thing is going to happen again. “At 12 o’clock they’ll cut the line, they’ll stop the line and tell us to come back tomorrow but I been standing out here already four to five hours,” said _____.

Go home, but you can still be arrested

Sure enough, an hour later, at 11:45 a.m., a man comes out of the registry office and tells _____ and the two dozen other men who have been waiting in the cold all morning, that they won’t be able to register today. But then it gets weirder. The police department employee tells the men they can sign a list that will prove they showed up today to register but then he tells them that even if they’re on the list, they can still be arrested for failing to register.

In a written statement, Adam Collins, a spokesman for the Chicago Police, said the list is collected and the department “proactively sends their names to Illinois State Police … to minimize any potential criminal registration problems for the individuals.”

Of course letting the men actually register would be an even more effective way to minimize registration problems. For clarity, I asked Collins several times, aren’t the men at risk of being arrested? He simply resent a portion of his written statement.

For the offenders being turned away every day -- sometimes 10, 20, or even more of them -- the message they’re getting is that the department prefers to risk their arrest rather than process this paperwork more quickly.

Violating registration rules can mean prison

The men are nervous and they have good reason. According to the Illinois Department of Corrections there are currently 841 people in prison for violating registration requirements.

Read the rest of the article

IL - Sex Offenders May Be Banned From Illinois County Fairs

Original Article

Fear monger much? Come on, what's next? An ex-offender cannot attend a restaurant because kids may be there, or a grocery story?

02/12/2014

By Angie Sharp

A bill under consideration would ban registered sex offenders from going to county fairs.

“There is a loophole in the current sex offender law that says you can’t work at the county fairs or you can’t be a vendor at the county fairs, but you can attend them,” Illinois State Representative Mike Smiddy told News 8′s Angie Sharp on Wednesday, February 12th, 2014.

State Rep. Smiddy heard about the loophole following the 2013 Whiteside County Fair. The State’s Attorney for Whiteside County called him and explained an instance where a Whiteside County Sheriff’s Deputy noticed a convicted sex offender around children at the fair. However, he wasn’t able to do anything, because it’s not against the law.

“When a state’s attorney comes to you and says this is a real issue for our kids and our county, you want to kind of listen and do what you think is right and a change in this law is the right thing to do,” says State Rep. Smiddy.

“If it stops one person, done deal,” says Bob Fox, Director of the Great Mississippi Valley Fair.

Fox says the law – if passed – could act as a deterrent for sex offenders who may want to go to an event that’s supposed to be focused on families.

“Under my watch, I don’t want anything to happen to anybody,” he tells News 8′s Angie Sharp. “You always have to think out of the box because what’s out of the box happens here.”

Fox and his team found that out in 2011, when a registered sex offender dressed up as Cookie Monster and walked around the fair passing out flyers.

“It was weird,” Fox says. “It was very strange.”

Police arrested the man for trying to work at the fair. Fox says it was a lesson learned.

“Now we know what’s abnormal and what’s not. We really do.”

Fox says it is unrealistic to check every single person who walks through the front gate. Representative Smiddy agrees. However, both say if that loophole can become law, police will have more power and fairs can go back to being fun.

In Illinois, the law only applies to county fairs.

In Iowa, a law states that registered sex offenders are not allowed to work or be a vendor at any city, county, or state fair or carnival when open. Unless told by their Parole Officer, they can attend a fair. Iowa State Representative Phyllis Thede tells News 8′s Angie Sharp that it’s not something they’re considering changing in the 2014 legislative session.

See Also:

• Illinois tries to tighten sex-offender law, but will it make people safer?

IL - Sex offender murder in Parkfield Terrace draws Major Case Squad

Original Article

02/08/2014

By CAROLYN P. SMITH

The murder of a registered sex offender Thursday night in the Parkfield Terrace neighborhood led to a call for help to the Major Case Squad of Greater St. Louis.

_____, 26, of Parkfield Terrace, was found dead on the ground after the St. Clair County Sheriff's Department was called at 9:26 p.m. Thursday, Lt. George Mokriakow said. _____ appeared to have died after being shot near 159 Amelia Drive.

_____ was a registered sex offender convicted of felonies for failing to report a new address and for aggravated criminal sexual abuse of a 15-year-old victim when he was 20. His registered address was 179 Amelia Drive.

Parkfield Terrace is an unincorporated neighborhood between Centreville and Cahokia with a decades-long history of drug violence and other crime. The St. Clair County Sheriff's Department has primary responsibility for investigations and patrols of the area.

Anyone with information about the murder should call the Major Case Squad at 618-825-5200 or 618-825-5201.