CA - When sex-offender laws promote more crimes

Original Article

04/15/2014

National City has become the latest California city to face a lawsuit from a registered San Luis Obispo County sex offender over its sex-offender regulations. Frank Lindsay, 61, of Grover Beach, contends such local ordinances are superseded by Jessica’s Law, the 2006 measure adopted by California voters.

Among the provisions of Jessica’s Law is a prohibition on registered sex offenders living within 2,000 feet of any school or park. It was named for Jessica Lunsford, a Florida girl who was raped and murdered by a previously convicted sex offender.

Many communities, including National City, have adopted even more restrictive laws of their own. With the assistance of attorney Janice Bellucci — who says society must accept that sex offenders still have civil liberties — Lindsay has been making headway in going after these laws. In January, a state appellate court struck down separate measures adopted by Irvine and Orange County that required sex offenders to gain formal government permission before entering city or county parks. “The state intended to fully occupy the field of regulating registered sex offenders,” the appeals court ruled.

But instead of fighting Lindsay’s lawsuit, National City and other local cities that face similar challenges need a moment of clarity: What do they hope to achieve with sex-offender regulations?

Is the goal making sex offenders’ lives as miserable as possible? Or is it to reduce the likelihood that they will commit new sex crimes?

If it is the former, then fighting for Megan’s Law and even stricter local ordinances makes sense. If the goal is the latter, then these laws make no sense at all.

Setting up residency restrictions that make it difficult and in some cases impossible for sex offenders to stay with their families and to find work “contradicts decades of criminological research identifying factors associated with successful offender reintegration” into society, according to University of Louisville professor Richard Tewksbury and other authorities on sex-offender rehabilitation.

The released sex offender with a job, stable housing and supportive people in his life is far less a threat to the community than a sex offender who is a jobless transient kept from his family.

We understand where National City Mayor Ron Morrison is coming from when he told a U-T reporter that he hoped his city’s ordinance stayed in place: “If you are a registered predatory sex offender on children, I am sorry, you don’t get all your rights.”

We suspect the vast majority of the public shares this sentiment, which is why Jessica’s Law passed in a landslide. We also understand why folks would bristle at Bellucci’s characterization of this issue as being about civil liberties.

But if the goal is to avoid more tragedies like Jessica Lunsford’s, Californians need to think clearly and get past the bluster and demagoguery sometimes seen on public-safety issues. If existing laws make sex crimes more likely, they should be changed.

MO - Springfield 'sex offender house' gets 2-month reprieve

Original Article

04/14/2014

By Jess Rollins

Thirty days ago, the City of Springfield gave residents of 1809 E. Crestview St. exactly 30 days to clear out.

Today, the residents of the home — some sex offenders, some parolees, some drug addicts — are staying put.

An appeal filed today by Recovery Chapel, which operates the so-called group home, has delayed action against the house for at least two more months.

Last month city staffers investigated the halfway house at the urging of neighbors. Many seemed most concerned about the number of residents who appeared on the Greene County sex offender registry.

At the time, there were five. Today, there are two.

During city staffers' investigation of the home, they determined the home did not meet the zoning requirements of a group home.

The director of building development services wrote that the house acts more as a "community corrections facility" than a group home because of the high number of residents on probation and parole.
- Maybe the city needs to open a dictionary and read what a Halfway House is?

The city gave the residents 30 days to move or disband.

But today, a St. Louis-based attorney filed a formal appeal with the city on behalf of Recovery Chapel.

That means enforcement of the 30-day notice will be delayed until the case is heard by the city's Board of Adjustment, a five-member board made of members nominated by the City Manager and appointed by City Council.

The appeal is scheduled to go before the board June 3.

Chaplain Farris Robertson, who has fought the city's action against the Crestview house, confirmed the home continues to operate as usual.

See Also:

• (03/14/2014) In wake of News-Leader watchdog column, city takes action on home with sex offenders

Are prisons failing when it comes to preparing inmates for life on the outside?

Prison Nation

Original Article

Like we've said before, prison is a business not a treatment facility. They should be treating the inmates like the human beings they are, not like animals, then maybe things would change.

By Scott Alessi

In a story that sounds more like it would have taken place in The Shawshank Redemption, an inmate released from prison last week after serving more than 13 years did the only thing he could think to do when he became a free man: He went back to the scene of his original crime and got himself arrested again.

_____ was first convicted in 1999 for robbing a shoe store in Toms River, New Jersey and given a mandatory minimum sentence of just under 13 years. When he was released last Friday, he took a bus to Toms River and went back to the same store, unarmed, and stole $389 from the cash register, along with the cell phones of two employees. He threw the phones in a garbage can at the shopping center and didn't even keep the cash, which police reportedly found in a gutter behind the building. _____ was easily found just a few blocks away and arrested, almost as if he was waiting for the police to come take him home.

Toms River police chief Mitchell Little offered the following explanation of _____'s actions to NBC News New York: "Maybe that's the only life he knows, and the only thing he could think of was going back to the same store and doing the same crime again--getting caught and going back where he was taken care of and told what to do and getting meals and shelter and everything else."

Sadly, I think that Little is correct. Adjusting to life outside of the prison structure is a serious problem for inmates who have served long sentences, and is just one of the problems with the nation's current incarceration system. Some ex-offenders have no social contacts, no resources, and literally nowhere to go. It has especially become an issue for those suffering from mental illness, who sometimes get themselves arrested because prison is the only place where they can receive stable care and supervision.

In the face of high recidivism rates, some states have looked into ways to better prepare inmates for the transition out of prison. Texas is one state that has implemented limited programming to attempt to reduce its prison population, with some success. In 2012 I interviewed a former Texas inmate who detailed some of those programs, which included such basics as how to look presentable for a job interview. The need for much more extensive programming is clearly there, he told me, but funding challenges prohibit more inmates from benefiting from this kind of assistance before their release.

Texas is also home to the fantastic nonprofit organization Bridges to Life, which provides prisons with a restorative justice program geared toward rehabilitation. But the program also gives inmates an opportunity to hone their social skills by interacting with people outside the prison culture--a critical tool needed for adjusting to life after incarceration. Such grassroots efforts are one way that individuals can volunteer their time to help those in prison prepare for the day when they get out, and to help make sure they stay out, all without adding an additional financial burden to the prison system.

If one thing is clear from _____'s case, it is that simply reducing the prison population isn't enough. Major efforts are needed to help the people released from prison to redeem themselves and to live healthy and productive lives once their prison term is behind them. For a pro-life church, protecting and improving the lives of this vulnerable population should be a serious concern.

The neuroscience of restorative justice (Survey)

Video Description:
Daniel Reisel studies the brains of criminal psychopaths (and mice). And he asks a big question: Instead of warehousing these criminals, shouldn’t we be using what we know about the brain to help them rehabilitate? Put another way: If the brain can grow new neural pathways after an injury … could we help the brain re-grow morality?

Survey: Task Force on Restoration of Rights and Status after Conviction

GA - Albany organization lobbys for ex-offenders

Dr. Charles Ochie

Original Article

03/06/2014

By Nicole Rosales

ALBANY (WALB) - Albany Second Chance hopes to bring attention to the hundreds of people in Dougherty County who are having a tough time creating a stable lifestyle. Members say its partly because a their criminal record holds them back.

President of Albany Second Chance, Dr. Charles Ochie, feels the meeting will allow them to communicate to lawmakers how important it is to address the issues that ex-offenders face. He says it's not only a member's concern but a community concern, because it involves the safety of Dougherty County citizens.

Dr. Ochie feels in order to get to the root of our crime problem have to find a way to break the cycle. They hope to bring awareness, generate a support system and develop solutions to get those previously imprisoned back on track.

"We try to get them back into the community, find them jobs, connect them with their families, with the church, so they feel they are part of the community again," Dr. Ochie said.

Vice President, Dr. Patrick Ibe, says some of these people are family men, brothers and uncles, they have paid their dues and need to be given a chance.

Albany Second Chance says that is what they will be fighting for during Thursday's meeting at the state capitol. Members feel grateful and are excited for the opportunity to be a part of something that is very important to them.