Saturday, December 18, 2010

Thanks, Daniel, for your article on "Truth and Lies"


 #1 Lie - ( told by legislators and politicians across America in order to enact laws that seem to be the right thing but are actually exacerbating the problem of what to do about people convicted of sex offenses) Sexual offenders often pose a high risk of engaging in sex offenses even after being released from incarceration. 943.0435 section 12 (2005) Similar claims are made by lawmakers all across the country to enact ordinances and other new laws.  

#1 Truth - There is a widely held but erroneous belief that sex offenders continually repeat their offenses. Authoritative studies indicate that 3 out of 4 adult sex offenders do not re-offend./S.A.T.A. cure sort news Fall 07`\ According to a fact sheet published by the national center on institutions and alternative sentencing 87% of once caught sex offenders do not go on to be re-arrested for a subsequent new sex offense while the naysayers in the media and some legislators and politicians continue to propagate the myth of high recidivism for convicted sex offenders. Their reporting is not based on corroborative data. However the N.C.I.A.S shows that their figures have been substantiated by multiple studies. Patty Wetterling is quoted as saying " most shocking to me is that sex offenders are less likely to re-offend than commonly thought "! The only fact material to subjecting offender to designation as a sex offender is a qualifying conviction with no consideration as to whether an offender is at risk to commit another crime. /894 So2d 924\ /538 U.S. 84 page17\ The recidivism rate for sex offenders according to the 2003 department of justice study is 5.3%. (95% do not re-offend).    

#2 Lie - Sex offenders are all scumbags who contribute nothing to society, have no life and can never change their ways!  

 #2 Truth - Sometimes teachers end up with sex offender charges such as former teacher Debra Lefave 12-05-07 USA Today. Sometimes they are politicians as in the case of Mark Foley (Newsweek 10-09-06) or representative Bob Allen who was caught requesting sex in a public bathroom during a vice sting (News journal 11-14-07) Everybody has heard about the catholic priest sex scandals but will somebody please bring to attention this local hero, In Lind, Nebraska a registered sex offender rescued a 3 year old boy wandering city streets while his parents slept. The registrant picked the child up and promptly drove to the nearest gas station to call police (USA Today 10-25-07 page 10a). Through treatment , community and family support , and personal commitment most persons who have sexually abused can become responsible members of society and those at risk to sexually act out can successfully learn ways not to abuse. (Yellow S.A.T.A. pamphlet). After pleading child sexual abuse years prior to the act (legislative) John Doe successfully completed a treatment program, remarried, established a business, was reunited with his family, completed supervision, was granted custody of a minor daughter, and after a courts determination was ruled not a pedophile who has a very low risk of re-offending. (538 U.S. 84).                                    

#3 Lie - The registry laws are legal and help protect society and our children from sex offenders.

#3 Truth - Savannah democrat Regina Thames says legislatures vote for statutes that do not work and even exacerbate the problem they are intending to fix, out of fear of not voting on any bill that sex offenders a hard time. For appearance sakes they vote for a bill that makes the streets less safe for children while likely violating registered sex offenders’ constitutional rights. (Prison Legal News Dec. 06, Volume 17 #2 ). To the general public the new laws being passed pertaining to people convicted of sex offenses seem like a fine idea, unfortunately these laws are built on hysteria and misconceptions. Even worse these laws shift resources away from preventing sexual abuse, supporting survivors and creating community safety! Despite no evidence to show that these laws protect children from sexual violence many states and locales continue to pass these laws that have been proven to promote public harassment, housing discrimination, physical assaults, murder and suicides! Even more disturbing is that residency requirements cause instability which increases the risk of re-offense. Research has shown that sex offenders with domestic stability are less likely to commit new sex offenses. The evidence is overwhelming these laws cause great harm to people subject to them as well as their families while supporters of these laws are unable to point to convincing evidence of public safety gains from these laws.              

Written by DanielC

Truth and Lies expanded edition coming soon!  =

No comments:

Post a Comment

One To See Change Past Posts

One to See Change Blog List

"When an American says that he loves his country, he means not only that he loves the New England hills, the prairies glistening in the sun, the wide and rising plains, the great mountains, and the sea. He means that he loves an inner air, an inner light in which freedom lives and in which a man can draw the breath of self-respect."
~Adlia Stevenson U.S. Vice President (1893–1897) and Congressman (1879–1881)

On a Personal Note

Thanks for the opportunity to express my thoughts regarding the issue of citizens’ rights, particularly addressing certain sex offenders’ crimes that do not fit the devastating, inequitable and endless punishment given.


As you know, many young men and women lives across the nation are being destroyed by incarceration, life-time registry and restrictive laws that do more harm than good. For those individuals, there is no second chance.

Below is a personal letter to President Obama:
* * * *
“Dear President Obama,

I truly agree with your sentiments that individuals, such as ex-felons, should be able to receive a second chance at life. Since we all know that one can veer off that path of life and travel along rough, rocky terrain, sometimes running off and ending up in some ditch. We all have made our fill of mistakes and sometimes those held a costly consequence that changed life forever. So we lived through it, trying harder to make things right with family, friends and those around us, but what about those who aren’t able to make things right even if they tried…because they’re labeled as too dirty, a leper, a person who is rejected from society and home.


But what if they’re a seventeen year old and had sex with a fifteen year old, consensual at that? Or they’re a teen that had gotten so enraged after a breakup that he sent out naked pictures of his girlfriend on his cell phone or email? Or an individual urinates where someone just happens to see them?


All are wrong and a travesty but do they deserve the life of no second chance with a registry that ends all. They are labeled, no jobs, no where to live…they have been deemed a menace to society, a plague. These certain circumstances, and many other situations similar to these, I believe still deserve a second change.

Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution


Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.


After my son’s early release and two years of prison, I thought I had handled that fact graciously knowing after serving his time he would be able to get that fresh start, that second chance. He was an exemplary inmate, GED, college courses and vocational classes. Little did I know that a second chance on the outside was the farthest from the truth? He now struggles and lives in a trailer park sharing a trailer with another and surrounded by others in the same rocking boat, one to float endlessly in shark infested waters. I see him little because of probation requirements (he couldn’t live with us because we were 800 feet near a school). My family is afraid of what would happen to them if he lived with them…vigilantism. My son has no other place to stay since others condemn him of his crime that is screamed from the highest rooftop. Sex offender, sex offender!

Not all sex offenders are pedophiles or predators but some are simply young kids that make one stupid and rash decision that eventually changes everything, and they have no idea what they’ve done until their life is never their own. Exactly, where is that second chance for those sex-offenders who are lumped together with pedophiles and predators? Now, it makes me sick to think of my son’s future and many like him that are on the registry and many with no second chance…ever. I am asking you as a mother and as another concerned citizen of the United States that these laws are looked at again and taken into serious consideration in what they are doing to the Constitution of the United States, not for sex offenders in general but the future rights of every citizen, before anymore are put into effect. They unjustly strip an offender of their rights and place them in a guillotine that can be easily set off by anyone and at anytime. Where is the second chance for ex-sex offenders in the present, pending and future laws?”
* * * *
What truly saddens me is the weakness and deterioration of what the sex offense issue is doing to our once, great nation. Across Europe, others are seeing the injustice and disregard of rights, but we ignore this problem and it makes me wonder where humanity is heading….

We have become a hysterical society in which our latest witch-hunt is a sex offender--no matter his/her crime.

Below is a email sent from a foreign advocate to a father of a sex offender:
* * * *
“The tragic story of your son's death is just so sad that it's difficult to explain how. It was very hard to read your letters. It seems almost unbelievable that this can take place in a democracy! From our point of view, there is no justice in this. Not in any way: not for you, your son, the former girl friend – or even the state.

It is an abusive legal system. It seems barbaric. And we are so very sorry that this takes place. That's why it's so important for us to try to neutralize the debate with this…, hopefully making some changes. ….. to show the every day life of the sex offenders, trying to show how they keep on being punished, even after served prison time…..But we will for sure tell the story of the injustice that your son has been exposed to.”
* * * *
I appreciate everyone's commitment and backing to protect everyone's civil rights, plainly as noted in the Constitution of the United States and is presupposed, giving ALL men are “life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.”