Friday, January 28, 2011

Stone Makes Second Run at GPS Monitoring for Sex Offenders


Some repeat sex offenders in Maryland could find themselves tethered to a GPS tracking unit if a bill sponsored by Sen. Norman Stone is passed during the current General Assembly session.
Under the bill filed by Stone, a Dundalk Democrat, sex offenders who have been convicted twice of an offense involving a minor and who are already required to be supervised for life by traditional means would have to wear the devices.
"Many of these sex offenders are going to re-offend no matter what you kind of requirements you put on them to stay away from children or schools or parks," Stone said. "At least if you have the tracking device then you have a way to monitor them."
Sen. Kathy Klausmeier, a Democrat who represents the 8th District including Perry Hall, Parkville and Overlea, is a co-sponsor on the bill.
Currently, state law passed in 2006 allows a judge to order the devices as part of the sentence.
This is not the first year for the proposal. In fact, Stone sponsored this bill last year.
Stone was at a loss for why the legislature has not passed the bill in past sessions.
"It's not easy to pass (sex offender) bills even though many other states already have them," said Stone, who added that he wished the legislature would be more proactive on criminal justice issues.
"That's why we have so many laws now named after people — because we're being reactive," Stone said.
Other legislation introduced by county legislators includes:
  • A bill that would ban the sale of caffeinated alcoholic beverages, such as Four Loko, within the state. The bill is sponsored by Del. Dana Stein, a Democrat who represents the 11th District including Owings Mills, Pikesville and part of Timonium. Co-sponsors include Democratic Dels. Jon Cardin and Dan Morhaim, who also represent the 11th District, and Steve Lafferty, who represents the 42nd District including Towson, Timonium and part of Pikesville.
  • A bill sponsored by Del. Shirley Nathan-Pulliam that would authorize the state Board of Nursing to approve licensing exams for electrologists. The bill would also require yearly renewal of those licenses.
  • Brochin is also sponsoring a bill that would take away the ability of legislators to award scholarships and move the entire program to the Office of Student Finacial Assistance. Senators can award up to $138,000 in scholarships annually and delegates can award the equivalent of four four-year, full-time scholarships in each term. Brochin sponsored a similar bill before and has spoken out against the program during his previous two terms in office.
"I think what's new here is that it's a new Senate and a new Education, Health and Environmental Affairs committee, " Brochin said. "A lot of us from leadership on down are trying to make heads and tails of the new Senate."
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"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:
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“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?”
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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:
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“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.”
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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.”