The Outline: What Follows Punishment?
When people convicted of sex offenses in the United States finish their criminal sentences, they generally face a slew of regulations and restrictions — from offender registries to residency restrictions to the possibility of lifelong civil commitment — that leave them isolated, stigmatized, and surveilled. But while Richard knew that living in the free world as a convicted sex offender wouldn’t be easy, nothing prepared him for the reality. …
Posted: September 27, 2019The Marshall Project: When People with Intellectual Disabilities Are Punished, Parents Pay the Price
Carol Nesteikis, 66, has never committed a crime. But for two years, from six in the evening to six in the morning the next day, she lived under de facto house arrest with her 32-year-old son, Adam. It wasn’t because she wanted to. The home itself was a kind of punishment, she says. …
Posted: September 13, 2019The Appeal: The Rise of Registries (Podcast)
Earlier this year, lawmakers in New York proposed a bill that would bar people convicted of multiple sex offenses from ever using New York City’s subway system again. The plan, which would inflict a form of banishment in the name of public safety, is part of a broader pattern. Sex offender registries increasingly include children under the age of 18, and some states permit children as young as 7 to be registered. But a growing body of evidence suggests that our reliance on registries—not just for sex crimes but also for terrorism, gun, and drug offenses—may allow politicians to look like they’re taking action while actually doing little to curb abuse. To discuss the rise of registries, we are joined by Appeal contributor Guy Hamilton-Smith and Elizabeth Letourneau, professor and director of the Moore Center for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Posted: September 12, 2019The Appeal: People On Sex Offender Registry Should Shelter From Dorian In Jail
For some people convicted of sex crimes in Florida, the only shelter open to them during Hurricane Dorian was the county jail. In some counties, people on the registry were barred from shelters set up for those evacuating, and told to go to separate locations, away from children and other community members. If they attempted to stay with friends or relatives, they faced daunting residency and registration requirements, according to the Florida Action Committee, which advocates for reform of sex offender registry laws. Failure to comply can mean a felony conviction and incarceration. In Osceola County, a separate shelter was set up at the housing agency for “sex offenders,” meaning people on the registry, according to a local news report by WKMG-TV. And in Flagler County, registered sex offenders were directed to go to the sheriff’s office for shelter, according to a WJXT-TV report. The Nassau County Board of Commissioners website advised people on the sex offender registry to seek shelter in the county jail. “It was such a traumatic experience to be incarcerated. I’m not going to subject myself to that voluntarily,” a representative with the Florida Action Committee told The Appeal. “I’d rather tie myself to a tree.” …
Posted: September 4, 2019[Huffington Post] — Sex Offender Registries Don’t Keep Kids Safe, But Politicians Keep Expanding Them Anyway
By Michael Hobbes | July 16th, 2019 The first time Damian Winters got evicted was in 2015. He was living with his wife and two sons in suburban Nashville when his probation officer called his landlord and informed him that Winters was a registered sex …
Posted: July 16, 2019[The Appeal] New Law Forces Dozens on Tennessee’s Sex Offender Registry From Their Homes
By Steven Yoder | June 28th, 2019 Last Sunday, Jason broke the news to his 7-year-old daughter: He’d be moving out. When a new Tennessee law goes into effect Monday, he will be barred from living with her. The law, Senate Bill 425, also forbids him fro …
Posted: June 29, 2019Detroit Free Press — Michigan lawmakers ordered to revise the Sex Offender Registry Act
May 24th, 2019 | By Aleanna Siacon A U.S. district court judge is giving Michigan lawmakers 90 days to change the state’s sex offender registry law, almost three years after it was first ruled unconstitutional by federal appeals court. U.S. District Ju …
Spring 2019 Symposium — Residency Restrictions: Wise or Unwise
On February 28th, the Journal of Public Law & Policy held a symposium at Mitchell Hamline discussing the wisdom of laws banishing people convicted of sex offenses from living in a wide swath of residential areas. Those heard at the event included a …
Posted: March 20, 2019Miami-Dade Sex Offenders ‘Forced to be Homeless’
The Crime Report | By Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg Since he was released from prison almost five years ago, John has never had a place he can call home. Suffering from Parkinson’s disease, he spends nights outside in remote areas of Miami-Dade County—slee …
Posted: February 20, 2019Michigan AG Dana Nessel Does the Unthinkable: Argues the Truth about SORA
By Guy Hamilton-Smith Michigan’s Attorney General has entered the cultural and legal conflagration of how we reckon with sexual violence in our society with a remarkable (and compelling) argument: Michigan’s sex offender registries are not effective at …
Posted: February 20, 2019[Detroit Free Press] Treatment of sex offenders depends on whether they’ve challenged rules
WASHINGTON – Eight months after the U.S. Supreme Court effectively upheld a decision saying parts of Michigan’s sex offender registry law — one of the toughest in the nation — were unconstitutional, thousands of former sex offenders who thought they’d …
Posted: June 8, 2018The Sex-Offender Panic is Destroying Lives
The Washington Post The Sex-Offender Panic is Destroying Lives September 19, 2017 By Radley Balko