Sex Offender Story of Week
 | | David Slane |
Original Article
06/04/2014
By David Slane (Law Firm)
In 2007, the Oklahoma State Legislature approved a new law that required all sex offenders be classified under a three-tier system that placed offenders in a specific category depending on the nature of the sex crime.
However, the Oklahoma Department of Corrections (DOC) went a step further and made the new registration law retroactive to 1998. However, in June 2013, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled the retroactive application of the rule was unconstitutional.
The court’s landmark ruling allowed more than 2,000 sex offenders to remove their names from the statewide registry because their registration requirements had either expired or would be prolonged by the 2007 law.
The law has left everyone scratching their heads about what’s next. The current registration system makes no sense and leaves plenty of room for debate about fairness and public safety.
It makes sense for the state Legislature to return to the drawing board and start over on this law.
Some people are on the registry because they urinated in a public street, and they’re not sex offenders. State officials need to stop wasting time and precious resources on those registrants. For the record, indecent exposure convictions and other low-level offenses require 15 years of registration.
Instead, devote the majority of resources to the high-risk offenders who need the most intensive supervision and strictest registration requirements the state can offer. The high-risk offenders should be required to check in daily, which would give the public a higher level of security.
Level 2 offenders, those who pose a moderate danger to the community, must register for 25 years. Meanwhile, Level 3 offenders, those who pose a serious danger to the community and are likely to engage in criminal sexual conduct, must register for their lifetime.
Part of the problem is that DOC officials, when implementing the system, tossed most of Oklahoma’s sex offenders into the Level 3 category. They didn’t want to take the heat to make an honest assessment of each case.
Changing the system will take a groundswell of public support. Still, reform of any kind might cause consternation for most state lawmakers who have never seen a sex offender law they didn’t like. It’s popular to be tough on crime, which includes drunks who urinate next to their car.
It’s time for Oklahoma legislators to stop thinking about re-election and polls and study what works and doesn’t work with the sex offender registration system.
One solution is to remove the registration assessment out of the hands of DOC only and rework the procedure to include trial judges, district attorneys and defense attorneys. That would provide a higher level of fairness while ensuring public safety. A broken system gives parents and the community a false sense of security while really protecting no one.
When most people think of a sex offender, they think of a baby raper or serial rapist. But the truth is most sex offenders are convicted of nothing even similar. We need to stop painting every sex offender with the same broad brush and look at individuals for what they did and act accordingly.
While high-risk sex offenders need to be closely supervised, it’s critical for others who have completed their sentence to be given a second chance at life
| |
|
Personal Story of the Week This was borrowed from the National RSOL Tales from the Registry. No Copyright infringement intended. All families of
sex offender PLEASE write the [your government officials] As a wife of a sex offender ,I live day to day ,going on four years now
,wondering ,crying,praying ,and doing all i can to make a voice in the
wilderness ,crying out .”Wheres the help ?” Wheres the 700,000,000 families of
sex offenders voices to cry with me about how unconstitutional these laws are to
not only the family member who is labeled a sex offender ,but also their
families ?”
They need to all cry loud to these government officials , swarm
their mailboxes with letters of how the families are being affected by all these
SOR rules ,restrictions. “Do you have children ?”if you did you would do it for
them as much as your loved one.
Think about the many children who are being
punished for a bad mistake their father ,or mother made back then .They cant
have their parents to be there when a play is going on at school .or a sports
game , family reunions, just to go fishing ,or enjoy everyday life activities as
normal families get the priviledge to do .Our son will never be able to have
even a friend ,cause kids are not allowed to be around my husband ,since his
label.
Our son will not be able to go on a date someday .cause of society
label on my husband ,get married and have children , my husband will not be able
to be a grandpa even .
We have to face our children when they are isolated,
outcast,shunned ,bullied ,cause someone may found out our loved ones are on the
registry .
God forbid I hope we wont see one of our children try to take his
or her life ,from being depressed and cant handle the stigma .of what this
registry does to people .”What about .vigilantism?” “Will we all have to face
this someday ?” cause the public registry makes it so the whole whole world will
know everything about you ,address to where someone works,lives ,what their lic
tags numbers..
I want to tell all sex offender families to please speak up
,write our legislators,swarm their mail boxes , emails or regular mail .make
petitions to get the registry private only, make petitions for us to be able to
live freely ,long as we abide ,live in peace ,and not get in any
trouble.
petitition for the restrictions of not being able to go no where is
unconstitutional .
“Where can we go ?” redbox for a movie ?” that really
helps our children stay active doesnt it?”
Our families are being torn apart
from all this .The youth of today and tommorrow are being criminalized ,treated
like t hey are in a communist country .with no rights to have daddy and mommy
 in
their every day lives .for a past mistake they made .its not right:(
All
people of this land should be able to go ,live and go where any one else can go
and given a sec chance.
What about all the people in the government ,police
dept. people who have done bad things and they arent put on no registry ….
or
they get off in a short time free and clear from registry .?” W e should
petition the governement ,to put all them on the registry and face all what we
face in this society . being out casted, shunned , public shamed . freedom of
rights taken away rest of their entire lives. ,:How would t hey like it .”?”If a
murderer can get a second chance .”Why cant our husbands or wives get one?””So
will all the sex offenders families stand up and make a voice for our familes
?””We need everyones voice ,not just one reform sex offender advocate .but
thousands to fight this battle we are in .
“Lets all donate some money to
this advocacy group that is doing their best to bring freedom to us ,as
everything takes money for t heir travels ,meetings ,petitions,flyers, advocate
supplies .
“Im very poor but by the grace of GOD he is sustaining me to work
and help pay my husbands legal stuff he has to pay every month and his
counceling every month ..So what little I do have Im going to donate fora good
cause .and pray that things will change for us all for the better .
My one
prayer is that all these restrictions they put on us over and over will end one
day .,,and we can just be a normal family ,being able to be part of our sons
life together ,to be able to see and share in our sons life as a family one day
.
One other hope i have is me and husband can one day walk in a park holding
hands and just enjoying a taste of freedom to live normal ..
If this registry
is for life , we will never be able to do any of this
People im pleading and begging you for all our families ,please let the
governors know .and the senators know how you feel , its our voice that needs to
be heard . the many children that are older can also write the governors and
senators , telling them what they dea l with everyday and what they want done so
we can be families again!”
|
