In his column “Helping sex offenders helps us”, Jeff Hawkes writes “When sex offenders return home from prison, Pennsylvania assures them a chilly, if not exactly hostile, reception….Where would it end? Maybe with policymakers taking a deep breath and rethinking post-release measures….
After a learned discussion, he concludes: “So a solution might be a two-pronged approach: focusing surveillance on those at greatest risk and helping low-risk offenders reintegrate into the community. Volunteer-driven networks for sex offenders, known as support and accountability circles, have shown promise in Canada and are under consideration locally.”
WATCHDOG: Both the editors of the Intell and Hawkes deserve three wags of the tail for responsibly and constructively addressing how unjustly and counter productively we treat many ex-convicts who have been stigmatized under a too broad a category of “sex offenders”.
First of all, what do we mean by ‘sex offender’? By today’s standards, many of our grandfathers (and some grandmothers) would fall into that category due to youthful and young adult indiscretions and the ethics of their day. In some cases, what we once called a peccadillo, we now prosectue as a sex crime. Even further, what merits suspended sentence or 30 days in jail may receive a couple of years of incarceration.
As Hawke’s column suggests, we need to more tightly define the classification so as to identify those who were of special danger to society and then cut others free from the stigma so they have a decent chance of getting on with life and becoming productive citizens. For those deemed especially dangerous, there should be an opportunity over time to be released from the classification.
Let us hope Hawke’s brave article is the first of several on the topic and the beginning of a local discussion which will be fact based rather than emotional generalities.
I can attest that the public has blood in its eyes and the system has every tripper installed to destroy anybody who is on Megan’s list – no matter there offense or level of danger to the public. Even those that help will not escape the hatred and fear.
While it has been years since I rented an apartment to a ministry helping reintegrate cons the cost and stigma has not abated.
It has cost untold thousands and thousands as subsequent tenants come down to rent and have great interest until they go up to the restuarant to eat or talk to one of their friends. As example just the other week (years later) I had a couple ready to sign. At the last minute the guy says. “I was told I have to be careful down here – there are a bunch of pedophiles that live on main street somewhere.” Once he realized it was here they were talking about [though I told them it was years ago] they split like I was Freddy Crugar.
Thus even anyone who tries to throw a meal into the leppers ravine to feed them will be attacked.
I’ll never forget [and have on film] the “Torch” meeting they had at the firehouse [hundreds and hundreds of citizens called an emergency meeting to figure out how to attack the X-cons]. I called it the torch meeting because the local firefighters had been rumoring if my place caught fire they would be slow responding and there was rumor a fire was going to be set to burn them out.
Even DA Craig Stedman spoke to fire up the crowd and gain political cudos. He said he would put these guys back in jail. He didn’t mention that they would have to do anything wrong first. The sense was he was going to find something, anything that he could to put these guys back in jail forever and again.
The most interesting componant was how the Lancaster Christians responded. We know this is a very Christian county, yet the Christianity we witnessed was like the torch mob going to get Frankenstein. Other than the ministry itself that is. There was no spirit of healing through Christ for any of these guys.
On the upside – One of the original tenants still lives here. He has been able to regain some of his life and will most likely never reoffend [his offense was downloading smut – he had already done two years in prison on a PV and was conviced he would never escape return to jail again]. The other two guys are dead and back in jail – subsequent to leaving the structured and moderated living environment.
There is the proof – Everyone on Megans list should not be taken out and shot – even if it is the popular ‘Christian” thing to do round these parts.
I was convicted of a non-contact sex offense in 2004. I downloaded files that I should not have. Since then, I have lost my job, my family, my freedom, and every ounce of self-respect I ever had.
I hadn’t seen my own kids in 6 years, until my older daughter moved back in with me. She committed suicide soon afterward.
I have sent out thousands of resumes and filled out as many job applications in the past six years, only to be told that, while my resume is impressive, their company has a blanket policy against hiring anyone with any kind of felony, no matter how long ago it happened. I have talked to many other ex-offenders who run into the same situation every day, wanting to resume being productive members of society and being blocked at every turn.
Then people wonder why ex-offenders end up back in jail–where else are they supposed to go? At least in jail one has shelter and three meals a day, such as they are. Your tax dollars are going to punish people, not to help those who are truly regretful of their past mistakes to rejoin society.
Don’t bother sending people with convictions to Careerlink; they have NO IDEA what to do! I was actually handed a phone book by one “career counselor” there and told to just start calling people. That was his idea of “job assistance”. Then he went back to checking his sports scores on his computer. I guess it’s good enough for government work.
If citizens want to help ease prison overcrowding, they need to demand that government officials spend as much money rehabilitating ex-offenders as they do convicting them in the first place. Once you get out of jail in Lancaster County, NO ONE CARES about what happens to you!!!!! They will just cluck their tongues and say, “gee, that’s too bad” and keep excluding you from any sort of job that you may seek, no matter what your qualifications are.