Matthew 25 Ministries

INTEGRATING RELEASED SEX OFFENDERS INTO OUR COMMUNITIES

(a) Restricting where convicted sex offenders can live.

Many of those who have served their prison sentence for sexual crimes and are eligible to be released on probation cannot find housing that will conform to the restrictions of not living within 1,000 feet of where children congregate. This has become even more difficult with local communities passing ordinances increasing the “safe zone” to 1,500 or 2,500 feet. Since the conditions of probation stipulate that the probationer must provide his probation officer with a valid address within 48 hours of their release, many are not able to comply and have their probation violated. In some cases DOC Classification Officers refuse to release them if they are not able to supply an approved address. In other cases they are taken from prison to a county jail to await a hearing for violating the conditions of their probation.

Sample Case: Bernard G. has served 10 years of a 15 year sentence and is due to be released with 10 years probation. If he is not able to find approved housing and has his probation violated; will he need to serve the remaining 5 years of his original sentence and be released on probation again? What if he still cannot meet the housing restrictions; will he serve the 10-year probation period in prison? Multiply this case a thousand times and look at the cost of housing these men in prison, when they could have been living productive lives in our communities.

Realize that only 3 to 5% of those charged with sexual crimes are true predators that are a risk to society. Are we willing to pay the price tag of keeping low risk offenders in prison? Most of them will be released someday. Will they be those who believe in our system of justice, or will they be embittered and more prone to violence?

These prohibitive rules are forcing some that have been released to go underground, thus negating the ability to monitor their activities.

     (b) The national registry.

The public has not been educated regarding the degree of risk of those charged with sexual crimes. Therefore, those who are not predators and are not a threat to our communities are forced to comply with the same restrictions as those who are high risk. Those restrictions include: where they can live, work, and travel. They must pay for probation supervision and for mandated sex therapy sessions. They will remain on the local and national registry for the rest of their natural lives.

By applying the same rules to all sex offenders without regard to degree of risk, you make it more difficult to monitor those who are the greatest risk.

POSSIBLE REMEDIES:

     (a) Revisit laws affecting sex offenders.

The public, including our legislatures must be made aware of the fact that they have been duped into a false belief system that says; “These kind never change.” The news media in their quest for sensationalism have perpetrated this lie so much, that it has become accepted as being true. This has caused our legislatures to pass laws that have taken away the constitutional rights of those who have been charged with sex crimes, regardless of the degree of risk to the general public.

Recently I heard Congressman Mark Foley state on the Fox News Network, “These kind never change. We have the facts. 100% of sex offenders will commit new sex crimes. We just don’t know when.” I wonder where he got his facts? I bring this to your attention, to point out how our elected officials have been duped by the news media.

If, “These kind never change,” is a lie, what is truth? All it takes is a little research. Go to the U.S Department of Justice website www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/crimoff.htm#sex and review the results of their study of sex offenders from 15 states who were released from prison in 1994. Tracking these 9,691 sex-offenders for three years, the results showed that only 5.3% were rearrested for another sex crime. Not 100% as reported by Congressman Foley. The 9,691 released sex offenders included 4,295 men who were in prison for child molesting. Another good website is www.atsa.com. This is the web site for the Association for the treatment of Sexual Abusers, an international professional association dedicated to the research, treatment, and prevention of sexual assault. To see an in depth study on sex offender residence restrictions go to www.floridaatsa.com and look for the link “A Report to the Florida Legislature.”

Our legislatures need to revisit these laws that have been passed with an eye to making some revisions, now that they have had a chance to see the problems they have caused.

    (b) Don’t hinder those who are trying to assist sex offenders successfully reenter society.

Our experience has been that local planning and zoning departments have used zoning laws as a way of keeping organizations from establishing locations where they can conduct their programs. Sad to say, but police agencies and county commissioners have been in the forefront of resisting the efforts of having these programs in their communities.

It needs to be recognized that organizations like ours are an asset to the community, not a liability. The problem of how we deal with sex offenders coming into our communities needs to be addressed in an intelligent manner, not one based on hysteria. We know that we cannot continue to keep these people in prison indefinitely. Some day they are going to get out. What is the best way of making them productive citizens?

In the example we gave earlier regarding Bernard G.; this man had an encounter with the Living God while in prison and turned his life over to Christ. During the five plus years I have known him, I can testify that he truly is a changed person and is no threat to society.

As the Executive Director of Matthew 25 Ministries, Inc., I have had 25 years of experience in operating recovery programs for those recovering from alcoholism, drug addiction and sexual addictions. We have a successful track record in assisting those coming out of prison. We have a complete teaching curriculum, dealing with relationship issues, anger management, and addiction recovery. If you would like additional information please contact the undersigned.

Rev. R.D. Witherow

(561) 670-5564