Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Have we reached the sex offender registration tipping point?

According to Merriam and Webster, a tipping point is the critical point in a situation, process, or system beyond which a significant and often unstoppable effect or change takes place.

Maybe overload point would be a better descriptor.

In Chicago, a sort of tipping point seems to have been reached at the Chicago Police Department where registrants must renew their registration every year. They must also report any changes to this office within three days--changes like an address, a job--losing one or getting one--or enrollment in any school.

They start lining up before 6 a.m. in the well-below freezing weather, in the dark, pre-dawn hours of an Illinois winter. They wait for hours. Some make it in; some don't. Some are in violation because their three-day window closed during the days they stood there, unable to get in. The line is "cut" at noon, which means anyone still in line will not be processed, no matter how long they have been there. The office says it is open until three. A reporter who has monitored the situation for two weeks has observed the doors being locked before one in spite of the advertised hours of business being 8 a.m. until 3 p.m.


The doors are locked, a spokesman says, when they have more people inside than they can process by closing time.

Frustrated, angry, and hopeless men walk away, fearful men, because some of them are now in violation. They could be arrested for non-compliance, for failure to keep their registration current. It won't matter that they tried, that they stood in a line, cold and fearful, for hours, day after day, only to have the door locked yet another day. 

Is this a tipping point, a point at which the once-believed helpful concept of registering those deemed to be a danger to society has become so all-encompassing, so comprehensive, that the entities charged with facilitating the process are overwhelmed and, rather than fixing the problem within the organization, are instead shutting it off, locking it out, and refusing to deal with it?

What has caused this deplorable situation?-- for deplorable it is. It is not like advocates for a more fact-based system have not been warning for years of these consequences.  Requiring registration for some of the petty and misdemeanor offenses that in no way put anyone at risk of harm is the first of many errors. Keeping law-abiding citizens on the registry for years after they have completed all court-ordered punishment for a single offense doubles them. Having such a short window for updating change of address, etc., adds to the errors. Mismanaging the registration center to such a high degree compounds them to an almost incalculable degree. And being willing to incur the expense of re-incarcerating men who are trying their best to be compliant rather than using the money to fix the problem is criminal.                                       

Why do not the citizens of Illinois  protest en masse at the inefficiency and the ridiculous waste of their tax dollars? Why are not attorneys standing by, lined up with the registrants, waiting to file suit when a man is arrested for non-compliance under these circumstances?

Or--and here's a radical thought--why do the powers that be not open their minds to what experts and research studies and empirical evidence have been telling us for years--that the system is broken, that it was flawed from the beginning, that it goes against what everything tells us makes for a safer and healthier society, that it needs a major overhaul?

Will it take what is happening in Chicago to repeat itself at every registration center in every city and town in every state in the union?

15 comments:

  1. Now is the time to insure the public of the most truthful acts of humanity . It's the law that is projecting the fear for the up and comming new private police force that
    President Obama proposed as change is now here , and the door is sex offenders . The nerve of panic and ignorence of the American population . The fact not yet challanged is that Megans law laura Ahearn And John Walsh of the AWA are responsible for the deaths and attempted murders of those on the registry and should stand trial before a court of law and the world order of crimes of enticing with intent "vigalantism" .. backed by the FBI of tailoring its monitoring system at the expence of those of time served by retracting it from the police , to the public , and last to a private company whom wins the bid as of March 2014 . Then should never omit responsibility .

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    1. John Walsh is friends with the first, and second President Bush. Bust #2 was the one who signed the AWA into law.

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  2. The emergence of a system, in this case a group of individuals thrown together by circumstances such as the sex offender registry laws, may reach a critical Phase Transition, or tipping point when the system becomes so nonlinear that it begins to show these as certain sign posts. Your mention of the Chicago situation is a non-linearity that should be a sore thumb image for this community. As more failure to register arrests and subsequent court appearances bog down this part of the system, beware of the systems responses. When we humans feel threatened we can be extremely reactionary. Pointing out proactive solutions to this condition is as critical as the system collapsing in on itself.

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  3. Maybe a concerned registrant who would like to increase the probability of causing a tipping point could organize an effort to enlist the help of the registrants left standing out in the cold. Passing out brochures and flyers about the Illinois efforts at affecting changes in the state laws by getting as many interested individuals informed of Illinois Voices efforts to increase their voice on the public stage would be helpful.

    The point being, many registrants are embarrassed, ashamed, annoyed, and other negative feedback; this could be an excellent opportunity to inform these souls of the reform effort going on on their behalf and, oh by the way, can you help out by speaking up to lawmakers, the media, and the public? I don't think a tipping point will happen when so many registrants are in the shadows due to the shame. Just a thought.

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    1. Your point is very true. I know from personal experience how depressing the label of sex offender is for the person who has been labeled as such when they are NOT. We must do something about degrading and destroying lives of our young men who have been falsely accused and then the court system does not act according to the laws of the land when they go to trial and do not have any proof to convict, so they give them a DEAL!!! The judges, lawyers, state's attorneys are the ones breaking the law and should be punished. Don't they believe in the Constitution and that everyone has the right to be treated equally?

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    2. Fellow anonymous-I agree with everything you laid out in your piece, especially about the travesty of Inquisitional plea bargaining. It's positively medieval in it's barbarity-especially when inflicted on people who are actually innocent. I am such a one. The only way to have even a ghost of chance to beat the system as it exists is first class lawyering-and be seen by the judges and prosecutors to have such a defense. The Pledge of Allegiance needs a bit of alteration to meaningly reflect realities of today. It just needs the addition of four words at the end of it: "who can afford it". Just stick those words onto the phrase that ends with "liberty and justice for all".
      If you can't afford it-you ain't gonna get it...

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    3. As we see whats happening thru the years and how the laws were shaped for financial support from a corrupt system useing fear and childern as shields . Just observe whats happening today in the United States and around the world . When ISIS who ever they are? Now being issued american armerment and humvees , does make this game of human distinction also known as a theater for the public to remain blinded . But with this sorna and megans law is still trying to keep retalyations of false convction's in the same web waiting to be picked apart , not being allowed to work or live anywhere to prove innocents to be heard in a court . That is a violation of liberty and human rights the bill of rights and the constitution as seen thru out the world . The world does not agree with the corruption but likes the money and as in past history has turned its head of the eagle to the left in WWII was the war eagle . The only winners of any war were those that did'nt have to live the lies of who lives and who dies . The reaction is non explainable and kept in complete secret . So how does the past fit with the future if you can't afford it .
      The new crimes are leaning towards un- just law inforcement and the law makers , the result, the new quick sand law makers - the more they move the faster they sink with in the new world order . One bad apple ? So it was said, that goes for all that were prosecuted by unjust indirect ignorance for power and financal gain protected by un written law but by the bench verdict flipped after a deal . Hope there is time left to see the out come . Time is also a factor that plays history, when every one is gone that know what happend . Government does not want this , just how they planned it is how it is, nothing more , nothing less . The THEATER of war . The victims of life .

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  4. It is criminal for police to refuse to register them in a timely manner and then arrest them. Police should be held accountable and there should absolutely be many many lawsuits filed against them for causing the failure. We need those lawsuits to bring this issue out into the spotlight for the public to see how impossible it is to actually monitor so many people and how much the failed registry is costing them. I am waiting for the day when RSOs rise up, march on Washington, and flood their police stations to register. Maybe then those idiots in the legislature will take notice.

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    1. If the registry continues to grow, at some point registrants will no longer be the minority of society.

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  5. Lawmakers and law enforcers are viewing the social phenom of sex offenders in a state of some kind of equilibrium. Nothing could be further from the truth, as all social systems are in a constant state of non-equilibrium. This state of humanity is undeniably complex as the trend of sex offenders being low recidivist counters the assumptions of repeat, perverted, sociopaths. Their model is so outdated and non workable that I believe the inherent inertia will burn upon reentry into reality.

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  6. There is "no free lunch" for any of us except the lawmakers and other bureaucrats who have the power over our lives; they are funded by the citizen-taxpayer 100% That is a negative feedback loop, one that does not favor one part of the larger picture, the sex offender. It is meant to continue harm by retribution for the original crime, that supposedly has been payed for by the offender. Registration violations are not sex crimes but are reported by the media as if they are because of the "can't help themselves" perception.

    A positive feedback loop would include the accounts successful treatment programs, the fact of low recidivism rates for convicted sex offenders on the registry, accountability for false convictions, and other successful parameters being incorporated into the law making paradigm. A positive feedback loop would also correct the Romeo & Juliet crimes from being a contender for these bureaucrats as well.

    A tipping point is reached when a system's inputs reach a point of causing a change or changes in the outputs and the new outputs cascade in a new and undetermined direction. Clearly, in this case, the system we are talking about is a social system, with many diverse agents acting upon the inputs and a constantly changing social landscape. This dancing playing field that is our society must soon see the futility of the registry's intent and its failure at reaching the desired outcome of removing sexual crimes from the society.

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  7. I think S.O.'s should pick a day and tell congress to fix these law's for the better or we protest and by protest I mean pick a day and every S.O. and family don't by gasoline for 2 day's if everyone on the registry an family member does this on the same day it will hurt them and if that don't work then do it but pick something else like Milk for 3 day's and so on but all on the same day and all S.O.'s and family do this it will catch attention, what do you think

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    1. The government tries to make terrorists out of the whole world, but they will fall just like Rome, they are spreading them selves too thin.

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  9. I truly hope there is a reform soon. I just got off of the illinois sex offender page reading up on the law about registering if you are away from your residence more than 3 days. This law used to read that an offender has to register if they were not at there fixed address for more than 3 days in a week. It now reads "in a calendar year". So offenders become a prisoner in their own homes, or risk returning to prison for an offence that boggles the mind. How is one to keep track of how many times they have visited there mother, attended an out of town wedding etc in a year when it is mixed in with the daily life that is crazy for even a non offender.. This after being sentenced, serving time, staying compliant and upholding all laws, one is still serving time. And dont expect a politician running for office to stand up for whats right, (and they know its right) cause as soon as anyone running for office shows any sympathy for an EVIL SEX OFFENDER (note some are sex offenders for urinating on trees in public) they will be ostracized and never hold a seat again. All thanks to the medias fear mongering tactics. So do these laws need fixed so honest registrants who are trying there best to do there part can try to live happy healthy normal lives? YES. How we go about it another question all together.

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