Sex offenders
The House votes this week on a 2008 update to the child predator law, which would post a sex offender's place of employment or school on the Internet registry that now displays their name, photo and home address. Several sex offenders in Rockingham County have told this writer that House Bill 1640 would open them to ridicule and harassment at work if they could get a job.
Being on the current registry makes that hard, but not impossible, they say. The proposed law would subject their companies to boycott or worse. A vigilante might visit the office or warehouse looking for them and hurt somebody else by mistake.
Carolyn Lucet treats paroled sex offenders and said she has only had one patient return to prison on a new sex charge in her three decades as a clinician. She said anyone might Google the address of an employer and find out its name.
"Today some companies are willing to take a chance on hiring a sex offender," she said. "But not if protesters can target their business."
Lucet warned that a jobless offender is at risk of losing all their social supports. Cutting that tie would make them more dangerous.
"We need to base our public policy on research," Lucet said. "People are focused on all this feel-good legislation, but now we're seeing the start of a backlash against it."
She said several states have rejected parts of the Adam Walsh Act. Others are banning the new residency restrictions.
"We know that treatment works for sex offenders," Lucet said.
A subcommittee worked hard this summer on House Bill 1640 to comply with the federal Adam Walsh sex offender registry law to keep the state from losing what was thought to be $200,000 in federal Byrne law enforcement grants. The amount at stake is actually $56,000 for a state that gave up $3 million in federal funds to pilot test the federal Real ID program.
Governor Lynch underscored the moral issue at stake in a letter this week to Michael Chertoff, the secretary for Homeland Security. The governor urged the feds not to make New Hampshire join the Real ID program this spring as scheduled. Policy makers fear it would let "Big Brother" too easily keep tabs on the populace.
"New Hampshire and many other states across the nation have raised legitimate questions about privacy protection and the costs of Real ID," Lynch wrote. "To date, the federal government has ignored those real problems and barreled ahead with Real ID. We have a law that prohibits New Hampshire from taking part in this burdensome system and New Hampshire was right to reject it." ..more.. by Chris Dornin, of Golden Dome News, covers the Statehouse in Concord.
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