NJ- Leave Megan's Law alone

The premise on which Mega's law was developed was: 1) It was thought that sex offenders had a high recidivism rate; 2) Given the propensity a system was needed to notify the public of their dangerousness. Hence, Megan's law. However, this recent study has learned that these former offenders DO NOT HAVE A HIGH RECIDIVISM RATE. So the question turns to why are we spending BILLIONS of dollars nationally to notify the public of former offenders who are not deemed dangerous (study findings), when there are other offenders who are far more dangerous (and to children also) and we DO NOT inform the public of them?

Prosecutors have said, that Megan's law -as enacted- would not have notified the community of Jessee Timingess and therefore would not have been a tool to protect her at the time if it had been in place back then. So it boils down to, how much is the public willing to pay for a Glorified Phone Book that does little or nothing to make the public safer? See commenter's analogy "how much should taxpayers pay for bulletproof vests for police when it is certain that the vests will not stop 95% of bullets fired at them, and there is no evidence that they can stop the other 5%?"

RESOLUTION: A) Get rid of Megan's laws; B) Expand Megan's laws to include everyone who has ever been convicted of a felony or a misdemeanor because obviously their criminality is a danger to future children.

NOTE: To the commenter addressing PREVENTION, yes I totally agree, money is needed to provide therapy. The above merely addressed only the registraion law, not the overall issue of preventing future offenses. Thank you for pointing this out.

2-11-2009 New Jersey:

A new federally funded study of sex offenses in New Jersey has concluded that Megan's Law, which requires sex offenders to register their addresses with local law enforcement, hasn't reduced the number of repeat offenses. One public defender suggested the money spent on the notification system would be put to better use by improving supervision and therapy for sex offenders.

They're missing the point: Megan's Law was not set up to provide sex offenders with additional counseling sessions in prison and supervision outside. It is designed to provide parents and communities with information about potentially dangerous people who move into their neighborhoods. Its funding should not be diverted.

Maureen Kanka, mother of the 7-year-old girl raped and killed by a twice-convicted sex offender who lived near her home, made that point after hearing of the findings: "It (Megan's Law) was to provide an awareness to the public, which it has done," she said, adding that had such a law been in effect before her daughter's murder in 1994, "She'd have been alive and well."

Megan's Law gives parents a resource that alerts them to potential dangers in their own community. It wasn't set up to benefit those offenders — or to monitor them, a job law enforcement handles separately with the aid of the Megan's Law registry.

The study, funded by the National Institute of Justice, was conducted by the state Department of Corrections with help from Rutgers University. It focused on the overall rate of sexual offenses over time, its deterrent effect on repeat offenders and the cost of implementing the program.

As Kanka said: wrong focus. This is a tool for parents, for communities and for law enforcement, not a program whose funding should be diverted to help the offenders.
..News Source.. ASBURY PARK PRESS EDITORIAL