4-5-2009 Oklahoma:(Posted by eAdvocate)
The number of Oklahoma sex offenders saddled with lifetime registration has doubled since 2007, when state officials implemented a classification system to come into compliance with the federal Adam Walsh Act.
The law, named for the murdered son of "America’s Most Wanted” host John Walsh, increased the federal government’s role in dealing with convicted sex offenders.
There is no doubt that the murder of Adam Walsh was horrific, but there is no evidence that any sex offender was involved in the murder of Adam. The law was named after Adam Walsh because of the work his father does in apprehending ALL TYPES of criminals on his TV show. Its like naming a Post Office after a war hero, no connection at all.
Some local attorneys say it has resulted in harsher treatment of such offenders.
"These people are living just in absolute terror,” attorney Mark Bailey said. "The rules have been changed on them.”
Bailey said he has been approached by a number of people with sex-related convictions in their distant past who recently have been notified they must register with authorities, most for the rest of their lives.
He said the stigma of being branded sex offenders keeps people from speaking out about the recently enacted registration requirements.
Stigma, was the basis for the 109th Congress' work with sex offenders, foundational evidence had nothing to do with the laws that Congress enacted. It was a vindictive Congress that worked behind closed doors denying the full Congress access to their doings. That Congress while using the names of past victims, never looked at how those victims were killed, if they had they would have known the laws they were considering would never PREVENT future crimes. Their minds were stuck on TRACKING and ignored PREVENTION.
William Farmer isn’t so shy. He condemned the restrictions that have hampered one of his relatives for a decade, since he was convicted of indecent exposure in 1999.
(Posted by eAdvocate)
Farmer said the man was drunk when he urinated on the side of his truck in the view of two women, but that shouldn’t brand him a sex offender.
"He is not a danger to society,” he said.
The Choctaw resident complained the state is not doing enough to differentiate between dangerous sex offenders and people who made a stupid mistake.
"They’re lumping them all in the same basket,” he said.
Lifetime registration
The law that went into effect in November 2007 requires authorities to evaluate everyone convicted of a sex offense since 1989, assigning each one a tier in the new classification system.
Tier 1 offenders must register for 15 years; tier 2 for 25 years and tier 3 for life.
Most of the state’s 6,000-plus convicted sex offenders fall into the latter category, state Corrections Department officials said.
Sex offenders considered aggravated or habitual were subject to lifetime registration before the tier system was enacted, said Jim Rabon, who oversees the sex offender registration program. Those offenders used to make up about 40 percent, he said.
Now more than 80 percent are subject to lifetime registration.
Prosecutor Gayland Geiger, who heads the sex crimes unit in the Oklahoma County district attorney’s office, said the classification system is good in theory, but he doesn’t know if it is being used properly. Geiger said he has not seen any requests from offenders to have a judge review their status.
Bailey said there should be more tiers to encompass the range of people who committed crimes classified as sex offenses. Many are not sexually dangerous, he insists, but guilty only of bad behavior.
Bailey said the assessment is based on the charge of conviction, not the circumstances that led to it. It doesn’t consider how likely someone is to commit further sex crimes.
"That’s not the way it’s supposed to be,” he said.
Oklahoma’s classification guidelines were created by a committee that included prosecutors, counselors and victim advocates.
Tulsa counselor Randy Lopp said the state’s assessment tool meets the requirements of the Walsh Act, but he acknowledged it is not the best way to classify sex offenders.
Lopp, who is head of the Oklahoma Coalition for Sex Offender Management, said offenders should be classified according to their risk level rather than their offense of record.
"This belief is based on accepted research in the field that indicates (75) percent of sexual offenders are not re-arrested over a 15-year period,” he wrote in an e-mail to The Oklahoman.
Richard Kishur, an Oklahoma City counselor who specializes in treating sex offenders, said ideally sex offenders should be evaluated before they are sentenced, to determine if they are a risk to re-offend.
..News Source.. by JAY F. MARKS
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