Sex offender binder receives mixed review

Its time for Chatham County to elect a new Sheriff, one who does not waste taxpayer's money. The law DOES NOT MANDATE these binders, instead the law says "(3) Maintain and provide a list, manually or electronically, of every sexual offender residing in each county so that it may be available for inspection:" There is no doubt the public ONLINE registry accomplishes that.

Any court would construe that by saying, if you cannot do it electronically, then do it manually. That would cover places where there are no computer access. Certainly in this day and age, libraries have computers...and likely every other place he is doing this for does as well. The Bonnie and Clyde days are over, computers are available in virtually every public entity. Computers replaced the manual systems because the manual systems were inefficient and misinformed the public. Time for a new Sheriff's election.

6-3-2011 Georgia:

Wednesday the Chatham County Sheriff’s Office distributed 54 binders with the pictures and convictions of sex offenders in the Savannah area. Some citizens feel the move will be beneficial to the community while others think it is a waste of time.

The binder is the result of months of work by the sex offender registration and tracking unit.

Michelle Gavin, public information officer for the sheriff’s office, sees the binder as means for the office to perform its job more efficiently.

“It is just another tool we have to educate citizens about the sex offenders in the neighborhood,” Gavin said. “Citizens can also go to chathamsherriff.org and sign up to receive email alerts every time a sex offender moves into their zip code.”

This comes as welcome relief to 35-year-old child care provider and mother, Katrina Mack.

Mack is the owner of Angels Childcare. She has two locations in Savannah.

Mack says the binders will help citizens put a name to the face and will allow them to be more aware. Although Mack thinks the binders are a good idea, she says they are effective to an extent.

“People are still going to do what they want, when you are dealing with a pedophile it is no different than an addict,” Mack said. “They will do what is necessary to do what they want.”

Others say not only will the binders be effective to some extent, but also they have the potential to unfairly label people.

Isaac McCaslin, 21, a third year SCAD student majoring in painting, says Americans are too quick to judge people.

“I don’t like it; this is just another superficial labeling device,” McCaslin said. “I am sure there is no real information in these binders.”

McCaslin’s main argument is that not everyone in the binder is a valid sex offender. He sites cases of statutory rape for examples.

Natalia Mercado, 21, also a SCAD student majoring in animation, agrees with McCaslin that the binders are unnecessary.

“It is already public knowledge and it will not make much of a difference,” Mercado said. It will just foster more paranoia.” ..Source.. by Whitney Hunter