Travis Iosue, Sex Offender Appearing On 'Our America With Lisa Ling,' Tries To Restart Life

8-19-2012 National:

Growing up in Texas, Travis Iosue never sat still. He would bark and howl and twitch. His eyes would roll back in his head. He once punched a wall over and over until he fractured a bone in his hand. His mother Diane sent him away to live in psychiatric hospitals for a few years, where the doctors treated him for severe obsessive compulsive disorder, Tourette's Syndrome, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Diane admits that her son, at age 17, probably had the maturity level of a 12-year-old.

But she couldn't believe what the police in Round Rock told her when they knocked on her door on September 1, 1995. At a neighbor's house the night before, Travis had asked a 10-year-old girl to sit on his lap, and then touched her on top of her shirt "for sexual gratification," according to police records.

"I'd Rather Be Dead"

Travis accepted a plea deal -- though he claims he's innocent -- which offered him five years probation instead of a lengthy prison sentence for indecency with a child. Within a month of cutting the deal, he violated his probation, which mandated that he couldn't hang out with minors, and was sentenced to 20 years behind bars.

He was released last December, having served 16. In the show, "Our America with Lisa Ling," Ling follows Travis during his first free days as an adult, which have proven to be filled with barriers. Finding housing and a job are nearly impossible for someone who's a registered sex offender.

Travis is just one of more than 720,000 Americans who have their name, birth date, address, and an up-to-date photograph publicly listed on the sex offender registry, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. In Texas alone, there are over 70,000.

Nicole Pittman, the Soros Senior Justice Advocacy Fellow at Human Rights Watch, has interviewed hundreds of registered sex offenders over the last couple years, and told The Huffington Post that the most common comment she hears is "I'd rather be dead." The second is "I'd probably have a better chance at a second chance if I'd murdered somebody."

"It's a true comment too," Pittman said.

Finding A Home And A Job

One of Travis' first challenges was finding a place to live. He wanted to move in with his mother, who for 16 years kept his childhood room perfectly preserved. But nearby, a school bus stops to pick up kids in the morning, and Travis, now 34, isn't allowed to go within 500 feet of places where children commonly gather. So Travis moved into a halfway house.

Travis was put on parole, with a GPS monitor strapped to his ankle, and only allowed outside for work, doctor's appointments, and essential shopping. All of Travis' movements -- even doing his laundry -- must be pre-approved and put on a schedule.

Finding a job is hard for any registered sex offender, especially someone like Travis, whose work experience is limited to two weeks at Taco Bell in 1994. Travis began spending four or five days a week at the Texas Employment Commission -- not the closest one, because there was a daycare there -- but one a couple extra bus rides away. ..continued.. by Claire Gordon