Why would the Legislature decree it is OK for sex offenders to be transient and homeless as long as they register every 30 days, and yet we have other state laws and municipal ordinances that make it illegal to dwell and sleep in public places or in abandoned buildings or vehicles?11-20-2012 Pennsylvania:
Last year, the state Senate passed Senate Bill 1183, which was sponsored by former Sen. Jane Orie, R-Allegheny, among other mostly Republican co-sponsors. This law states that no more than five sexually violent predators can live in the same residence at one time.
At the Just for Jesus Challenge Homeless Outreach Ministry in Brockway and Brookville, I accept anyone who is in need of a home.
Due to prison overcrowding and a poor system for integrating offenders back into the community, I often take in former prisoners. However, this new law has forced me to turn people away, leaving them to live on your streets.
Earlier this summer, a sexually violent predator (we’ll call him Mr. P.) was released from a state correctional institution and was found by one of my volunteers, sleeping on the steps of Market Square Presbyterian Church in Harrisburg in the middle of the night.
A review of the Pennsylvania Megan’s Law website reveals that Mr. P is registered with the state police as a transient in Harrisburg, with no known residential address. Under the laws that the Legislature have created, he is allowed to remain a homeless transient sexually violent predator as long as he registers every 30 days. That is his right under the new law, roaming your streets unsupervised. How can we have laws that are so contradictory with one another?
Why would the Legislature decree it is OK for sex offenders to be transient and homeless as long as they register every 30 days, and yet we have other state laws and municipal ordinances that make it illegal to dwell and sleep in public places or in abandoned buildings or vehicles? ...continued... by BISHOP JACK WISOR
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