Database! How Low Can You Go?
Freda Moon profiles Connecticut State Rep. Mike Lawlor, that vanishingly rare sort of politician who wants to "add some nuance" to sex offense laws. Years of hackwork by officials and pols who want to look tough on crime have bloated the offender rolls:
Dr. Paul Amble, the chief forensic psychiatrist for the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, says the registry's size is problematic. Eventually, he says, "We'll have such a huge list that it will make it difficult for people to use it." He supports streamlining the website so "the public can really focus on the individuals who experts have identified as high risk."
But try getting a majority of state legislators to do that.
There are also voices like state Sen. Sam Caligiuri, who represents part of Cheshire and is pushing for tougher sentencing laws. "This is the first I'm hearing of it," says Caligiuri… If "we implement such a policy," he says, "and then, at some point in the future, someone that might have been on the public list—who's been taken off the public list—ends up doing something really heinous, we end up looking back and wondering if we could have done something to prevent it."
More reason on sex offender restrictions here.
Headline reference here.
