If you make sex offender registration too burdensome, it is no wonder that most people are not going to want to register.


Georgia sex offender law criminalizes homelessness

ATLANTA (AP) - A strict new Georgia law is designed to keep sex offenders away from children by monitoring how close they live to schools, parks and other spots where kids gather - and threatens them with strict penalties if they fail to register. But what about the offenders who don't have an address?

Georgia's Supreme Court on Monday considered whether the law unfairly subjects homeless offenders to a life sentence if they fail register a home address.

....

His lawyers say the law creates a guessing game for Santos and other homeless offenders because it bars them from giving a post office box or simply saying they are homeless.

....

"I guess, practically, sex offenders who are homeless should find places that are near sheriff's offices," offered Justice Carol Hunstein. "Yes, and I'm sure sheriff's officers would appreciate that," Sykes responded.

The Santos challenge is among a growing number of cases targeting Georgia's sex offender law, which sponsors declared one of the toughest in the nation when it was adopted in 2006. It bans sex offenders from living, working or loitering within 1,000 feet of just about anywhere children gather. That includes schools, churches, parks, gyms, swimming pools or one of the state's 150,000 school bus stops

For the rest of the article:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-07-07-georgia_N.htm

It doesn't really matter if they WANT to register....

I'd like to find one that WANTS to register !



And gee, isn't that part of the issue, if you don't want the punishment, don't do the crime !

I can't think of anything much more scary than a homeless sex offender lurking around.

quote:

---

Originally posted by jane starnes:
I can't think of anything much more scary than a homeless sex offender lurking around.

---

The only thing scarier than one homeless sex offender lurking around is multiple homeless sex offenders lurking, who don't want to register.

Like a sex offender who lives next to you!

Of course, a big challenge on the registration laws has become the fact that sex offenders, when discovered, are "run out of town on a rail", or subject to harassment, assault, etc.

Too bad, so sad.

Sharing a name with one who lives in the same county as you is not a whole lot of fun, either. I know.