{"id":232,"date":"2017-01-29T19:01:37","date_gmt":"2017-01-30T00:01:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sexoffenderonestopresource.com\/connecticut\/?p=232"},"modified":"2017-01-29T19:01:37","modified_gmt":"2017-01-30T00:01:37","slug":"connecticut-is-rethinking-its-policies-toward-jobs-and-housing-for-sex-offenders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sexoffenderonestopresource.com\/connecticut\/connecticut-is-rethinking-its-policies-toward-jobs-and-housing-for-sex-offenders\/","title":{"rendered":"Connecticut Is Rethinking Its Policies Toward Jobs and Housing for Sex Offenders"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIn an effort to make things more safe, we are making things more dangerous.\u201d
\nCathleen Meaden<\/em><\/p>\n

Before she started work at New Haven\u2019s Columbus House<\/a> as senior manager of housing services, Cathleen Meaden\u2019s job was housing people whose crimes were seemingly unforgivable.<\/p>\n

Her charges were people on the state\u2019s sex offender registry, and when she\u2019d talk to people about her job, the reaction was often not-very-hidden disgust that she worked in close proximity with people who\u2019d committed such heinous crimes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s an ick factor,\u201d said Meaden. \u201cI have always said I don\u2019t have a warm spot in my heart for sex offenders,\u201d but as Connecticut continues to chip away at the pernicious problem of homelessness, this particular cohort \u2013 people who\u2019ve committed crimes that put them on the state\u2019s sex offender registry — presents a unique challenge.<\/p>\n

Research<\/a> has shown that the current system \u2013 shunning and shaming — creates precisely the environment least conducive for the prevention of future offenses.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe label is the most repulsive, alienating label we have,\u201d said Laurie Guidry<\/a>, a Massachusetts-based licensed clinical and consulting psychologist who focuses on the treatment of sex offenders, and the prevention of sexual violence. \u201cThese are effectively the lepers of our time. The larger concern should be on preventing this from happening in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Appearance on the registry usually means reduced opportunities for jobs and housing, but the population of sex offenders is immensely diverse. Guidry said that a small percentage of offenders commit the horrific stranger-abduction crimes that make the news.<\/p>\n

Of the 5,600 or so people on the state\u2019s registry, no more than 300 could be considered high-risk, said Thomas Ullmann, public defender in New Haven, and co-chair of a 12-member subcommittee that is studying the sentencing of sex offenders in the state.<\/p>\n

\n

Responding to a slew of federal and state initiatives, Connecticut created a sex offender registry in 1998. People who explore the online registry<\/a> can find people who\u2019ve been convicted of sex offenses by their name, their home town, and the like. Depending on the seriousness of the crime, a Connecticut offender must register for ten years, or for life.<\/p>\n

The registry carries a proviso that the Department of Emergency Services & Public Protection<\/a>, which maintains the list, \u201chas made no determination that any individual included in the Registry is currently dangerous,\u201d but that doesn\u2019t do much in the way of removing stigma. Law- and policy-makers are left with working in that delicate balance between protecting public safety, and guarding the civil rights of the offenders.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre there dangerous people? Yes, there are dangerous people. Is everyone who ever committed a sexual offense a dangerous person? No,\u201d said Guidry.<\/p>\n

\n
Megan\u2019s Law required states to release at least minimum information about sex offenders or risk losing federal funds.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Last year, Governor\u00a0Dannel\u00a0Malloy signed an act that requires the Connecticut Sentencing Commission to study the \u201cregistration, management, and sentencing<\/a>\u201d of the state\u2019s sex offenders.<\/p>\n

Two other subcommittees separate from Ullmann\u2019s are studying assessment and management, and victim and community needs. The committee has submitted an interim report; its final report is due at the end of next year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a long way to go,\u201d Ullmann said of his subcommittee. \u201cBut we\u2019ve gotten a pretty good consensus from the group that one of the major problems we have with our sex registry statutes is that first of all, it is tremendously over-inclusive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guidry said that people on the registry range from one’s worst nightmare to adolescents acting out, yet few people talk about the difference between high- or low-risk offenders.<\/p>\n

The idea of keeping track of sex offenders sprang, in part, from the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act.<\/a> That law was amended in 1996 with Megan\u2019s Law,<\/a> named after a seven-year old New Jersey girl who was raped and killed by a convicted pedophile in her neighborhood.<\/p>\n

Megan\u2019s Law required states to release at least minimum information about sex offenders or risk losing federal funds.<\/p>\n

A 2008 federal study<\/a> said Megan\u2019s Law did not significantly reduce sex offenses, and Connecticut is not the only state that is examining its approach to sex offenses.<\/p>\n

Guidry is a popular speaker, and when she asks audience members what they think of when they hear the phrase \u201csex offender,\u201d she generally gets negative responses.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s how we see this population in our culture,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s valid. What this population does is unconscionable. It\u2019s not to be tolerated. It\u2019s unacceptable. It\u2019s illegal. We need to stop it.\u201d<\/p>\n

But an emotional reaction does not make good public policy. Acting on fears has helped create public policy that is wrong for this population, both Guidry and Ullman said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a good approach to public policy when you\u2019re trying to bind people\u2019s emotions in a public case, but when you\u2019re in that kind of emotional place is never a good place to make plans and decisions,\u201d said Guidry. \u201cYou want to think it through a bit.\u00a0We are failing the victims by making bad decisions around public policy. Maybe there are better ways to do this. If we know more, we can do better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once someone has committed a sex offense, factors that create an environment for recidivism include housing instability, and not having access to family support or treatment. And this is precisely what often greets offenders post-incarceration.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn an effort to make things more safe,\u201d said Meaden, \u201cwe are making things more dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFrankly, it\u2019s no different than the way we\u2019ve react[ed] with other criminal justice policies,\u201d said Ullmann. \u201cWe detect a problem, we overreact completely, and that overreaction leads to unbelievable injustices. That\u2019s what happened here. Then we have to correct that, and that takes many years.\u201d<\/p>\n

But no matter what Ullman\u2019s committee suggests, the onus will be on legislators to change the law. This is a difficult conversation to have, and an even more difficult mind-set to change.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat will be the next hurdle,\u201d said Ullmann. \u201cWe did the same thing with juveniles sentenced as adults, in terms of parole access. We studied that for two years and came up with what we thought was a really good proposal. That took three years for our proposal to finally get traction, and it got passed, and that was nothing as controversial as this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Until better policy is written \u2013 and perhaps registry rules are altered — Meaden said the main challenge for this cohort is finding landlords willing to rent to people on the list. If they don\u2019t find housing, once their jail or probation time is completed, they return home, perhaps to re-offend.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are preventing future victims by housing people,\u201d said Meaden.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIn an effort to make things more safe, we are making things more dangerous.\u201d Cathleen Meaden Before she started work at New Haven\u2019s Columbus House as senior manager of housing services, Cathleen Meaden\u2019s job was housing people whose crimes were seemingly unforgivable. Her charges were people on the state\u2019s sex offender registry, and when she\u2019d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[20],"class_list":["post-232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sex-offender-news","tag-connecticut-is-rethinking-its-policies-toward-jobs-and-housing-for-sex-offenders"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sexoffenderonestopresource.com\/connecticut\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sexoffenderonestopresource.com\/connecticut\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sexoffenderonestopresource.com\/connecticut\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sexoffenderonestopresource.com\/connecticut\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sexoffenderonestopresource.com\/connecticut\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sexoffenderonestopresource.com\/connecticut\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":233,"href":"https:\/\/sexoffenderonestopresource.com\/connecticut\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232\/revisions\/233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sexoffenderonestopresource.com\/connecticut\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sexoffenderonestopresource.com\/connecticut\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sexoffenderonestopresource.com\/connecticut\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}