Image Credit: capitol.tn.gov
The Tennessee Conservative [By Rebecca Scott] –
A bill to extend the amount of time that a perpetrator remains on the Tennessee Sex Offender Registry, sponsored by Sen. Mark Pody (R-Lebanon-District 17), recently passed in the Senate with 30 Ayes and 0 Nays.
Meanwhile, the companion bill, House Bill 1617 (HB1617), sponsored by Rep. Bryan Richey (R-Maryville-District 20), was recently placed behind the budget in the House Finance, Ways, and Means Subcommittee.
HB1617 “As introduced, extends from 10 years to 15 years the period of time following termination of active supervision on probation, parole, or any other alternative to incarceration, or discharge from incarceration without supervision after which an offender may file a request for termination of the requirement to register as a sexual offender or violent sexual offender. – Amends TCA Title 39 and Title 40, Chapter 39, Part 2.” Chairman Gary Hicks (R-Rogersville-District 9) has stated, “There is a cost associated with House Bill 1617, so we will have to place it behind the budget and consider it at a later date.”
Being placed behind the budget can prove to be a challenge usually due to fiscal impacts or because the bill is not part of the governor’s proposed budget.
Now, in the latest news from the House floor from Wednesday of last week, the House Finance, Ways, and Means Subcommittee took any bills still “behind the budget” off notice for this legislative session.
In order for HB1617 to move forward it will likely have to be reintroduced in the following legislative session.
The current legislative session ends on April 25, 2024.
Rebecca Scott is a Tennessee resident and reporter for The Tennessee Conservative. You can reach Rebecca at Rebecca@tennesseeconservativenews.com
2 Responses
What is the TRUE recidivism rate for registrants? Without technical violations. Without failure to register due to being a day late or failure to update an address on time.
The last published numbers by the NCMEC indicated over 917,000 men, women, and children (as young as 6 (looking up a dress) 9 (popping a bra) and 10 in some states) are required to register. The crimes range from urinating in public (indecent exposure), sexting, incest, mooning, exposure, false accusations by a soon-to-be ex-wife, angry girlfriend, or spiteful student, viewing abusive OR suggestive images of anyone 18 years old or younger, playing doctor, voyeurism, prostitution, solicitation, Romeo and Juliet consensual sexual dating relationships, rape, endangering the welfare of a child, the old bait-n-switch internet stings (taking sometimes 12 months before a person steps over the line) guys on the autism spectrum or with intellectual disabilities and many others.
Multiply that number by 2 or 3 family members you can clearly see there are well over 3 million wives, children, moms, aunts, girlfriends, grandmothers and other family members who experience the collateral damage of being murdered, harassed, threatened, children beaten, have signs placed in their yards, homes set on fire, vehicles damaged, asked to leave their churches and other organizations, children passed over for educational opportunities, have flyers distributed around their neighborhood. Registrants are unable to get life insurance or refinance their homes. Academics and researchers indicate 3 things are needed for successful reintegration; a job, a place to live and a “positive” support system. Banning a registered citizen from drug treatment centers is not positive support.
The Supreme Court’s Crucial Mistake About Sexual Crime Statistics – ‘Frightening and High’ (Debunks the high recidivism rate cited by retired SCOTUS Justice Kennedy and current Chief Justice Roberts)
It is very important that you read the abstract below and then the full 12-page essay by Ira Mark and Tara Ellman.
ABSTRACT This brief essay reveals that the sources relied upon by the Supreme Court in Smith v. Doe, a heavily cited constitutional decision on sexual offense registries, in fact provide no support at all for the facts about re-offense rates that the Court treats as central to its constitutional conclusions. This misreading of the social science was abetted in part by the Solicitor General’s misrepresentations in the amicus brief it filed in this case. The false “facts” stated in the opinion have since been relied upon repeatedly by other courts in their own constitutional decisions, thus infecting an entire field of law as well as policy-making by legislative bodies. Recent decisions by the Pennsylvania and California supreme courts establish principles that would support major judicial reforms of sexual offense registries, if they were applied to the facts. This paper appeared in Constitutional Commentary Fall, 2015.
https://scholarship.law.umn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1429&context=concomm
A study reviewing sex crimes as reported to police revealed that:
a) 93% of child sexual abuse victims knew their abuser;
b) 34.2% were family members;
c) 58.7% were acquaintances;
d) Only 7% of the perpetrators of child victims were strangers;
e) 40% of sexual assaults take place in the victim’s own home;
f) 20% take place in the home of a friend, neighbor or relative (Jill Levenson, PhD, Lynn University)
There is a tremendous need to fund programs like ‘Stop It Now’ that teache parents how to begin and maintain a dialog with their children to intervene before harm occurs and about grooming behaviors as well as other things at age-appropriate levels in their Circles of Safety.
Our question to the public is one of, after adjudication their debt being paid to society when does redemption begin? Is it only selective redemption? When are human beings required to register given their lives back without the stigma, hate and fear of harm to their family or themselves? A few months ago a person forced to register in Wisconsin was murdered by a vigilante using a shove and an animal antler.
We support the principles of Restorative/Transformative Justice; restore the victim, offender AND the community. Unfortunately, our justice systems, federal and some states, prefer to annihilate human beings using mandatory minimum sentences, banning them from participating in their children’s lives, leaving our families in a state of hopelessness. Institutionalization is counter-productive to what we pretend to be doing.
Our country is evidently proud to be ‘the incarceration nation’ with 5% of the world’s population and 25% of the world’s incarcerated.
Here is an example of how our families are harmed. A well-meaning teacher printed out profile pictures of local registrants and put them on the board around the classroom. She promoted her effort to protect her students by suggesting they look at and remember those people. One student pointed at one picture and said, “Katie isn’t that your dad?” It was….
Vicki, MIC DROP! perfectly stated!