Ohio to pay more for less safety [Adam Walsh Act strikes]
Early adopters take the arrows... and expenses. Good luck Ohio, you bought that pig in a poke.
Sex-offender law may task sheriff’s offices
NEWARK — Changes to Ohio’s sex-offender laws likely will expedite the judicial process, but they could bog down law enforcement, local officials said.
On Jan. 1, the labels of sexually oriented, habitual and predator will be gone and replaced with a three-tiered system. Classification hearings will be a thing of the past because offenders will be designated as Tier I, II or III — Tier III has the strongest notification requirements — depending on the crime they are convicted of.
The legislation passed by the Ohio General Assembly this summer will be retroactive, meaning all 33,000 sex offenders in Ohio could be affected, said Jennifer Brindisi, spokeswoman for the Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation.
Although the switch to tiers will remove an additional hearing from the prosecutor’s schedule, it could require many more visits with offenders for those in charge of the registry, said Detective Brock Harmon, of the Licking County Sheriff’s Office.
“We are anticipating it’s going to be a lot busier because of the new laws,” he said.
Harmon, who is the sole detective in the office charged with keeping up sex-offender records, said with the changes he potentially could have a rapist now classified as a sexually oriented offender, the lowest level under the active tags, automatically become a Tier III offender. This adjustment would, among other changes including lifetime registration, require the offender, who checked in annually as a sexually oriented offender, to meet with Harmon every three months, he said.
More responsibility could lead to increased infractions, Harmon said.
...
He added that it is possible that defendants facing a lifetime of registration as a sex offender might choose to fight the charges instead of working with the prosecution and pleading guilty.
...
Oswalt said he does expect to see the law challenged in higher and local courts, but added he does not have much sympathy for those affected by the modifications.
“If you don’t think you should be a Tier III offender, you shouldn’t have committed the crime,” he said.
This is so pathetic, but then again it seems Ohio has yet to see a "sex-offender" law not worthy of passage.
I hope Ohioans will be happy when somebody who appears to authorities to be truly dangerous and likely to re-offend gets labeled a "Tier 1" due to his prior conviction. And then re-offends.
Or when their limited law enforcement resources get eaten up tracking the very large number of new "Tier 3s" who were formerly determined to be "Level 1", least likely to re-offend.
Or when a whole bunch of those formerly Level 1s, now Tier 3s, decide to drop off the map because it's way too much "in your face" and law enforcement has to go looking for them -- and remember, it's roughly $25000/year to incarcerate each one of those you catch, over and above the expense for prosecution. Money that won't be spent on prosecuting those whose crimes actually hurt people, as opposed to evading registration. (Which is not to say that evading registration doesn't create a danger in itself -- it can, so why encourage it?)
But the most pathetic remark in this article belongs to Oswalt: “If you don’t think you should be a Tier III offender, you shouldn’t have committed the crime,” he said.
Has he ever heard about the antiquated, archaic, irrelevant notion of ex post facto law? Guess not because he, and many others, haven't.
Sex-offender law may task sheriff’s offices
NEWARK — Changes to Ohio’s sex-offender laws likely will expedite the judicial process, but they could bog down law enforcement, local officials said.
On Jan. 1, the labels of sexually oriented, habitual and predator will be gone and replaced with a three-tiered system. Classification hearings will be a thing of the past because offenders will be designated as Tier I, II or III — Tier III has the strongest notification requirements — depending on the crime they are convicted of.
The legislation passed by the Ohio General Assembly this summer will be retroactive, meaning all 33,000 sex offenders in Ohio could be affected, said Jennifer Brindisi, spokeswoman for the Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation.
Although the switch to tiers will remove an additional hearing from the prosecutor’s schedule, it could require many more visits with offenders for those in charge of the registry, said Detective Brock Harmon, of the Licking County Sheriff’s Office.
“We are anticipating it’s going to be a lot busier because of the new laws,” he said.
Harmon, who is the sole detective in the office charged with keeping up sex-offender records, said with the changes he potentially could have a rapist now classified as a sexually oriented offender, the lowest level under the active tags, automatically become a Tier III offender. This adjustment would, among other changes including lifetime registration, require the offender, who checked in annually as a sexually oriented offender, to meet with Harmon every three months, he said.
More responsibility could lead to increased infractions, Harmon said.
...
He added that it is possible that defendants facing a lifetime of registration as a sex offender might choose to fight the charges instead of working with the prosecution and pleading guilty.
...
Oswalt said he does expect to see the law challenged in higher and local courts, but added he does not have much sympathy for those affected by the modifications.
“If you don’t think you should be a Tier III offender, you shouldn’t have committed the crime,” he said.
This is so pathetic, but then again it seems Ohio has yet to see a "sex-offender" law not worthy of passage.
I hope Ohioans will be happy when somebody who appears to authorities to be truly dangerous and likely to re-offend gets labeled a "Tier 1" due to his prior conviction. And then re-offends.
Or when their limited law enforcement resources get eaten up tracking the very large number of new "Tier 3s" who were formerly determined to be "Level 1", least likely to re-offend.
Or when a whole bunch of those formerly Level 1s, now Tier 3s, decide to drop off the map because it's way too much "in your face" and law enforcement has to go looking for them -- and remember, it's roughly $25000/year to incarcerate each one of those you catch, over and above the expense for prosecution. Money that won't be spent on prosecuting those whose crimes actually hurt people, as opposed to evading registration. (Which is not to say that evading registration doesn't create a danger in itself -- it can, so why encourage it?)
But the most pathetic remark in this article belongs to Oswalt: “If you don’t think you should be a Tier III offender, you shouldn’t have committed the crime,” he said.
Has he ever heard about the antiquated, archaic, irrelevant notion of ex post facto law? Guess not because he, and many others, haven't.
posted by the administration at 7:38 PM
1 Comments:
I am a parent of a 27 year old son with the mind of a 12 year old. He cant drive, and cant even defend himself in this matter. I dont understand the way that they determine who is a tier one and a tier three. I have read intensely on this subject. I feel that in his case there were two victims. A girl that was molested in her on home repeately by her step brothers. Raised by her grandmother because of all the drug abuse and sexual situtions. My son was of the same age but because she was a minor nothing could be brought to court even though she was repeatedly in trouble in school for doing improper behavors. This girl I feel very sad for. People need to see that this is not always the case. And we have had threats to our other children while in school, property threatened etc. Now we are to register for life with him. I don't ask that his sentence be changed in any way although I feel that they do need to look at all the facts and consider the ones that are offenders meaning have made one mistake and are or have paid their debt to society and will not reoffend. Did you know that most statics say that these people will reoffend? That is untrue. Most sex offenses happen inside of the home as did with this child. The only was she knew to show affection is through sexual contact. Nothing was done to help this girl. Also, she did tell her grandmother and the court that she didn't admit the whole truth. It was dropped, but because she was a minor and the prosecuting attorney was to be reelected the state picked it up. The ones that do murder they are given a sentence and allowed to fullfil their sentence. They are not labeled when their time is up and not made to register at all, but they have taken a life. I ask you which is worse! My concern is that all sexual crimes are linked together. The public thinks PREDITOR....and this is not true. Offenders can be a person who has peed on a tree in public. Does that make them a predator no. What about the CONSTITUTION. It is not lawful to add to a sentence, yet Adam Walsh, Megans law etc. do this even though its unconstitutional. What's nest I ask ..........drunk drivers, drug addicts,,,,, I just don't understand this.
Post a Comment
<< Home