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The Truth About Former Rep. Mark Foley:
A Call to Restructure Proximity and
Notification Laws
© 2006, ALJC & SOS-Network
The Foley Legacy: What is so
egregious about this case is not so much Mark Foley was Chairman of the House
Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children and a major sponsor of the Adam Walsh
Child Safety Act of 2006 (AWCSA), but he willfully ignored real solutions to
child sexual abuse. These were proposed
by the Jacob Wetterling Foundation, SOhopeful International, jurist and
litigators, and professionals in therapy, law enforcement, and other
disciplines related to this issue. Apparently, a predator in sheep’s
clothing, he pushed through congress a law that is broad, far-reaching,
challengeable on Constitutional grounds, and harmful to the wives, children,
parents, and siblings of LOW-RISK offenders and former offenders by denying
them due process protections.
Additionally, the AWCSA offers very little in actual prevention and
follows the long list of state and federal laws based on retributive justice,
not restorative justice. After all his posturing for the cameras, Foley
himself, proved that sex offender proximity (banishment) and community notification
(registration) laws are ineffective and do absolutely nothing to make children
safe. Remember, the original intent of sex offender
registry and community notification laws were designed for law enforcement to
track the most violent and predatory offenders.
Again, his actions are proof that politicians are using an imaginary sex
offender panic to win votes. In reality,
they obviously can care less about the safety of your children. Let’s be
clear about this, at the end of the day, proximity and notification laws only
create second-class citizens and families and do not protect children.
We need to
be more concerned about absconders and high-risk predators, not low risk, or
even medium risk offenders who are working hard to comply with their court and
therapy guidelines. Many have paid their debt, and are on the Sex
Offender Registry by law. They are in fact, former offenders who have not
re-offended and are productive members of society. Currently, law enforcement spends precious
resources tracking low risk offenders, instead of high-risk absconders and
Internet predators. Ask yourself, if the sex offender registries were
working, why are we seeing an 8% increase each year in the number of
registrants?
In lieu of
fostering fear for election year sound bites, legislators should step up to
this societal challenge. They should
strive to dispel the myths and establish an environment for policy and
subsequent legislation to succeed, creating a safe society for everyone’s
children. What’s right is right and
what’s wrong is wrong.
We must
have more faith in ourselves than in government to solve the problem. We
advocate returning the Sex Offender Registry to its original intent, tracking
the most dangerous and predatory offenders and absconders. We can accomplish this by the immediate removal of low risk intra-familial
offenders - including former offenders who have paid their debt to society and
have not re-offended, Romeo and Juliet (teen-age consensual sex) lovers,
juvenile offenders, and non-sexual (urinating in public, mooning, etc.)
offenders from the sex offender registries to make them a more effective
monitoring program.
We ask for
the rights of all; victims, offenders and their families are first and foremost
in the ensuing dialogue. We enjoin the
media and our elected representatives to immediately begin using known facts in
place of myths, lies, and misconceptions when addressing this issue. We call for restorative justice and
Constitutional protection in place of retributive justice and Unconstitutional
banishment for offenders and their families.
We do not
condone, in any way, abuse, especially the sexual abuse of children. We do not, and will never make excuses for
former offenders or their offenses. We
believe that repeat offenders need to be separated from society, and released
conditionally on proof of reform. We do
acknowledge the fact that false accusations are made, people make mistakes
(even stupid ones) and believe each case should be judged on its own merits, using
empirical evidence and not hearsay. We
know that people can change, improve themselves, and accomplish their own human
revolution. We encourage you to approach
this issue with an open mind and value the essence of every person’s humanity.
Citizens, communities,
journalist, media personalities, and legislators should demand a National Sex
Offender Public Policy Forum to address this issue. This forum should
include mental health professionals, jurist, law enforcement and corrections
personnel, victims and their families, offenders and their families. The offender’s families are the primary
casualties of ill-conceived laws.
Dialogue should include recidivism facts, risk level standardization,
therapy programs for victims and offenders, educational programs for young
people to teach appropriate boundaries and educational programs for
parents. Then state and local
governments can better formulate workable, cost effective laws that protect the
rights of all citizens.
Educate
yourself – protect your children.
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