Re: Challenge to Sex Offender Registry

There is no "perfect" system. But there is "trying to make it better" where you minimalize flaws in what you already have. While I cannot comment on Sex Offender Registries from a personal perspective, I can comment on the incarceration aspects of what society is currently doing.

The incarceration rate in the U.S. is well over 700 per 100,000 population. This is hundreds above Russia. Japan, for comparison, is only 58 per 100K. Norway is just 73 per 100K. There is no country that incarcerates more than the U.S.

If you were to believe the U.S. media, sex crimes are on the increase with child molesters and rapists on every street corner. I guess the incarceration solution works for the U.S., eh?

The U.S. had me for more than 10 years. Their idea of how to "help" me was to extort me into a weekly group session with other "child molesters" where we would sit around complaining about how many pairs of socks we could get returned from the laundry. In those 10 years, I described my crimes once. A set of three counselors for the group would sit with us each week. Not one of them were more than social workers pretending to like prison work. But their salaries were in the 40's. I wanted help with my addiction. I knew that I was not safe on the streets and, at the time, I knew that I would re-offend within hours of my release so I actively pursued staying IN prison because of this. The prison administration was afraid of me because it had no "program" for someone like me. Their focus was to get the inmate to admit to his crimes as being HIS wrong doing. Hell, I told them that the first day. But I also told them that I could not stop. So, for 10 years, I just sat through weekly sessions discussing prison life.

I worked with a friend from the outside (a French teacher) who visited me once a month or more. He and my family tried to help with encouragement and listening to my sexual issues. (Some of the group session members were helping me, as well, as we lived the prison life.)

I eventually got dumped onto the streets and, for a month, I lived in mortal fear that my method of self control would not work. For almost 15 years, I have learned that my method works for me. Not once did the prison system help me with what, obviously, works. In fact, once I told them, they vigorously objected to it because it was not the "established" way to get integrated back into society.

I am comfortably hidden behind anonymity here and I no longer live in the U.S., so I don't have any hidden agenda to point all this out. I write this to help others. I am NOT proposing an alternative but, rather, showing that what is being used by the "system" does not work.

I know a fellow, DT, who was in prison for simply picking up a child and holding him, arm under butt, and tried to kiss him. He got sentenced to 5 or 6 years. I met him when he first hit the yard. Today, he is still in the "system", still trying to get past elementary school level studies. His petty crime was almost 20 years ago! I know of another fellow who was in prison for being involved with his partner for 4 years. Me. WITHOUT meaningful official counseling, I am currently crime free. DT has been getting counseling for all these years.

For offenders of child sex, there is over-criminalization and stigmatization. Yet MOST of these people do not re-offend. It sure isn't because of the welcoming arms of people who understand.

An alternative, you ask for? How about decriminalizing something that isn't wrong. When it IS wrong (non-consensual), help the offender with his/her sexual issues. IF the offender can find self-control, then a release back into society is better than warehousing him/her.

Regarding this post and every post I write about myself describing my past, be advised that I was tried, convicted, sentenced to a very long time in prison, and I served the complete sentence. Be further advised that I am no longer practicing illegal activities today and that I refrain from doing so by my own choice, not from fear of legal entanglements or society's outrage. I remain crime free because I choose to.