It seems that there have been several topics where I've probably been holding my tongue lately.  One was on Iran, which I talked about the other day, and the other where I've been rather silent is on sex offender laws.  More specifically on the ordinances that many communities are either passing, or proposing regarding where registered sex offenders may live in their city.  Franklin is one community in the Milwaukee area that has passed on such law.  CNN recently had an article on what one such law has done to sex offenders in Florida:

The Florida Department of Corrections says there are fewer and fewer places in Miami-Dade County where sex offenders can live because the county has some of the strongest restrictions against this kind of criminal in the country.

Florida's solution: house the convicted felons under a bridge that forms one part of the causeway.

The Julia Tuttle Causeway, which links Miami to Miami Beach, offers no running water, no electricity and little protection from nasty weather. It's not an ideal solution, Department of Corrections Officials told CNN, but at least the state knows where the sex offenders are.
...
With nowhere to put these men, the Department of Corrections moved them under the Julia Tuttle Causeway. With the roar of cars passing overhead, convicted sex offender Kevin Morales sleeps in a chair to keep the rats off him.

"The rodents come up next to you, you could be sleeping the whole night and they could be nibbling on you," he said.

Morales has been homeless and living under the causeway for about three weeks. He works, has a car and had a rented apartment but was forced to move after the Department of Corrections said a swimming pool in his building put him too close to children.

Now I'd like to get one thing straight right off the bat.  I don't really give two figs if these monsters have rats chewing on their privates day and night.  They're the scum of the Earth.  That's important to say, and I'd like to make that crystal clear.  But that doesn't mean that this is the solution to enact... and in the end causes more problems than it solves.  It's understandable why politicians go after them... its like shooting fish in a barrel.  It's a quick feel good law that gets you publicity, and is almost impossible to argue against.

The biggest problem is that it generally doesn't keep sex offenders out of neighborhoods, but simply pushes them underground.  Instead of knowing exactly where they are (and being disgusted by the fact that we know they're next door), they simply don't register.  Or they move... and don't tell anyone.  While this may make them subject to re-arrest later, most won't get found out.  So I'd ask you, which would you rather have... a sex offender you knew about next door, or one next door you didn't know about?

The other issue is that "sex offender" lists are growing to encompass more and more sex crimes.  It's not just the evil bastards who molest 10 year old girls.  The high school kid who had sex with his high school girlfriend is on that list too.  And while that may have been technically illegal, does that crime justify living under a bridge being chewed on by rats?  It also encourages the myth that most child abuse is "stranger danger" style abuse, when more than 90% of abuse cases are actually committed by parents or close friends of the victim.  It gives a false sense of security to people which could put children in more danger, not less.

And worst of all is the precedent that it sets in our legal system.  No longer can someone feel secure that completing your jail time will end your sentence, and allow you to rejoin society while hopefully learning your lesson.  People now have to worry that years after you're free, a community could decide to repunish you without a trial, or the ability to present evidence or have representation.  And while nobody has any issue doing such a thing to a child molester, what happens when they come after drug offenders, reformed thieves or anyone else with some type of criminal record?  The reality is that once government is given that power, they will take it and run with it.  It goes against the very basis of our Constitution and limits on government power.

Only two outcomes are possible here.  Either cities will continue to get away with it and will see these sorts of zoning laws cropping up for every crime under the book, or these laws will be struck down with a vengeance, such that even simply sex offender registration lists without zoning implications will be banned because they had gone too far.  In Wisconsin, it's likely to be the latter, as the State Supreme Court has already begun to make noises about the legality of sex offender housing laws for those on probation.  My fear is that if more communities pass ordinances like Franklin, then the Supreme Court will strike down all sex offender registry laws in reaction to people taking it too far.

And then we'll have no idea where these monsters are.