Congressional Hearing - March 10, 2009
On Tuesday, March 10, 2009, Congress will be holding a hearing on implementation of the Adam Walsh Act. This is a great opportunity to establish contact with each our individual congress persons.
This is the time to tell our individual congress persons about problems which we or our family or friends have encountered with sex offender registration. The unintended and counterproductive consequences of sex offender registration should be emphasized.
The fact that there is no evidence that sex offender registration has done anything to reduce sexual abuse should be stressed. As support for this last point congress persons or their staff should be encouraged to read the recent report of the New Jersey Department of Corrections, funded by the U.S. Department of Justice under the Bush Administration. A copy of this report is attached. In his inaugural speech
President Obama said:
"The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works — whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end."
Applying that test, sex offender registration does not work. Instead it is interfering with families and individuals finding jobs, housing and dignity. The new Congress and President Obama should be encouraged to take dispassionate look at sex offender registration on both the state and the federal level and to repeal the Adam Walsh Act, because it is counterproductive to the purpose of preventing sex abuse.
For More Information...
These punitive, dehumanizing, humiliating and degrading Public Sex Offender Registry and Residency Restriction Laws are harming countless thousands of lives.. and they do not protect children or families. They simply do not work.
Why a man, Mark Lunsford, who has been caught with Child Pornography on his own personal computer is allowed to sit in this hearing, let alone speak, is a slap in the face to justice in America. Mark Lunsford Caught with Child Porn Gets Set Free...He has Power!
If you want to watch this full video, you are welcome to do so on the website which provides the video.
Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security SORNA Hearing Video