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Prosecutor Offers His Home to Released Sex Offenders

By Jeralyn, Section Inmates and Prisons
Posted on Wed Apr 06, 2005 at 04:28:54 PM EST
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A prosecutor in Oregon has asked the Court for permission to allow up to 15 newly released sex offenders a year to live in his home for up to 60 days each while they try to find jobs and housing.

It is my hope, if I did this first, we might find others would who would be willing to do it," he told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "I wasn't able to see any other viable alternatives."

....Fisher said he isn't looking forward to opening his home to offenders, but hopes it could move the county toward a long-term solution. "Some means need to be found to transition these people back to society," Fisher told the Statesman-Journal. "From a gut perspective, I'm probably less afraid than the general public of these people. Rightly or wrongly, they are seen as inhuman monsters but mostly they're pathetic human beings."

His offer will be discussed by county officials at a meeting on Friday.

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    Prosecutor Offers His Home to Released Sex Offenders | 14 comments (14 topical)
    Re: Prosecutor Offers His Home to Released Sex Off (none / 0) (#3)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed Apr 06, 2005 at 05:19:18 PM EST
    Damn, impressive. A prosecutor who actually walks the walk. Most prosecutors do not really want to actually reduce crime because they enjoy living in a black and white good guy bad guy world. Good to see one doing something construtive with their power. B

    Re: Prosecutor Offers His Home to Released Sex Off (none / 0) (#4)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed Apr 06, 2005 at 05:45:36 PM EST
    I hope he does not have any kids, wife, girlfriend or mother living with him.
    Such an enlightened fellow Narius is. Perhaps we should just euthanize sexual offenders, since there is no hope of rehabilitation.

    Re: Prosecutor Offers His Home to Released Sex Off (none / 0) (#6)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed Apr 06, 2005 at 05:59:25 PM EST
    I was deliberately overstating things to make a point. Problem is we obviously aren't handling sex offenders correctly if they serve their sentance and are still considered a threat. Perhaps mandatory inpatient psych instead of jail? I don't know. car thieves, kidnappers, etc. do not have to register and announce themselves to their neighbors as such.

    Re: Prosecutor Offers His Home to Released Sex Off (none / 0) (#7)
    by Richard Aubrey on Wed Apr 06, 2005 at 06:32:01 PM EST
    V2. Sorry. Missed it entirely, but in my defense, in this territory it sounded normal. Or usual. Not the same thing. I don't know, either. But I would suggest on difference is that losing one's car is not as bad as...the other thing. People are more likely to be hinky about it. I have only the barest familiarity with inpatient psych. I don't know if it would work or if the perps would figure out quickly how to game it. Considering the stakes involved in looking reformed, they'd be working hard at it. And mandatory psych may not work very well unless it was something like whatever they did in Clockwork Orange. Part of the difficulty may be in the view of completing a sentence as having paid one's debt to society. That is not true. Completing a sentence is completing a regimen of deprivation of one or more things the rest of us take for granted, designed over time by competing views. There is no connection to the "debt" owed. You can't even pay back a bank robbery because the terror felt by the employees and customers is irretrievable.Money is the least of it. Much less a rape or assault. Steal a guy's car? Well, so you give him a nicer one. How about the vacation, say, they missed? Or the sense of violation? Completion of a sentence does not in any way pay a debt. The reflexive consideration that it does leads people to act as if the perp's slate is or should be wiped clean and he is even supposed to be considered to be no more likely to reoffend than someone who never has is to start. If you've been around this board long enough, you'll know what I'm talking about.

    Re: Prosecutor Offers His Home to Released Sex Off (none / 0) (#2)
    by Richard Aubrey on Wed Apr 06, 2005 at 07:33:31 PM EST
    What are the conditions, if any, of the release? Would the prosecutor be liable for seeing the conditions are met? If the bozos re-offend while in his home, is he liable for anything? If he's next to a day-care center, is he allowed to laugh at the parents in public? Pathetic is right. [This commenter is now limited to four comments a day. All in excess will be deleted.]

    Re: Prosecutor Offers His Home to Released Sex Off (none / 0) (#5)
    by Richard Aubrey on Wed Apr 06, 2005 at 07:34:51 PM EST
    V2. So. You would prefer to leave kids, wives, girlfriends, mothers, grandmothers at the mercy of convicted sex offenders? Okay making them scout leaders? Aides in pediatric wards? There's a difference between euthanasia and caution. Why do you want to make the two equivalent? More to the point, would you have a convicted sex offender babysit your kids? If not, why is your refusal not equivalent to euthanasia? [This commenter is now limited to four comments a day. All in excess will be deleted.]

    Re: Prosecutor Offers His Home to Released Sex Off (none / 0) (#8)
    by jimcee on Wed Apr 06, 2005 at 08:23:27 PM EST
    "...too live in HIS home for 60 days..." I'll bet my last dollar that we would never see, "...to live in HER home.." with or without kids and quite frankly if I did I'd be worried about her and her kids safety as well as her mental health. Period. I'm not quite sure I'd want to be one of this fella's neighbors either way.

    Re: Prosecutor Offers His Home to Released Sex Off (none / 0) (#9)
    by Che's Lounge on Wed Apr 06, 2005 at 09:49:09 PM EST
    TL, Unless you are deleting a lot of him, I don't feel that you should limit Richard Aubrey's comments. He may be conservative, and he may push a lot of buttons here, but he doesn't really troll or call names as much. Plus he's been around for awhile. Personally I like the challenge.

    Re: Prosecutor Offers His Home to Released Sex Off (none / 0) (#10)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed Apr 06, 2005 at 10:04:22 PM EST
    He had 11 comments today - all contrary. He needs to get his own blog if he wants to write that much, or else contribute to the cost of the site. Four comments a day is reasonable, in my view.

    Re: Prosecutor Offers His Home to Released Sex Off (none / 0) (#11)
    by Richard Aubrey on Thu Apr 07, 2005 at 05:21:47 AM EST
    Che. Thanks for the adult response. I would not mind supporting the board as a matter of equity except for a reason I communicated directly to TL. I suppose, though, that "contrary" is a reasonable description of pointing out errors of fact or logic. There's an old saying that steel sharpens steel. You don't sharpen a knife by swishing it in a bowl of oatmeal. But most of the posters here seem to want to say nonsensical stuff to others who will nod and pretend to believe and then top them in nonsense. I told TL--I don't think this is breaching privacy--that I felt I performed a service here by reminding you of what you can and can't expect to get over on normal people. If all you hear is each other, you might commit a real blunder out in the world. Feel free, though, to e-mail me for a reality check. raubrey@sbcglobal.net. I will be off the push for a bit this weekend. Some revoltingly young (19) kid is going to take our computer away, kill some chickens or whatever they do and magically improve it. My brother in law and I will be celebrating turning sixty and contemplating what we might get up to to prove we still got it. Later.

    Re: Prosecutor Offers His Home to Released Sex Off (none / 0) (#12)
    by kdog on Thu Apr 07, 2005 at 06:27:38 AM EST
    I hope it's a sucess...this guy is a much better man than I.

    Re: Prosecutor Offers His Home to Released Sex Off (none / 0) (#14)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Fri Apr 08, 2005 at 07:13:51 AM EST
    As much as many of you WANT to believe there's some way to separate out "the good people" from "the bad people" with regards to sexual preferences/deviancy, it ain't ever gonna happen. As long as you pretend that perverts look like Michael Jackson and not like the guy across the street - as long as you pretend that only monsters have "impure" thoughts about children and not many, many men who will never act on it (as well as those who do) this will continue to be a deep dark dirty secret. What's the point here? Feeling righteous? Or helping kids. What do you do with people who otherwise are responsible, wage earning, taxpaying citizens who have a problem controlling their inappropriate impulses. And what do you do with the molested child who's perpetrator was never caught and who now finds himself turning into a "monster"? Is his life worth nothing? If it were your uncle (as it is for many readers)? Your step-dad? A psychologist might argue that those who are most adamant about purging these people from the face of the planet might be trying to purge themselves. A brave step by the prosecutor - let's hope for our childrens' sake that it is successful.

    Re: Prosecutor Offers His Home to Released Sex Off (none / 0) (#15)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Fri Apr 08, 2005 at 07:15:27 AM EST
    I stumbled upon this as I was doing research for a bill that is before the Oregon house that would keep sex offenders who are on parole from living together in a dwelling unless the dwelling is a supervised treatment facility. I am an independent and only really became interested in this when a home for eight sex offenders newly released from jail oppened up across the street from my house (we have three small children and 12 other young cildren live on our cul-de-sac). We were not notified because Oregon law only requires notification of predatory sex offenders (if you molest someone that you knew, you probably wouldn't fall into predatory). At least four of the eight men that lived in the home were convicted of crimes against minors. Here are some points to consider: 1)We need to reexamine who needs to register as a sex offender under the law. Should a nineteen year old who had sex with his sixteen year old girlfriend really have that follow him around forever? 2)These men are on parole so they haven't completed their sentence. If the state doesn't trust them enough to let them go "free and clear" should we be willing to have them in "target rich environments"? 3)If the state is going to release them, where should the go? Often times they are released into society with little to no money. Once you are a registered offender, it is hard to find someone willing to rent to you. Some of the guys may "deserve it" but, once again, what about the situation I talked about previously with the underage girlfriend. This is how homeowners in our area are finding this renting niche. Take a home in a neighborhood, convert any free area into a bedroom (in our case a three bedroom home became eight bedrooms), and rent it per room for around $400 per room per month. The guys getting out of prison are so desperate they are willing to rent from these people (its way better than prison) and the homeowners are making tons of money. Did I mention that the guy owns 23 other homes in the county- 12 are sex offender boarding houses. In my opinion there are lots of problems with having offender boarding houses. It puts our children at risk (even the ACLU, who is against the bill, said that many in a home is not in the best interest of the community). However, state governments and local communities need to examine how they handle these men once they are released on parole. If you are going to release them you need to have a plan in place that will allow them some dignity and hope. Otherwise, they are much more likely to reoffend. Just something to think about.

    Re: Prosecutor Offers His Home to Released Sex Off (none / 0) (#16)
    by kdog on Fri Apr 08, 2005 at 07:40:42 AM EST
    Good post mother.

    Prosecutor Offers His Home to Released Sex Offenders | 14 comments (14 topical)