Repeal HB1059

Dear Governor Perdue and members of the General Assembly,


Today, some of Georgias children are at a severe risk of losing home and family and need your help. Echoing the statements made by the Georgia Sheriffs Association and numerous others in law enforcement, we ask you to consider the consequences of an overbroad and far reaching law. While we do need to protect our most vulnerable citizens, this bill will victimize the children, wives, parents, and siblings of thousands of Georgias sex offenders.


Roughly, 90 persons (out of 100) who are deemed low risk for re-offending must register (some for life) as a sex offender. According to the U.S. Dept. of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, on average, child molesters represent 23 percent of the folks on registries and predators represent less than one percent of folks on the registry. What has not been publicly discussed is the impact of registration of those 90% of registrants. Specifically their families and children - many times (DOJ stats show 40%), the offender is a child, and the victim is a consensual girlfriend or younger sibling or acquaintance.


These victims are doubly victimized when their family, family member or boyfriend is humiliated and ostracized. Why do we want to keep all sex offenders in the same group and how does this make society safer? While you addressed this for new offenders after July 1, the 11,000 plus existing offenders are left unclassified.


Children who are forced to move over and over due to harassment at school each time a fellow student's parent sends to school a stack of flyers of Daddy's or brother's SOR listing (though illegal in most states it is seldom prosecuted). There are countless stories of these children beaten up after school, and losing all social support structure that is so crucial for healthy development.


How can anyone look into the eyes of a child and tell them that they somehow deserve to be homeless, harassed, beaten, humiliated, stigmatized, and made a pariah for the remote chance at saving some other child? Whose children are worthy? Only those of others? On the other hand, do the children of registrants even count?


In January, the Iowa County Attorneys Association issued a Statement on Sex Offender Residency Restrictions in Iowa. This statement concludes strongly urging the replacement of residency restrictions with measures that more effectively protect children, reduce the unintended unfairness to innocent persons, and make more prudent use of law enforcement resources. Since then, DA Associations around the country have voiced the same concerns.


In Iowa, the rise in absconding almost tripled after they passed a 2,000-foot residency restriction. They noted their offenders (as in Georgia) were already monitored and their living arrangements approved by the Dept. of Corrections. As the Committee was warned in March, Georgia will experience the same because of HB1059.


Based on evidence from other states, unless we change the current paradigm (net results of HB1059) the cost to the state budget will be overwhelming. Taking into account the cost of incarceration, welfare for the family, lost tax revenue and continued post release assistance for the offender and his family, the total for a 10 year sentence (for failure to find a place to live) will be around $480,000 per offender. This figure is based on national averages from the DOJ.


Using the Iowa increase in absconding after increased and harsher residency restrictions as a baseline, Georgias taxpayers should expect to see around a two-thousand offenders go underground. Using these estimates, HB1059 will cost around a billion dollars ($1,000,000,000) for the first ten years.


This bill will, reduce an offenders ability to reintegrate into society and increases the risk for re-offence. For the families it creates suffering, vilification, unnecessary difficulties and for child-victims of an interfamilial offence, it victimizes them a second time. For society, the effects are equally demoralizing; it gives an extremely false sense of security, higher costs in welfare and disability payments for families and reduced tax revenue because of lost or reduced earned income.


Experts agree there are better, more cost effective solutions. I believe citizens, and legislators should demand a Sex Offender Public Policy Forum to address this issue. Forums should include mental health professionals, jurist, law enforcement, corrections officers, victims, and offenders along with their families. Organizations like the Jacob Wetterling Foundation, SOhopeful International, victim advocacy groups, prosecutors, therapist, and even the Dept. of Justice have proposed countless solutions. Please repeal HB1059 and consider the following:


Employ standardized reporting and risk level guidelines for all sex offenders making monitoring easier for law enforcement.
Implement a five-tier risk level; to include NO RISK, LOW RISK, MEDIUM RISK, HIGH RISK, and PREDATOR.
Impose civil commitment for HIGH RISK offenders and PREDATORS.
Assess risk level prior to reentry into society, implement GPS monitoring and bi-annual assessment of MEDIUM RISK offenders until their determined risk is lowered.
Immediate removal of community notification for NO RISK and LOW RISK offenders (teenage consensual sex and one time intra-familial) increasing its effectiveness to law enforcement, state corrections, and the courts.
Develop better training and standardized investigative techniques, creating an accurate litmus test to determine false allegations (the American Psychological Association estimates this around 30 to 70\% where custody dispute is involved in divorce) from factual sex abuse cases.
Provide separate sex offender correctional facilities and mandatory ATSA (Association for the Treatment of Sexual Offenders) approved therapy prior to release.
Prevention programs for teens and young adults to prevent sex abuse through development of successful coping skills and through understanding of appropriate boundaries.
No parole life sentences for second (non-technical) offences and deliberate absconders.
For NO RISK and LOW RISK offenders, provide education programs and skills training, to increase employability making re-entry back into society more certain, ensuring a safety net for the family and revenue base for the treasury.


I believe you should endorse these and use them as a platform for change in Georgia. These solutions will make all of Georgias citizens safer. Was that not the intent of HB1059?


According to HB1059, an offender on life support in a nursing home, or an Alzheimers patient who forgets to register will face 10 to 30 years in jail. How in the world can this make children safer? Who will tell the grieving widow tough luck, your spouse was a sex offender, so you are not worthy of society's compassion?


Who will wipe the tears from an offenders childs face when they come home from school, beaten and bloodied? Who will help put clothes on their backs; buy them food and birthday presents while their daddy is incarcerated because he could not find a home for them? Do they not deserve our compassion and constitutional guarantees as well?


The children, wives, parents, and siblings of Georgias offenders need an advocate to stand up for them as well. Is not the morally and legally correct position to uphold the civil and constitutional rights of all citizens?



Sincerely yours,

The Undersigned Citizens and Voters of Georgia