Rather than fulfilling their duty to Michigan residents by treating sex offenders, the Michigan state police have instead published the state's list of sex offenders on the Internet. The stated reason behind the list is to aid parents in identifying sex offenders who may be living in their neighborhood.
While committing sex offenses should be looked upon seriously, sex offenders are nevertheless entitled to live out their lives as normal citizens after having completed their sentence, instead of being subject to public humiliation as a result of this published list. Sex offenders should be given the opportunity to truly rehabilitate during their sentence to alleviate any public fear that the offenders will repeat their offense once they return back to society. The state police have no need to publish such as list on the Internet where it can be accessed by people with all sorts of intentions.
Many problems are currently associated with publishing this list on the web site. The list of sex offenders is not completely accurate. Mistakes are found in as much as 25 percent of the registry. Instead of trying to remedy the problem or take the list offline, the state requests at the bottom of the list that citizens "contact your local police agency or sheriff's department... to report the discrepancy" Furthermore, only the personal descriptions of the sex offenders are published along with the offense that they committed. But the vast majority of crimes attributed to those listed are convictions of criminal sexual conduct with no additional information such as the date of the offense. Many individuals listed were born in the '30s, '40s or '50s making it quite possible that the offense these individuals committed occurred decades ago.
Sex offenders are put on this list without exception. Minor offenders, such as those convicted of crimes like indecent exposure under certain circumstances, could have their names put on the list. Even sex offenders should not have to face their whole life living in the shadows of a crime for which they have served out their punishment or that they committed a long while back.
Sen. David Jaye (R-Macomb), maintains his own site which has a disclaimer reading: "This list represents our best effort to accurately duplicate the information provided. We are not responsible for inaccuracies." Such an irresponsible action by a public servant should be condemned by voters.
Instead of publishing a list of sex offenders, the state police should focus on rehabilitating them while they are serving their time. The state should pass legislation to ensure that sex offenders receive comprehensive psychological treatment while they are serving time in prison so that when they return to society, they are rehabilitated.
The state police should no longer resort to such counterproductive tactics as publishing the names of sex offenders on the Internet. On a practical level, the inaccuracies in such a list will inevitably lead to harassment of innocent people. From a moral standpoint, society's fundemental concept of justice demands that those who have paid their debts to society for their crimes should not be punished any further. In order to solve the problem, the state should focus their efforts on the psychological roots of sex crimes
05-24-99
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