Sex Offenders Unite in International Organization to Reform Megan's Law
September 11, 2004 OREGON, USA- SOhopeful International has recently formally incorporated in the state of Oregon as a not-for-profit organization. We are dedicated to changing the way Megan's and similar laws mandate the registration, tracking and community notification of non-violent, low risk sex offenders. Our membership consists of former offenders and their families.
OREGON (PRWEB) September 11, 2004 -- SOhopeful International seeks to develop relationships with legislators who craft and approve laws dealing with penal codes and public policy with respect to sex offenders. We work with those individuals to convey which provisions we oppose and support, as well as to offer viable, logical, compassionate solutions as alternatives to the existing hysteria-based approach towards laws mandating ongoing supervision and lifetime punishment of all former convicted sex offenders. These solutions blend and balance the public safety, victim's rights and the rights of former offenders and their families.
We exist to educate the public, treatment professionals and legislators about the actual statistics regarding recidivism, risk-levels, and the many unfortunate real-life effects of the Megan's law sex offender registry on former offenders and their families. We actively work to dispel the myths, misinformation and disinformation that has been utilized to manipulate the pubic and hastily enact poorly thought-out laws. We cite numerous current US Dept. of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Canadian Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, as well as treatment professionals' reports, studies and whitepapers that directly refute the imaginary figures spouted by some politicians regarding sex offenders. These major studies and reports about recidivism, risk level, and the social and psychological effects of stigma and social exclusion are available on our website in .pdf format.
SOhopeful International additionally provides a venue for currently designated sex offenders and their family members to voice their experiences of discrimination, harassment, threats, violence, ongoing discrimination with respect to housing and employment, as well as the overwhelming stigma, social isolation and ostracizm that affects them and their families. We are compiling these Testimonials and making them available to the public, legislators and media to educate those same about the real-life effects of a broken and misguided registration system.
The net of the sex offender registry has been cast far too wide, and instead of "protecting the children," Megan's law and the current registration system are doing far more harm than public good. Many treatment and legal professionals are coming to the independant conclusion that reform is necessary, risk-level assessment procedures and techniques must be more accurate, and that there are devastating consequences that were never considered when Megan's law was enacted in record speed. SOhopeful International is committed to laws that accurately apply case-by-case circumstances. These laws must move an offender to awareness, health, accountability, moral maturity and restoration. We believe there must never be people without an avenue for treatment and justice, and we will make every effort possible to influence the change and the application of federal and state laws that deal with sex offenses to be right and just.
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