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Going Nowhere
A new law needlessly brands sex offenders’ passports
February 22, 2016
On February 8, President Obama signed an unnecessary, cruel, and dangerous law. Passed by a unanimous Congress, International Megan’s Law requires the State Department to mark with a “unique identifier” the passport of anyone ever convicted in the United States of a sex crime against a minor. The offense could be sexting or consensual teen lovemaking. It could have happened decades ago or even have been expunged from the person’s record.
The bill’s sponsor, New Jersey Republican Chris Smith, proclaimed on the House floor that the law will “significantly thwart child sexual exploitation in the United States and abroad.” In an appendix to the Government Accountability Office report that inspired the law, the State Department countered that such an identifier would do nothing of the sort—that the government already may deny passports to people who have engaged in child sex tourism or trafficking, and, anyway, there is no evidence that registered sex offenders are using their passports to go abroad and commit crimes.
The Los Angeles Times called International Megan’s Law “vindictive,” just one more torture exacted upon today’s designated boogeyman. In the Washington Post, David Post noted that a passport is not just a travel document but also a “badge of citizenship”—of identity. He and others have compared the “unique identifier” to a Scarlet Letter, the yellow star, or the “J” the Third Reich stamped on the passports of Jews.
To a public whose appetite for punishment is insatiable, it is not enough to forbid the sex offender to stay anywhere.
Many warn that the stigma establishes a terrifying precedent, opening the way to the official branding of other categories of undesirables. Who is next, California attorney Janice Bellucci asked in an interview with the Marshall Project. “Is it going to be Muslims? Is it going to be gays?” Bellucci has filed a federal lawsuit to stop implementation of International Megan’s Law, on behalf of California Reform Sex Offender Laws, part of a national advocacy network of “registered citizens,” as they call themselves.
But it is not as if Americans convicted of sex offenses were exactly free to move about before the law’s passage. If you are a registered offender, you have to notify the authorities before leaving your state and check in with the sheriff or registrar when you get to where you are going, even for a short stay.
Five states advertise your shame on your driver’s license. Some use a code recognizable not just to the police but also to every cashier who asks for ID. Louisiana and Oklahoma emblazon the card with the words “sex offender.”
In some states, released sex offenders don’t need licenses; parole conditions bar them from driving. Most registered citizens under corrections surveillance are banned even from virtual travel: depending on the terms of parole or registration, social media, or the whole Internet, may be verboten.
For those convicted of a sex crime, it is onerous or impossible to travel. Thanks to residency restrictions cordoning off “child-safe zones” from 300 to 2,000 feet around daycare centers, schools, parks, bus stops, or libraries, states and municipalities also make it onerous or impossible to live anywhere.
And in no small amount of territory—amusement parks, along with voting booths located in schools, are the latest public spaces declared off limits—a sex offender cannot even be.
Since Representative Smith has been flogging International Megan’s Law for years, he probably knows the law is a sham, in terms of crime prevention. If he is so interested in sex crimes against children, he also ought to know that, as reams of data show, recidivism rates among sex offenders are low. And, because it is usually friends and family, not strangers, who hurt children, the restrictions do not protect them.
In fact, if he were interested in crime prevention, the Congressman might listen to criminologists who study how people desist from crime. The key to staying legit, says one persuasive school of criminal re-integration, is that the wrongdoer acknowledge the harm he has done, yet understand his crimes as the bad acts of a good person. Rather than remind him over and over that he is an irredeemable pervert—as these laws do—he must be able to move past that identity and reclaim everything else he is: father, friend, cook, computer technician, veteran, voter, traveler.
To support that change, University of Vermont sociologist Kathy Fox says, the community must demonstrate to the former offender that he lives in “the same moral space as ordinary citizens.”
“Not only must a person accept conventional society in order to go straight,” writes Shadd Maruna, dean of the Rutgers School of Criminal Justice, in his influential book Making Good: How Ex-Convicts Reform and Rebuild Their Lives (2001). “Conventional society must accept that person as well.”
Americans don’t believe a sex offender can change, so they just want to “contain” him—or better yet, banish him. Yet now that they have driven him to the edges of the land, International Megan’s Law may deny the pariah even exile.
To a public whose appetite for punishment is insatiable, it is not enough to forbid the sex offender to stay anywhere or go anywhere. The people’s wish, it seems, is that he would cease altogether to exist. And when he does cease to exist, that is not enough either.
Theseus gave Oedipus sanctuary when the epitomic incest perpetrator returned after years of spiritual and physical exile to die and be buried in Athens. What would the king have done if he were Maine’s governor in 2015 and the legislature had sent an updated veterans’ burial rights bill to his desk? That law, passed last June, bars any person who has been convicted of “a serious crime, such as murder, a sexual offense or any crime punishable by imprisonment for life” from interment in the State Veterans’ Memorial Cemetery System. Can the sex offender not be forgiven even in death?
Comments
Due Process
Mon, 2016-02-22 13:19 — Rudy101This whole mess of the sex offender registry is due to the abdication of responsibility of the judicial branch of government to ensure "equal protection under the law" for all citizens.
Due Process is what seperates totalitarian governments from free ones. In the US a conviction of any sort, No matter how innocuous or remote in time, the courts have ruled a legislature has sole authority and control over lists used by society to systematically isolate a person from every social avenue of society. No hearings required. No appeals allowed. Only the asserion of a protection is required. Efficacy is moot and is no basis to undercut the underlying theory behind the laws.
These laws are clearly illegal and is my legal basis for refusing to register.
Legislative declarations of dangerousness has no meaning when applied individually. Until there is due process under fair standards of proof the registry is presumed to be illegal.
It is axiomatic that illegal laws do not have to be followed.
What happens to those who don't follow the registry requirement?
Mon, 2016-02-22 15:24 — KellyI have a loved one who will be released from prison in about 2 years, after serving time for a sex offense. As he and I read more and more about the restrictions that will be heaped upon him (and our family) upon his release, we have wondered about non-compliance. He will not be on parole or probation. In the state where he is incarcerated, it is mandatory for him to serve his full sentence. So, does it differ from state to state or even jurisdiction to jurisdiction as to what happens if one does not register? I agree with you that these registry laws are way out of control and I want to discuss the possibility with my loved one of not adhering to them but I have no idea what further penalties he might face if he refuses to register.
Non-Compliance
Mon, 2016-02-22 16:46 — DeejNTexasIn Texas, non-compliance is another felony and more prison time as far as I know. I would definately check your state's laws.
Rudy is correct in what he is
Mon, 2016-02-22 16:56 — FredRudy is correct in what he is saying. These laws ARE illegal and we should not have to follow them. However they ARE still the laws and they WILL be enforced whether they are illegal or not. What Rudy is doing is a risk that he himself has chosen to take. I do not recommend other registrants take that same risk at this time. Your loved one will be locked up again for an even longer period if he doesn't comply. If he moves to a different state he will have to follow that states guidelines. Please learn as much as you can about the rules of each state. He serves to help our cause better when he is not incarnated.
The penalties are massive.
Mon, 2016-02-22 17:08 — NinaThe penalties are massive. They differ from state to state and circumstance, but make no mistake about it. I have seen it count as a 3rd strike resulting in life. He will easily spend more time incarcerated for continual non-compliance than for the original offense. A multiple of the original sentence, easily.
Anything else would put the public at risk. At grave risk :)
My advice... play by the rules but join the people mentioned in this article in their fight against this lunacy.
Refuse to Register
Mon, 2016-02-22 17:13 — David KennerlyNon-compliance, or more specifically, non-registration, can be effective if it is deployed en masse, that is, simultaneously and massively as a coordinated movement amongst Registrants.
This is, to my mind, a logical next goal.
You are are on to something
Tue, 2016-02-23 17:17 — FredYou are are on to something there and I too have thought of this strategy. The problem is it will be very difficult to get everyone on board. I had also explored the possibly of staging mass protests in State Capitals, but as it stands now it unlikely that anyone will show up. We need to move in thousands, not 20 or 30 people. Too many of us are afraid to raise their heads up and fight. Its very frustrating.
It is different from state to
Mon, 2016-02-22 21:34 — SeppoIt is different from state to state and living restrictions may vary even from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. There are even states that only publicly list those who are found to pose high risk by using scientific risk assessment tools, whereas most states simply put every "sex offense" on the list. These question are being asked over and over again in comment sections. If people really bothered to research the topic from the internet they could find the answers themselves...
These links should get you started:
http://californiarsol.org/us-sex-offender-registration-laws/
http://klaaskids.org/megans-law/
Failure to register is
Sat, 2016-03-05 08:16 — SeppoFailure to register is punishable up to 10 years in prison under Federal Adam Walsh Act (SORNA).
Patience
Tue, 2016-02-23 08:40 — Rudy101The only advise I can give is that when your son gets out of prison he will need a lot of support from family and friends. Anything he tries to do will fall apart for him many many times. You will probably get frustrated with him and may even blame him for it.
The registry can't stand forever the way it is. Eventually it will have to have some due process to establish a continued danger to be listed on a registry.
The punishment for, "failure to register" is severe. A failure to register can be anything as small as not submitting an email address, or a telephone number to actually absconding from all registration laws.
All I can do is recommend patience and to be prepared. Find him a job before he gets out, if you can. Don't let him feel isolated and alone.
You may be criticized and ostacized yourself for doing things that actually PROTECT the community. Stand tall. A bunch of hypocrits put this registry together and the registry is given to a bunch of hypocrits. God knows this and THAT is why I get to survive and even flourish outside of a registry. It will not stand the way it is forever. I can guarentee that!
i have seen your comments
Mon, 2016-02-22 16:52 — fredi have seen your comments many times on refusing to register. You do realize that even though you are correct, your arguement is not going to hold up in court, right?
How are you managing to stay out of prison? Its a 4 year felony where I live if I refuse to register.
God protects me! I have no
Tue, 2016-02-23 10:13 — Rudy101God protects me! I have no better answer. If the registry had any credibility I couldn't make these kind of public statements. I would be rounded up fast and taken to prison. Nobody will even try to put me in jail, because that is the end of the registry as we know it.
The courts uphold the registry because somehow it doesn't trample on protected RIGHTS. If that is not true, then the registry cannot survive like it is.
Leaders who lack Critical Thinking Skills = Nazi Party Solutions
Tue, 2016-02-23 12:15 — Joshua SamsonFact: H.R. 515 was passed under RULES OF SUSPENSION.
The bill received an amendment from the Senate that is SUBSTANTIVE and HISTORIC!! (U.S. passports have never been branded with criminal convictions of citizens before).
1. Marks are an Un-American branding. Putting marks on a passport for an unsupervised, fully reintegrated United States Citizen amounts to branding, as citizens use these in many contexts (banking, shopping, etc). Branding is un-American cruel and unusual punishment, and echoes some of the worst practices of totalitarian regimes. i.e.. Nazi Germany & Soviet Russia.
2. Violates US Citizen Rights. This provision can be challenged in court on several grounds:
A. Equal Protection Clause. IML creates two classes of American citizens: those who may travel freely, and those who must notify authorities before leaving the country. They have a recognized right to travel freely without interference from their government. IML violates the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966)1 by interfering with the free movement of citizens.
B. Ex Post Facto Clause.
C. 14th. Amendment right of due process.
D. First Amendment right of association.
E. Robs citizens of pursuit of happiness.
3. Criminalizing innocent travel. International travel is often necessary without advance notice (e.g.. a sick relative, an urgent business obligation). Many international travel situations require significant financial Commitment from the traveler long before the application for a visa. IML could force Registered Citizens with travel emergencies to do so without complying with the law, thus risking arrest and prosecution upon return home.
4. Puts American travelers in harm’s way. Many Registered Citizens were originally convicted of behavior which would not be prosecuted elsewhere.7 Many Registered Citizens’ convictions involved neither children nor trafficking, and yet the AWC notification would strongly imply risk of some generic “predatory behavior” related to sex trafficking. This could and would be interpreted in any manner of ways by officials in the destination country. A Registered Citizen could be harassed or even harmed by officials or others in the community who are notified of their presumably dangerous background.
As you may all now see how this places the USA on a truly evil path.
I just want to thank Judith
Mon, 2016-02-22 14:05 — HarveyI just want to thank Judith Levine and Boston Review for continuing to fight this important, if highly unpopular, fight. I've noticed her publishing several good articles on these themes. Future generations will look back on the sex offender panic of the late 20th and early 21st centuries (and beyond?) as a stain on our nation's history, but hopefully Levine will be recognized for her good work in opposition.
Undoubtedly many convicted sex offenders are very dangerous people, even as many others simply got on the wrong side of a puritanical law and committed a victimless crime (i.e., a punished, but non-criminal, act), such as urinating in public or having consentual sex with another teenager. One way or another, our sentencing rules are out of control. We are applying life penalties—e.g., registration, with its accompanying surveillance and restriction on movement, residency, and employment—willy-nilly. In many nations, even mass murder could not earn a life penalty, dissallowed owing to its inherent cruelty. When people are inveterately dangerous to society, put them in prison until they are no longer physically capable of committing harm. Then release them. And when people are free from prison, they must be as free as anyone else, or else we are allowing a presumption of criminality to guide the law. This is antithetical to our committments to due process. It is not how fair justice systems work. Perfect security is a nightmare; in due process we must trust, warts and all. And if we have to resort to vulgar questions of efficiency, just ask what permanent registration and humiliation have produced. Greater safety? The deterrent effect of Megan's Law and its extensions is ambiguous at best: https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/231989.pdf. The extraordinary harshness of punishments may even lead to fewer sex-crime convictions as defendents successfully negotiate for lesser charges in plea deals.
Point being, we keep doubling down on laws whose public-safety effects are unknown. All we do know is that we get ever-mounting punishment and abandonment of the right to due process, the most fundamental commitment of our justice system. It hardly seems worth it.
The Double Standard
Mon, 2016-02-22 20:23 — LaurenFormer Republican Rep-Mark Foley solicited a child on the internet.
Mark Foley is not a registered sex offender.
Mark Foley help draft the Adam Walsh Act.
Urinating in public can land you on the sex offender registry!
Good luck America!
Well-written piece
Tue, 2016-02-23 09:09 — GuyPrecisely. Now not only are people forbidden from merely laying their heads within a certain proscribed radius, but they can't leave, either.
I used to joke that people on the registry could apply for asylum in other nations as a result of the impact of these laws which only ever increase in their severity and draconian flavor.
It's a joke that doesn't seem so funny now.
Pedophiles
Tue, 2016-03-01 15:27 — Traci FordWith SO many pedophiles unable to curb their own predalictions and in a cycle of perpetual offenses against children, I have no problem with them being easily identified. A quote from THE ADDAMS FAMILY comes to mind. Upon being asked what she was dressed as for Halloween, Wednesday Addams replied, "I am a homocidal maniac. We look like everyone else." The same goes for pedophiles.
I have zero-tolerance for ANYONE who hurts children, period. Let. Them. Burn.
IML
Mon, 2016-04-04 00:30 — FimaI read an article about International Megan law in Wall Street Journal.
This law require identification sex offenders in their passports. In my past in former USSR I was identified in my passport as a Jew. I wrote this post to describe my experience and compare it with
International Megan law sex offenders identification
I sent to author this letter:
I am former Soviet Jew and came to USA as a political refugee on human rights. My parents survived in Holocaust.
I remember the story of my grandfather. In 1941 year he was called in Soviet army. His document identified him as a Jew.
He learned that Nazi look at passports of captured soldiers and shoot everybody with Jewish identification. He took passport of his friend who was killed in fighting. His friend was identified as Ukrainian . Next day Nazi captured his unit. They looked at passports and shot all people with
Jewish identity. Also they killed all people with black hair. Nazi looked at my grandfather passport and let him go. He went back to Soviets, tried to fight, was wounded, and captured again. But he has a different Identity in his passport and he survived. He said that many Jew who served in Soviet army and had Jewish ID were killed by their fellow soldiers shooting them in the back. Long after World War 2 my grandfather had his Ukrainian Passport. It was easier for him to live. After World War 2, when 6 millions Jewish people were killed by German Nazi, there was a huge antisemitism in USSR. Many soviet citizens helped Nazi to kill Jews. I heard many times when some people talked that Hitler was a great man only because he killed many Jews, and unfortunately he was not allowed to finish this job.
There was a different story with my parents and me. We had internal passports with chapter 5
where anybody could read
5. Nationality ........ Jew
If you think this was better than sex offenders identify in modern USA, you are wrong. Some people might learn this and start fighting or screaming loudly how they hate you. Human Resources representative could took your passport and exclude you from job candidates. There were also silent instructions from soviet government to look at chapter 5 nationality and make hiring decision, also admissions to leading Universities
I remember opening my red Soviet passport and reading Jew nationality, and I hated that. Any Jewish identities were already removed by communists. Jewish schools were closed, synagogues were destroyed and 3 millions of Jewish people were killed by German Nazi with great help from Passport mark. I think many people with Jew mark in their passports felt the same. People started to seek ways to escape from USSR. Not a long ago Russia removed mark in passport, but it was too late. Too many people left. They helped Israel and US economy, and Russia with former soviet republics are still very poor Developing countries with nuclear bombs.
I left Belarus in 1997 year, and main reason for leaving was mark in my passport. When I arrived in US I got a job with Mitsubishi Electric Automaton, Japanese company. There was no Jewish identification in my documents and when I became a US citizen
I could read in my US passport
Nationality ....United States of America. That was a good feeling.
What happened then you can learn from this article written after interview with me. I may explain more.
Browser Hijackers Ruining Lives
http://archive.wired.com/techbiz/it/news/2004/05/63391?currentPage=all
I got conviction for porn and was placed on sex offenders registry in Minnesota for 10 years. 2 years ago I was removed.
But with this International Megan Law my passport will be marked. Instead of Jew I will have Sex Offender. No difference. I got the same situation.
You can read my story here
http://fimafimovich.blogspot.com/2014/10/mitsubishi-abandons-employee.html
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