When felons are released from prison, they need to be assimilated into society quickly. There's a big asterisk at the end of that sentence, however.
When felons are released from prison, they need to be assimilated into society quickly. There's a big asterisk at the end of that sentence, however.
The Indiana Department of Correction must make sure pedophiles freed from prison aren't placed in housing near schools or anywhere else where children gather for school or play.
The Times' story last week revealed that 12 registered sex offenders lived in the LaSalle Hotel in downtown Hammond, 456 feet from the charter school being developed downtown. Law enforcement officers have told those 12 residents they could no longer live at that hotel.
The loophole used to move the sex offenders out of the hotel was that the bike trail maintained by the Hammond Parks & Recreation Department was 780 feet away. State law prohibits certain sex offenders from living or working within 1,000 feet of public parks and schools. The charter school isn't open yet, but the bike trail is.
Using the bike trail also solves a sticky legal problem. The Indiana Supreme Court ruled in June that if a school chooses to locate within 1,000 feet of where a sex offender already lives, the offender might not need to relocate if the conviction was prior to 2006.
"It's unconstitutional to apply the (residency) law to someone who committed the offense prior to when the law went into effect," said Kenneth Falk, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana.
Larry Gabbert, director of charter schools at Ball State University, was caught off guard by the LaSalle Hotel being on a housing referral list the Department of Correction gave to sex offenders being released from prison.
As state prisons spokesman Douglas Garrison correctly notes, that's what the state's Sex and Violent Offender Registry is for. School officials throughout Indiana should consider this a teachable moment. Check that registry when looking for sites for a new school.
Complicating this issue is that even sex offenders need to find suitable housing when they are freed from prison. However, "suitable housing" becomes trickier to find because of their past.
When an inmate is freed from prison, Indiana pays for two weeks' lodging, after which the parolee must pay his or her own rent or move.
"As distasteful as it is for people to find that they have a sex offender living in their midst, (sex offenders) have to go somewhere," Garrison points out.
Still, potential victims need to be protected from predators.
It was smart to move the registered sex offenders out of Hammond's LaSalle Hotel. Now law enforcement officials throughout Indiana should look at other places where these offenders might be living too near to places where children gather for school or play.
Your opinion, please
What restrictions, if any, should be placed on where convicted sex offenders may live after being freed from prison?
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