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* From Molly Parker at the Southern Illinoisan a while back…
Illinois’ sex offender registry, which now includes more than 32,000 people — most of them men, though some women, as well — has rapidly expanded since its first iteration in 1986.
Then, it included four qualifying crimes. Today, there are more than 30 crimes that trigger mandatory registration, including some repeat misdemeanor offenses.
In recent years, policy makers and advocates, both for offenders as well as victims, have been raising questions as to whether the registry, and the ever-increasing rules around it, really makes the public safer, or causes more societal harm than it does good.
In 2018, a bipartisan task force recommended Illinois take a far more nuanced approach to its registry, providing for risk assessments that allow law enforcement to focus limited resources on monitoring and more robust treatment options for people who are at high risk of re-offending.
The task force also recommended that those who pose less risk automatically fall off the registry after a set period of time. In fact, one of the key findings of the group is that the registry has not lived up to its mission.
* Chicago 400…
• Illinois law requires people on a public conviction registry who are homeless to report weekly in person to police—compared to annual or quarterly registration for people with housing. […]
• CPD detectives conduct 23,000 re-registrations per year of 450 homeless people alone, collecting and uploading the same forms each week. It is rote paperwork
Whether you agree with registration or not, the City of Chicago’s police department is making a real mess of things.
* WBEZ…
Victims and their families also say poorly functioning registries are not in their interests. Jennifer Bishop-Jenkins, a victim advocate and director of Marsy’s Law for Illinois, said victims can be retraumatized if the system fails to work as promised “This is a matter of public safety and law. And it is not something that should be a, ‘Oh, only if we feel like it today.’ ” […]
Data from public records show CPD routinely registered more than 1,000 people per month in 2018. By the end of 2022, that number had been cut nearly in half.
The team that registers people is “a unit that for some reason the Chicago Police Department, especially the bureau detectives, who oversee this unit, do not care if it succeeds. And right now it is failing,” said Patty Casey, a former Chicago Police Commander who oversaw the registries until she retired in June 2021.
Casey called the situation inhumane — and said people who are trying to comply with the law should be able to do that.
If they can’t register, they risk arrest for no reason.
CPD refused to answer any and all questions when pressed by WBEZ.
* Mayor Lori Lightfoot was asked about the WBEZ story yesterday. She didn’t have much of a response…
Well, I’m not, I’m not, I was not aware of that. But obviously we need to make sure that we’re abiding by the law. And particularly when it comes to these folks that have to register on a on a regular basis, something I will take up with the superintendent and deal with thatto make sure that they’re able to comply with the law, and that we’re doing what we need to do to make sure that they have the ability to register accordingly.
posted by Rich Miller
Friday, Jan 13, 23 @ 10:45 am
Sorry, comments are closed at this time.
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–one of the key findings of the group is that the registry has not lived up to its mission.–
Results are only as good as the data that is put in.
The following is just anecdotal, but does seem to show a pattern.
There has been a *huge* increase in registered offenders in Will county, with Joliet being the epicenter. One zipcode alone has seen a 40% increase in offenders in just the past few years, well into the triple digits. Many of them are brought in from out of the area(and even out of state) by the local charitable organizations and given subsidized housing in town. There is *ZERO* thought put into this, and the problems it causes like siting offenders next to a school bus stop, or placing offenders in houses right next to previous victims who then have to try to get a RO, will only become data points if the local authorities make an arrest or issue an order. There seems to be a pattern to not make arrests for offenses, to protect the actions of the charitable organizations undertaking these actions.
In just the past few months alone, there have been multiple violations by offenders that have not been acted on by the local authorities. Up to and including a guy being fully nude and pleasuring himself in front of a few pre-teens. It was all caught on video, but our local SA does not prosecute them. That means those offenses that are really happening from offenders directed at children aren’t making their way into the data that is being analyzed.
In one instance, the neighborhood had to contact the Illinois state police department(I-SORT) to handle the issues the local SA was refusing to prosecute. In that instance, the ISP addressed the problem in a single day.
It took an outside vigilante group to finally catch one of the local diocese teachers, because the local authorities and police ignored the reputable accusations of over a dozen young men. They only acted when someone forced their hand after the irrefutable evidence was spreading publicly.
While there are certainly problems with any program, and especially in Chicago(there have been many court cases regarding the dismissive registration of homeless offenders), these instances are not enough to show there is a systematic shortcoming with the program overall. I do know there is a legal firm specifically representing offenders who is doing a lot of work to make that happen though by challenging the validity of many of these offender laws in Illinois.
Comment by TheInvisibleMan Friday, Jan 13, 23 @ 11:18 am
==The team that registers people is “a unit that for some reason the Chicago Police Department, especially the bureau detectives, who oversee this unit, do not care if it succeeds. And right now it is failing,”==
Once again, as with the 911 response time story, it’s not a lack of resources that’s making CPD like this. It is an inability and/or disinterest in properly allocating those resources.
Comment by Roadrager Friday, Jan 13, 23 @ 11:23 am
Sex offender registries, even when not beset by technical issues or mismanagement, don’t actually help anything. They are designed to be punitive, even if the designers claim otherwise.
The vast vast majority of sex offenses are not stranger danger. They are committed by people the victims knows, often family, family friends, partners, or people in positions of power or influence in relation to the victim.
America unfortunately loves coming up with new punishments for people that have questionable benefits, and often well known drawbacks, that don’t achieve any real policy goals other than making the enactors feel better about themselves.
Comment by Homebody Friday, Jan 13, 23 @ 11:31 am
Better management, please. Enough said.
Comment by rtov Friday, Jan 13, 23 @ 11:38 am
Rough week for Mayor Lightfoot. Her self sabotage with the CPS email scandal was bad, but this is truly bad.
Comment by Sox Fan Friday, Jan 13, 23 @ 11:49 am
I think you’d have to reset the entire City to get anyone to truly care about these units of CPD.
Comment by Three Dimensional Checkers Friday, Jan 13, 23 @ 11:54 am
Maybe we can get a political corruption registry…
Comment by Unionman Friday, Jan 13, 23 @ 12:12 pm
–don’t actually help anything.–
It is because of the registry, that I knew there was a house packed with more offenders than zoning allows for even if they weren’t offenders.
That same house then had other people bringing unrelated children over. It is a misdemeanor for the person doing that to leave a minor in the custody of a registered offender.
You might not think it serves a purpose, but I found it to be quite helpful in stopping people from dropping unrelated children off at an offenders home.
The offender registration is a compromise to life in prison. While the common trope is “they have served their sentences”, the reality is that having to register *is* part of their sentence, which was handed down by a judge in response to their crimes. Simply because they are not in prison does not mean they have served their sentence. And yes, that means life will be difficult for them. Not as difficult as prison though.
Comment by TheInvisibleMan Friday, Jan 13, 23 @ 12:44 pm