Michigan Votes Forum

Introduced in the Senate on February 1, 2005, to prohibit a person on the sexual offenders registry from living, working or loitering within 1,000 feet of a school, with certain exceptions for those convicted of less serious non-coercive crimes or for certain offences committed as a juvenile. Also, to allow courts to require an unlimited period of supervised probation for convicted child sex abusers, and require a minimum five year probation

The vote was 33 in favor, 1 opposed and 4 not voting

(Senate Roll Call 340 at Senate Journal 64)

Click here to view bill details.

What if the person you are preventing from going on to school property has children in school? What if the person lives with their parents and are within a mile of school property. Are you going to force them out? What if they have children? Will the children be forced out as well?Will this proposed legislation superced court ordered probation?

WHY is the legislature wanting to go back to mandatory minimums without taking into account the particular circumstances of each case? Again they are taking discretion away from the courts concerning the length of probation, and for one specific type of crime... which can range from young people having consensual, underage sex (or touching) to the most serious sexual offense. ALL CSC offenses are grouped together as being equal, and this is wrong! Is there money involved...the longer we keep someone on probation, the more money the State can make off of an individual?

We already have enough laws to hang the little person for perpetrating. Now why don't we nail Porn Stars and Television producers and put them into the registry? Television and the internet is corrupting our kids. Have you taped you son or daughters phone conversations lately? They are so promiscious in middle school. Television has done more damage to our county than all our wars and all our drugs combined! We need to start putting producers and directors in jail.

This Bill will literally eliminate any SO on probation from residing in most small towns and whole sections of larger towns. If the State could come up with the money, I'm sure it would figure away to send SOs to the moon.

When are they going to realize thet branding a person as a sex offender is such a blanket issue that it dose not seperate the Romeo and Juliet crimes (girl accuses boy of rape) (date rape) (concenuial sex with minor meaning under 16, have you seen our 13 to 16 year old girls these days, they don't exactly have pig tails and no knowledge of how to present thierselves sexually) from pedifials who pray on children. It is so unfair to punish all without any flexiabilty given to judges and sentencing. If thats the way we are going in our judical system than why have courts and judges, lets just do as Sadam Hussian did and throw everone in the same hole. I am sick and tired of legistors picking up the popular crime and presenting legislation to get votes without thinking things out and being senable amd researching the downfalls. There are more decent people with familys out here with so called sex offenders (and I don't mean petifials) than you realize, and they will remember the hair brained person who presented this bill.

Why isn't the legislature going after the TV advertisers? Have you seen so sex driven ads lately? Sex sells according to the marketers! Psycologically people and teens are being de-sensitzed involuntarily by the bombardment of TV ads in every restaurant, supermarket, radio station and magazine/newspaper add. The media is guilty and cupable-remove the corporate umbrella of liability protection and jail the all propronents of any ads with sex in it. Your kids who grow up to be adults are blasted every thirty seconds with ads! If I showed a neighborhood kids a picture of sex every thirty seconds what would happen to me? You guessed it, right straight to Ionia SuperMaX. Then my point again dogmatically, Why are we jailing the media people

Bieng a SO for lewd conduct/indecent exposure, (caught getting oral sex from 18yr old woman in my vehicle while I was 29). I end up with a small town judge who has an 18 yr old daughter and feels it was a blow to the morality of his town. Not to mention callinng myself a piece of crap and my lawyer scum for defending me. Are these the kind of judges that we elect? If so is there any way to monitor there actions or are they above the law without any one to answer too.

I'm going to be up front about this; I am an ex-sex offender and therefore have some bias on this issue. I served 12 years in prison, and discharged from my sentence. I thought I paid my debt to society. But first came registration, which I don't much like but I understand why it exists. Now the Senate attempted to dictate where I can live AFTER I discharged from my sentence. The Michigan Department of Corrections, including all parole and probation departments, no longer has jurisdiction over me because I served my time. Why is the Senate going to let me get on with my life? 12 years is a long time, and I'm not the same foolish kid I was at 21; people need to either let ex-cons put their lives together, or else shoot us in the head. It is hypocrisy to deny the death penalty because it is cruel and unusual punishment, then slowly siphon away the civil liberties of people that have already served their time. This seems to be the start of a bigger trend, and because sex offenders are an unpopular demographic, they are the testing ground for new government controls. You might laugh, I know I sound like a conspiracy theorist, but consider what was done with DNA; first sex offenders had to give DNA... then all felons... soon all misdemeanors... maybe next all those with traffic violations? Where does it end with governmental controls? More is never enough. Signed, The Bruke. (look it up, it's in the FBI database)

I agree with the individual pertaining to the slippery slope. Our government is most definitely experimenting on sex-offenders. History has seen this type of experimentation before particularly in Nazi Germany. Germany was punished for World War I crimes by the League of Nations (forerunner to the United Nations). However, The League of Nations; along with The Wilson Adminisration punished Germany over-and-above what was appropriate. Enter Adolph Hitler, who started out advocating for the German public. Did Hitler go too far, YOU BET HE DID!!!! He unfairly blamed many ethnic groups for Geremany's unfair sanctions. Today we see many of Hitler's societal controls in place in the United States. Many would comment that this correlation between Hitler's targeting various ethnic groups and todays sex-offender as apples and oranges. They would indicate that, sex-offenders have brought this upon themselves. However, many were sentenced to serve time. Where does the punishment stop? Hitler began, ever so slightly, in the early 1930's with such registrations and 'accouintability' with German probationer's and parolee's. I agree that the sex-offenders life is being siphoned off slowly. And I strongly believe that this action against sex-offenders will transfer into other crime catagories, as well as, into mainstream society as a whole. The Legislators in the United States most certainly have an agenda toward governmental control. I further agree that this type of legislation is a slower form of a Death Penalty.

my husband is a sex offender for something he done 10 years ago that wasnt even bad-we have been kicked out of town -the school didnt want my son there so he is homeschooled now because we have got death threats on the phone and in the mail we can live anywhere without someone complaining about my husbands past the police told us to move away because we are a sex offender family ...our house got vandilized our cars did to.. my son got rocks thrown at him he did get shot in our front yard with pellets we are scared to come outside ...my husband was suppost to be done with the sex offender registery 5 months ago but when they changed the law on the 1st now hes got to do this for (life) its like being on death row for him or house arrest but his judge said in 1995 ten years as a sex offender and no more your done---oooh no they are going to punish him and us for life

You paid you debt to society? Is that what you think? How long does your victim/s sentence last? His/her WHOLE LIFE. Your debt to society is never complete. You should never have been let out - EVER. You don't deserve a life. Nobody cares about your problems - you deserve it because you asked for it by doing what you did.

too bad...they should not only not be allowed in school they should not be allowed to raise their children. Who protecting them??

does everyone understand the vast majority of reasons a person can be on the list? What about the person who uses poor judgement and urinates outside? Do people like that deserve to be on it>

isnt it time to do something about the list and seperating everyone that is lumped together

Why do they feel that they HAVE to put someone on the Sex Offender Registry for urinating in public,or mooning someone,etc.? I had the CPS agency come to my home once due to a complaint made by my sons school. My co worker sent me a e-card with 5 naked men with their hands covering their genitalia, just waving their hands in the air, and my son came into the computer room and saw it and told the kids about it at school the next day.(Typical Kid) Next thing I know, the teacher at my sons school called in a complaint to CPS, and they come out and investigate me and tell me they are investigating on a sex abuse suspician. They told me that I could be charged for sexual abuse and have to register if they dont dismiss it. They did however after I had to have my friend send in a letter and promised not to send me anything else of that nature,which is ludicrus,and I had to move my computer,which mind you I had no other internet hook up area feesable, I had to send in a letter of reasoning and apologize(For what?) I did nothing wrong, and I had to delete the e-card(no big deal) even though that was all a violation of my personal use and privacy. I was treated like a criminal/sex offender. Mean while I know 5 children who live with a child molester and cant prove it because they wont talk and theres no past charges on his last attempts many years ago. So, first of all, wheres the justice? Why does the system not know what is a real offender verses a non-offender. I know a kid who gave another kid in school a unergarment wedge, and he was charged for it and is on a sex offender registry. I have no clue why these non-violent nude acts/people such as urinating in public and etc. are being charged as sex offenders and having to register. They need to stop waisting there time on these people in court and investigating them when they need to go out there and use all our tax payer money going after the real sex offenders. Take them to court and investigate them on your clock. They need to loosen the laws a bit also on sex-abuse/molestation. If someone is suspected of it due to history and if the kids dont talk but someones aware of that persons nature, we need to beable to do a thourough investigation and investigate the kids to get them out of silence too. Thats why theres to many out there not registered yet. Go get the real offenders and lay off the people with minimal/small character defects. Fine the people for urinating in public and/or punishable up to 10 days in jail. Dont ruin there lives over this registry system.

 There are so many issues and emotions surrounding this subject. And so much confusion mixed with facts fiction and hype that it is hard to know when and what to say. Too many smug and self righteous attitudes combined with genuine fear loathing and anger to really reach out and touch some otherwise undisclosed truths.

This subject is not new. But the media siezes upon it whenever a ratings boost is needed or another issue needs to be clouded over.The public leaders and judicial system know that they have no effective response or any way to prevent it other than to impose truly draconian sentencing in order to show that they are at least doing something, anything about it. Even if that hasty effort clumsily destroys more  lives than it claims to defend. The fact is that sexual abuse and molestation has been around since the beginning of civilisation and will be going on in some form or another till the end of it.

On every street in every neighborhood in every village town and city in America there is at least one household with a dark "Family Secret". If every single person,father,mother,brother,sister aunt,uncle,cousin,teacher, or trusted familyfriend or neighbor who has ever "done something" were to be brought in and have the "Secret" revealed and prosecuted there would be no room in the prisons for murderers, drug dealer, or terrorists!

Because there is such a desire to "keep it quiet" or "just in the family" so no one is embarrassed it causes a deep frustration that is manifested whenever there is such a disclosure of anyone caught outside the family. The suppressed rage is then unleashed in a whirlwind of anger and a blind desire for revenge and to burn the witches at the stake!!

It truly is a Scarlet Letter branded on ones forehead and for some that may be necessary. But to tar and feather with the same brush anyone who has ever had even a minor episode or made a mistake in this area is to truly throw the baby out with the bathwater. And since this message seems to be so full of cliches let me add one more that we should all be asking when it comes to pointing fingers and voicing condemnation......." WHATS IN YOUR WALLET????"""