Move Over, Sex Offenders
Sex offenders are about to share the stage with society's latest pariahs: meth cooks.
Newsweek reports:
Law-enforcement officials in Tennessee have a new approach to fighting meth: naming names. Now the public can search an online database for the name, alias and birth date of anyone convicted of manufacturing the drug since last March. It's the first compilation of its kind nationwide....
By using the registry, landlords or property owners could make sure they're not renting to cookers. The names will stay on the site for seven years, at which time the offenders can appeal to be removed.
Civil libertartians are rightfully up in arms:
"We need to recognize that [meth offenders] served their sentence, and we need to re-integrate them into society," says Hedy Weinberg, executive director of the Tennessee ACLU. Convicts already face many postprison obstacles, including finding jobs and housing, she adds.
Housing and jobs are key ingredients to staying out of trouble and re-integrating with society. The more we ostracize ex-offenders and prevent them from obtaining housing and employment, the more we increase the chances they will re-offend. These registries cripple attempts at rehabilitation.
If we prevent meth cooks and other ex-offenders from obtaining work, how will they survive? They can't, which means they are an increased risk for re-offending by committing an economic crime. It then becomes a vicious cycle.
It's time to break the cycle, not create more impediments to rehabilitation.
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