Posted on 09/25/2007 6:10:48 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
A small American flag on a stick was planted outside the front door of 1216 Buena Vista Ave. in Waukesha, WI on Monday.
It's the home where one of the state's most closely watched sexual predators, Dennis Marth, 46, will take up residence this week, since a judge approved his supervised release from a secure state treatment center.
I wonder who put the flag there.
The caller who said government should buy an island and banish sex offenders there? The many who've said they should be locked up forever in prison? Dave, who wrote on a message board associated with this newspaper that a bullet would be "a cheaper and more effective solution"? Or the one who called for the death penalty for the Dennis Marths in custody?
Is this the America represented by that flag?
For all I know - and can hope, the flag came from someone who thinks that in America, if you've served your time and met your responsibilities for release under the law, if you can live by the rules on the outside, and maybe if you want to turn your life around, you should get a chance to try.
A public informational meeting last week on Marth's release drew about 75 people with a lot of questions. Too bad more weren't there to listen.
State representatives - from the Department of Corrections parole agent who'll visit Marth at least weekly, to the Department of Health and Family Services program director involved in Marth's Sand Ridge post-prison treatment - did a good job of explaining how closely he'll be watched and of answering questions.
Marth was imprisoned for sexual assaults of boys, 4 and 5, more than two decades ago, then imprisoned again after his release for violating rules. After prison, he was committed to Sand Ridge Secure Treatment Center in 2001.
Sure, residents are unhappy.
They're concerned about safety - though he'll be a virtual prisoner with electronic and satellite monitoring, escorts outside the house, visitor restrictions and treatment.
They're concerned about the unknown - whether modest property values on their tidy street near the county jail will be diminished; whether more offenders are destined for the area.
They're concerned that Waukesha is a magnet for registered sex offenders - like it or not, the result of modestly priced homes, willing landlords, public transit and support services. That's the very system that can give offenders stability and help deter recidivism.
Most eye-opening, I thought, was Sandy Cornell's cautionary message. She's a specialist in the sex offender registration program and a young mother who says she stays closely involved in her children's lives, existing "as if sex offenders are all around."
Maybe they are. The registry only applies to active cases as of Dec. 25, 1993. It only applies to felony charges. Among the 20,000 who are registered, nearly 9,000 have completed their sentences and - except for registering - are "free citizens, like me and you," Cornell said.
Most significant, perhaps? Those not yet caught. Cornell said 85% to 90% of sexual assaults go unreported. Where, and by whom? About 57% of known assaults take place in the victim's home; 93% are committed by someone known to the victim.
"They survive on secrecy," she said.
At least we know about Marth.
I'm guessing those figures are for Wisconsin only. That should show posters, who say on every thread, that some sex offender or other won't last long in prison, implying that the other prisoners will kill him. The fact is that most sex offenders serve their sentences in segerated sections, in with other perverts and aren't exposed to other type criminals.
That is evident by the hundreds and thousands on every sex offender registry. They serve their time, get out and do it again and again and again.
You bet. Recidivism is nearly 100% for these creeps. There are currently eight living in my little Cow Town of 6,000 people.
http://www.registeredoffenderslist.org/
http://www.sexoffender.com/state.html
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
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