This baffles me…
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Costume parties, jack-o-lanterns, haunted houses and handing out treats are forbidden under newly issued Halloween guidelines for Tennessee sex offenders on probation or parole.
The guidelines are meant to clarify policies that prevent offenders from interacting with children, said Board of Probation and Parole spokesman Jack Elder, and were not enacted in response to any specific problems the board has seen during the Halloween season.
The restrictions prohibit sex offenders from attending special Halloween events like corn mazes and haunted houses, handing out treats, displaying Halloween decorations, accompanying trick-or-treating children or wearing costumes.
They apply to all sex offenders on probation or parole — about 2,000 of the 8,100 registered offenders living in the state — and not specifically to those offenders whose crimes involved minors.
“No matter what their sex offense might have been, they must adhere to the same rules,” Elder said. “Any sex offender is not supposed to have contact with minors. They all sign the same directives.”
Tell me: If these convicts out on parole can’t be trusted to hand out candy to kids on Halloween, or even attend events where kids might be present, then what in the world are they doing out of jail?
Parole, to me, has always meant the release of prisoners from prison before their sentence is completed because they’ve been rehabilitated and can be trusted to live in society without problem. Yet if special policies are needed to keep the public safe from certain paroled convicts why are we releasing them in the first place? Clearly they haven’t been rehabilitated, if that’s even possible for most child molesters.
Some would argue that keeping these folks in prison would just put more burden on our already overcrowded jails. I’d respond to that by saying that perhaps we should look at some of the other reasons why our jails our so crowded. Like the “war on drugs,” for instance.
Personally, I’d rather have a pot head or a coke addict living in my neighborhood than a child molester.