N.J. Court Strikes Down Sex Offender Restrictions - ACLU Applauds

By Tim Grubbs
July 15, 2008
Law

A three-judge panel in New Jersey has ruled (PDF) that local communities do not have legal authority to place residency restrictions on sex offenders whose crimes involve children - such as restricting those convicted of the crimes from living within a certain distance of schools, playgrounds, and other places children are likely to gather. Many other states across the country do have these kinds of laws in place.

According to this article, the state’s ACLU director Deborah Jacobs and State Public Defender Yvonne Smith Segars are applauding the decision.

The panel of judges ruled that New Jersey’s “Megan’s Law” is comprehensive and that other localized restrictions are basically unnecessary, and Jacobs agrees saying that residency restrictions are not supportive toward rehabilitation. Apparently, one of the men who brought the appeal was convicted of a crime at fifteen years old, while his victim was thirteen. He challenged the residency restriction ordinance in Galloway Township, New Jersey after moving into a college dorm.

It seems common sense that real pedophiles ought to be strung up without bothering to try to “rehabilitate” them, but is it possible that trial attorneys who bring cases against people just for the sake of winning are creating more problems than they are solutions?