Re: “The flaws in Colorado’s sex offender registry,” Oct. 27 Vincent Carroll column.
Thanks to Vincent Carroll for raising the important flaws in Colorado’s sex offender registry system.
Carroll noted that the registry can lead to the unintended consequences of denying employment and housing to those with low levels of risk. However, among the problems of lack of risk assessment is the fact that many homeless individuals are convicted of offenses such as urinating or defecating in public — natural and unsexual acts that many living on the streets are forced to undertake — which are often included as sex offenses (public exposure) that increase barriers to leaving the streets by finding housing and employment. Unfortunately, there are no clear numbers documenting the extent of this problem, and no easy way currently to address it.
A sound system should differentiate between those offenses that create potential risk of re-offense and continued harm and those, such as these petty offenses, that do not. Hopefully, a reasonable approach to fixing these errors will improve options for many without increasing risk to our citizens.
John Parvensky, Denver
The writer is president of the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless.
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