Writing in the Washington Exainer, Sandy Rozek says the decision by a Connecticut YMCA to prohibit a registered sex offender from running in a race is another black eye for the very concept of the sex offender registry.
The man had run the race for several years without incident, but was flagged this year because he had registered for the race in advance.
With no empirical evidence showing public notification of any safety benefit to society, it serves one purpose: To impede the law-abiding registered citizen from moving forward with his life. It allows entities such as the YMCA to exclude those for whom there is no reason to exclude.
It serves only to tell those like Jeffrey that no matter what you do, it will never be good enough. It removes the goal of rehabilitation from the justice system, leaving its only goal punishment.
Read the full article here.