I wanted to jump in with regard to talking about efficacy and whether this will make communities safer, because I think the bottom line is that's the important question for me.
My concern is that in fact a public registry may actually put in place the conditions that create and increase the likelihood of victimization against another person, because we know that stress is highly correlated to offenders' cycles of offending for sex offenders, especially high-risk ones. If you put them in a situation where they've been publicly identified, where everyone in the community knows who they are or has the ability to know who they are, and where they can't get a job and they can't maintain housing, you escalate that stress. There's no support. There's no assistance. You actually create a situation where that person is more likely to offend.
For me, the danger is that what we're saying as a community and as the government is that we would rather create a situation where the person reoffends and goes back to prison for a longer time than spend the money to support them and prevent that victimization from happening. I'm only here because I want to see effective policy.
Thanks.