{"id":195,"date":"2009-09-30T12:05:59","date_gmt":"2009-09-30T12:05:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/everydayethics\/2009\/09\/not-in-my-backyard-but-perhaps-the-woods-behind-it.html"},"modified":"2009-09-30T12:05:59","modified_gmt":"2009-09-30T12:05:59","slug":"not-in-my-backyard-but-perhaps-the-woods-behind-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/09\/not-in-my-backyard-but-perhaps-the-woods-behind-it.html","title":{"rendered":"Not in My Backyard–but Perhaps the Woods Behind It ?"},"content":{"rendered":"

My sense of justice vs legal ethics goes a bit askew when it comes to sex offenders. On the one hand, I believe in crime and punishment as well as rehabilitation; on the other hand, I don’t know many other crimes that are so offensive to the soul.<\/p>\n

In Georgia, sex offenders were pushed literally the edges of society, sent to an unsupervised and unofficial camp colony in the woods because of the state’s strict laws restricting a convicted sex offender from living, working or loitering within 1,000 feet of schools, churches, parks and other spots where children gather. At least they were until Tuesday, when it seems authorities started rounding the inhabitants back up and trying to find them emergency temporary housing<\/a> – I can only assume there was an outcry from local citizens after the first report was published.<\/p>\n

Obviously, there are the inevitable safety concerns — surely an unsupervised colony of sexual predators feeding off each other’s baser instincts is a bad idea? But safety aside, was their treatment ethical? <\/p>\n


\n<\/b><\/p>\n


\nI realize that it goes against our human instincts to sympathize or worry about the humanity of convicted sex offenders (unless, it seems, their name is Roman Polanski<\/a>).
\nYet we have to face reality that these people have served their time.
\nIf we believe that there is a system set in place to rehabilitate
\n(something I often doubt), then we must also believe in some type of
\nredemption and a basic acceptance back into society.<\/p>\n

And there lies the problem — a basic acceptance back into
\nsociety would mean ( to me) a place to live. The right to a bed.
\nRunning water. The right to pay rent, if one should so choose or be
\nable. <\/p>\n

We need to trust that there is a system that picks up
\nethically where we, average citizens as well as human beings with
\nfailings, leave off in repulsion– a system to address the basic needs
\nof those humans we send back into the world after they’ve paid their
\npenance. For better or worse, we don’t have the option of shipping them
\noff to a new version of Australia. Or, should there be a harsher,
\nlonger sentence? Perhaps something more in line with Bernie Madoff’s
\n150 years?<\/p>\n

After reading this story, I don’t trust the system to answer my questions or concerns. Do you? Do
\nyou think the only reason these men should not be living in the woods
\nas they were is because of the safety of those you love?<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My sense of justice vs legal ethics goes a bit askew when it comes to sex offenders. On the one hand, I believe in crime and punishment as well as rehabilitation; on the other hand, I don’t know many other crimes that are so offensive to the soul. In Georgia, sex offenders were pushed literally…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":198,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,8,16,36,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-padmini-mangunta","category-human-ethics","category-legal-ethics","category-news","category-social-ethics"],"yoast_head":"\nNot in My Backyard-but Perhaps the Woods Behind It ? - Everyday Ethics<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/09\/not-in-my-backyard-but-perhaps-the-woods-behind-it.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Not in My Backyard-but Perhaps the Woods Behind It ? - Everyday Ethics\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"My sense of justice vs legal ethics goes a bit askew when it comes to sex offenders. On the one hand, I believe in crime and punishment as well as rehabilitation; on the other hand, I don’t know many other crimes that are so offensive to the soul. 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In addition to writing for a various print and online publications, such as Parenting Magazine and iVillage, she was the Website Manager for the Henry Street Settlement, a social services and arts organization serving Manhattan's Lower East Side. Most recently, she worked on the Thai-Myanmar border as a writer for the Burma Human Rights Yearbook. Her curiosity about human nature, coupled with duel streaks of idealism and Midwestern pragmatism, developed into an ongoing discussion with friends, family and strangers on ethical quandaries. When she's not asking \"Why?\" you might have trouble finding her, as her hobbies include nosing around used bookstores, exploring the world (near and far), meeting new people and occasionally twiddling her thumbs while daydreaming.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/author\/pmangunta"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/198"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}