Random Thoughts.....

Is it just me, or does anyone else find this weather depressing? I thought we were going to have a major storm this weekend, but it has just been cold and rainy all weekend. Where we live, it's foggy everywhere. I just got home from the mall. I guess a lot of people had my idea. It was packed!

Let's see... I read an article in the Hartford Courant this morning about Megan's Law. In Connecticut, the sexual offenders list was removed from the internet on May 18, 2001, pursuant to an order from Judge Robert Chatigny. It was removed because all offenders were included regardless of whether there was a finding of whether they posed a danger to the public. Opponents felt that it amounted to double punishment of offenders. In addition, if an offender felt that he was not a danger to society, there was no way for him/her to get their name removed from the list.

I have agreed with this all along. I cringed when I first heard that Connecticut was going to put the listing of all sexual offenders on the internet. I thought to myself that it was only a matter of time before someone was injured, murdered, or fired from his job because the listing became so public. Don't get me wrong. I think that sexual offenders who are a present danger to society should be on the list. I also believe that there are cases where it's not appropriate to place the information on the list (for more examples of this, read the article from the Hartford Courant above that I referenced. It has many examples of where this law went wrong). I believe that there are people free in our society that are a danger to everyone, not just children. We should expect to be protected from them. If putting them on an internet listing helps that, so be it. BUT, we must review each case and make the determination whether it's appropriate given the case information. In addition, if the profile of the offender is listed, the offender must be given some mechanism to state their case on why their name should be removed from the list. You can read the history of this law in Connecticut by going here.

Kent's on his way home from giving a talk this afternoon at UCONN. We are going out to dinner tonight to catch up on our week. With work, and him being out of town, we've hardly had a chance to catch up this last week.