Sex offenders get housing ban relief

Decision largely reverses a California blanket ban on where they could take up residence

Three-quarters of California’s paroled sex offenders previously banned from living near parks, schools and other places where children congregate now face no housing restrictions after the state changed its policy in response to a court ruling that said the prohibition only applies to child molesters.

The rate is far higher than officials initially predicted. The state expected half of the 5,900 parolees would have restrictions on where they can live or sleep lifted when the corrections department changed its policy following the March ruling. Instead, data shows that 76 per cent of offenders no longer are subject to the voterapproved restrictions.

Corrections officials said last spring that about half of the convicted sex offenders are considered child molesters who would still be subject to the housing ban. But even some whose offence involved a child no longer face the 609-metre residency restriction, officials disclosed in explaining the higher number. That’s because the department’s new policy requires a direct connection between where a parolee lives and the offender’s crime or potential to reoffend.

Limitations

“A parole agent cannot simply prevent a parolee from living near a school or park because the offender committed a crime against a child,” Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokesman Jeffrey Callison said.

The decision largely reverses a housing ban imposed by California voters nine years ago. Many states impose residency restrictions on sex offenders, although states including Iowa, Georgia and Oklahoma rescinded or changed their residency restrictions and some also tailor restrictions to individual sex offenders.