Thursday, December 30, 2010

Graham drops ACLU but continues with legal threats (by Charles and Rebecca Reier)

Elected officials must stop the State from Clustering Sex Offenders in Greenville

Clustering means locating a high concentration of sex offenders or other parolees in communities that are the least able to protect themselves. (Suresh et al - Social Disorganization and Registered Sex Offenders: An exploratory Spatial Analysis (2010), Southwest Journal of Criminal Justice Vol. 7(2). Pp. 180-213)

John Graham (Doctorate of Ministry) has renewed his threat of legal action against a group of innocent people attempting to maintain some measure of safety in the everyday life of their children and themselves. His Good Samaritan houses, that provide sex offender housing in close proximity of one another, present a dense concentration of individuals at risk for very serious recidivism; thereby compounding the threat to the neighborhood. This public safety problem will only get worse if Governor –elect Kasich continues with his plan to close at least three prison facilities. Ohio, compared to California, already has the most lenient sentencing and incarceration standards. The time is long overdue for the citizens of Greenville and Darke County to go to their elected officials and demand that the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections (DRC) rescind the practice of dumping large numbers of parolees (creating clusters of potentially reciditive felons) into small communities. Typically these areas lack the resources to deal with the psychiatric, drug and alcohol problems which are often superimposed on the sex offender’s need for sexual gratification at the expense of victims. Graham is fully aware of these issues but chooses to continue his diatribe which circumvents the most crucial human concerns. Instead, once again, he threatens the community with endless litigation but this time without ACLU support.

Regarding the zoning issue that Graham challenges, cities already have extensive liberties to enact regulations. They include the right to have zoning regulations designed to “preserve the aesthetic features or values of an area”. One of the few challenges to zoning laws comes from regulations that “show local selfishness for socially improper goals”. If Graham et al. are to challenge the City of Greenville it will probably be on this basis. The plaintiffs will probably center their case on Article I, Section 10, Clause 1, of U.S. Constitution, claiming the zoning discriminates against offenders in violation of the 14th amendment Equal Protection Clause.

If by chance Graham et al prevail in court, the City of Greenville is free to adopt the Unified Code of Corrections used by the city of Chicago which states: “no sex offenders, regardless of age of victim, can reside near, visit, or be in or about parks, schools, daycare centers, swimming pools, beaches, theaters, or any other places where minor children congregate without advance approval of an agent of the Department of Corrections” (Unified Code of Corrections, ILCS CH. 730, § 150/8, 2005 as cited in Hughes & Burchfield, 2008). (Suresh et al - Social Disorganization and Registered Sex Offenders: An exploratory Spatial Analysis (2010), Southwest Journal of Criminal Justice Vol. 7(2). Pp. 185)

Opinion submitted by Charles E. Reier MD, Rebecca A. Reier

11 comments:

  1. Thanks for all the research you have been doing!!Thanks for standing up for the citizens of Greenville!!

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  2. Winter of 2009, the City of Greenville had a total of 34 sex offenders. 15 of the 34 sex offenders including tier 3's were concentrated in one area of the community. The Good Samaritan Home had 13 sex offenders living in their facilities. 2 more sex offenders that once lived in the Good Samaritan Home facilites lived in apartments near by.
    In addition, there are 6 facilities cluster in one area of the community. The Good Samaritna has 5 facilitieis and the Grace Community Center owns 1 facility.

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  3. Just watched the video of Mr. Graham speaking.."this issue should be tabled until cooler heads prevail". Mr. Graham is kidding himself if he thinks that waiting 6 months for "cooler heads to prevail" is going to solve this issue. However, 6 months might be long enough for him to acquire another house or two. The emotion surrounding this is NOT going away, but there are a lot of us who would like to see HIM go away.

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  4. Not only is a high concentration of sex offenders in one area dangerous it is also unhealthy to have a high number of facilities located in one area of the community. Not only will it lower house prices but also attract drug dealers, and drug buyers into the community.

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  5. The Grace Community Center does not house sex offenders or anyone at the facility. It has a food bank, clothing bank and soup kitchen. Do not put the Grace Community Center in the same category as Mr. Graham and his Good Samaritan Home facilities.

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  6. Thank you to the Reiers for their educated reports to the community. Greenville residents must stand together and support the City Officials. We cannot allow threats of lawsuits hinder what is in the best interest of all residents of Greenville and its future. We did not want to be known as the city for carbon sequestration and now we do not want to be known as the city that is a haven for sex offenders. In my opinion, this fight is even more important for the future of our community. Council, move forward to enact this without further delay.

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  7. I want to thank you for all the work you put into researching this issue. I really appreciate it. If Graham thinks people are going to cool off about this issue he is nuttier that I already think he is.People have a right to care about their family members and their home prices. Nobody is going to want to move into an area full of dangerous perverted sex offenders.

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  8. I want to thank the Reiers for their well researched information for what is taking place in Greenville. They are good Citizen Journalists educating the public on what is going on. It takes great courage to step up out and be a leader. My prediction is that there will be more Citzen Journalists telling the story like it really is ... especially if outside interests decide they are going to tell our community what we can and what we cannot do. Our community safety and interests come first. We may not have the money, but we have the voices and feet.

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  9. The Greenville community is apparently not susceptible to reason, so defending a worthwhile effort to return persons to productive lives becomes necessary in court. This is an emotional issue in which logic is not effective. The council's action has zero chance of being sustained by the courts, but the fight must be fought since reason has been and will be ineffective.

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  10. We cannot understand the detached and insensitive statement from 6:59. We are still numb from the brutal murder and dismemberment of a member of our community by a repeat offender. Christian people that “love thy neighbor as thyself” cannot accept such a death with a level of emotional response that is only appropriate for “road kill”. Unfortunately this recidive rapist/murderer was not an anomaly among sex-offenders. According to Graham himself, dumping large numbers of ex -offenders in a community ill-equipped to handle their problems is ill-advised.

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  11. That anonymous 6:59 sounds like Tony "T" with the omnipotent polar viewpoint, poor sentence structures and favorite buzz word "emotional".

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