- Abolish the registry. Period.
- ALI could have but failed to set a goal of abolishing the registry, and that is why Nebraskans Unafraid cannot support the ALI proposal.
- Evidence abounds that registries do not enhance public safety.
- The registry is a vile practice that encourages discrimination, harms families, creates homelessness and joblessness.
- Abolish the registry. Period.
The registry must be abolished. That is the starting, and ending, point for Nebraskans Unafraid.
We do not support the changes the American Law Institute (ALI) has proposed for its Model Penal Code that would affect the part dealing with sex offense registries.
The proposed changes include making the registry available to law enforcement only, abolishing lifetime registration, keeping juveniles off the registry, and abolishing blanket restrictions for registrants. Each of those would help someone on the registry, so why do we not support the changes to the model code?
ALI would keep the registry in place. That’s why. ALI refused to set a goal of ending the registry, thereby supporting the existence of the registry. When they could have recommended the removal of registry laws, ALI chose to keep the registry entrenched in its model code.
There are plenty of studies that show that people forced to register are very rarely the ones who get arrested for a sex offense. The next arrest for a sex offense in your community will most likely be of someone not on the registry.
The registry drives families into poverty and isolation; it makes them vulnerable to harassment, vandalism, and vigilante violence. Omaha saw this very clearly in May 2020 when Mattieo Condoluci was murdered because of his status as a registrant.
The registry creates a category of people the community is encouraged to discriminate against by using registry status to deny employment and housing. The registry is used to turn people away from emergency shelter, from long-term healthcare, and from religious congregations and other social groups. The registry makes travel more difficult, damages relationships, and that damage echoes through the generations. No matter how many years or decades a registrant obeys the law while required to register, he or she is still subject to laws that apply to registrants and no one else.
ALI could have helped and encouraged everyone on the registry by simply recommending that the registry be ended. Instead, ALI did the usual picking and choosing among registrants, leaving registrants to vie with each other to be counted as “worthy” of any benefits.
We have many anti-registry organizations across the country and each one has its own ideas about what reform looks like. If all anti-registry organizations could unite behind one simple message, the registry must be ended, we would have much more power.
ALI wants to leave the registry in place, making changes that benefit some but not others. That is simply not good enough. People on the sex offense registry deserve allies who will work to end the vile practice of public shaming.
The registry must be abolished.