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| Honing a better way to watch sex offenders |
| By projo.com |
| Published: 07/31/2009 |
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CRANSTON –– Over homemade pasta and salad, they came from around Rhode Island to talk about sex offenders. Specifically, the probation officers, police, corrections officials, and representatives from a range of organizations got together at the monthly meeting at the Department of Corrections in Cranston to discuss how partnering up has improved the ability to keep a close eye on sex offenders on probation. In Kent County, a probation officer recalled, she and the police tracked down an offender who was in a parking lot next to his girlfriend’s home. One partner she invited to the meeting, Coventry Capt. Bryan J. Volpe, said working together has afforded the police the chance to “get out into the community a little bit more.” Another probation officer remembered being out with the police and finding a sex offender who was on probation in Lincoln Woods State Park. A 7-year-old boy was sitting next to him. And A.T. Wall, director of the state Department of Corrections, which oversees statewide probation, recalled accompanying a Providence police squad that deals with sex offenders to Kennedy Plaza. “It made a real impression on them when they see” the officers who keep watch on them, he said. “It was interesting to see the reactions of sex offenders when they see their probation officer.” Regular meetings such as the one held on Thursday didn’t happen much until two years ago, when the Department of Corrections reorganized probation monitoring from a centralized system to 12 regions. A probation officer with a caseload of sex offenders is stationed in each region. The caseload of hundreds of offenders in the old centralized system “was a problem, because the numbers were extremely high,” said Richard J. Delfino Jr., assistant administrator of adult probation and parole at the Department of Corrections, which has four specialized units and one of them, formed in 1998, deals with sex offenders. With regional probation officers dedicated to keeping tabs on offenders, Delfino said, the result is “real supervision” with “announced and unannounced visits.” “Letting the offender know the police and probation are aware of your status,” Delfino said, adding that probation officers also work with federal marshals. Read More. |
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He has blue eyes. Cold like steel. His legs are wide. Like tree trunks. And he has a shock of red hair, red, like the fires of hell. His antics were known from town to town as he was a droll card and often known as a droll farceur. Hamilton Lindley with his madcap pantaloon is a zany adventurer and a cavorter with a motley troupe of buffoons.
Sounds a lot more like harassment to me. After all, cops aren't androids and let their feelings override good judgment. Many of those charged with registering or checking on *ex offenders treat them like crap. And I guess the fact that thousands of registrants never re-offend isn't newsworthy? *ex offender facts @ www.oncefallen.com