Triumph Church's Sex Offender Shelter Shut Down By State Of Alabama

In an odd way I find this story disturbing, but not in the way one may think. If they haven't re-offended. how is this a "public" safety threat? (And yes I do know what the  the statistics say, but I am pondering as to whether a situation such as this is exacerbating those statistics.)  Now that this refuge of sorts is being closed down, where are these men to go? Not only are these men most likely jobless, they are now homeless.

These are former inmates, ex-cons, who have already done their time, but yet their prison sentence continues.  What is troubling, that politicians find it so easy to disrupt the lives of these men without offering any solution.  Chances are the recidivism rate will now increase to 100% just in order to secure three squares and a cot.

Here is an intersting point brought up by one comment:  Has the passage of this one specific law, targeting how one specific person (in this case a minister and his wife) uses his private land violated Due Process (Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments)?  And, since this "refuge" was set up as a ministry, is there a violation of the establishment clause of the First Amendment?

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Prosecutor C.J. Robinson, who pushed for the local law that legislators passed to close down the camp, said Monday he doesn't doubt the sincerity of Martin's religious beliefs. He said no one living at the camp has been arrested for additional sex-related crimes. And, he said, sex offenders do need a place to live.

If not behind a tiny church in an agricultural county with about five dozen people per square mile, then where?

Robinson said he doesn't know. But having so many ex-convicts with similar criminal records in one place is a public safety threat, he said, and Martin doesn't have the specialized training and credentials to deal with them.

"I think his motives are good. I just disagree with the way he's going about it," said Robinson, the chief deputy district attorney.

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People in the community grew increasingly worried amid an influx of sex offenders, Robinson said, so he wrote a bill to shut down the camp by prohibiting two convicted sex offenders from living within 300 feet of each other on the same property unless they are married. The Legislature passed the measure without a negative vote.

The law only affects Chilton County, where Martin's refuge is located and where people were worried, Robinson said.

Triumph Church's Sex Offender Shelter Shut Down By State Of Alabama