Brian Dickerson of the Detroit Free Press reports today that a bill has been introduced to modify some of the draconian provisions of Michigan's sex registry law. It would keep the records of most juvenile offenders off the public list, placing them on a list available only to law enforcement, and would put a ten-year limit on the length of time a name is on the list.
This is a start, but a poor one. The proposed changes do nothing about the most objectionable aspects of the list: the abject failure to make any distinction based on the nature of the offense. As Dickerson observes,
Although its primary purpose was to alert parents to the proximity of ex-cons with a history of targeting children, Michigan's sex-offender registry currently includes teenagers prosecuted for having consensual sex with underage girlfriends and a woman convicted of urinating in public.
Dickerson suggests that judges be given the discretion to determine whether an offense should require that the offender be included on the list.
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