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Sex offenders fleeing to Puerto Rico ... and feds bringing them back

By Douglas A. Berman

This new AP story, which is headlined "US sex offenders see sanctuary in Caribbean sun," suggests that Puerto Rico may be starting to become something of a penal colony for sex offenders trying to avoid onerous restrictions in other jurisdictions. Here are the interesting details from an article that should prompt us to question and reflect upon just what our society hopes to achieve from strict post-release restrictions on sex offenders: Jeffrey Allen Weathers moved from Alaska to an oceanfront apartment in the Caribbean, but his new neighbors soon suspected the heavyset American hadn?t come for the sun.  The FBI now says they were right. Weathers, with convictions for sexual assault and possession of child pornography in his past, had moved to a small Puerto Rican town in the belief he could avoid registering as a sex offender and live without that stigma, an FBI agent wrote in an affidavit...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on September 09, 2010 (boomark / email).