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"Mentally ill struggle to meet sex registry regulations"

By Douglas A. Berman

The title of this post is the headline of this sad article from The Tennessean. Here is how it starts: Carlton Hunter consistently fails to register as a sex offender, and he has served nearly 500 days in jail over the past five years as punishment for that.  Hunter, 45, was convicted in 1990 of two counts of attempted rape. He has racked up dozens of arrests since, almost all nonviolent misdemeanors: obstructing a passageway, public intoxication, possession of drug paraphernalia.  And after he gets released on the minor charges, a new warrant inevitably is issued for his arrest when he fails to report it to the sex offender registry. Hunter is homeless.  He also is mildly mentally retarded and has paranoid schizophrenia.  His attorneys say he has no family, nobody to watch over him, and he simply can't comprehend or comply with the rules of the sex offender registry...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on July 30, 2009 (boomark / email).