If risk of reoffense is high why are they out of jail? And you can't put the burden on landlords without also putting the burden on home sellers. Background checks are expensive and they have to register their address with police anyway.

I assumed level 3 offenders weren't allowed in those areas anyway? And why would they be allowed to loiter near a bus stop for even 15 minutes?!

@Michael, they are released from jail or prison at the time they are in the community. Some are on probation, but the police chief said many have fulfilled those terms. @MilfordMom, the chief said many people assume they are restricted once released, they aren't at this point, other than having to register their home address or workplace.

not all of these sex offenders need to be punished for the rest of their lives, many of these offenders are harmless (and im NOT saying ALL) and have served their time, and are simply looking to move on with their ALREADY burdened lives. I would say that the proposed by-law should apply to only level 3 sex offenders who are at high risk of re-offending. Some of the level one offenders are students in this very community who made the mistake of peeing on a tree, or made a silly childish mistake of hazing in the locker rooms. I simply ask that everyone remembers, that if they are out in the public and on the list, they have served their time

Ira Toyota has a level 3 sex offender working for them. They shouldn't even be allowed to work anywhere with people who could possibly bring children there with them. Never taking my Toyota back there again & we have a few toyotas.

Isn't there a group home a stones throw from Milford Catholic? So those residents will be excluded given the "group home" status. Seems like an oxymoron to me - if you have 70 offenders and 30 live in this home??? Really?

Momof2, how did you find this out about a level 3 offender working at Toyota? A level 3 offender cannot be "fixed". They don't get better. Why, why do they ever get out of prison? I do worry though about restrictions on level 1s. Any poor college kid who has sex with his 16 year old girlfriend could be burdened with this for life. Or as said above "peeing on a tree." It's not fair to treat them the same. I'd have to look into the level 2s closer.

The proposed bylaw would restrict only Level 2 and 3 sexual offenders...

Peeing on tree does not land you on the list

For kids, if you do a google search for sex offenders in milford there is a site that lists them all. It has their picture, name, age, home & work address and their offense.

Has the town considered this? Restrictions on where registrants may live and go, including social networking sites, are being challenged on grounds of unconstitutionality and are falling across the country because they cut too wide a swath. If Milford insists on flying in the face of what studies show about the total ineffectiveness of residency restrictions, have you considered individualization? What kind of sense does it make to create these "safety" zones for registrants whose offenses had nothing to do with children or the elderly?

And the concept of child-safe zones is a farce to begin with. Any such zone, to have an effect on child sexual abuse, would have to separate the children from those closest to them in their lives, beginning with their family members. If Milford wants to really help its children, it would be better off spending its money on good sex abuse education and prevention programs in the schools and communities. It isn't those who are outside the schools and parks who will molest them; it is those who bring them to school, play with them on the playgrounds and parks, and are in the schools and other places of authority frequented by the children.

Thanks for he link Mary. It's kind of a confusing sight. It won't let me specify a town. Just the box that says "County" on it and it doesn't work if you choose a county. It works if you pick "Incarcerated" ONLY. It won't work if I add other info in other boxes (town, zip, ) Has this happened to anyone or am I doing something wrong?

Hi Andie, the box that says search will take you to a field that asks for a variety of information. I just plugged in Milford, and it showed the Level 3s.

Thanks again Mary! I finally got it to work for me.

Mary and Andie, good parents of every generation have done what they felt was needed to protect their children. My mother's generation, and my own when I had my children, repeated all we knew: "Don't talk to strangers; don't EVER go ANYWHERE with anyone you don't know." Unfortunately, that wasn't enough. When a relative molested a young family member, she was unprepared for that possibility; she knew only to beware of strangers. When a different relative in a different generation molested a young family member, she had no idea what to do or say. Risk of harm to children, be it sexual harm or any other, is virtually always from the inside. According to the FBI, registered offenders are responsible for sexual assault on children in less than 1% of the cases. If you are spending a significant amount of time monitoring where registrants live--which of course tells you nothing about where they are at any given moment--and very little keeping the lines of communication fully open with your children, little to none teaching them that NO ONE, not even those they know well, not even those they love, has the right to touch them inappropriately, and little to none teaching them how to react and what to do should it happen, you might as well be living in my mother's generation. Almost all sexual abuse of children is committed by family members, peers, and authority figures in their lives. Parents today know so much more than we did, but it won't protect your children if you don't use it.