Will Fly said:
"Our society doesn't know how to deal with people such as these. If they offend, they go to prison - which does not help to reform them or change their viewpoint."

Since the 1960s there has been some success in learning the best ways to teach sexual offenders the empathy and self-discipline skills they lacked.

A post-release process developed by Mennonites in Ontario since 1994 is one of the most successful at preventing recidivism and is being adopted in the US and UK too. Circles of Support and Accountability (COSA) are small networks of volunteers who help an offender who has completed jail and treatment, to stay on the straight and narrow while making the transition back into the real world outside prison, avoiding the habits and pitfalls that could lead to reoffending. For ordinary criminals and ordinary sex offenders, this may take a few years. Paedophiles may need to be in such a circle for life.

Risk of reoffending drops significantly (e.g "from 50% to 15%") with COSA programs. I'd call it successful if they lowered the risk to the same as background safety level for the population in general. ("Over the last six years [up to fall 2008], the [Quaker] U.K. pilot project has worked with 49 offenders. None have committed a new sexual offense.") Results vary, but are far better than just turning the person loose at the end of his/her sentence. (A 2007 Canadian study of results and rates of reoffence (pdf))

Another huge advantage of this approach is that the public doesn't have to pay much for a Circle of volunteers. An offender is expected to earn his own living and contribute to the community, instead of being detained at great public cost. This frees resources for programs that protect the public.

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A 2006 article examining in what ways vilifying sexual offenders may increase the risk to society from them (pdf)


Although I'm a mom, I don't see that banning every convicted sexual offender from entering public libraries would make our children safer. The justice system should be able to impose such conditions case-by-case, but sexual offender registries also include low-risk cases (someone who once "flashed" at a party, teenagers who fooled around with fellow teens, and have grown up in the years since). Even the people who do present a risk are probably better off spending time in a library than somewhere more private with nothing better to do.

You and your staff should be able to flag situations that concern you, though. Perhaps your legislators can put some of their staff onto finding a reasonable way to safeguard civil liberties while reporting potential dangers. It could be hard in a public space to get informed consent and transparency balanced with privacy.