Sex offenders register 'would protect public'
CALLS for authorities to create a sex offenders register continued a day after 11-year-old Marco Archer was found dead.
Supporters of such a list feel it would protect the public from attacks by alerting them when a sexual offender is released from prison or when they move into a neighbourhood.
However critics of the proposal said creating a public register would alienate convicts who have completed their prison terms, make it harder for them to reintegrate into society and make them targets for persecution.
Her Majesty's Prison Superintendent Dr Elliston Rahming said such a policy would be like placing additional prison time on inmates who have already served their allotted sentences.
"I hear this talk about developing some register - that is easy in a big place like the United States but if a register is developed in Nassau then the court sentence effectively becomes a life sentence.
"It means I could never hope to get a job or life again even if I have changed," said Prison Superintendent Elliston Rahming yesterday.
The minister responsible for Social Services, Loretta Butler-Turner, said she began groundwork for a sex offenders register in the beginning of her term but shelved the idea.
"When I first became a minister I felt very strongly about the implementation of a sexual offenders register."
She said she understands the outcry but added that the idea must not be seen as a "panacea" for preventing sex crimes.
"But I think many countries are finding that once you identify these people (as sexual offenders) many times they are rejected everywhere they go, so what do you do?
"I think we have to weigh the pros and cons before we drive this as a panacea."
Crime activist Rodney Moncur said he supports a sex offenders register for convicted paedophiles.
He said: "I'm more particularly interested in a sex register in cases of children who are victims.
"Children are vulnerable, are innocent - children can't give consent."
Police discovered Marco's partially decomposed body Wednesday morning in bushes in western New Providence.
A well-place source in the RBPF said the boy's body showed signs of sexual assault.
Marco disappeared from his in Brougham Street last Friday afternoon.
His mother said he left home to buy candy from a nearby gas station and never returned.
Three men are assisting police in their investigations.
September 30, 2011
tribune242
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