My daughter is a sex offender on 10 yrs probation of which she has served almost 4 yrs with an immaculate record and is labelled by both her probation office and her counselor as a very low risk offender. She was set up with her counselor at the beginning attending 2 private sessions a month. I should interject here that in our county there are only 5 registered female offenders. She will always have to register because she pled guilty and was convicted of aggravated sexual contact of a 13 yr old (who acted and looked 18 and was just a month or so away from 14) but I digress, she did plead guilty to save her family from all the publicity and had no jury. It was her first offense with the law at all, and she had a son 13 and 14 at the time.....for 6 months she was not able to speak to them even on the phone, see them or live with them. She was allowed to move back home and continue to be the stay at home mom she always was. She was pregnant at trial with her 3rd and is raising her also. So many things have been surpassed and are tolerable with the help of family members willing to attend events with her, she is able to attend the boys school functions and has even been allowed to attend a family reunion at a church camp. Over the last few years her counselor and dropped her down to 1 visit a month.

My gripe is that this past month she went to the counselor meeting and found him not there...when she texted him to verify the meeting....he told her he could not talk about it but she needed to contact her PO for an appt with another counselor. It appears that for some reason, he is no longer a counselor for anyone here and everyone now has to report to another counselor and her PO informed her that it would be every week. Well, today was the first meeting and she came home in a horrible upset state. It seems the initial assessment will cost $150, the weekly group sessions will cost $45/ea, there will be a once a month individual session for $80 and everyone will have to take a lie detector exam within the next 30 days (not sure of the price). She has never had to be in group sessions and has only had to be around other offenders on Halloween night for the last 3 years, once she was allowed to stay at home with no outside lights and not answer the door. She brought home a stack of papers that are totally scary, saying that anything she says in her sessions can be used against her, that visitors may be allowed during sessions by the counselor, and that she may be recorded and videotaped. She will have worksheets that she has to complete and discuss during group sessions and I don't know what all.....This all sounds like a HUGE step backward for her and she still has over half of her probation left with this to look forward to.

What in the world can she do? She cannot deregister because the DA was adamant at making sure it was aggravated, even though she is 4'8" and 110 lbs and he was 5'10" and about 160 lbs. I mean she feels fortunate that they did not send her to prison and has tried so hard to live by all the rules, and show that she figured out what she did wrong, admitted it and has tried to prove that it will never happen again. Her "victim" is now 18, engaged and has moved on with his life....are they ever going to let her move on with hers even within limits? Come on, how can they give them privileges that they have earned and then for NO reason except to show they can, turn around and take them away again?

A Sad, Mad Disillusioned Citizen