News of the Day 11-16-06

State agency types and non-profiters held a summit in CT to plan a "bill of rights" for children of incarcerated offenders. They focused on guaranteed transportation to get kids to their imprisoned parents, protocols for how kids get managed during and after arrests of their folks, and giving kids a voice in their placement once the parents are gone. Interesting and new to me, anyway. Will it be the start of a movement? Has it been going on elsewhere? . . . Victims' rights spokespeople and law enforcers from IA are going to other states to warn them off the severe restrictions on sex offenders that IA has adopted and proved unworkable. “The bottom line is, it doesn’t protect children,” said Pamela Dettmann, a senior assistant county attorney from Burlington, Iowa. Did you get that--A SENIOR ASSISTANT COUNTY ATTORNEY. If that doesn't make people think twice, we're completely hopeless. . . . And, as if to prove the latter point, MD officials are dealing with a, well, you would have thought common sense, point in their sex offender registration law. How do you report change of address if you're homeless? And MD isn't the only state to have this problem. Future historians are going to have such fun.