A recent news report depicted Lewiston, along with a number of other Maine towns and cities, as dumping grounds for Maine citizens with sex offenses. Rather than enacting ordinances similar to those other communities have chosen, residents in these areas should demand a state law eliminating any such unconstitutional restrictions.

Residency restrictions, like registries, protect no one. Where someone lives, or doesn’t live, has no particular effect on the likelihood of their committing another crime. Through the past 20 years, studies have shown recidivism rates for citizens having committed sex offenses are among the lowest in the country. Across the United States, courts are taking a hard look at restriction measures, and the tide is turning.

Isolating people with sex offenses on their record is a bad idea. Cutting them off from resources necessary to start their lives over is exactly the opposite of what should be done, yet one municipality after another allows the fear-mongering petty despots of their locales to lead the way.

With so much information out there to dispel decades of sex offender myths, it amazes me that people still buy-in to those ad hominem policies. By now, most people should know, personally, someone on the registry.

It is easy to let fear and hatred dominate a person’s feelings for something people simultaneously loathe and fail to understand.

Maybe it is time to step back and take a look at what we are creating, and why.

Michael Johnson, Maine Correctional Center, Windham