Community backlash has forced the Polis administration to rethink its plan to house sex offenders in one Northglenn transitional living facility near an elementary school, but other communities might not get so lucky.
These transitional centers are what folks used to call halfway houses because the residents lived halfway between lock-up and freedom.
For good reason, neighbors didn’t want sex offenders given freedom during the day to be near young children and a school playground.
PeakNation will recall the public hearing on April 3 was such a disaster, Democrat state Sen. Faith Winter was visibly intoxicated as she failed to convince folks her legislation creating these centers was a good idea.
Winter checked into rehab the next day and hasn’t been heard from since.
The Denver Post reports the state now says that sex offenders will only be housed in halfway houses that are least 1,000 feet (.19 of a mile) away from schools.
That’s a brisk five-minute walk, so, not really assuring.
Democrat State Sen. Kyle Mullica, who works as a nurse, told the Denver Post in a statement he “heard the concerns raised by residents and are now going to ensure their plans for future mental health transitional homes will take our feedback into account by ensuring that no registered sex offenders will be placed any facility that is within 1,000 feet of a school.”
“Every Coloradan struggling with behavioral health issues” he said, “deserves to get the best treatment they can in an environment that suits their needs as well as the needs of the community.”
If Mullica truly heard the concerns of residents, sex offenders would be housed further than five minutes from elementary schools, because the needs of the community outweighs the needs of a sex offender to be only 1,000 from a school.