Puyallup residents rally against proposed sex-offender house
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PUYALLUP, Wash. -- Droves of Puyallup residents came together Wednesday to fight a fellow homeowner's proposal to open a halfway house for sex offenders.
Despite the vocal opposition from community members and a majority of the Puyallup City Council, the man who's proposing the halfway house isn't giving up his fight.
Larry Parson's son is a registered sex offender, and now he's floating a plan to help such offenders transition out of prison into a halfway house. He also said he'd prioritize space for veterans.
"The idea is to provide housing for deserving veterans, whether they come out of prison or not," Parson said.
Whatever Parson's intentions are, the residents who showed up on Wednesday were not having it.
"I'm kind of offended that you keep using the word veteran to try and make us feel safe," said Tonya Helvey.
The home Parson bought is in a quiet South Puyallup neighborhood and is close to several elementary schools, which is one reason city officials say it likely wouldn't be a good fit for the neighborhood.
"I know there have been discussions of 14, 20 residents, something like that. We don't see how you could get there from here," said Tom Utterback, the city's Development Services Director.
Flyers have been going up around the neighborhood opposing the halfway house, which led to a petition drive that's already gathered close to 1,000 signatures.
About 350 people showed up to Wednesday's meeting, and many shouted down Parson whenever he spoke.
In the end, several city officials said they would oppose a sex-offender home, but they have to first see a formal plan.
"We really don't know what the proponent of this project is going to do. So we're playing a bit of a guessing game right now, as are you," said City Attorney Kevin Yamamoto.
Puyallup police say there are currently 63 registered sex offenders living in the city. None of them are classified as level three, which is the group most likely to re-offend.
Despite the vocal opposition from community members and a majority of the Puyallup City Council, the man who's proposing the halfway house isn't giving up his fight.
Larry Parson's son is a registered sex offender, and now he's floating a plan to help such offenders transition out of prison into a halfway house. He also said he'd prioritize space for veterans.
"The idea is to provide housing for deserving veterans, whether they come out of prison or not," Parson said.
Whatever Parson's intentions are, the residents who showed up on Wednesday were not having it.
"I'm kind of offended that you keep using the word veteran to try and make us feel safe," said Tonya Helvey.
The home Parson bought is in a quiet South Puyallup neighborhood and is close to several elementary schools, which is one reason city officials say it likely wouldn't be a good fit for the neighborhood.
"I know there have been discussions of 14, 20 residents, something like that. We don't see how you could get there from here," said Tom Utterback, the city's Development Services Director.
Flyers have been going up around the neighborhood opposing the halfway house, which led to a petition drive that's already gathered close to 1,000 signatures.
About 350 people showed up to Wednesday's meeting, and many shouted down Parson whenever he spoke.
In the end, several city officials said they would oppose a sex-offender home, but they have to first see a formal plan.
"We really don't know what the proponent of this project is going to do. So we're playing a bit of a guessing game right now, as are you," said City Attorney Kevin Yamamoto.
Puyallup police say there are currently 63 registered sex offenders living in the city. None of them are classified as level three, which is the group most likely to re-offend.
I'd rather know where a sex offender is *supposed* to be rather than running around god knows where
I'm willing to bet the people in that photograph showed up at Chick-fil-A Wednesday. Â Own your hate! It suits you!
Unfortunately the public is uninformed that sex offenders as a whole are the least likely criminal to re-offend at less than 2%. It is the level two and three offenders that you really need to watch out for. That is why I recommend a death penalty for re-offenders.
 @Magic 8 Ball Hmmm.....last night the DOC guy confirmed that it's actually around 30-35% for sex offenders.Â
 @Skeeter "provided therapy for their offending behaviors and concluded there to be reoffense rates of 5.8% for rapists, 2.1% for child molesters,and 7.5% for unspecified adolescent abusers through follow-upperiods of more than five years." Rob Wezel, PhD with Empirical Research.I wrote a piece for Corrections.com a couple of years ago entitled âFacts and Fiction about Sex Offenders â, which summarized similar low American sex offense recidivism rates in study after study: 1.2 percent after two years in Britain; 3 percent after 4.3 years in Iowa; 8 percent after a decade in Ohio; 5.3 percent after three years in a 15-state federal study; 3 percent after three years in Alaska; 4.7 percent after three years in Tennessee; 2 percent after three years in West Virginia; 3.38 percent after 10 years in California; 7.2 percent after 25 years in Utah; 2.3 percent after three years in Arizona; 3.8 percent after three years in Delaware; 2.4 percent after three years in Illinois; 1.8 percent after three years in New Mexico; 4 percent after three years in South Carolina. My article on this literature is still available elsewhere on corrections.com.Â
There goes that neighborhood's property value.
Instead of a "Half-way House" for sex offenders, how about dropping these guys off in the Sahara Desert with a half cantene of water and some Spam?
Let them figure out how to survive.
Sounds like an all-too familiar scenario. The Spokane St. "transition" facility in Seattle sparked similar fear and outrage, but since it opened not a peep of bad news has come from the place. I won't say that it's a success at what it's supposed to do, but the FUD that preceded it now seems overblown in the light of hindsight.
 @make_or_break Ummm...if you're talking about the one at Second and Spokane, two things.  One:  it is run like a prison, (http://www.cityofseattle.net/ban/public_safety_SCTF.htm) with that much security and oversight, whereas this house in Puyallup will have a resident manager that is simply a felon who's been there longer than the others and gets free rent, and felons can be gone from the house up to two days unsupervised, per White Feather's website.  Two:  Second and Spokane is in an urban area with major bus lines running through it, whereas the house in Puyallup has no way for the habitants to get  to jobs or services without driving themselves or walking through three miles of neighborhoods, schools and past 2 to 3 popular city parks.  The proprietor seems to think felons with no place else to go but a half way house are going to come out of prison with a car, a valid driver's license and insurance.  I'm afraid without proper non-car transports these guys are set up for failure.  How are they supposed to get jobs, go to the store, and re-integrate if there's no bus routes even?Â
The main problem with the location of the house is not that it's "in our backyard", it's that, as the city referenced a couple of times last night - there are no services for these felons. Â This is for "re-entry" into society. Â They're supposed to have a chance at being successful in that. Â How can they be, when there are no services, no jobs and no public transportation where this house is located? Â White Feather, when asked, answered weakly that they'd have cars. Â People with no where else to go coming out of prison except a halfway house are going to have a car???? Â And a valid drivers license? Â And insurance???? Â She also rather unsurely said that maybe there'd be a shuttle of some sort....MAYBE? Â I see transportation and services being the biggest problem with the location, sex offender worries aside. Â The way to get any services from this location is to walk or bike three miles through several neighborhoods, past schools and by or through two or more popular city parks. Â Northeast Puyallup, per the city's own words, is a sea of residential.....no services. Â Why on earth would you set up a re-entry house in an environment that sets the residents up for failure like that? Â There were no assurances at all that this shortcoming would be addressed in any way by the proprietor.Â
We need to take another look at the sentencing guidelines for these people. I'm for making some of them a capital offense. There is no reason for us to be swimming in this garbage. Violent strange rape, rape of a child, child molestation where is is definitive evidence should be thought to be high crimes against the society.
Here you go Pullayup! http://www.city-data.com/so/so-Puyallup-Washington.html
i bet this guy thinks his son is innocent and got a bad rap or something, too.
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as a society, we will need to re-evaluate our stance on sex offenders - lots of re-offenders, lots of "no compliance" with registering and keeping info up to date....face it, they really shouldn't be in public.
I would rather have the half way house in my neighborhood, than have the man's son staying overnight a few days a week to visit his dad.
People don't seem to understand that when they oppose these types of homes they are pushing the offenders to be able to reoffend.
They have served their time, let them live somewhere, be a responsible parent and teach your children about stranger danger, and how to tell an adult NO YOU CAN'T DO THAT!, and to run and tell someone, instead of pushing these men and women to go undetected.
Let law enforcement do their job, when they are registered, and have a current address, they are monitored.
From a Crimes against Children Law Enforcement officer." Be more worried about your next door neighbor, than the man living down the street who is registered." The registered sex offender knows that they are being watched by LE, they aren't going to reoffend in the neighborhood they live in. When lynch mobs push them away it causes them to go unregistered, allowing easy access to reoffend. When they are allowed to live in neighborhoods without the lynch mob, and get jobs, there is less time for them to even try to reoffend.
@Michelle S You're living in a dream world. There are plenty of cases where these people reoffed. They are a danger to society and need to be kept away from society. You cannot reform them, the reoffend.
I don't care what anyone says, sex offenders do not stop! They only become more violent! They should remain locked up for life, far away from society. Not in some halfway house near schools, and neighborhoods that are full of potential victims.Â
I have a solution. If we are so convinced they are going to re-offend, as in this case, where they are level 3, how about....
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...Oh, I dunno....
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KEEP THEM IN PRISON?! Easy. Someone scores level 3 after their psycho-sexual evaluation, 10 more years to sentence is added.Â
Sometimes I do wonder about these people who wanna have these halfway houses; Do you think you're not gonna get this kind of opposition? Better save yourself as well as everyone else the trouble and not even think of it. Nobody wants pervs in their neighborhood!