For Halloween, Georgia’s State Board of Pardons and Paroles has announced that sex offenders under parole supervision will be barred from putting up Halloween decorations, having their outside lights on or giving out candy to trick-or-treaters, and that parole officers and local law enforcement will be dispatched to make sure they comply.
A release from the board said sex offenders who are on parole will also be placed on dusk-to-dawn curfews.
“In some areas of the state, sex offenders will be directed to report to a facility or location and remain there during ‘trick or treating’ hours” it said.
While restrictions on handing out candy during Halloween are nothing new, Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers Marcia Shein said the requirements that parolees report to specific locations and stay there goes too far.
“The recent rash of police state styled tactics regarding restrictions on sex offenders appears to be overreaching,” said Shein in an emailed statement. “It is one thing to ask them to keep their lights off and not answer their doors” or not to have contact with children, she wrote. “[I]t is something entirely different when they are told to report to the probation, parole or police station during trick-or-treating hours and are restricted from decorating their homes.”
“Every social holiday or event including decorating for the holidays could be classified as attractive to children,” Shein wrote. “These standards for what attracts children can unfairly expand to any conduct that someone arbitrarily decides will attract children. It is vague and overbroad coming perilously close to infringing on first amendment rights and other potential constitutional freedoms.”
Pardons and Paroles Board spokesman Steve Hayes said the agency would have no comment on Shein’s concerns.
