Texas Voices for Reason and Justice is a grass-roots, all-volunteer, non-profit organization established in 2008. We strive to educate and raise awareness about the ineffectiveness of the public sex offender registry and the negative impact it has on community safety.
Our members consist of registrants, parents, grandparents, sons and daughters, victims of sexual assault or abuse, and professionals who understand that current laws and policies are not keeping anyone safe. They are, in fact, ostracizing and stigmatizing entire families, including the children of registrants.
- Current laws paint with a broad brush and lump everyone together regardless of his/her crime. Only a very small portion of people listed on the Texas Sex Offender Registry truly pose a danger to the community. Better strategies are needed.
- Texas Voices does not condone sexual violence of any kind. Those who commit sex crimes should be prosecuted, but that process must be reasonable, proportional, and consistent with the community’s best interests. We believe that once a person has completed his sentence, he has paid his debt to society, and no retroactive law should be imposed to continue his punishment for a lifetime.
- Originally intended as a law enforcement tool for tracking persons convicted of the most heinous offenses, sex offender registries are expanding exponentially to include a large percentage of our population. The label of sex offender is so widely and indiscriminately used that it has dehumanized thousands of people who pose no threat to public safety, hampering their ability to become productive members of society.
- Public registries provide no measurable protection for children or the general public yet endanger the well-being of children and family members of registrants.
- Public registration, proximity restrictions, and residency restrictions that are extended beyond an individual’s sentence are punitive and thereby violate protected constitutional rights.
- We believe that feel-good, ill-advised legislation has created laws that have done more harm than good. We believe that public safety is best served when our laws and criminal justice policies are consistent with empirical evidence and solid research.
Texas Voices for Reason and Justice exists as an informational and educational resource. We regretfully are unable to provide assistance with housing, employment, legal issues, or individual case research.