On Halloween, It's Lights Out for Sex Offenders

This year, New Jersey is forbidding sex offenders from participating in Halloween. The state parole board is instituting a 7 p.m. curfew for sex offenders and banning them from children's Halloween parties. The parolees are prohibited from opening the door for trick-or-treaters, and they're not allowed to take any children trick-or-treating, including their own kids.

Although no sex offender in any state has ever been known to attack a trick-or-treater, the state parole board says it's just being proactive. The restrictions apply to all offenders on the board's list, not just pedophiles.

Rules governing the movement of sex offenders are nothing new, of course, whether it's with GPS tracking or Draconian residency restrictions. Forbidding them from taking their kids trick-or-treating, though, seems like a new level of punishment.

UPDATE:  New Jersey is far from the only place taking a special interest in convicted sex offenders on Halloween. A sampling:

States will watch sex offenders on Halloween (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

Sex offenders warned about Halloween (St. Paul Pioneer Press)

Sex offenders told to stay away from Halloween (NBC News, Baltimore)

A new curfew keeps sex offenders indoors on Halloween night (NBC News, Rochester, NY)

Communities Plan Halloween Crackdowns on Sex Offenders (ABC News)

Comments

[wrongfulconviction]

This is rediculas!!!! Sex offenders have already done jail time, and in essance, they are being held to a curfew, this is jailing them again. They have served their time and the ones that are out need to be left alone!!!!! On halloween night, its the parents responsibility to keep their kids safe, meaning they should be with them and not letting them run wild in the streets. Maybe if parents took more responsibility for the actions of their children then sex offenders wouldn't get the chance to "snatch up" their children.

What about the ones that have been wrongfully convicted by a bitter, vengeful exwife.. Megans law needs to be modify so we can put our energies where they belong, and that is on the dangerous offenders that repeat their offenses