
Celia Jackson, 59, addresses a panel of city officials at the Washington Park Senior Center. (Photo by Jabril Faraj)
Richard Rosa’s brother, Raymond, is one of a number of former sex offenders facing an uncertain future because of an ordinance passed by the City of Milwaukee Common Council last fall that severely limits where individuals convicted of a sexual offense can live.
Raymond Rosa, 48, was convicted of second degree sexual assault in the case of a 15-year-old friend of his daughter in 2005. Rosa received a 12-year sentence, consisting of seven years of imprisonment and five years of extended supervision. Rosa was released in 2012 and, after failing a drug test, ended up on a list of offenders wanted by the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Department in late 2013.
At that time, Raymond had been working as an electrician’s apprentice for two or three months after some schooling through WRTP/BIG STEP, Richard said. He has, most recently, served about 15 months at Jackson Correctional Institution in Black River Falls but is set to be released at the beginning of June and is facing the prospect of living in his van.
“He called me a month and a half ago and he said, ‘Rich, they’re trying to kill me,’” Richard Rosa said, referring to the effects of the new ordinance. “He’s scared.”

Red and orange highlights denote areas convicted sex offenders cannot reside within the city of Milwaukee. (Map produced by City of Milwaukee)
The ordinance, which restricts sex offenders from maintaining a permanent residence less than 2,000 feet from a school, day care, park, recreational trail, playground or “any other place designated by the city as a place where children are known to congregate,” leaves precious few areas where sex offenders who are released from prison can legally reside on a permanent basis. The 2014 legislation came in response to similar ordinances restricting where sex offenders can live in all 18 other municipalities within Milwaukee County.
A recent panel discussion of the ordinance at the Washington Park Senior Center addressed what some called the unintended consequences of the legislation. Mayor Tom Barrett, Common Council President Michael Murphy, Wisconsin Department of Correction Region 3 Chief Niel Thoreson and Capt. James Shepard who commands the Sensitive Crimes Division of the Milwaukee Police Department, participated on the panel.
Murphy, who opposed the legislation, said he understands the concerns of some of his colleagues who felt Milwaukee was becoming a “dumping ground” for sex offenders in the county. Murphy said a 2014 analysis of DOC data by his office showed that of sex offenders living in the county in 2007, 89 percent resided in Milwaukee.
Thoreson, whose office is responsible for monitoring offenders in Milwaukee County, said this issue is not limited to the state’s largest city. Thoreson said the cities of Waukesha, Racine, Kenosha, Green Bay and Madison also shoulder the heaviest burden when it comes to housing sex offenders in their respective counties.
Because of this, Thoreson said he’s optimistic state legislation will result, but he’s also fearful of what that legislation might look like. He said, “I don’t want a statewide solution to be more draconian than what we’re dealing with now, meaning we don’t want to make it more difficult and drive more of these individuals underground.”
Attempts to address the question of where sex offenders should live have surfaced at the state level with bills introduced to the state assembly in 2005 and 2009; both pieces of legislation failed to pass. Barrett, who signed the 2014 ordinance, said inaction on the part of state legislators made the Milwaukee residency restrictions necessary.
“These are individuals who have violated state law, are being prosecuted by state district attorneys, are often represented by state public defenders, appear before state judges, are placed in state institutions and, then, at the very end, it’s a local issue? That’s why we need to have a statewide response,” he said.
“We can’t track them”
During the panel discussion, Thoreson dispelled a number of myths when it comes to the perception of sex offenders and their behavior. Among them are that former offenders assault strangers, find victims in public places and never change. In reality, he said, 93 percent of sexual offenders had not previously been convicted of a sex crime, most victims are known to the perpetrator through a friend or acquaintance and treatment rooted in evidence-based principles “can have a pretty significant effect when it comes to reducing recidivism.” Nationwide, only 5.3 percent of sexual offenders re-offend within three years of their release.
But the reality remains: people, especially parents, don’t want a convicted sex offender for a neighbor. “What if a sex offender lived next door? How would you feel?” said 15th District Alderman Russell Stamper after the discussion. “That’s what you’ve got to ask yourself.”
In theory, these ordinances protect children and families by not allowing potentially dangerous individuals easy access to children. In practice, however, a 2007 Minnesota study on sex offender recidivism found, “very little support for the notion that residency restriction laws would lower the incidence of sexual recidivism, particularly among child molesters.” In addition, anecdotal evidence suggested residency restrictions also “limited offender employment prospects, reduced suitable housing opportunities, and threatened the reliability of the sex offender registry by causing more offenders to become homeless.” Restrictions also cause offenders to give fake addresses or change addresses without notifying authorities.
Five units in DOC are responsible for supervising sex offenders. The goal of these units is to prevent additional victimization by focusing on risk reduction based on the individual’s behavior, not his or her offense, according to Peter Marik, one of the five corrections field supervisors for the DOC in Milwaukee. Depending on a particular individual’s level of risk, the DOC uses controls such as GPS (location tracking), polygraph tests and home visits, often at unusual and unscheduled hours, to keep offenders accountable.
Certain factors, including how old the person was when the offense was committed and how many people were victimized, contribute to the assessment of risk. Marik also noted that whether the individual has recently used drugs or alcohol, lost a job or lost a home can increase the risk that a sex offender will reoffend.
Thoreson quoted testimony given before the Wisconsin State Assembly in 2010 by Dr. Anna Salter, one of the nation’s foremost experts on sex offender supervision and treatment, in illustrating this point.
Salter, who also consults with the Wisconsin DOC, said, “My concern with residency restrictions is that both my clinical experience and the research say they put children at more risk, rather than less. They destabilize offenders without offering any protective effect. They, ultimately, reduce the number of sex offenders who are supervised and monitored and increase the number who are unseen, unknown and free from oversight.”
Shepard, whose department has the responsibility of enforcing the residency ordinance, confirmed that the law makes his job “a lot more difficult.” In addition to inflating the number of apparent violations — out of 300 potential violations his department investigated, only 80 of those cases were “truly in violation,” he said — the ordinance makes it almost impossible to track sex offenders, whether they’re on supervision or not, and only gives the appearance of safety.
“Although they’re not there on paper, they’re still there in those areas but we’re unable to see them,” Shepard said.
“Where should they live?”
Murphy said recently a realtor called him on behalf of an individual who was convicted of a sexual offense eight years ago, wondering whether that person was able to buy a home in the city.
“If you look at the map, he could buy a home right next to the airport,” Murphy said, adding that it would depend on the person’s offense.
He noted that everyone is talking about where sex offenders shouldn’t live rather than where they should live. “That question’s not being asked by anybody,” said Murphy.
“I really think that the idea of going back home makes sense,” Thoreson said.
But, if that locality has residency restrictions, it’s likely the individual will end up homeless within that municipality. In fact, Thoreson said DOC has “already had that happen multiple times.” Responding to a question about placing offenders in other states, Thoreson noted that an “interstate compact” among all 50 states outlines the rules, regulations and procedure for transferring sex offenders from their home state. If an offender wants to live in another state, that state has the right to refuse. The interstate agreement came as the result of “heinous and sensational” crimes committed by sex offenders on active supervision in states that were not aware of their presence, he added.
Now that the ordinance has been in effect for some time, Thoreson said the DOC has received letters from inmates who are nearing the end of their sentences expressing apprehension at the prospect of being released with nowhere to go. That’s cause for concern because the six months before release are crucial, said Thoreson, and the DOC wants offenders thinking about what they’re going to do when they’re released so they don’t end up back in prison.
“We don’t want them worrying about where they’re going to sleep, where they’re going to find their next meal,” he said.
Regardless of the intentions, that’s what’s happening. Because of this, Richard Rosa said his brother actually asked the DOC to forgo the “privilege” of finishing his sentence out of prison.
“He wants to stay there because he’s got a bed, he’s got a routine, he’s got food,” said Rosa. “They’re forcing him to come home to live homeless.”
Celia Jackson, a Milwaukee resident and executive director of the International & Intercultural Center at Alverno College, commented that when it comes to talking about sex offenders, race, crime or “a whole host of social issues,” it is fear “that keeps us from having really authentic conversations.”
Jackson questioned whether looking to the state for a solution is the best course of action, suggesting the possibility of cooperation among municipalities in Milwaukee County. Either way, she called on officials to stop “shifting the blame or the responsibility,” adding that we have a responsibility to everyone in our community to find a solution.
She said, “We can just continue to vilify [sex offenders] … but that doesn’t make us safer.”
I say we make the sex offenders have to live next door to murderer’s and drug dealers out in the rural areas, and if they want to come to town they can catch a ride with the local Drunk driver on his or hers way to the bar. Never mind that idea cause no one Knows where the Murderers and drug dealers live, and the drunk drivers are to Busy voting and killing kids.
Don’t worry about Vietnam, the Government says were winning the war there, but if were not we can borrow some of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction just as soon as we find some.
When I hear someone talk about residency restrictions, I have to wonder if their schools have text books.
So you think they should live next door to a murder. Well you may already be living next door to one since there is no registery for murders. You need to learn the facts. As a Retired Police officer who worked with these laws and sex offenders I can tell you that you and your kids have more of a chance of being sexualy assaulted by someone you know then someone on the sex offender registry. As for having a sex offender living next door to me I have no problem living next to one. They do everything they can to stay in compliance, its the people who I do not know their background I fear more. The numbers on this are with me.
sex offenders are scum. This is one crime there isn’t grace from.
While it may not have been your intention to defend sex offenders, I thank you for your comment. My spouse is a former sex offender and on probation. The DOC has given him so many strict rules that we are not even able to live together and we’re married and was married while on extended supervision.
My husband has followed his rules to the best of his ability, but no matter what his probation officer makes things so hard for him that he can hardly move forward. Now, since there are residency restrictions he can’t find a place to live for us and his probation officer can still deny that. I do want to add that he is a low risk offender.
Residency laws simply DO NOT WORK. If even Anna Salter, one of most fanatical victim industry mouthpiece out there says the laws are bad, then the laws are bad.
It’s the hate-filled ignorant that keep these laws going. Look at the comments here and you see the evidence for yourself. I like what the former police officer said. A sex offender you know about makes a much better neighbor than a thief, a drug dealer, a carjacker, etc. that you don’t know about. The thief, the killer, the wife beater, the dope head, etc. are much, much more likely to re-offend than the sex offender.
i think offenders should have housing in aproved areas and have gps bracelets for monetring