Syracuse, New York (WSYR-TV) - As kids head out to trick-or-treat, parole officers across New York State will make sure that registered sex offenders stay far away from them.
The Division of Parole enforces special conditions on Halloween. Parole officers make phone calls, do surveillance, and show up at sex offenders’ homes unannounced to ensure they're following a set of rules they were required to sign.
The special conditions require sex offenders to:
- Remain in their homes from noon until 7 a.m. Saturday morning
- Keep their porch lights off, and not answer the door for any kids out trick-or-treating
- They're not allowed to dress up or decorate their homes in ways that would attract trick-or-treaters
- Neither the sex offender nor his or her family is allowed to pass out candy to children
Gerald E. Donahue, Bureau Chief for New York State Parole, “If they violate the rules, what will happen is they'll go back to prison. So it's an important thing and I believe this detail really does make people safer.”
Donahue said last Halloween they made no arrests.
When you search the registry, the family watchdog website, you find hundreds of sex offenders living in central New York, but most of them aren't on parole, so the special conditions don't apply to them.
As for who the rules do apply to, in the area that the Syracuse bureau covers there are:
- 50 registered sex offenders on parole in Onondaga County
- 12 registered sex offenders on parole in Oswego County
- 8 registered sex offenders on parole in Cortland County
- In Seneca and Cayuga counties combined there are a total of 11 registered sex offenders on parole
While that may seem like a relatively small number, the goal in setting these conditions for those sex offenders is quite large, to keep you and your family safe, and to keep the sex offender from re-offending.
“For some of our sex offenders, this is an important thing to do. A lot of them are offenders because they lack self control about certain things,” Donahue said.
