The Iowa Civil Liberties Union (ICLU) is suing the state of Iowa to remove the enforced banishment of convicted sex offenders. The banishment prohibits convicted sex offenders from living within a 2,000 foot radius of schools and daycares.

“Saying where a sex offender can sleep is not constitutional,” said R. Ben Stone, executive director of the ICLU.

Stone said he believes Iowa’s Sex Offenders Registry is not constitutional, even though the United States Supreme Court upheld the states’ right to have the registry.

The ICLU challenged the registry because it feels forcing a sex offender to register his or her address is an invasion of privacy, Stone said. The city is allowed to have a press conference to announce a sex offender’s arrival, and with the banishment law, the sex offender is forced into “involuntary civil commitment” he said.

These laws are supposed to be thrown out at the legislative level, but this is too emotionally charged an issue for the legislators to let it be tossed out, Stone said.

Stone said he thought the law was a burden to law enforcement because it requires a staff member to “baby-sit” these offenders.

Sex offenders are also not allowed to sleep in homeless shelters in downtown Des Moines, Stone said.

“[The banishment law] is making sex offenders basically homeless,” Stone said.

Penny Rice, director of the Margaret Sloss Women’s Center, said she disagrees.

“Homeless or not, [these people] have dramatically affected their victims’ lives,” Rice said.

The registry is a nightmare to keep current because it is ineffectual, Stone said. To keep the registry current, the state would have to double or triple its staff.

Stone said people should not completely rely on this list.

“People with children should never assume the government will protect their kids,” Stone said.

Rice said she feels the banishment law is just.

“When an individual has chosen, because of life experiences or any other reason, to sexually offend, especially against minors, I believe that it is constitutionally just to reduce their freedoms,” Rice said. “Because of the nature of the crime and the impact on the victims, [this law] makes the world more right.”

Rice said as the director of the Women’s Center, she is normally supportive of the ICLU’s actions.

“In this case, the civil liberties of the victim outweigh the civil liberties of the criminal,” Rice said.

There is little evidence that having these sex offenders in rehabilitation programs helps prevent repeat offenses, she said.

“Success of treatment for sex offenders is very low,” Rice said. “The likelihood of prior offenders to re-offend is high; therefore, [the sex offenders] should have some restrictions put on them.”