How Many Sex Offenders Registered In Bridgewater Nj

Joel Pentlarge is seen at his home in Ware. [T&G Staff/Christine Peterson]

WARE – Many of the 23 registered Level 3 sex offenders who live in Ware rent from some other Level 3 sexual activity offender who owns several properties and plans to provide a domicile for other offenders who demand help.

Joel Pentlarge, 67, a disbarred chaser and quondam town official, declined to say how many of his tenants are Level 3 sex offenders, the category considered the highest take chances of reoffending.

"Non enough," he said during a recent interview in a basement flat in his four-unit of measurement circuitous at 14 Park St. that likewise serves as his office. Another Level iii sex offender lists the unit equally his secondary place of residence.

Mr. Pentlarge, a 1968 graduate of Doherty Memorial High Schoolhouse in Worcester, has served on the Ware Conservation Commission, Zoning Board of Appeals and on the board of directors of a local social service bureau. He was imprisoned for three years after pleading guilty in 2000 to the statutory rape of iv boys, ages 12 to fifteen.

When he was released from a prison treatment center in 2006 afterwards a jury adamant he was no longer sexually dangerous, he had a identify to live and owned rental properties. He said well-nigh people who knew about his criminal record treated him cordially.

He resided in Jamaica Plain with a friend for a while because of his sister's concern that people might "burn crosses" on his lawn, he said. But Mr. Pentlarge returned to Ware to be closer to his business of renovating apartments and houses for rental properties.

Upon release, many registered sex offenders say they have a hard fourth dimension finding housing or a job because of their crime and addresses and photos made public through the Massachusetts Sex Offender Registry Board. Mr. Pentlarge, who has advocated for discontinuing the Sex Offender Registry because of its prejudicial furnishings, said that is the master reason he tries to help other Level three offenders.

"I recall members of any grouping that is discriminated against should help each other," he said. "Obviously, if someone is getting out (of prison) and has a safe and secure place to live, hopefully a job, and admission to appropriate services, that substantially reduces their chances of reoffending."

Mr. Pentlarge'due south effort to aid sex offenders was recently in the spotlight when his latest tenant, high-contour child rapist Paul R. Shanley, moved into an apartment that Mr. Pentlarge owns at 31 Pulaski St. Mr. Shanley had been incarcerated for 12 years for repeatedly raping a boy at a Newton parish in the 1980s. The former street priest was at the heart of the Roman Catholic priest sex corruption scandal and was defrocked.

Mr. Pentlarge said some sex offenders accept reached out to him for a place to rent after learning about him and his volunteer work with the Criminal Justice Policy Coalition afterwards his release.

The Boston-based CJPC, created in 1996, works to bring together individuals and organizations concerned about the repercussions of what they see equally the "increasingly retributive nature of criminal justice policy in Massachusetts."

Some of the offenders who rent from Mr. Pentlarge shared cells with him while in prison. Typically, lawyers for sex offenders who are most to exist released contact him.

He said he received a phone phone call several months ago from Eric Tennen, a Boston attorney, who asked if he would be willing to rent to Mr. Shanley. The lawyer, who previously represented Mr. Pentlarge, was retained to argue confronting whatever civil commitment of Mr. Shanley subsequently his prison sentence.

Mr. Shanley, 86, was met here upon release past journalists and local residents, many of whom said they fear for children in the neighborhood. They pointed out that several Level iii and Level 2 sex offenders reside on Pulaski Street.

Co-ordinate to data from the Sexual practice Offender Registry Lath, vii Level 3 sex offenders hire properties owned by Mr. Pentlarge, four of them at 31 and 33 Pulaski St. More a dozen Level 2 sex offenders live in Ware, 4 of them on streets - two on Pulaski Street -where Mr. Pentlarge owns backdrop.

Information about Level 2 sexual activity offenders - accounted to have a moderate take a chance of reoffending - including their addresses - is only available through local police departments. Xiii Level 1 sexual activity offenders also call Ware home. Data about them is non available to the public because of their low-risk of reoffending.

"People ask why are all these sex offenders living on Pulaski Street?" Mr. Pentlarge said. "They'd like to live in Paxton, only they can't afford to. They tin can't get a chore because they're on the Sex Offender Registry. They tin can't even get a job at Walmart or Lowe'due south."

Town Manager Stuart B. Beckley said the number of Level two and Level three sexual practice offenders in boondocks doesn't seem to be a high number.

"If you look at the (Sex Offender) Registry Lath, y'all tin see a variety of offenders in a diverseness of towns," he said. Police Chief Shawn Crevier said he doesn't recall a time when any registered sexual practice offender living in Ware has reoffended. The chief, a lifelong town resident, said he had wondered if in that location was a connection between Mr. Pentlarge and the number of registered sex offenders living in town.

Ware, which has a population of fewer than 10,000 people, has a significantly higher level of registered sexual activity offenders, especially at Level iii, than other communities in the surface area, including Belchertown, Palmer and Ludlow, which take larger populations.

According to the Sexual practice Offender Registry Board, Ware, with a total population of 9,707, has thirteen Level one sex offenders, xvi Level ii sex offenders, and 23 Level iii sex offenders.

Ludlow, which has more than twice the population of Ware, has seven Level 3 sex offenders, roughly a 3rd of the number in Ware.

Mr. Pentlarge said he is committed to not reoffending. The shame and pain that he acquired family, friends and acquaintances is something he never wants to echo, he said. He has apologized to his four victims, he said. Two of them, now adults, visit regularly. He said they had court orders prohibiting contact lifted.

One of his victims went on to be imprisoned twice for raping two girls.

When asked if he thinks what he did led to that, Mr. Pentlarge was quiet and stared into the distance for some time. "I would hope not," he finally said.

Since his release, Mr. Pentlarge has purchased several more than housing units and has washed much of the repair work himself, bringing the properties back to the tax rolls. Personal health problems at present limit the repair work he does.

Mr. Pentlarge has too battled cancer and is at present in remission. In 2010, he was diagnosed with Parkinson's affliction. Considering of his health and a favorable recommendation from probation officials, he successfully petitioned the courtroom to discontinue his lifetime probation.

He said he was surprised by the intensity of the media's interest in Mr. Shanley's release from prison. As the priest moved in, a woman stood exterior his door with a sign that said, "Beware." He was also told of two people throwing garlic at the house where Mr. Shanley at present lives.

"This is a level of hysteria that makes you think nosotros're non that far removed from the witch hunts of Salem," he said.

Some residents have expressed anger that Mr. Shanley is non required to wear an electronic monitoring device. They besides question why he was not interviewed by psychologists who determined that because of his age and major health bug he should not be civilly confined as a sexually dangerous person.

Country Sen. Anne M. Gobi, who heard from constituents on Facebook and other social media about Mr. Shanley's release, said she is likewise concerned that he is not being electronically monitored and that he was non required to meet confront-to-confront with the 2 experts on sex offenders before being released. She said she plans to meet with the Massachusetts Order for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children to talk over legislation she is considering.

"I was appalled that he was able to get out of jail. He but served 12 years," she said. "And the psychologists were not required to interview him. That is something that should be addressed … I'grand sure residency will exist role of" legislation that will be filed.

Ms. Gobi said she'due south also looking at what other states are doing regarding residency requirements for sex offenders.

"If two, 3, five Level iii sex offenders are living in the same building, I retrieve that'southward a problem," Sen. Gobi said.

Felix Browne, spokesman for the state Section of Public Safe, said the Sex Offender Registry law does non give the state board the power to approve where an offender lives. If an offender is paroled, equally opposed to finishing a prison sentence, the probation section may set conditions.

Dozens of communities have implemented residency restrictions on sex activity offenders, banning them from living about parks and schools, with the intention of protecting children. Merely in 2015 the state'due south highest court invalidated the local restrictions because they violated country police.

The sweeping SJC case was based on a 2011 ordinance in Lynn that banned Level ii and Level 3 sex offenders from living inside 1,000 feet of a school or park. The courtroom ruled the Lynn rule effectively banned offenders from nearly all urban center housing. The court also likened the housing restrictions to the country'south internment of Japanese-Americans during Earth War 2 and the removal of Native American tribes from their homelands.

A bill filed by country Rep. Bradley H. Jones Jr., R-North Reading, seeks to prohibit Level three sex activity offenders from residing together unless they are biologically related.

Robert A. Prentky, a psychologist who worked at the state treatment center in Bridgewater for sex offenders civilly committed afterwards beingness deemed sexually dangerous, said restricting where registered sex offenders can alive could exercise more impairment than good.

The forensic psychologist was contracted by the U.South. Department of Justice in 2015 to lead a three-yr pilot program on campus sexual assault predator handling. In a telephone interview final week, he noted that housing restrictions are non imposed on other criminals, including those released from prison for homicide and those with long histories of drug dealings and abuse.

"As long as in that location are housing restrictions that are placed on sex offenders, we create more of a trouble than we solve," said Mr. Prentky, who directs training programs on forensic psychology at Fairleigh Dickenson Academy in New Bailiwick of jersey. "They take to alive somewhere. When housing restrictions are severe and draconian, we cease up with all the sexual activity offenders living under a bridge."

Mr. Prentky, who provided Mr. Pentlarge with counseling after his release, said the likelihood of Mr. Shanley reoffending is decreased because if he were to reoffend, he likely would dice in prison. "The risk to reoffend is inversely related to historic period. The adventure goes down as age goes up," he explained.

Mr. Pentlarge said he understands that parents want to protect their children. Simply focusing on Mr. Shanley or him "isn't remotely close to what they need to exercise." He pointed out that the vast bulk of sex offenses are committed by someone the victim knows - family members, friends and acquaintances.

"It'south basic expert parenting," he advised. "They need to have open up, loving relationships with their children to exist able to discuss candidly with their children what's going on in their children'south lives."