Chicago, Illinois - Convicted Sex Offenders Have Free And Legal Access To Pornography At Libraries
Dr. Kardasz: For more information about the ongoing problems at our nations public libraries see http://kardasz.org/libraries_preferential_offenders.html
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Chicago, Illinois - Convicted Sex Offenders Have Free And Legal Access To Pornography At Libraries
Dave Savini, 12/21/06, (CBS)
Chicago, Illinois. Most parents don't think twice about sending their kids to the library - but is it really a safe place?
Thirty-three sex crimes were committed at Chicago's Harold Washington Library alone in the last three years, and that's according to library records.
Also disturbing, convicted sex offenders using libraries to access porn, and maybe even to find victims.
CBS 2 Investigator Dave Savini exposes what's going on in "Library Confidential".
"What's occurring at the library is sickening," said Tom Hanson.
Online pornography is so clear and evident at Chicago libraries that we could actually see a patron looking at porn simply by standing on a city street and looking through the window.
When asked what he would say to someone offended by his viewing pornography in such a public way, one library patron said, "I am sorry and I won't do it no more."
But what he did was legal because there are no guidelines against viewing pornography at Chicago libraries.
Even convicted sex offenders can use those computers to access sexually graphic images.
Hanson says earlier this month at the Mount Greenwood library he saw Michael Connelly looking at pornography online.
The 2 Investigators found out Connelly is a registered sex offender, convicted in 2002 for soliciting sex online from someone he thought was a 14-year-old girl.
"It's an issue of protecting our children," Hanson said.
A father who chose to remain anonymous said he agrees.
"He put my daughter on his lap and start[ed] fondling [her]," he said.
Last year his 4-year-old daughter was in the children's section of the Harold Washington Library when registered sex offender Norman Woolfolk sexually abused her. He was later convicted.
Woolfolk and others like him can enter a library at any time.
"It's drawing these people in because they get free access to material," said David Smith of the Illinois Family Institute.
The Illinois Family Institute is a lobbying group that wants sex offenders banned from libraries.
"It's only going to get worse if we don't do something to circumvent it now," Smith said.
In Philadelphia, Brian McCutheon had a history of watching porn and exposing himself at the library.
Then in 2004, in the library bathroom, he tried to rape and nearly killed an 8-year-old girl.
"It's becoming a cesspool for porn and child molesters and sex offenders," Hanson said.
The 2 Investigators obtained three years of internal incident reports from Chicago public libraries.
They reveal sex crimes ranging from flashers to inappropriate touching, and sex acts in bathrooms and men viewing child pornography online.
One-third of the offenses involve people masturbating while at computers.
Other reports include a registered sex offender caught masturbating, another sex offender and his friend trying to take a boy's picture and a man looking at porn while carrying a knife and handcuffs.
"A lot of parents let their children go to the library and do their homework and they have no idea what is going on up there," Hanson said.
Police are called in some cases, but not others.
A couple disrobing in a locked bathroom stall was arrested, but some men caught masturbating in plain sight were simply asked to leave for the day.
"Maybe some people make light of things, but what happens when a child gets abducted and gets killed?" Hanson asked.
We repeatedly tried to get an interview with Chicago Public Library officials. Instead, a spokesperson gave us a statement saying the library policy "... Is to call the Chicago Police Department when anything criminal happens."
Also, when staff members fail to properly handle incidents and don't call Chicago Police, they are retrained.
CBS 2 Investigators talked to registered sex offender Michael Connelly about viewing pornography in a Chicago library. He says what he did was legal.
When state lawmakers are back in session, officials from the City of Naperville will be pushing for a new Illinois law to ban sex offenders from public libraries.
CBS Broadcasting Inc.
Retrieved December 21, 2006 from http://cbs2chicago.com/topstories/local_story_355221218.html