{"id":420939,"date":"2025-12-03T03:34:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T03:34:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/420939\/"},"modified":"2025-12-03T03:34:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T03:34:13","slug":"experts-seek-to-fix-reactive-sex-offender-system-in-arizona","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/420939\/","title":{"rendered":"Experts seek to fix ‘reactive’ sex offender system in Arizona"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

PHOENIX<\/strong> – With the start of the 2026 Arizona legislative session less than six weeks away, one topic already being discussed for legislative scrutiny is the current system for managing sex offenders.<\/p>\n

Steps are already underway at the state level to examine Arizona\u2019s system for sex offender registration and supervision. A key challenge cited by experts is the lack of uniformity in regulations across the state.<\/p>\n

What they’re saying:<\/p>\n

“Probation in Arizona used to be proactive; it’s very reactive these days, so I hope we can get back to a proactive approach,” said Beth Goulden, chair of the Arizona Sex Offender Management Board<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

After recent headlines circulated regarding alleged crimes by sex offenders<\/strong><\/a> who failed to register in Arizona, probation reform advocates are speaking out about ways the system has fallen behind.<\/p>\n

“Supervision, especially with sex offenders who are on supervision, can be very difficult, and that’s a very unique, specialized field, and it needs to be treated as such,” Goulden said. “Several years ago they approved phone contact as contacts, even for sex cases. I have concerns about that.”<\/p>\n

Goulden is chairing a new board formed from legislation brought forth by state Sen. Shawna Bollick. The board is tasked with standardizing practices related to sex offender oversight.<\/p>\n

Retired FBI Special Agent Lance Leising said he hopes the board will focus on creating statutes that are easier to follow and uniform.<\/p>\n

“The fact that every county in Arizona has different regulations confuses everybody; it confuses law enforcement, but it definitely confuses those who have to register so that should be changed, it should be consistent,” Leising said.<\/p>\n

\u2018Protecting our children is a worthy cause \u2026\u2019 <\/p>\n

Leising pointed out that the volume of sex offenders in Arizona’s registry\u2014more than 12,000 currently listed\u2014creates complexities, especially when counties use different risk categorizations.<\/p>\n

“One department has them at high risk, another department has them at moderate risk. They might only have time to go to the high-risk sex offenders to verify them,” he said.<\/p>\n

Goulden noted the board is also hoping for transparency on cases currently under investigation. Leising added that the board’s work “will only make communities safer.”<\/p>\n

“Protecting our children is a worthy cause to put some legislative work and some community activism behind,” Leising said.<\/p>\n

Goulden also stressed that the success rate for probation should not simply be completing a probation period but rather not reoffending. The board\u2019s goals include standardizing not just monitoring, but also treatment for offenders.<\/p>\n

Crime and Public Safety<\/a>Phoenix<\/a>News<\/a>Arizona Politics<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHOENIX – With the start of the 2026 Arizona legislative session less than six weeks away, one topic…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":420940,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5131],"tags":[5229,5643,1587,37069,6082,1588,50,1589,80,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-420939","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-phoenix","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-arizona","10":"tag-az","11":"tag-az-politics","12":"tag-crime-publicsafety","13":"tag-maricopa-county","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-phoenix","16":"tag-politics","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-united-states-of-america","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","21":"tag-us","22":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115653539767813937","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=420939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/420940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=420939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=420939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=420939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}