NCR Today

I really appreciate the thoughtful responses to my essay about Arthur. That brief bit took me about three weeks to write and I am grateful that you have read it so carefully. Your cautions to me about Arthur’s life as well as your recognition of his lack of opportunities and of his story in others you know are all important elements of the conversation.

In Missouri today there are 13,000 persons on the sex offender Internet list. They cannot live within 1,000 feet of schools, day care centers and parks. They must register quarterly and on their birthday, taking time off work to do this. Their work places are listed on the registry, making many employers reluctant to hire them and be listed on the Internet themselves.

Additionally, almost 700 persons are held in civil commitment. They served their full sentences and then they were taken to court by a team of prosecutors who only do this work. They have been adjudicated as a threat to public safety and they receive therapy and remain confined. I think three have been released since the program was begun some years ago.

The HBO documentary "Mann v. Ford" premieres tonight, Monday, at 9 p.m. EST.

When I lived in Staten Island, N.Y., in the 1970s, I remember waking up many mornings, breathing deeply, and saying to the other nuns, "Ah, smell New Jersey." Of course, the Staten Island landfill took over the airways in the early 1990s when I lived in Staten Island once again. By then, the slaughterhouse in Elizabeth, N.J., at the end of the Goethals Bridge was closed, and the refineries did something to at least make the unbearable heavy smell of chemicals diminish so we could breathe New York's garbage.

As Congress remains in an agonizing deadlock over the budget and politicians sling sound bites about cuts to entitlements, smaller news outlets are looking at the impact of Welfare Reform nearly 15 years after President Clinton signed into law the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act.

Thirteen.org, the Web site for New York City's PBS station, looks at "5 ways New Yorkers say welfare policies fail them." In article "Even Entrepreneurs Need Food Stamps," the newspaper City Limits offers an in depth look at the complexities of receiving entitlement benefits.