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"No Candy" From MD Sex Offenders This Halloween

October 26, 2009
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The 2008 Halloween Watch Program sign. This year's sign will not include the pumpkin.
Rebecca Sheir
The 2008 Halloween Watch Program sign. This year's sign will not include the pumpkin.

For the fourth year, more than 1,000 doors in Maryland will be off-limits to trick-or-treaters this Halloween. Last month, the state's Division of Parole and Probation sent a letter to 12-hundred sex offenders restricted from contact with minors.

Patrick McGee is the Division's director. "We ask the offender to turn the lights off, put a "no candy" sign in their window to reduce the threat or the anxiety for Halloween."

McGee says offenders who do not comply could go to court for violating their parole or probation.

Maryland is one of several states with a Halloween Watch Program. The American Civil Liberties Union is challenging Missouri's statute, since it also applies to offenders who already have finished their sentences.The Maryland ACLU declined to comment for this story.

Rebecca Sheir reports...

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