There was a time when citizens knew nothing about sex offenders moving into their neighborhoods. That, of course, was a recipe for disaster. The state's solution was to create sex-offender registration and impose limits on where sex offenders could live and go. This hasn't turned out to be ideal either.

In recent days, a sex offender in Faribault County registered as homeless, reporting to authorities that he was living in the Woods Lake Park area in rural Elmore. Not that long ago in Fairmont, a sex offender called a tent in a park home. Sex offenders living in parks? Doesn't a sex offender lurking in a park epitomize a common fear?

There's another matter to consider. If a sex offender cannot find housing, given restrictions or fear of a neighborhood's response, how desperate is that person going to become? What might they do to go back to prison? Who might they victimize?

We have advocated in the past, and continue to do so now, that a true solution to the issue of sexual predators lies not in monitoring them but in caging them. The state has toughened its sentences against sex criminals over the years, and this has been a good start. But if it is justice we seek, then more must be done. It is wrong to release known predators back into society. Why create an elaborate registration and monitoring system when prison time will suffice?