There is no easy solution to the problem of urban communities receiving an unfair share of the burden of housing former criminals. That burden is particularly alarming to citizens when those ex-offenders have been guilty of sexual assaults.

The Department of Correction utilizes a program called REACH (Reentry Assisted Community Housing) to provide housing and support services for former convicts making the transition back into the community. While one could argue that it should not be the state's responsibility to provide support for these former criminals, the reality is that without some form of transitional help the probability of the inmates reoffending increases significantly. The cost of putting them back into the judicial system and eventually prison is more expensive.

Another reality is that places like Norwich and New London, where rental housing is more available and affordable, are going to get more placements.

What the state can do is be more transparent about the process, communicate about the oversight and supervision ex-inmates receive, and be sensitive to the fact that at some point a community has done far more than its share and additional housing needs to be found elsewhere.

In a meeting with Norwich officials last week, interim Department of Correction Commissioner Scott Semple promised to do those things. His department, he said, will hold quarterly meetings with city leaders, provide information to Norwich officials when placements are made and more carefully evaluate placements.

The high number of former sex offenders living in their neighborhoods has rightly riled the people of Norwich. About 110 registered sex offenders live in the city of about 40,000 people. Several such former offenders were placed in a house at 152 Broad St. leased for the program, next to a school bus stop.

The threat these individuals pose and their propensity to be repeat offenders is arguably overplayed. In Connecticut, the recidivism rate for sex offenders is among the lowest of all criminals. Yet it takes only one terrible incident by a repeat offender to destroy a life and devastate a community.

Lawmakers should create a tiered sex offender registry that would demarcate the most dangerous predators - those guilty of child sexual assault and violent attacks - from statutory offenses involving consensual but illegal relations between an older teen boy and under-aged teen girl, for example. Such a system could clarify the appropriateness of placement locations and deliniate the threat to the public, rather than lumping all offenders on the same registry list.