And she thinks the state's laws need to change to better protect victims of sexual assault. So she launched the nonprofit organization Mothers Against Sexual Predators At Large in 2001.
Ogle and her daughter, Lisa Rea, came up with the idea driving home from the sentencing of Dennis Brister, Rea's former husband who spent years molesting one of her young sons.
"The only way you can guarantee safety to the children walking to school is when the sex offender is supervised," Ogle said. "There's a need for change."
From her home up a dirt road five miles outside Potomac, Ogle is reaching out to people all over the country in an attempt to make some changes. Her husband, Jan Ogle, serves as the organization's chief executive officer, and local advocates, such as Missoula clinical psychologist Michael Scolatti, sit on the group's advisory board.
"We don't need prisons full of people who smoked one joint," Ogle said. "We need prisons full of people who hurt other human beings."
While the organization is still developing its education outreach program, Ogle said the group already has some solutions in mind.
"The only certain solution is lifetime supervision within specialized facilities," Ogle said.
The group is advocating for community-based centers in every state to supervise sex offenders after they've served their time. Currently, the only way the state can supervise sex offenders over a long period of time is by giving them long prison and parole sentences.
"I don't agree with lifetime supervision for everybody," said Scolatti, who has worked with sex offenders since 1980. "But it has a good place for some. Research shows the longer someone is supervised, the less chance they have of reoffending."
While recidivism rates for untreated sex offenders can be quite high, Scolatti said treated child molesters reoffend 13 percent of the time and treated rapists reoffend 17 percent of the time.
And one in three inmates at state prison goes through its sexual offender program.
MASPAL advocates are working to secure funding for their cause, and so far Albertsons grocery stores have agreed to donate a portion of shoppers' purchases if they show their MASPAL card. Ogle said she's working is currently working out an arrangement with Wal-Mart.
The group's first educational presentation is scheduled for this summer in Kalispell and Ogle said she just created her first electronic slideshow with PowerPoint. The organization plans to teach people how to search public records and how to use the online sex offender registry, as well as serve as victims' advocates.
The online registry is a searchable computer database that catalogs all of Montana's convicted sex offenders. It can be found at www.doj.state.mt.us. Click on the link to the sexual and violent offender registry.
"There's a need for change," Ogle said. "We all have to become educated about the situation."
