Legislators look to toughen sex-offender laws
8-1-2007 Rhode Island:
PROVIDENCE — State leaders have begun to craft a series of laws aimed at dramatically strengthening the state’s sex-offender tracking and notification requirements.
The possible changes — many required by the passage of the federal Adam Walsh Child Protection Safety Act — would in some cases require convicts as young as 14 to register as sex offenders for life, would require the public posting of the offenders’ home and employment addresses, and would be applied retroactively, forcing the registration of hundreds of sex offenders not currently monitored by Rhode Island authorities.
The state may lose as much as $280,000 in federal grants should it fail to implement the federal guidelines in the next two years.
The proposals were discussed at the State House yesterday afternoon by a special commission assembled to study the state’s sex-offender laws and propose changes in the coming General Assembly session. The commission, led by co-chairs Sen. James E. Doyle II, D-Pawtucket, and Rep. Peter G. Palumbo, D-Cranston, consists of a coalition of sex-offender experts, including judges, parole officials, defense attorneys and sexual-abuse education leaders.
“We want everybody on board when we present this legislation,” Doyle said. “The bottom line is to protect the kids. We don’t really care about money. If it’s going to cost, we’re going to find the money to protect kids. And we’ve got the right people to do it.”
Doyle and Palumbo were the prime sponsors of a 2006 law that requires lifetime monitoring of those convicted of first-degree child molestation through the use of an electronic device or global positioning software.
Officials gathered at the State House yesterday noted that the law has yet to be tested, as it only applied to those convicted and released from prison after Jan. 1 of this year. And Doyle acknowledged that the necessary infrastructure isn’t in place to enforce the law.
There are roughly 1,600 registered sex offenders living in Rhode Island. Most are monitored by probation counselors, each of whom is charged with making periodic visits — some by surprise and some by appointment — to as many as 80 offenders.
Most of the offenders do not appear on the state sex-offender Web site ( www.paroleboard.ri.gov). Only those deemed by the Superior Court to have a moderate to high risk of recidivism (135 offenders as of last night) are listed by name. Each posting includes a photo, birth date, physical description, and the specific crime committed.
The sex offender’s community is listed, as is his or her general neighborhood, but the specific home address is not.
“I want to get a lot more aggressive on that,” Palumbo said. “The number-one thing that constituents want, they want to go to a Web site and see where they’re living.”
The federal Adam Walsh Act of 2006 would require states to do just that and more, forcing authorities to publicly post the offenders’ home addresses, their job locations, and their license plate numbers, according to Alan Goulart, chief of the criminal division in the attorney general’s office, who briefed the commission yesterday. The federal act also requires states to collect information from offenders including DNA to be supplied to a national sex-offender registry.
Rhode Island does not have to adopt all the standards outlined in the federal statute.
But any state failing to adopt the provisions by July 2009 would lose 10 percent of its law-enforcement assistance grants, an estimated loss of about $280,000 for Rhode Island. Several commission members expressed a willingness to forgo the federal money to avoid passing the more controversial sections of the federal law.
They include a provision to implement tougher reporting and monitoring requirements retroactively, something that Superior Court Judge Joseph A. Keough warned may open “a floodgate” for the courts from offenders seeking post-conviction relief, having already settled on a specific set of probation requirements.
“I deal with them on a daily basis. I’m offended by what they do. But there are due-process rights,” Keough said.
And several members of the group were bothered by the suggestion that juvenile offenders may be required to have their photos and addresses posted on a public Web site for the rest of their lives.
“The question is not only whether or not the state can accomplish these goals, but whether or not they are the right goals to be accomplished,” said defense attorney Thomas G. Briody, also a member of the commission. “It’s something we need to take a very careful look at. We’re still talking about human beings.”
The federal law also calls on states to require those convicted of sex-related misdemeanors, such as indecent exposure or possession of child pornography, to register as sex offenders. Such people are currently exempt from Rhode Island’s registration laws.
Steven Brown, executive director of the Rhode Island affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union, said there’s no need to strengthen the state’s laws. Besides encouraging citizens to go after offenders and impeding their rehabilitation efforts, the stricter reporting requirements would give communities a false sense of security, he said.
“The suggestion is if we know the sex offenders in the neighborhoods, our kids are safe. That’s simply not true,” Brown said. “Despite what prompts these laws, the overwhelming number of crimes are committed by family members.”
He said an ACLU representative would likely attend future meetings of the commission, as the group shapes a specific proposal in the coming months. ..more.. by Steve Peoples
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