VT- A good start

10-20-2008 Vermont:

The state Senate Judiciary Committee has finished its work on reviewing Vermont's sex offender laws and will be recommending a number of changes to the Legislature in January.

The committee seems to have listened to the concerns of the community following the death of Brooke Bennett in a responsible, thoughtful way. In the immediate aftermath of her death, there was an understandable outcry for ensuring sexual predators cannot reoffend. Gov. James Douglas even pressured the Legislature to hold a snap session to pass a so-called "Jessica's Law" without time to hear what victims, their families and law enforcement had to say.

Instead, Senate President Pro Tem Peter Shumlin called on Bennington Sen. Richard Sears to spend the summer asking for input from those involved with both offenders and victims as well as the general public. Sears, who worked in youth residential programs for 35 years, was endorsed by both parties as an appropriate person to do the job and he and his committee have done well.

Their recommendations include a 25-year maximum sentence for the worst offenders, without tying the hands of prosecutors faced with a weak case. Victims' advocates, prosecutors and police were all concerned that an all-or-nothing minimum sentence would lead to too many innocent verdicts in cases where there was no physical evidence or the victim was unable or unwilling to provide credible evidence. In states that have done research after passage of a Jessica's Law, prosecutors have resorted to offering plea bargains without reference to the sexual nature of the charged offense in order to obey the law and still get convictions on imperfect cases. Rather than solving the problem, it makes it worse, by allowing sex offenders to hide the nature of their crimes and avoid enhanced sentences, special probation restrictions like an offenders' registry, treatment and so on.

Some of the other recommendations are equally important, like ensuring full disclosure of past offences during sentencing; preventing harrowing, even abusive pretrial depositions, described by more than one observer as "fishing trips" for the defense; and funding special investigative units trained to ensure prosecutors get the strongest possible case to take to court from police trained to treat victims with respect.

But the judiciary has only a limited role in the issue. It's crucial that we as a state don't consider the problem solved by passing longer prison sentences, because by definition, punishment follows rather than prevents a crime.

First and most important is to ensure the community is trained in spotting and preventing potential abuse before it happens. That means involving the schools and the human services branches of government in education and prevention programs. The vast majority of sexual abuse happens in homes and other supposedly safe locations at the hands of family members or their trusted associates and follows predictable patterns.

Even if the Legislature passes the harshest possible penalties for convicted sex offenders, if that's all the state does, we will have failed to respond appropriately to the tragedy of Brooke Bennett's death. ..News Source.. Opinion by Rutland Hearld