NJ- Feds push states to get tougher with sex offender controls

4-7-2009 New Jersey:

License plate numbers, regularly updated photos and workplace addresses of convicted sex offenders will soon be available online as part of a federal initiative to revamp sex offender laws.

The U.S. Department of Justice is pushing states, including New Jersey, to change their laws to comply with guidelines under the federal Sex Offender Registration and Notifica-tion Act, or SORNA, or lose full eligibility for a grant program that covered nearly $4 million of statewide law enforcement costs during 2008.

The federal initiative aims to close loopholes in Megan's Law and is intended as a baseline, so states can choose to adopt stricter guidelines, according to the Department of Justice Web site.

Megan's Law was created in New Jersey after Megan Kanka, a 7-year-old girl from Hamilton Township, Mercer County, was raped and killed in 1994 by her neighbor, a twice-convicted sex offender. It soon was adopted by other states. The law establishes a tier system based on re-offense risk and a tier-based notification process. The law also requires authorities to publish information on certain offenders in a public, searchable Internet database.

(Posted by eAdvocate)

The initiative would change the online component of Megan's Law, including notification and registration of sex offenders. The federal government will provide updated software and fully funded training to enable a new online registry, which will publish more information than is available now under Megan's Law about sex offenders in New Jersey, such as work and school addresses and vehicle license plates and descriptions. The guidelines also require Internet registration for sex offenders convicted of less severe crimes than it does now.

After reviewing the federal guidelines, Atlantic County Prosecutor Ted Housel said Tuesday his office would change its policies according to what state and federal legislators dictate, but expects New Jersey lawmakers to also maintain nondigital notification procedures.

"We do it now pretty effectively, so I see no reason to (change) it, especially because not everyone has (Internet access)," Housel said.

Like other county prosecutors in New Jersey, Housel and his office handle community notification. Whom they notify depends on an offender's tier. Only local law enforcement gets word of Tier I offenders, the least likely to re-offend, while Tier III offenders, who pose the highest recidivism risk, prompt notification to police, schools, neighbors and community groups likely to encounter the offender. Law enforcement officials often send hard-copy notices or go door-to-door for notification warranted for Tier II and III offenders.

New Jersey could opt to continue doing so, despite SORNA not requiring it.

When asked whether the expanded information database could pose a threat to sex offenders themselves, Housel said he has no control over federal mandates and potential abuses of the system. But he said his office would prosecute anything criminal, which now includes cyberstalking.

Housel and his 20 counterparts throughout the state will have at least 15 months to contemplate SORNA and its effect on Megan's Law in New Jersey.

The Department of Justice initially told states the changes had to be made by July, but have since allowed them to apply for extensions until 2010 and, next year, 2011. As of Tuesday, the department agreed to give New Jersey and 22 other states more time, according to the department's Web site.

Peter Aseltine, spokesman for the state Attorney General's Office, declined comment on the pending changes because the office is in the process of determining what needs to happen to implement them. ..News Source.. by EMILY PREVITI Staff Writer