AL- Alabama House completes passage of new sex offender address notice bill

There ought to be a law against electing officials who lack reasonableness, or the ability to see that a proposed law is nothing but stupid! If someone is out of prison even they cannot tell where 2,000 foot markers are so they can rent a proper residence, how the heck are folks in prison going to do it? All squirrels are not in trees. Where is the Alabama ACLU on this?

5-15-2009 Alabama:

MONTGOMERY -- The Alabama House gave final passage Thursday to a bill aimed at easing a burden that the Community Notification Act places on counties where state prisons are located.


The act requires sex offenders to give authorities a residential address that is at least 2,000 feet away from a school, college, university or childcare facility 45 days before their sentence ends.

But when sex offenders leaving prison give an invalid address, they are re-arrested on a felony charge and taken to the jail in the county where the prison is located.

This often has left those counties -- particularly Barbour, St. Clair and Bullock, and Limestone and Escambia to a lesser extent -- with large numbers of sex offenders behind bars, county officials said.

Under the bill approved today, the process for finding a valid address will begin six months before the offender completes his or her sentence and gives them a chance to provide another address if the first is not accepted.

If they're unable to find a valid address or are homeless, the offender would be transferred back to the county where they were sentenced and held in the jail there.

The Association of County Commissions of Alabama has lobbied hard for the changes and Thursday's approval came after two years of trying.

"The legislative process is not always easy but we have some very excited county officials around Alabama right now," Sonny Brasfield of the association, said shortly after the bill passed on a 95-0 vote. It went to Gov. Bob Riley, who is expected to sign it.

When a convicted sex offender serving time at the St. Clair Correctional Facility gave an invalid address several years ago, he was arrested and taken to the county jail for violating the notification act.

He was only there for a short time before he began having serious health problems and ended up needing a heart transplant. Local officials said his medical bills alone cost St. Clair County around $600,000.

That's equivalent to the county's medical budget for all the inmates in a year, commission chairman Stan Batemon said.

"It cost us $600,000 for one man by himself," Batemon said. "We paid it and then we started saying 'Whoa, this is really not right. Something is really wrong with this.'"

State Rep. Blaine Galliher, R-Gadsden, sponsored the bill, which now goes to Gov. Bob Riley to sign into law.

He said the legislation not only eases the burden on counties with state prisons but it also boosts public safety by giving law enforcement more time to truly verify offenders' addresses.

"Forty-five days is just not enough time sometimes for the paperwork to flow and all that to happen," he said. "This is going to help ensure that there's an actual address verification." ..News Source.. by AL.com