Few residents respond to the sex offender registry

5-6-2009 Cayman Islands:

The period allowing for public comment on the draft of Cayman’s new Sex Offender Registry Bill concluded in April with only five people providing a response.

At the beginning of the consultation period, Minister of Health and Human Services Hon Anthony Eden had said, “Through this public consultative process, my ministry welcomes greater collaboration with government and non-government agencies as a means of raising awareness of this social issue that is threatening the stability of our families.”

As to the five people who contributed feedback, the Ministry’s Chief Officer Diane Montoya said, “The responses focus on whether the Registry should be public or private.”

While two respondents felt that it should be made public, another two felt the information should be kept private. Three respondents also questioned whether such a registry would defeat the purpose of rehabilitation, thereby countering reintegration efforts.

“This information will now be used to formulate a policy recommendation to Cabinet for consideration in revising the Bill,” said Ms Montoya, adding that the bill is “unlikely” to come into effect by June.

In the United States, government statistics suggest there are more than 100,000 sex offenders in the population, or one offender for every 3,000 persons. The American government knows this because of a nationwide Sex Offenders Registry, which includes all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The first state to create a sex offender registry was California, in 1948. However, in the last 15 years, due to a series of highly publicised cases involving sex crimes against children, national attention focused on the possible risks that convicted sex offenders can pose to communities when they are released.

The result is that every parent in the US today can go to the National Sex Offenders Registry website, key in their state and town [or zip code] and a list of convicted sex offenders living in their area will immediately appear, complete with physical description, list of conviction dates, their various alias and often a police photo.

The issue of creating a Cayman registry has been discussed and debated for years.

In February of this year, the Sex Offender Registry Bill was ultimately tabled in the Legislative Assembly as a Discussion Draft and provisions were made to allow 60 days of public consultation.

West Bay Police Area Commander and Chief Inspector Angelique Howell became one of the driving forces behind the concept of a local Sex Offender Registry after her experiences of heading the Family Support Unit for two years.

Regardless of the little public comment, Inspector Howell’s position has been made loud and clear. “I am absolutely in support of a Sex Offender Registry. I think it is a must for Cayman,” she said.

She also feels the information shouldn’t be readily available to the public, as is the case in the United States.

Inspector Howell believes that with Cayman’s compact size (“where everyone knows everyone”) there is potential for abuse. “Also, if the names of offenders were available to the public, there is a good possibility that their victims would be revealed, and this is something that we would not want to happen, especially in the case of children,” she said.

“It is important to have a registry which is accessible to the police as well as various government agencies; because I believe for many sex offenders this is a lifelong problem and a permanent challenge for them to overcome. And so in order to safeguard the community, these offenders need to be monitored over a lifetime. But we also need to be aware of their human rights as well. Once a sex offender is convicted and serves their time and is then in therapy, they have some right to privacy,” she said.

She offers a “however” in terms of staffing child-related businesses, such as a child-care facility. In these cases, she said there should be a registry where the public can apply to have the potential employee checked against the sex offenders’ records. Access would be based on a specific request.

“In fact, I believe that there should be two registries, one for sex offenders that have been convicted and another one for what is called ‘people of interest’ relating to various sex crimes or offences … I feel that the public would need to make a formal application to have limited access to these records,” Inspector Howell said. “But for the police, having a registry will be a very good thing, and I’m very optimistic that it will happen.” ..News Source.. by Steven Knipp