SD- Where is sex-offender committee headed?

Those folks that showed up and testified need to keep feeding lawmakers with statistics and show other damage caused by registries; use my blogs for source material, esp. the murder blog.

8-20-2009 South Dakota:

The Legislature’s interim committee studying South Dakota’s sex-offender registry has informally decided to meet four times rather than the original plan for three. The panel, chaired by Sen. Gene Abdallah, R-Sioux Falls, needs the additional meeting so that the members can attempt to determine what they want to recommend to the full Legislature. Right now, the committee’s direction remains murky, with more ideas than an octopus could hold.

One key point, as Rep. Rich Engels, D-Hartford, reminded the panel is that South Dakota’s sex-offender registry law isn’t synchronized with federal law. South Dakota requires enrollment for offenses committed at age 15 and older, but the federal Adam Walsh Act sets the minimum age at 14. There are other differences which South Dakota also likely needs to rectify by July 26, 2010, or face a 10 percent loss of some federal anti-crime funding known as Byrne grants.

But much of the committee’s second meeting, which was held Tuesday, focused on the stories of offenders and their relatives who testified that being listed on the sex-crimes registry is an injustice that continues to damage them and their families years later. Many of the stories involved sexual acts between teens younger than 16 and older teen-aged or adult males.

“I think this committee is at a fork in the road,” is how Reuben Bezpaletz, the Legislative Research Council staff member assigned to assist the panel, tactfully described the situation when the public testimony wrapped up Tuesday. Bezpaletz suggested that the next meeting, now set for Monday, Sept. 21, be used by the committee to review approximately nine possible pieces of legislation, still to be drafted. After the Sept. 21 discussions, he said, a fourth meeting could then be used to reach consensus on what the committee will formally recommend to the full Legislature for consideration in the 2010 session.

One group whose voices haven’t been heard yet is victims and their families. Another group is the citizens who use the South Dakota registry to keep track of who’s living in their communities and neighborhoods. ..Source.. by Bob Mercer