PA- National sex-offender law stalls

9-27-2009 Pennsylvania:

Allegheny lawmaker's 2007 bill to get Pennsylvania on board still languishes.

Twenty-five years after his 6-year-old son Adam was abducted from a Florida shopping mall and later found murdered, John Walsh watched the fruits of his lobbying turn into law.

Joined by other parents across the country who experienced the same anguish, the host of TV's ''America's Most Wanted'' had aggressively campaigned for federal standards that all states could adopt, paving the way for a national registry that could track sex offenders across state lines and for sentencing mandates that would result in stiffer penalties across the board.

But three years after the 2006 law was signed amid great fanfare, it remains ineffective. Only one state, Ohio, has complied with the law.

The other 49 states have been given an extension until July 2010 to adopt the legislation or lose 10 percent of the federal Justice Assistance Grant funding targeted for fighting crime. For Pennsylvania, the loss would amount to about $1.7 million.

State Sen. Jane Orie, R-Allegheny, introduced a bill in 2007 that would require Pennsylvania to implement the law.

''I am grateful that the commonwealth is now working swiftly to [be] one of the first states to step forward and enact the Adam Walsh Child Protection Act,'' Orie said in a news release in November 2007.

There has been little movement on the bill since. It landed last February in the Senate Judiciary Committee, where it has languished.

The law, officially known as the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, creates a national database that will allow law enforcement to track sex offenders when they cross state lines.

It also creates a new three-tiered classification system in which the most heinous offenders -- those who kidnap or sexually molest children -- are required to register for life under Megan's Law and placed in a national sex offender registry. The law requires state, local and federal law enforcement agencies to share information and make details about the worst offenders available on the Internet. Each state also must also be linked to the National Sex Offender Public Registry.

But most of the states, which initially were ordered to adopt the law by July 2009, have to yet to move on it.

California lawmakers have said no to the law, even in the wake of shocking headlines surrounding the case of Phillip Garrido, a sex offender who kidnapped 11-year-old Jaycee Lee Duggard in 1991 and held her captive in his Antioch, Calif., home for 18 years.

Critics in California and Pennsylvania say the law takes away local options, particularly for rehabilitation, and may be too harsh for minors as young as 14 who would be registered for life as a sex offender if convicted of serious sex crimes.

States also are concerned about the cost of implementing the law and its emphasis on punitive penalties.

''There are some controversial parts of it,'' said Rep. Katie True, R-Lancaster, who has served on the House Children and Youth Committee. ''But we need in Pennsylvania to begin having a dialogue about it. It's a priority.''

She said one sticking point is in the treatment of juveniles convicted of sex offenses.

Nationwide there are roughly 647,000 people listed on state sex offender registries, but permanently listing children as young as 14 under the Adam Walsh Act has unnerved many.

Beth Swift, the chief juvenile probation officer for Lehigh County, said one of the concerns about the law is that it doesn't allow for the rehabilitation children.

''Certainly the [law] is debatable,'' said Swift. ''We do an excellent job of containment of sex offenders and believe in keeping them in placement as long as needed and having strong after-care placement.''

Swift said there are about 20 juvenile sex offenders in Lehigh County, of which only a handful would meet the most serious ''Tier 3'' designation.

''Tier 1'' and ''Tier 2'' are for lesser sex crimes.

Robert J. Stanzione, Bucks County's chief of juvenile probation, was part of a county group that reviewed the legislation for potential consequences, particularly where they applied to juveniles.

Under the law, Stanzione said more than 100 of the roughly 140 juvenile sex offenders in Bucks County would be prosecuted as Tier 3 violators and, if convicted, would be registered for life as sex offenders. The majority of the acts committed by juveniles there, said Stanzione, involved sex with another minor at least four years younger, which is a Tier 3 offense under the law.

''Because of that gap, it ends up being a potential lifetime registration as a sex offender, and that's a scary thing,'' said Stanzione. ''Most research shows most of these kids, at least 80 percent, don't commit the same crime again. That's not the case when you're an adult offender, but there's potential to turn around an adolescent.''

Stanzione said there's plenty of support among juvenile professionals, including the state juvenile court judges, to lobby against passage of the law in Pennsylvania unless changes are made.

''The other side of the coin is we have an obligation to protect the community,'' said Stanzione. ''But I won't support [the law] until the lifetime registration for juveniles is re-evaluated.''

Juveniles aside, other law enforcement officials say they would support the law.

Lehigh County District Attorney Jim Martin said he supports the idea of a national sex offender registry.

''We have a very mobile society these days and sex offenders move from place to place and it would be useful for law enforcement to track them easily through a registry,'' he said.

The state District Attorneys Association voted earlier this year to support the law, he said. ..Source.. by Matt Birkbeck OF THE MORNING CALL