Child-safety act not necessarily worth the added costs

2-20-2010 Arizona:

One of the highest priorities for me as a state lawmaker is to keep the people of my district and the state safe. Arizona has been a leader in tracking convicted sex offenders and has provided a simple-to-use public Web site so citizens can see where offenders released to the community are living.

In 2006, Congress passed the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act to protect children from sexual exploitation and violent crime, to prevent child abuse and child pornography and to promote Internet safety. The goals of the act are noble, but it is questionable whether the new requirements contained in it will make Arizonans safer. Also, the costs of putting in place all phases will be millions of dollars during a time of financial crisis in our state.

The federal government required states to comply with the act's provisions by July 2009. To give you an idea of the struggle going on across the country, only one state has complied. Arizona is one of 49 states not in compliance and is making plans for a second extension, to comply by July 2011.

A major component of the Adam Walsh Act is the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act It requires major policy changes to state laws, with a significant fiscal impact. Here in Arizona, we have 14,500 registered sex offenders. The state Department of Public Safety handles the address-verification and sex-offender Web site at a cost of $1.1 million annually. With new requirements in the Registration and Notification Act, those costs to the taxpayer would soar, with limited evidence the public would be safer.

Some examples of the changes? Arizona requires that the offender register in the jurisdiction of his residence. The Registration and Notification Act requires registration in the jurisdiction of his conviction, incarceration, residence, employment and school attendance, potentially five separate registrations.

Requiring that registrants register "where they were convicted" is confusing and even be absurd. Once a person is convicted -and registers- then they can never move because, if they do, then they must always return to where they were convicted for any changes. Further, many are sent to prison and released elsewhere, the law requires them to return to where they were convicted, register, then go back to where they were living, register, etc. At times the law can be an ass!

The Registration and Notification Act also requires:

• Offenders to appear in person as often as once every three months for verification.

• All registration information available in digitized format.

• Registration for all registered offenders, not just the most serious Level 2 and 3 offenders.

• Palm prints. Software alone for this one requirement would cost Arizona nearly half a million dollars.

Overall, implementation of all the new requirements would climb into the millions of dollars.

Last year, the Arizona Legislature passed Senate Bill 1011, which established the Registration and Notification Act study committee, to examine the implementation of this portion of the Adam Walsh Act.

Legislators made up just a small part of the committee. Members included law enforcement, the courts, Department of Public Safety, Department of Corrections, psychologists and civic organizations.

We looked at the effectiveness of the current sex-offender laws in Arizona, the standards set by the act, and the impact of adopting the federal standards. We submitted for an extension until 2011 for implementation and will not face the loss of 10 percent of the state's allocated Byrne Grant money. We remain committed to making sure the public is safe and that we are responsible with your money. ..Source.. Linda Gray