Texas in final stages to allow some sex offenders to deregister from list

2-6-2011 Texas:

Texas is in the final stages of implementing a new program that will allow some sex offenders to deregister from the lifetime list, after an, as of yet, unspecified amount of time and counseling.

The Council on Sex Offender Treatment will meet Feb. 26 to discuss the final stages of establishing guidelines and protocol to evaluate low-level sex offenders. Once the training for the counselors are in place, a spokesperson said, within months, evaluation specialists will begin seeing potential candidates.

"This is a more common sense approach, we have to balance public safety with a limited amount of funds to ensure the maximum amount of public safety," said Allison Taylor, executive director for the Council on Sex Offender Treatment.

She said about 100 new names a week are added to the sex offenders list and database, and the cost of monitoring and managing the system are becoming untenable.

Taylor said the new program will allow deregistration evaluation specialists to categorize those convicted into risk-levels. By placing offenders in risk levels, she said, the government will be able to monitor those that need it the most, rather than spreading out the limited amount of resources on all offenders equally.

"Do we really need to monitor the 19-year-old convicted of having sex with his underage girlfriend the same way we would monitor a 40-year-old serial rapist, pedophile or murder, for instance," she asked. "We need to target predators and not kids caught in the criminal justice system because of the age of consent."

While Jed Davenport, the director of the Midland Judicial District's Community Supervision and Corrections Department, said it is commendable that the agency is trying to monitor higher-risk offenders more closely, he said he isn't sure allowing lesser-offenders to deregister will help the situation.

Although he said he will need to learn more about the program and meet with the district judges before he could form a complete opinion, but said he believes savings could be found elsewhere than at the expense of the database.

"People are now able to go to the online database to find out where sex offenders live in their neighborhoods and are able to be more careful and vigilant," Davenport said. "It's basically a sense of security, especially around Halloween, when parents and kids will be walking the streets."

But not everyone convicted of a sexual offense will be able to deregister. Anyone convicted of aggravated sexual assault of a child, sexual assault, aggravated kidnapping with intent, burglary with intent, continuous abuse of a child, prohibited sexual conduct or indecency with a child under 13 years old, will be unable to deregister.

Also, offenders must not be convicted of any crime for which imprisonment for more than one year could be imposed during the registration period; offenders must not be convicted of any sexual crimes during registration; the offender must complete all treatment and must have finished all supervised probation or parole.

Typically, the supervised release, probation and parole period for a sexual offender could take around 10 years before completion.

"Once things are put into perspective, like allowing sexters or someone caught in a consensual relationship with someone underage to deregister, while increasing supervision on hardened, serious criminals, people seem to agree," Taylor said. ..Source.. by James Cannon