Tennessee bill would shield juvenile sex offenders registry from public

4-10-2011 Tennessee:

In a controversy highlighted by several local cases, Tennessee lawmakers and officials across the nation are debating how to manage minors who commit rape and other violent sex crimes.

This week a Shelby County judge will decide what to do with Memphis' youngest known rapists, ages 7 and 9, who admitted luring a 2-year-old neighbor from her yard in August.

A previous Juvenile Court judge removed the boys from their families over concerns about their home environments. The case is being appealed Wednesday before a new judge.

A 15-year-old is awaiting trial in adult court on charges of raping and beating a 23-month-old girl last summer in Cordova.

The boys were among about 100 juveniles accused of violent sex crimes last year, said Larry Scroggs, the court's chief administrative officer.

"It's very disturbing," he said. "It reflects the environment and what they're exposed to."

Last week, a 14-year-old was charged with sexually assaulting a 2-year-old relative.

Many juvenile offenders first victimize siblings or cousins and later progress to attacking strangers, schoolmates, neighbors or dates, Scroggs said.

For the past few years, state lawmakers have fought over whether residents should have access to the names of these minors.

The debate centers on how to balance the public's right to know -- and protect children from sexual predators -- to a juvenile offender's right to a second chance.

A 2006 federal mandate initially required states to create a juvenile sex offender registry accessible to the public.

Yet, five years later, Tennessee and 45 other states have yet to comply, said Linda M. Baldwin, director of the federal Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering and Tracking (SMART).

Due to the sluggish response, federal officials made the significant concession this year of allowing the registries to be private.

And SMART officials, who are part of the U.S. Department of Justice, extended the deadline until July 27. After that, states not in compliance could lose millions of dollars in federal Byrne grants, dispersed to local law enforcement agencies.

State Sen. Brian Kelsey, R-Germantown, is sponsoring a bill he feels will pass this year due to some major tweaks. He is working on the most significant change -- making the registry private.

That means, unlike the adult registry, the list would be accessible only to police, prosecutors, judges and court officials. Since offenders would have to update their address anytime they moved, it helps police track their movements.

Lawmakers initially debated a public registry, but critics quashed the measure.

Opponents said juveniles and their families would be ostracized at school, church, work and their neighborhoods. Being labeled a "sex offender" could hinder the minor's college and job prospects, said Linda O'Neal, executive director of the Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth.

"For a young person going on a registry, they feel like their lives are ruined," said O'Neal, who lobbied to defeat bills for a public registry.

"For most of them it's not a calculated decision to do this. It happens."

The state's proposed registry would only encompass those age 14 or older who commit or attempt the following violent sex crimes: rape or aggravated rape; rape or aggravated rape of a child, if the victim is at least four years younger; or aggravated sex battery.

Judges would have discretion to keep juveniles off the registry.

The TBI has maintained a similar registry for adult offenders since 1995.

There are currently about 14,000 on the list, including more than 2,000 sex offenders in Shelby County.

Some minors, guilty of the most egregious cases, are already on the registry after they were sent to adult court and convicted as adults. Their names can be viewed by the public.

But most juvenile sex offenders are shielded from public scrutiny.

That's because the state's juvenile code is designed around treatment, not punishment, with a mission to "remove from children committing delinquent acts the taint of criminality and the consequences of criminal behavior and to substitute, therefore, a program of treatment, training and rehabilitation."

Similarly, national juvenile criminal records have long been considered sacrosanct, accessible only to prosecutors, judges, police and others in the criminal justice system.

But one teen, herself a victim of a juvenile sex offender, helped shatter that shield of silence.

Amie Zyla was age 17 in 2006 when she convinced lawmakers in her home state of Wisconsin to pass "Amie's Law," allowing police to notify neighbors if a potentially dangerous juvenile sex offender lives nearby.

Zyla, of Waukesha, Wis., was 8 when she was abused by a 14-year-old, who later went to prison for preying on boys. Zyla thought the boys could have been protected if the community had known of her abuse, said Brad Schimel, Waukesha County district attorney, who prosecuted Zyla's abuser.

Wisconsin already had a juvenile registry, but it initially was kept private.

Zyla's story motivated federal lawmakers to pass the federal mandate.

A key reason to create private registries is that juvenile sex offenders are much more amenable to treatment, compared to adults, said clinical psychologist Sidney Ornduff, who evaluates the Memphis minors.

"Children are not simply little adults," she said. "They're still developing."

With the proper mental health counseling and guidance, most minors are less likely to repeat their inappropriate sexual behavior, whether it's as minor as flashing someone or as serious as rape, said Ornduff, director of Juvenile Court's Clinical Services.

Some studies show the national recidivism rate for adolescent sex offenders who receive treatment as low as 5 to 14 percent, according to the National Center on Sexual Behavior of Youth.

Of 162 Memphis minors accused of sex crimes in 2009, only five -- or 3 percent -- have since committed another sex crime, according to a

Juvenile Court study completed last month.

Tennessee lawmakers will take another vote on the proposed private registry this spring as a last attempt to meet the federal deadline. ..Source.. by Beth Warren