Proposed Juvenile Sex Offender Registry Now Targets “High Risk”

3-17-2010 Tennessee:

A controversial bill to create a registry for violent juvenile sex offenders was approved by the Judiciary Committee in the Tennessee House of Representatives Tuesday. The measure now targets juvenile offenders considered “high risk.”

The proposal, by Hendersonville Republican Debra Maggart, creates a registry that parallels a similar public listing for adult sex offenders. The legislation was amended to publish only the names of juveniles who are considered high-risk by mental health treatment professionals.

Maggart says the bill is better with the changes.

“We are distilling down… we are just trying to find out if we can put the most violent juvenile sex offenders – we just want them, we don’t want the ones the mental health people believe can be rehabilitated. We just … want the ones that are a menace to society.”

Maggart says mental health workers who originally opposed the bill helped craft the amendment. Under the new language, a juvenile who meets all the treatment requirements and is considered at low risk to re-offend can apply to be taken off the public list.

If the bill, as now worded, meets the requirements of the federal “Adam Walsh” act, named after a juvenile victim, the state may qualify for about $5 million it would otherwise have forfeited.

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The bill is HB 2789 Maggart/SB 2725 Black.

Dr. Tara Khun of Vanderbilt University assured lawmakers that the decision of who is high-risk, who is low-risk, can be made reliably.

“We’re really good at telling you who the low risk kids are and we’re really good at telling you may be who the high risk kids are but those kids who are in that moderate-high, low-high risk, those are the ones that are more difficult to capture, and so there’s an error rate in the way the assessment is done.”

Maggart credited the mental health workers for help in making the bill more palatable.

“With the help of the mental health professionals – they helped me figure out a way to get as few kids on there, because I know people want kids to have another chance.”

..Source.. Joe White

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MI- State appeals court limits sex offender registry

Read the decision:

11-4-2009 Michigan:

In what may be an important precedent, the Michigan Court of Appeals has ruled that a man arrested for a so-called “Romeo and Juliet” relationship cannot be listed on the state’s sex offender registry because doing so would constitute cruel and unusual punishment.

The defendant, Robert Dipiazza, was arrested and convicted of having a consensual sexual relationship with a girl who was nearly 15 when he had just turned 18. The girl’s parents knew of and approved of the relationship, but Dipiazza was nonetheless charged after one of the girl’s teachers turned him in to police after she found out about the relationship.

The law under which Dipiazza was convicted allowed for youthful offenders to complete a probationary period and then have the offense wiped from their record without a conviction. He completed that probation without incident and in 2005, the charges were dismissed without conviction. Still, he was required then to go on to the state’s registered sex offender list because of an arbitrary deadline in a state law governing the sex offender list.

The Michigan Sex Offenders Registration Act was amended in 2004 to the effect that for those convicted as youthful offenders, only those who failed to complete the probationary period had to be put on the registry. But Dipiazza was convicted on Aug. 29 of that year; had he been convicted a mere five weeks later, he would not have been placed on the registry because he completed the probation and the charges and conviction were then dismissed.

The trial court ruled that being required to go on the sex offender list did not constitute cruel and unusual punishment because the registry requirement is not punishment at all. The court did, however, reduce the amount of time the defendant had to be on the list from 25 years to ten years. The appeals court overturned that ruling, agreeing with defendant that the law, as applied in this particular circumstance, constituted cruel and unusual punishment and ordering the trial court to have him removed from the sex offender registry.

The court ruled:

Here, the circumstances of the offense are not very grave. Defendant was 18 years old and in a consensual sexual relationship with a teen who was almost 15 years old. The teen’s parents knew of the relationship and condoned it. This teen is the same person defendant married five years later. The gravity of the offense does not change regardless of the date on which the assignment to youthful trainee status occurred.

The penalty in this case, however, has been harsh. Defendant is being required to register as a sex offender for ten years. He receives the social stigma of being labeled as a sex offender and the social stigma of being “convicted” of a crime even though he successfully completed his status as youthful trainee and the court dismissed the proceedings. As a result of registering as a sex offender, defendant has been unable to find employment and, in fact, lost two jobs after it was discovered that his name is on the sex offender registry. He is depressed and, although he finally married Trowbridge, the opportunity to marry and pursue happiness was withheld from him because of his inability to find employment as a result of being labeled a convicted sex offender. Given the circumstances of this case, the offense that defendant committed was not very grave, but the penalty has been very harsh.

With regard to a comparison of the penalty to penalties for other crimes in this state, defendant would not have had to register as a sex offender had he been assigned to youthful trainee status approximately one month later than he was. Defendant is required to register as a sex offender along with rapists and pedophiles. The PSOR does not provide a description of an offender’s offense. Thus, individuals viewing the PSOR are unable to determine whether a person who is registered is a rapist, a pedophile, or just a person who engaged in consensual sexual activity with a teen…

Also, it is abundantly clear that there is no goal of rehabilitation in this case. Defendant never posed a danger to the public or a danger of reoffending. Defendant is not a sexual predator, nor did the trial court deem him to be. Further, even if defendant needed rehabilitation, SORA’s labeling him to be a convicted sex offender works at an opposite purpose, preventing defendant from securing employment and otherwise moving forward with his life plans.

Consequently, after considering the gravity of the offense, the harshness of the penalty, a comparison of the penalty to penalties imposed for the same offense in other states, and the goal of rehabilitation, we conclude that requiring defendant to register as a sex offender for ten years is cruel or unusual punishment.

It’s obviously a victory for Dipiazza and defendants who are similarly situated; it sounds to me like a victory for reason as well. ..Source.. by Ed Brayton

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Md. pulls young sex offenders from residential center

10-19-2009 Maryland:

Juvenile sex offenders will no longer be allowed to live at a residential treatment center in Rockville, a state agency ruled after neighbors said they felt unsafe in their own community.

The state Department of Juvenile Services ordered Karma Academy, a 13-bed treatment facility, to remove any sex offenders it is treating by next month.

Neighbors of the facility complained to elected officials after three teenagers escaped in September. Neighbors said they were concerned about a perceived lack of security and supervision at the facility and the fact they hadn't previously been told that convicted sex offenders were housed there.

"It seems more a question of when versus if something really unfortunate will occur," neighbor Nick Abid wrote in a letter to lawmakers.

Roger Larson, chief executive officer of Karma's parent company, said the company has housed sex offenders at the same facility for 22 years without "any issues." He said the sex offenders at Karma were non-predatory and were deemed by the state not to be a danger to society.

But state Del. Luiz Simmons, who lives a short walk from Karma, said, "You would have to suspend disbelief" to think that having sex offenders of any type living within easy access of potential victims wasn't dangerous.

Fear mongering, lawmakers have done a great job of whipping the public into a frenzy over the words "sex offender," while also telling the public "certain sex offenders are not a danger." The public now sees only "danger" attached to anyone on the registry! Reality now is, that every RSO -regardless of any classification- lives a life of denials at every turn.

"The community should have known about this," he said.

Rockville police said they have received 38 calls from Karma about missing residents in the last 16 months.

Simmons called that figure "very disquieting" and said Karma's problems illustrate the Department of Juvenile Services' long history of a "systemic deficit of the practices and procedures."

A spokeswoman for the department could not be reached for comment.

In July, the Attorney General's Office released a report outlining widespread problems at Victor Cullen Center, a secure facility in Frederick County for troubled youth where 14 youths escaped after several inmates took over part of the center and attacked and injured the staff in May.

The center is supposed to be the highest-security juvenile detention center in the state.

Last year, the Attorney General's Office also highlighted poor security and a lack of staff supervision at the Cheltenham Youth Center in Prince George's County. ..Source.. by Alan Suderman, Examiner Staff Writer

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CA- Group opposes sex-offender registry for youths

10-19-2009 California:

Legislation that requires states to publish the names and photos of minors who have been convicted of sex-related offenses in a nationwide public registry is being discouraged by a Washington, D.C.-based group.

Some states already include minors as young as 14 in their own statewide sex-offender registries, but legislation known as the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006 is calling for all states to take up the practice for a national registry.

States that don't comply with the act risk a decrease in federal criminal justice funding. Yet, only one state and one tribe have complied completely since Congress the act became law in 2006.

Local lawyers see a problem with lumping minors with adults in a public sex offender registry.

"We're still hoping that part of the act doesn't get passed," said Chris Gardner, chief deputy public defender in San Bernardino County's Human Services Division.

Research does not support the stance that a minor convicted as a sex offender is going to do the same thing as an adult, Gardner said. Studies show the opposite, and the vast majority of kids don't reoffend, he said.

"If a kid's crime is tried in Juvenile Court, where the idea is rehabilitation, it doesn't make sense for there to be any kind of long-standing history or sex registry," Gardner said.

Justice Policy Institute recently reissued a report that details the harm that public registries have on minors, a demographic where criminal justice usually aims for rehabilitation.

"It's extremely detrimental to the youth," said Nastassia Walsh, a research associate at JPI. "It isn't proven to improve community safety at all. It can really harm a kid's chances of having a `normal life."'

Being named on a registry can hinder a child's access to rehabilitative services. They would likely be shunned by peers and ostracized at church, said Walsh, who has no relation to the person for whom the legislation was named.

Adam Walsh, the 6-year-old son of John and Reve Walsh, was abducted in 1981 from a Florida department store and found murdered 16 days later. Adam's parents have since become advocates for missing children and have taken up the fight to end child exploitation.

John Walsh is the host of the long-running TV show "America's Most Wanted."

In addition to strengthening sex-offender registries, the sweeping Adam Walsh Act plugged loopholes in current federal laws and increased prison terms. So far, only one state - Ohio - and a tribe in Washington have completely complied.

Other states have cited numerous reasons for not complying, including the cost and the need for more equipment, resources and personnel. A Congressional Budget Office analysis from December 2005 reported the act to cost $1.5billion to enact between 2006 and 2011.

Besides cost, California cited other reasons for not complying with the act: statutory barriers, juvenile privacy issues and constitutional privacy protections, according to an April survey conducted by SEARCH, a national consortium for justice information and statistics.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which is behind the Adam Walsh Act, estimates there were about 670,000 registered sex offenders in the United States. But about 100,000 are lost in the system.

"In order to help protect our nation's children, we must improve our current registration system so that we know where all of the convicted sex offenders are," said NCMEC's president and CEO, Ernie Allen, in a March presentation to the House Judiciary Committee.

Allen was unavailable to be interviewed about adding minors to sex-offender registries.

Prosecutors say only a limited number of sex-related juvenile crimes in California even qualify for a stay in the Department of Juvenile Justice and publishing in a public registry.

Karen Bell, a deputy district attorney who handles juvenile offenses in San Bernardino County, said she didn't anticipate there would be much support in the state for the labeling of minors through a public registry.

"I think the reaction of that of the Legislature of California, and certainly the bench and the bar would be very much against it," Bell said. ..Source.. by Mike Cruz, Staff Writer

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MI- Registered for life

10-9-2009 Michigan:

There’s no question that sexual assault is wrong. But, like other crimes, punishment shouldn’t mean the end of the offenders’ lives. Highlighting this issue is the case of a Washtenaw County teenager who’s fighting to remain off the state sex offender list for a crime he committed when he was 15 years old. State laws that require long-term registration on the sex offender list even after incarceration and parole create a social stigma around these people that ruins their lives. Michigan and other states should reevaluate their laws on sex offenses and work toward rehabilitating offenders rather than permanently ostracizing them.

Three years ago, a then-15-year-old Washtenaw County male was convicted of second-degree sexual misconduct after he grabbed a female classmate and touched her breast. The male was put on probation for 18 months, required to complete a sex offender rehabilitation program, avoid contact with the victim and register his name with a nonpublic sex offender registry for juvenile offenders. At the age of 18, he was legally obligated to reregister on a public adult sex offender list for the next 22 years. But his lawyer was able to successfully petition Family Division Judge Darlene O’Brien to keep his name off the public registry. O’Brien determined that 22 years of registration for the relatively mild offense qualified as “cruel and unusual punishment.” Washtenaw County prosecutors are appealing the decision.


This case aptly demonstrates why the sex offender registry is deeply flawed. This teenager may have committed a crime, but not one that’s memory should be shackled to him for much of his adult life. And some even less notable crimes — like public urination and streaking — can also land people on the list for 25 years. Such strict penalties for less serious crimes are patently absurd.

But having one’s name placed on a public sex offender registry is an unfair burden for more serious offenders, too, and often prevents their successful re-entrance to society. Being placed on a registry constrains the ability of sex offenders to find jobs or places to live. Last winter, a Michigan homeless man froze to death because the law prevented him, as a sex offender, from staying at local shelters. According to mlive.com, the local shelters also housed women and children, which means homeless sex offenders can't use them (Man found dead in cold was turned away from shelters in past because he was sex offender, 01/28/2009).

A more extreme example is Florida, where the law requires convicted sex offenders to live at least 2,500 feet from public places where children gather. On Aug. 5, the Economist reported that due to limited housing options in Miami and the 2,500 feet law, many sex offenders have no choice but to live together under a bridge. The fact that sex offenders are unable to find a home in Michigan and nationwide is a tragic failing of the law.

The goal of the corrections system should be to prepare offenders for reintegration into society, not continue to punish them by removing them from society forever. Instead of prohibiting sex offenders from living a normal life after serving their time, sex offenders should participate in rehabilitation programs that prevent further offense and allow them to become productive members of society.

Sex offenses are terrible, but the fact that offenders are forced to live on the streets because of them is equally terrible. Legislatures should make rehabilitation the rule, not stigmatization. ..Source.. by The Michigan Daily

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WI- Ohio Meets SORNA Guidelines: But Does Registration for Juvenile Offenders Cause More Harm than Good?

10-9-2009 Wisconsin:

On September 23rd, Ohio Attorney General and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced that Ohio became the first state to achieve substantial compliance with Title I of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006. Title I, known as the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA), requires registration and community notification of youth convicted of sex offenses.

However, the Justice Policy Institute, a national organization focusing on juvenile and criminal justice issues, released a report, Registering Harm (referenced in a previous blog) warning that placing youth on sex offender registries is unlikely to improve public safety. The Justice Policy Institute stated that this registration can negatively affect a young person’s entire life, and often penalizes their families as well. The public would also feel the negative effects of this act. JPI explains that the broad registration and notification practices will make it difficult to determine who on the registry poses a public safety threat and who does not. ..Source.. by Wisconsin Council on Children and Families

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WI- Gregory Friederich case in Outagamie County reveals flaw in Wisconsin sex offender registry Web site

Important fact, 2,000 of the 19,000 were juveniles when they committed whatever, thats 10.5% of the total state registry. If -nationally- there are some 686,515 RSOs (accepting numbers from NCMEC), that means it is very likely that -nationally- there are roughly 72,100 juveniles that the Adam Walsh Act will be destroying by forcing states to list them publicly. Who is AWA protecting? Sounds more like lawmakers are using juveniles to protect their jobs, which should be a crime.

10-6-2009 Wisconsin:

Three times Gregory Friederich was accused of molesting young children, yet still the 24-year-old man’s name was not listed on the state’s public sex offender registry.

Friederich, whose last name is alternately spelled in police reports as Friedrich, also is not subject to the state’s “two strikes” law for sex offenders because he was a juvenile when the first two offenses occurred.

The Friederich case reveals an anomaly in the state’s sex offender registry — an anomaly that will be fixed in July when a federal law goes into effect.

There are about 19,000 names on the state’s registry. Offenders are listed from 15 years to life depending on the severity of the offense.

About 2,000 of those names, including Friederich’s, are on the list, but not listed on the state’s Web site for the public to view because state law exempts offenders who were juveniles when their crimes were committed.

That same law exempted juveniles from the state’s two-strikes law, which requires a life sentence for those twice-convicted of child sex abuse.

Their names, however, are available to law enforcement agencies.

“This allows us to put into place a notification process if they meet certain criteria and to do community notifications in the worst of the worst cases,” said Mike Nofzinger, a sensitive crimes investigator for the Appleton Police Department.

Nofzinger said the intent of the juvenile exemption provision was to prevent young teens engaging in consensual sex from being branded for life.

“Otherwise. you would have a ton of boys listed for having sex with someone under the age of 16 because the statute is age-driven,” he said.

Friederich’s offenses do not fall into the teen sex category.

He is charged with first-degree sexual assault of a child in Outagamie County. The criminal complaint states he molested a 3-year-old boy in Seymour in March.

The criminal complaint also mentions Friederich has a prior history as a juvenile that resulted in his placement on the nonpublic sex offender registry for 15 years.

An examination of his juvenile records revealed his prior offenses were similar. He molested a 7-year-old boy when he was 14 and a 4-year-old girl in May 2002.

There is no evidence that the last offense would have been prevented had Friederich been listed on the Web site.

The most-recent victim’s mother was aware of his history, according to the criminal complaint.

Waupaca County Judge Philip Kirk said judges aren’t given any discretion on who should or should not be placed on the list because of the mandatory language in the statutes.

“The sex offender registry is substantially worthless,” said Kirk, a longtime critic of the list.

“There are about 20,000 people on that list now and there is no delineation of who are the real sex offenders and who are the Romeo and Juliet types,” he said.

“And another flaw is there is no statutory provision that says prior to sentencing we should have a medical-psychological evaluation to see if this person constitutes a danger to the public and are likely of repeating their behavior — to determine if they really have a predatory personality,” he said.

“Then the list would be more effective and you wouldn’t have 20,000 names on there.”

The Adam Walsh Act — officially known as the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act — passed in 2006 and named after the 6-year-old boy abducted and murdered in Florida in 1981, requires states to include juvenile offenders on their public registries.

States have until July 2010 to comply with the federal law. ..Source.. by Dan Wilson

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TN- Bill would put teen sex offenders on registry

Lawmakers fail the youth of today, lawmakers know that youth do not possess solid reasoning powers, and thus must be treated as one without full faculties, even when they commit serious crimes. It is the duty of an adult to recognize facts that today's youth can not, lawmakers are failures when they ignore such realities and proceed with a vindictive mind.

9-30-2009 Tennessee:

COOKEVILLE -- Should juvenile sex offenders be listed on the state's Sex Offender Registry, just as adult sex offenders are? State Rep. Henry Fincher of Cookeville thinks so, and other legislators, including Sen. Charlotte Burks of Monterey, agree. They are among state lawmakers who have tried to enact a new law providing that convicted sex offenders under the age of 18 be treated like adult sex offenders when it comes to the registry, a public listing of those convicted of sex offenses.

A bill that Fincher and Burks are sponsoring in the legislature would require that juveniles 14 to 18 who are found guilty of aggravated rape of a child, rape of a child, aggravated rape, or attempts to commit these offenses be listed on the Tennessee Sex Offender Registry as violent juvenile sex offenders. The proposal is currently under study in a legislative subcommittee. According to Fincher, similar proposals have been discussed by legislators for some time, but no new law has been made.

Fincher says that passing such a bill is important not only for the protection of the public but also because it would trigger increased grant funding for law enforcement agencies in this state. And while Fincher, who said he has sponsored several bills aimed at "making it tougher on sex offenders," hopes to get the latest proposal passed, he stresses that it would apply to "violent" offenses, not to incidents in which "somebody just made a mistake.

I know that sometimes, juveniles make mistakes that do not amount to these more serious kind of sex offenses we are talking about in this bill," Fincher said. "And I know, of course, that the ideal in the juvenile justice system is to give kids a second chance."

But that rehabilitation, second-chance philosophy of the juvenile justice system must be balanced against the reality that some juveniles do commit very serious sex crimes, he said.

"We have to balance the ideal against the reality that there are sex offenders under the age of 18 who commit very serious crimes," Fincher said. "I have a 9-year-old daughter, and I don't care if someone living next door is 15 or 50, I have the right to know about any violent sex crime record." He said that failure to pass the bill will jeopardize some federal grant funding to Tennessee which comes through a program stressing the need to enhance laws protecting children. "I just think that a law that would help warn the public about dangerous offenders and also get the state more money is a winner," Fincher said. The Herald-Citizen was unable to reach Burks this morning for comment on the proposal. ..Source.. by Mary Jo Denton, Herald-Citizen Staff

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