No more registration requirements for certain sex offenders?

2-26-2010 Arizona:

PHOENIX -- A proposed law that would erase registration requirements for certain sex offenders convicted of less violent crimes will likely go no further this legislative session.

House Bill 2569 was pulled from consideration Thursday during a Judiciary Committee meeting after lawmakers decided the legislation needed more work.

"This is important," said the bill's creator, Rep. Cecil Ash, R - Mesa. "When you deal with a law concerning sex offenders, you want to make sure everything is right.

"My goal was to get discussion started on this," he said. "But some language in this version may be too broad."

As written, the bill allows sex offenders to stop registering if they've finished jail and probation and can prove to a judge that they're no longer a public safety threat.

Hummm, there is a problem here. If the law says, once you finish jail and probation, you are free to go, where in the law does it say "you are still a danger to society?" This is backwards, the state must prove the registrant is a danger, not that the registrant must prove he isn't....Are other crimes this way too?

Ash said he will convene a panel of lawmakers, prosecutors and others to re-craft the bill, fine tuning it for later this legislative session or next.

Just a few hearings into the bill, he was faced with opposition from several groups, including N.A.I.L.E.M., a group that tracks state laws.

"Let me tell you, if once a sex offender, always a sex offender," said Diane Neill, the group's director.

But Ash and other lawmakers said that misses the legislation's main point.

"I was getting asked, 'How could you think about releasing child molesters and rapists back into the community?'" Ash said. "And that's not the intent - at all."

The bill has bi-partisan support. And lawmakers said sex offense laws in Arizona treat all cases virtually the same whether it's a 19-year-old having sex with a 16-year-old, a person caught urinating in public, or a child rapist.

"To fix this problem, we have to narrowly tailor the law," said Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, D - Phoenix.

That's why Ash said the intent of HB2569 is to draw a line between very serious sex offenses and less serious ones.

"There is a wide net that has been cast out," he said. "And it catches everybody in it."

In Arizona, there are more than 10,200 registered sex offenders. State requires them to register for life, including every time they change addresses. ..Source.. Dave Biscobing

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Five years after Jessica Lunsford's killing, legislators rethink sex offender laws

2-23-2010 Florida:

TALLAHASSEE — The brutal killing of 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford five years ago Wednesday fueled the creation of a boogeyman in Florida politics: the sex offender.

The designation carries loaded significance in the legislative process, and efforts each year to restrict the freedoms of sex offenders win broad support. This year is no different with proposed measures to require background checks on athletic coaches and forbid some sexual offenders from using the Internet.

But now — after time, a trial and the killer's death have dissolved the zeal that spurred the Jessica Lunsford Act in 2005 — a number of lawmakers are rethinking how the state monitors sex offenders and whether current laws are really making children safer.

"The emotion and publicity and political science that comes into play after a horrific situation tends to create an overreaction," said Rep. Mike Weinstein, R-Jacksonville, a prosecutor.

The public knew Jessica as a Citrus County third-grader with a cute smile and a pink hat. Convicted sex offender John Couey, who unbeknownst to local authorities lived across the street, confessed to kidnapping, raping and burying her alive in a shallow grave about 100 yards from her home.

The law named in her honor ordered more electronic monitoring and registration of sex offenders, tougher prison sentences, and background checks for people who work at schools. The effort spread nationwide to more than 30 states with the help of her father, Mark Lunsford, a truck driver turned activist.

The attention also propelled city and county officials in Florida to implement tougher barriers prohibiting sex offenders from living or working near schools, playgrounds, bus stops and churches.

Combined with the Jimmy Ryce Act in 1998, which permitted the civil commitment of sexual predators for life, the efforts made Florida among the most restrictive states in the nation.

But recent studies and state statistics show that the fear that propelled the laws doesn't match reality.

"Across the country, studies are not showing that changes in sex crime rates can be attributed to those policies," said Dr. Jill Levenson, a professor at Lynn University in Boca Raton who studies sex offenders. "Sex crimes against children are on the downslide — but since the 1990s."

• • •

The number of people on Florida's sex offender registry tops 53,500, an increase of nearly 50 percent in five years. Nationwide, the tally of registered sexual offenders exceeds 700,000.

Even more telling, Florida now spends an additional $36 million a year on sex offender programs. But the number of inmates convicted of sex crimes has held steady in the five years since the Jessica Lunsford Act, according to Department of Corrections statistics.

The laws also have created unintended consequences. The restrictions on where sex offenders can reside made hundreds homeless and prompted dozens in Miami to live under the Julia Tuttle Causeway. And the requirements to register those convicted of lewd crimes put the sex offender label on people who authorities don't deem a threat.

"There is no empirical support that restrictions on where sex offenders live prevents sexual abuse or reoffending," said Levenson, a clinical social worker. "Not every person who commits a sex crime is a predatory pedophile."

This is the message Jennifer Dritt, a leading victims advocate at the state Capitol, preaches. As executive director of the Florida Council Against Sexual Violence, Dritt supported tougher restrictions on sex offenders. But she said the lesson from the Jessica Lunsford case was misunderstood. Most sexual offenders are not strangers across the street. The overwhelming majority are those with familial authority.

"In a positive vein, (Jessica's case) really raised awareness of sexual offender management issues," Dritt said. "But I think it also sponsored a lot of knee-jerk reactions."

• • •

Some lawmakers are starting to agree.

State Rep. Rich Glorioso, R-Plant City, is sponsoring legislation to revamp Florida's sex offender laws by implementing a "circle of safety" to protect children instead of strong residency restrictions on sexual offenders. The main provision of the bill (HB119) would prohibit sexual offenders from loitering within 300 feet of locations where children are present.

"Sometimes we focus on where those people live," Glorioso said. "Where they are sleeping last night really isn't the issue. It's what they are doing when they are awake."

He said he wants to protect children but readily acknowledges the problems in the existing laws. "These people, whether we like it or not, still have constitutional rights," he said. "I don't want to infringe upon their rights, but I don't want to jeopardize my kids either."

Already Glorioso's bill is falling prey to the politics that put current provisions in place.

As originally drafted, the legislation would have pre-empted local residency restrictions on sex offenders, forbidding counties and cities from making barriers tougher than the 1,000-foot standard in state law.

Glorioso said that even though research shows the restrictions don't help, he plans to strike that part of his bill, blaming political opposition.

It's tough for lawmakers to walk the fine line.

"I think after a period of time you have to determine whether it's working the way you designed it to work," said Ron Book, a prominent lobbyist whose daughter was a victim of sexual abuse. But, he added, "nobody wants to read a piece of mail in a campaign that they have somehow lessened child safety laws."

Rep. Adam Fetterman, D-Port St. Lucie, embodies the difficulty of legislation so closely tied to emotional crimes. His wife was abused as a child, and he is pushing a measure to limit sex offenders access to the Internet if they used a computer to commit a sex crime.

"I don't want there to be a boogeyman, but for too long we refused to accept the number of children … who have been victims of sexual abuse," said Fetterman, a lawyer.

But he also thinks the existing laws need a tweak to make them more effective. "I think the Legislature passes all kinds of laws that haven't been well thought out because of political reasons," he said. ..Source.. John Frank, Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau

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Experts: Sex offender laws flawed

11-15-2009 Kentucky:

COVINGTON - The arrest of two sex offenders in Kenton County this year shows the complications of enforcing Kentucky's strict residence restrictions.

A 43-year-old Michigan native was arrested for violating the terms of his bond for allegedly trying to pick up his prescription medication from an Erlanger house he was ordered to move from because it was within 1,000 feet of Railroad Park.

Another sex offender was arrested for not registering after being released from prison, but he claims he is homeless and had no permanent address to give authorities.

"There is not a lot of thought that goes into the residency restrictions," said Robert Lanning, chairman of the Kentucky Sex Offenders Management Task Force, a group of corrections officials, attorneys, prosecutors and treatment experts. "It's a knee-jerk reaction sometimes. Because of that, there are unintended consequences."

While Kentucky's original residency restrictions said registered sex offenders on probation or parole could not live within 1,000 feet of a school or day cares, it was strengthened in July 2006 to include all registrants regardless of probation or parole status. In addition, it added playgrounds to the list of prohibited areas, and measured the distance from the property line as opposed to the wall of the building.

Then, on Oct. 1, the Kentucky Supreme Court ruled that the strengthened restrictions couldn't be applied to registrants retroactively.

Critics say the residency restrictions law is still flawed because it is imposed equally upon all offenders without regard to whether their crime was committed against a child or adult.

Richard Tewksbury, a professor of criminal justice at the University of Louisville, has studied sex offenders and said one of the unintended consequences of residency restrictions is that they can force offenders from their homes, creating stress that can trigger new offenses. Those offenses range from going underground and not reporting where they live to committing additional sex crimes, he said.

"Sex offender laws have a whole host of negative implications for individuals and the community, Tewksbury said. "The two arrests in Kenton County are not at all an uncommon scenario."

John Delaney, the head of the public defenders office for Kenton and Campbell counties, said sex offenders are an easy target for authorities trying to look tough on crime.

"They are an easy target because no one likes sex offenders," he said. "Everyone hates sex offenders. No one is going to have any sympathy for a sex offender, even when in reality their sex offenses were not that horrible."

Delaney said the laws give people a false sense of security.

"While registered sex offenders can't live within 1,000 feet of a school, one could go sit outside of the school on a bench for the entire school day," he said.

While the Kentucky Supreme Court had struck down the strengthened restrictions, it didn't prevent Erlanger police from arresting the Michigan native, Trevor Killey.

He was placed on the sex offender registry for 25 years after being convicted of being a peeping tom 14 years ago in Michigan. The equivalent charge in Kentucky doesn't even require someone to register as a sex offender.

Killey's wife, Nicole, said her husband moved to Erlanger in February for work. He registered with local authorities but was told in August that his home was within 1,000 of the park and subsequently arrested.

The husband was released on bond but caught in the house once against on Sept. 13. The wife said her husband had just briefly returned to pick up his prescription medication. While police officers didn't arrest the husband on the spot, Kenton District Judge Douglas Grothaus signed a warrant for his arrest on Sept. 30. It states that Killey was in violation of his bond by going back to the house.

He was picked up on Oct. 6 on that warrant and locked up for seven days before he could hire a lawyer and get all the charges against him dismissed.

His lawyer, Ryan Reed, said by the time his client was locked up, the state Supreme Court had already ruled unconstitutional the law he was accused of breaking.

"For Mr. Killey, it is pretty much a black-and-white issue," Reed said. "His crime occurred prior to July 2006. The registry restrictions don't apply to him."

Tewksbury said he doesn't know how many sex offenders are wrongly being arrested after the supreme court ruling knocked down a portion of the residency restrictions.

Even though Killey wouldn't speak publicly about his case, Tewksbury said the sex offender risks being further ostracized in the community because his family went to the press.

"In some way, he may well be inviting more difficulties in his life as people see sex offenders of all varieties as the most heinous and dangerous members of our community when in fact so many of our sex offenders really are not any serious threat to us," Tewksbury said.

Delaney said he is currently representing a sex offender who was given $20 and a bus ticket back to Kenton County after being released from the Little Sandy Correctional Complex in Sandy Hook. With no money, job or family living outside of 1,000 feet of a school, Delaney said the sex offender had no permanent address.

"He was essentially homeless," Delaney said, "until authorities arrested him for not registering. Now he is living at the Kenton County jail."

While Delaney didn't release his client's name, said the sex offender has chosen to not post his $250 bond and stay in jail because he has no place to go. The sex offender could ultimately be convicted and sent back to prison, Delaney said.

"So now we have taxpayers literally paying the price for a misguided law that has very little positive impact on the community," Tewksbury said.

The Kentucky Sex Offenders Management Task Force used to have money from a federal grant to help find homes for registered sex offenders who have no place to live. That money has long ago dried up, Lanning said.

"There are not resources out there for registered sex offenders," he said. "They are not the ones people want to help. There is a long line in front of them, for good reason." ..Source.. by Jim Hannah

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