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Aug 10, 2005 2:42:18 GMT -5
Post by Sher on Aug 10, 2005 2:42:18 GMT -5
PALATKA — Security could get tighter at Putnam County schools in light of two child abductions and murders in Florida this year.
School board members Monday heard a presentation from Jeffrey Chaplin, an account executive with SISCO, a West Palm Beach firm that specializes in identification for security purposes.
School Superintendent David Buckles brought Chaplin to the meeting to discuss how to make schools safer following the kidnappings and murders of Jessica Lunsford and Sarah Lunde by convicted sex offenders.
Once people check in at the front desk of a school, a staff member can cross-reference the name with "undesirables," including sexual offenders and predators registered with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Chaplin said.
Buckles asked if the system could catch parents with restraining orders and those who do not have custodial authority over the child.
"They're not going to be issued the photo ID," Chaplin said. "They'd be denied entry."
For registered sexual offenders and predators who work in various areas of the school or who deliver various snacks and goods to the school, the system would allow the administration to monitor their activities, he said.
If the person has aliases, they show up on the computer, Chaplin said.
Board member Tom Townsend asked Buckles how much the system would cost. Buckles said he would present the cost if he makes a recommendation to the board to approve the system.
In another security matter, Putnam Correctional Institution in East Palatka has agreed to house registered sex offenders and predators in the event of an emergency such as a hurricane, Buckles said. They won't be allowed to stay at a school designated as a shelter, he said.
SCHOOL SECURITY OFFICER
In yet another security matter, Buckles will have to go back to the drawing board to create a new position of school security officer.
At their last meeting, board members approved the position but sent the job description back to Buckles. He brought the matter back before the board Monday. Buckles had deleted the requirement that the person have a college degree. He does want the person to have at least 10 years of law enforcement experience.
But at Monday's meeting, Townsend said that, in addition to wanting a new job description, he did not mean to vote to allocate money for the position in the first place. Townsend said he thinks the board can work more with local law enforcement to make schools safer and use the money for more teaching.
After considerable debate, board member Joann Barber moved to approve the position. It was going to fail for lack of a second. Board Vice Chairman C.L. Overturf was absent.
Board Chairman John Milton gave up the chairman's seat to Buckles so he could second the motion. But it failed on a 2-2 vote, with Townsend and board member Lisa Parsons dissenting.
"The events of the last few years have clearly indicated ... it is a most important job that we need," Milton said. "Our No. 1 job for children is their safety."
Buckles expressed his dismay over the board's actions, particularly Townsend.
"Somebody's better than nobody," he said of having a security officer. "I will come back to you. I needed your support, and you didn't give it to me."
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Aug 10, 2005 3:02:27 GMT -5
Post by Sher on Aug 10, 2005 3:02:27 GMT -5
Sex offender freed after admitting to trying to infect kids with AIDS Aug 9, 2005, 1:12 PM
STATEWIDE -- People in one Oregon community are outraged as a convicted sex offender who admitted he tried to infect kids with AIDS walks free.
Prosecutors say they let Adam Lee Brown make a plea deal to protect his young victims. Children who fell victim to Brown several years ago worry that he may now strike again.
Back in 1992, Adam Lee Brown was charged with more than 40 felony counts of rape and sodomy when he tried to kill 10 Oregon children by infecting them with the AIDS virus.
Brown copped a plea and is once again a free man, outraging his many victims.
"He should suffer 10 times more than everybody else because it's just disgusting," said Daniella Liles. "I hate this man."
Prosecutors offered Brown a plea deal, thinking AIDS would kill him in prison.
But the district attorney was worried about an acquittal if he went to trial because there were inconsistencies in the kids' stories.
Mostly though, he wanted to protect the children from a court trial.
Now it's up to the Oregon State Police to keep tabs on Brown, an impossible task since he has relocated to Douglas County, where one officer oversees 430 sex offenders.
"He is released, he's done his time according to the law, but is this man dangerous?" said Lt. Doug Ladd. "You better believe he's dangerous."
Brown has to meet weekly with a parole officer, must receive psychiatric treatment and can't be near children. But his victims say that's not nearly enough.
If Brown had lived outside Oregon he'd likely still be behind bars. Thirty-nine states make it easier on young rape victims by allowing them to testify on video or in court behind a screen where they can't see the defendant.
Still others don't force the kids to take the stand at all--allowing their hearsay testimony in through a parent or counselor.
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Aug 11, 2005 2:32:01 GMT -5
Post by Sher on Aug 11, 2005 2:32:01 GMT -5
LAKE HELEN -- Lake Helen may decide to join the growing list of communities restricting where sexual offenders may live. Commissioners last week asked for a draft of an ordinance that would do just that. "Every time you turn on the TV, another city is doing it," City Commissioner Lou Benton told his colleagues. "My biggest fear is that if the other cities around us do and we don't, they'll be pushing them into Lake Helen."
Other commissioners shared his concern about protecting the city's children, but also expressed concern about constitutional, moral and practical considerations. Commissioner Lewis C. Long III said he shares the fears other parents have, "but on the other hand, these people are human beings," he said. "I'd ask that we be very careful."
"There's no one-size-fits-all solution -- it's not a cookie cutter," said city attorney Lonnie N. Groot. There are several decisions to make about which offenders to bar from which areas: whether to include all schools, parks, trails, and other places children might congregate. Groot mentioned an ordinance considered in Seminole County, which would not only prohibit where offenders live but where they can travel.
In Lake Helen, a city 2 miles square with a school, day-care center and several parks, such an ordinance might effectively bar offenders from living in or traveling through the city.
Commissioners agreed with a suggestion from City Administrator Don Findell, and directed Groot to prepare a "broad brush" draft of an ordinance for their consideration at a future meeting.
Commissioners also forged ahead with plans for a trailhead facility near the new equestrian center. The project is paid for by money from Volusia County's ECHO (Environmental, Cultural, Historic and Outdoors) program, with $75,000 allocated to construction of a building with restrooms and environmental center. The money has to be spent by March 2006.
The project has been put out to bid twice. The first time, one bid came in for more than the budgeted amount. A scaled-down version was then advertised but no contractors bid on the project. Since the July 20 bid opening date, a local contractor has expressed an interest in the project.
Commissioners directed city staff to procure a contractor. If that attempt fails, the city will need to act as general contractor and supervise the construction itself.
In other business, commissioners adopted a resolution to create the Lake Helen Personnel Advisory Board and passed on first reading an ordinance amending the retirement plan and trust for city police officers.
The commission also agreed unanimously to approve a request from the Volusia chapter of the Antique Automobile Club of America to use Blake Park for its April car show.
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Aug 11, 2005 2:32:59 GMT -5
Post by Sher on Aug 11, 2005 2:32:59 GMT -5
Considering the number of killings committed recently across the United States by convicted sex offenders, the Wisconsin online Sex Offender Registry isn't just an informational tool, it's peace of mind for people all over the state.
Law enforcement officials at municipalities from Beloit to Green Bay and beyond say the registry is there to keep people informed about who is living next door, who is driving their kids' school bus and, as in a case recently at the Columbia County Fair, who is working in any place where lots of children will be.
At the fair, one of the workers running a ride was a convicted sex offender from Illinois, said Portage Police Chief Ken Manthey. He had been in the state for several months working for the company providing the amusement rides, Manthey said. According to state law, persons convicted of a sexual offense, even if they are from out of state, have to register with the Department of Corrections if they've lived in the state for more than a month, he said.
Once the man's status was discovered, his employer promptly fired him and he was sent back to Illinois, all within a few hours, Portage Assistant Police Chief Kevin O'Neill said.
O'Neill said he gets a couple calls a month from residents about sexual offenders and suspected previous offenders. Being able to guide them to the online registry is a useful tool, he said.
"Obviously the Wisconsin Legislature feels it is very, very important," he said. "And so do we."
"An informed community is a safer community," Manthey said.
The Legislature established the statewide registry in 1997, with the online version becoming available in 2001.
John Dipko, a spokesperson with the Department of Corrections, said the Web site gets visited "tens of thousands" of times a week.
"I think the overarching theme is the Web site is meant to increase public safety," he said. "It's one way in which the department is working to promote both accountability for offenders and promote public safety."
In Sauk County, the registry is used quite often, Baraboo Police Department Lt. Rob Sinden said. According to the online registry, Baraboo has 37 registered sex offenders living within the city limits, and when residents calls to ask him about someone, while he can't legally tell them anything, Sinden said he is able to give out the Web address.
"It's become a great tool for me," he said. "It allows the public to gather the information they need about these individuals without violating the rights of these offenders."
The information on the Web site -- which can be searched using a name or zip code and includes aliases -- does not give out specific addresses to protect the registrant. The information offered by the registry includes a picture and physical description and is kept current, Sinden said.
"I believe the amount of information that is out there is sufficient for people to remain safe."
It was important for the Legislature to create a balance that recognizes "(offenders) have rights as well as the individuals in the community," he said, explaining that offenders should be watched, but also allowed to go on with their lives.
"I believe they have struck that balance very well," he said.
Marquette County Chief Deputy Kim Gaffney added that an important thing to remember is studies have shown people who commit sexual offenses are many times someone the victim knows.
"It's those folks, by and large... that are the ones that are going to commit the crimes," he said.
In Marquette County, Gaffney said the department gets calls about sexual offenders "more than once a week." With those inquiries, the registry is very important.
"It's a huge tool that we use," he said.
Sex offenders are given a rating from 1 to 3, with 3 being the most serious. For the person designated a 3, the Sheriff's Department will actively inform citizens about the individual; sometimes they will even take out an ad in the local newspaper.
"It's just an awareness thing," Gaffney said. "In the highest level, we may even go door to door."
But the department must consider the offender's safety and how the community will react.
"We worry about vigilantism," he said.
Manthey said to his knowledge there has only been one situation in the Portage area, where children would ride by a registrant's home and pound on the door. It was a neighbor who called in to alert police and said it wasn't right for the kids to harass the person.
"We've been very fortunate that we have not had any serious problems," Manthey said .
The registry is a two-pronged tool, Gaffney said, explaining that while it helps residents to know what is going on in their county, city and neighborhood, it also lets a convicted sex offender know they are under a magnifying glass.
"I think it helps the offender (as well)," Gaffney said. "They know the public is watching and they need to abide by the laws set upon (them
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Aug 11, 2005 2:33:31 GMT -5
Post by Sher on Aug 11, 2005 2:33:31 GMT -5
Boca Raton · City officials are proposing to toughen a relatively new ordinance limiting where sexual predators can live.
In June, the City Council made it illegal for sex offenders to live within 1,500 feet of a public school or bus stop, a day care center, park or playground.
Now, they want to push predators farther away from children in those areas and add public libraries and private school bus stops to the list.
Councilman Bill Hager said the proposed ordinance is a way of tweaking the previous law to perfection.
"The goal of the public policy is to keep predators away from children. The question then becomes how far," Hager said.
Under the new law, convicted sexual offenders would have to stay 2,500 feet away from the proposed areas, or almost 8 1/2 city blocks away instead of five. Private schools also would have to start telling the city where their bus stops are.
The ordinance, introduced at Tuesday night's council meeting, comes as students start their first day of school today.
There has to be a second reading of the ordinance at another council meeting before it can be voted on at a third meeting.
Councilwoman Susan Whelchel said earlier this year that tougher sex-offender measures are a trend across the state. In South Florida, cities enacting tougher sex offender ordinances in recent months include Miami Beach, Davie, Coral Springs, North Miami and Boynton Beach.
"It's unfortunate that the circumstances of sex offenders have brought cities to this point," she said. "But the cities did not create this problem. We're responding to this problem."
The city council unanimously approved the June ordinance. Hager said he doesn't expect much opposition to the new one.
"Who's going to appear and say sexual predators ought to be closer to children?" he said. "I don't know that anybody will."
If anything, convicted sex offenders may complain that they're running out of places to live in Boca Raton.
"I'm not particularly concerned about that," Hager said. "In terms of balancing the rights of children vs. sexual predators, to me it's a no-brainer. I come down on the side of children."
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Aug 11, 2005 16:51:38 GMT -5
Post by Sher on Aug 11, 2005 16:51:38 GMT -5
Sex offender map a good idea
Noble County Sheriff Gary Leatherman has a novel idea about how to inform his community about sexual offenders who are required to have their whereabout monitored by police upon release from prison.
Leatherman, with the approval of the Noble County Commissioners, is going to put a map in the county courthouse along with photos of the offenders so their whereabouts can be pinpointed by residents. This is in addition to the offenders’ photos and addresses being posted on the Internet as required by Zachery’s Law.
The idea no doubt has caught the attention the attention of other law enforcement officials, including our own Steuben County Sheriff Rick Lewis. After learning about what’s going on in Noble County, Lewis on Wednesday started investigating putting a similar map with convicted sex offender photos on display, most likely in the Steuben Community Center, the one place in the county that probably has the most traffic of any public building. Because they control use of county buildings, the Steuben County Commissioners would have to approve placement of a sex offender map.
In the meantime, Lewis is also going to speak with Leatherman so he can get filled in with more detail that can be presented in media accounts.
“I think it’s a great idea,” Lewis said.
We like the idea of what Leatherman has done and what Lewis is considering for Steuben County.
If there are any flaws with the current system of informing communities of the whereabouts of convicted sex offenders it has to be the inability of people to access the information. Currently you have to know that the most up-to-date Web site containing the information is the one operated by the Indiana Sheriff’s Association (www.indianasheriffs.org). Then you have to have a computer that has access to the Internet or be willing to travel to a local library or some other entity that would allow you to access the Internet. You can also request the information at the sheriff’s department.
Lewis also pointed out that sex offenders are constantly on the move.
“These guys tend to move around a lot,” Lewis said.
And they are supposed to report their relocations to the proper authority upon doing so. This makes the local map in a central location a very user-friendly tool.
Like the Web site itself, the ability to change a map in the community center would not be that difficult of a task. Lewis said it doesn’t take much time at all to update the information for offenders for the Web site and changing a map wouldn’t be much different.
Currently there are about 50 people on the Steuben County area of the Indiana Sexual Offender Registry. Some live in the community while others only work in the community. Most of the registrants are up to date in their data; some have not reported their status to authorities.
We doubt the posting of photos of sexual offenders in a public place such as the community center would provide another deterent to would-be offenders. However, it should go a long way toward informing the public and helping people know just who some of the people might be who live in their neighborhood.
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Aug 15, 2005 11:01:31 GMT -5
Post by Sher on Aug 15, 2005 11:01:31 GMT -5
WOODBURY — Violent sex offenders who are on parole will have their whereabouts monitored via a satellite tracking system under landmark legislation signed into law Thursday by acting Gov. Codey.
Up to 250 convicted sexual predators will be fitted with ankle bracelets that use Global Positioning System technology during a two-year pilot program.
While acknowledging that satellite monitoring is not foolproof, lawmakers said they hoped it would deter offenders from attacking anyone else and give police another tool with which to protect children.
The law budgets $3 million to administer the pilot program and authorizes yearly polygraph examinations for certain offenders.
State Attorney General Peter Harvey said he expected the law to withstand legal challenges because "it's measured in what it does. It is not unduly intrusive" and is not like putting a listening device or camera into a convict's home.
Codey was surrounded by law-enforcement officers and elected officials during a news conference at the Gloucester County Criminal Justice Complex.
Other states, such as Tennessee and Louisiana, already require parolees considered likely to commit sexual crimes again to wear ankle bracelets.
New Jersey authorities have admitted that they don't know the whereabouts of all of the state's high-risk sexual offenders.
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Aug 18, 2005 0:25:38 GMT -5
Post by Sher on Aug 18, 2005 0:25:38 GMT -5
O'Malley touts plan to monitor sexual predators 6-point proposal includes lifelong satellite bracelets
Convicted child molesters would have to wear satellite tracking bracelets for the rest of their lives under a six-point plan for new state legislation introduced Tuesday by Mayor Martin O'Malley.
The mayor said his proposal -- which he will push for during the General Assembly's 2006 session -- seeks to improve the state's spotty monitoring of sexual predators and to better in form communities when such offenders move into their neighborhoods.
The mayor's proposal, released during a news conference Tuesday morning, reflects the increased urgency placed on the issue by state leaders upset by recent revelations that as many as one in five of the addresses on the Maryland Sex Offender Registry are inaccurate. One of the faulty addresses belonged to Carl Preston Evans Jr. of Essex, who was charged this month with killing his 13-year-old stepdaughter and setting a fire to cover up the crime.
"This threat posed by sexual offenders, particularly those who harm children, ... requires us all to dig deep and raise the bar and raise our levels of activities so that we can protect parents and their kids," O'Malley said.
State Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr., the mayor's father-in-law, said Tuesday that he has found wide support from General Assembly leaders for his proposed legislation demanding lifetime supervision of violent sexual predators and a more active approach for notifying communities when offenders are about to be released into their midst.
Curran said he is thrilled that O'Malley supports the idea of satellite tracking of most child sex offenders, a policy that was recently made law in Florida by Gov. Jeb Bush. The law was named for Jessica Lunsford, a 9-year-old girl killed by a registered sex offender.
In addition, Del. Christopher B. Shank, a Washington County Republican, won passage of legislation in 2004 creating a task force to study tracking of all types of offenders, including sexual predators, by global positioning satellites.
State task force
The task force, which is headed by an appointee of Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., is expected to announce its findings in December.
Ehrlich is scheduled to deliver Saturday the details of his comprehensive reform for the state registry and other state efforts to prevent sexual predators from striking again, said spokeswoman Shareese N. DeLeaver.
It was clear Tuesday that the topic could become a political issue between the likely candidates for governor. O'Malley and Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan are widely expected to run against each other in the Democratic primary for governor.
David Weaver, Duncan's spokesman, said Tuesday that Montgomery County has a representative on the state task force, and that the mayor should be looking to work with both parties.
'We need to focus'
"Clearly, the state is failing in its responsibility to protect the public from sexual predators," Weaver said. "However, rather than political one-upmanship, we need to focus on getting the job done of actually protecting the public."
Stephen Kearney, an O'Malley spokesman, said that 1,700 of the state's 4,300 registered sex offenders are in Baltimore, and that 900 of those are child sex offenders. He questioned the ef fectiveness of a state task force that lacks representatives of the city Police Department or government.
The mayor's plan marked the third time this year that he has detailed a policy aimed at improving state agencies overseen by Ehrlich. The first, released in May, was a 10-point plan to improve the state juvenile justice system. The second was a June campaign speech criticizing Ehrlich's environmental policies.
But Tuesday, striking a more nonpartisan tone, O'Malley -- an all-but-declared candidate for governor -- stopped short of directly blaming Ehrlich for the failures of the state registry and public notification policies.
"We all need to come together regardless of political party to get tougher on sexual offenders, particularly sexual predators that prey on unsuspecting children," the mayor said.
Supports Curran
O'Malley's plan supports Curran's call for lifetime supervision by "ensuring there are enough specially trained parole and probation officers supervising sex offenders."
O'Malley said the city uses global positioning satellite technology to track its trash trucks, and that his CitiStat system keeps up-to-date information on thousands of service requests every day from citizens.
"Starting next month, the state of Florida is in essence going to be using this same sort of technology to track sex offenders," the mayor said. "Maryland should be next in using this technology to protect our children."
He said if the city can know where its trash trucks are at any time, the state should know if child sex offenders are hanging out at schools or playgrounds. The technology also would pro vide a history of the child sex offenders' movements. O'Malley said the technology would cost $4 a day for each offender -- about $6.3 million for the state per year.
Failing to register
The plan also calls for making it a felony when sex offenders fail to register an accurate address. Such a violation is now a misdemeanor under state law.
The city Police Department recently performed spot checks on 115 child sex offenders, according to Deputy Commissioner Marcus Brown. The police could not confirm the addresses of 20 of the offenders and are pursuing arrest warrants.
Other points of the mayor's plan call for improving communication between state and local agencies to help identify a sex offender's most recent address, and to give citizens easier access to the registry by allowing them to type in their addresses rather than ZIP codes or the names of sex offenders.
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Aug 18, 2005 0:26:12 GMT -5
Post by Sher on Aug 18, 2005 0:26:12 GMT -5
OSCEOLA COUNTY -- Kissimmee and Osceola County on Monday joined the growing list of Florida cities and counties restricting where sexual offenders can live.
County commissioners passed an ordinance banning registered sexual offenders from living within 2,500 feet of schools, day-care centers, playgrounds, public parks, churches and other places where children gather. State law prohibits offenders from living within 1,000 feet of such locations.
The new law applies to the county's unincorporated areas as well as Kissimmee. St. Cloud passed a similar ordinance last week.
The ordinance includes an exception for sexual offenders already living within the boundaries. It also requires that during an emergency, such as a hurricane, sexual offenders would stay in a separate shelter staffed by the Sheriff's Office.
Commissioner Ken Smith cautioned that the ordinance should not give residents a "false sense of security."
"We've taken a prudent step to minimize the danger to our children, but we have not eliminated the danger," Smith said. "Parents, the ultimate responsibility lies with you. You need to know with whom they speak, where they are going, and what they will find when they get there."
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Aug 18, 2005 0:29:50 GMT -5
Post by Sher on Aug 18, 2005 0:29:50 GMT -5
'No cure' for paedophiles
Cape Town - South Africa, which has among the highest incidence of child rape in the world, faces increased attacks because of a lack of adequate programmes targeting sexual offenders incarcerated in prison.
"Currently, my understanding is that offenders have to request treatment. It's not a given that they enter into programmes, unless a magistrate orders them to go into treatment," said Doctor Marcel Londt, who has 25 years experience in dealing with sexual offenders.
Londt was responding to the rape of a three-year-old girl by an Athlone man who is scheduled to appear in court on Wednesday.
The man was recently released from Pollsmoor Prison as part of government's general pardon initiative, after serving a sentence for sodomising a nine-year-old boy.
The Medical Research Council said from April 2003 to March 2004, 17 597 rape cases of girls under the age of 18 were reported to the police.
'More token than real'
Doctor Paul Theron, a clinical forensic practitioner at Pollsmoor, told Sapa his experience with the rehabilitation of sexual offenders was that programmes were "more token than real".
Theron said advanced, one-to-one therapy by highly-trained individuals was needed for sexual offenders, something not readily available in prisons.
"We need depth-therapy and experts to apply this, because if you have some half-baked intervention you could end up making a more sophisticated criminal," he said.
Theron said courts also needed to play a bigger role by determining that sexual offenders required specific therapy after sentencing.
Londt said research showed the relationship between a victim and sexual offender had a direct link with the severity of the crime, and generally, the further the relationship the more violent the offence.
"Sexual predators, particularly child sexual perpetrators, can never be cured, can never be rehabilitated. The best we can do is manage them," said Londt.
However, it is in the management and rehabilitation of these sexual offenders that government seemed to be remiss.
Carol Bower, executive director of Rapcan (Resources aimed at the prevention of child abuse and neglect), said the Department of Correctional Services had made a commitment to promote the rehabilitation of sexual offenders but nothing had come of this.
She said rehabilitation should be a condition of release, because when rapists get sent to prison, they became more skilled at rape and more violent in what they did.
Londt said special attention should be given to the group of offenders who did not respond to treatment, refusing to change their lifestyles, and who continued to prey on communities.
"They nurture their deviancy like a drug addict, and can't wait to get their next hit."
Gideon Morris of the Judicial Inspectorate of Prisons said programmes were offered, but on a limited scale, citing a lack of professionals.
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Aug 18, 2005 0:44:53 GMT -5
Post by Sher on Aug 18, 2005 0:44:53 GMT -5
BENTON - Convicted sex offenders in Scott County will soon be more than just a name to those who look them up on the sheriff’s Web site.
A new law which goes into effect Aug. 28 authorizes law enforcement agencies to include photos on online registries of sex offenders living in their communities.
“The sheriff has already made the decision we’re going to do that,” said Lt. Jerry Bledsoe of the Scott County Sheriff’s Department.
“I think this is something we need - just another service we can provide,” said Scott County Sheriff Rick Walter. “It’s good to put a face with a name.”
“I did this once before a couple of years ago and had to take them off,” Bledsoe recalled. “It was brought to my attention that we couldn’t do that (at that time).”
Bledsoe said the county’s residents liked having pictures included on the online registry of sex offenders and were upset when he had to remove them. “A lot of times a picture will mean something to someone when a name doesn’t,” Bledsoe said. “I guess they just like being able to see that picture and can relate to that better than a name.”
“A lot of people are in favor of it,” Walter said. “All the calls I’ve got so far are in favor of it - I haven’t got any negative, any against it.”
As Aug. 28 is a Sunday, Scott County residents can expect to see pictures for most of the sex offenders in the county on Aug. 29.
“I’m going to do everything I can to have as many of them up there as we can on the first date,” Bledsoe said. “It’s going to take a little time to get them all on there but I’m planning to have as many as I can on there the first day we are allowed to do it. ... It’s one of those situations I’ll just have to do it as time allows.”
Scott County presently has 116 registered sex offenders listed on its Web site.
“We take photographs of them when they come in to register,” Bledsoe said. “It’s automatically attached to our in-house registration file as a .jpg.”
For those few in which a photo was not taken during registration, booking photos will be used. “There’s some I’ll have to go and scan in,” he said. “We don’t have a Web site of our own,” said Keith Moore, Mississippi County sheriff.
Registered sex offenders in Mississippi County are listed on the sheriff department’s computers. County residents who need information on them can call or visit the sheriff’s department.
“We’ve got probably about 41 right now in our county,” Moore said. “Last week we got two new ones that got registered - they were my former employees.”
Stephen Moore, 59, of Charleston, no relation to the sheriff, was convicted of sexual contact with an inmate, a felony, according to Moore, and Donny Evans, 58, also of Charleston, was convicted of misdemeanor sexual misconduct.
Moore said he had been investigating them since the first of the year when he took office. “Their final court appearance was Aug. 3,” he said.
While all known sex offenders in the county have registered, “we’ve got some that have not followed through with their annual follow-ups that we’re going to go to the prosecutor with.”
The New Madrid County Sheriff’s Department does not have a Web site, either.
In addition to being posted by local agencies, registered sexual offenders can also be found on the Missouri State Highway Patrol’s Web site which features a search function. The Patrol is required by state statutes to maintain a sex offender database and a Web site on the Internet that is accessible to the public.
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Aug 18, 2005 0:45:37 GMT -5
Post by Sher on Aug 18, 2005 0:45:37 GMT -5
Convicted child molesters would be required to wear bracelets enabling authorities to track them by satellite for the rest of their lives under a proposal announced by Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley.
The mayor's proposal, part of a six-point plan for improving the monitoring of the state's sexual predators, is similar to a policy already enacted in at least six states - Florida, New Jersey, Alabama, Missouri, Ohio and Oklahoma. Laws calling for the use of the Global Positioning System are named for Jessica Lunsford, a 9-year-old Florida girl who was raped and killed by a registered sex offender.
In Maryland, concern about the need for closer monitoring of convicted sexual offenders grew after the arrest last month of Carl Preston Evans, Jr., for the killing of his 13-year-old stepdaughter.
Evans is a convicted rapist who was required by state law to register with the Maryland Sex Offender Registry. After his arrest, it was discovered that his name was misspelled on the registry and the listed address was inaccurate. State officials acknowledged that flawed data could affect nearly one in five of the more than 4,300 offenders in the online database set up to tell communities about where these criminals are living.
"This threat posed by sexual offenders, particularly those who harm children, ... requires us all to dig deep and raise the bar and raise our levels of activities so that we can protect parents and their kids," O'Malley said Tuesday.
Gov. Robert Ehrlich, the mayor's political rival, plans to release by the end of the week his own comprehensive reform for the state registry and other state efforts to prevent sexual predators from striking again, said spokeswoman Shareese N. DeLeaver. O'Malley, a Democrat, is considered a possible candidate for governor.
In addition, a task force studying the use of GPS technology to monitor tracking all types of offenders, including sexual predators, is scheduled to release its findings in December.
City officials said 1,700 of the state's registered sex offenders are in Baltimore, and that 900 of those are child sex offenders. Police recently performed spot checks on 115 child sex offenders, according to Deputy Commissioner Marcus Brown. The police could not confirm the addresses of 20 of the offenders and are pursuing arrest warrants.
Noting that the city uses global positioning satellite technology to track its trash trucks, O'Malley said the same technology ought to be used to tell if child sex offenders are hanging out at schools or playgrounds. It would cost $4 a day for each offender - about $6.3 million for the state per year, the mayor said.
O'Malley also wants to make it a felony when sex offenders fail to register an accurate address. It is now a misdemeanor under state law. He said he'd also like to see improved communication between state and local agencies, and to give citizens easier access to the registry by allowing them to type in their addresses rather than ZIP codes or the names of sex offenders.
The mayor's father-in-law, Maryland Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr., also has said he will push for legislation requiring the lifetime supervision of violent sex offenders, possibly using global positioning systems.
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Aug 18, 2005 0:48:02 GMT -5
Post by Sher on Aug 18, 2005 0:48:02 GMT -5
SA, which has among the highest incidence of child rape in the world, faces increased attacks because of a lack of adequate programmes targeting sexual offenders in prison.
“My understanding is that offenders have to request treatment. It’s not a given that they enter programmes, unless a magistrate orders them to go into treatment,” says Dr Marcel Londt, who has 25 years experience in dealing with sexual offenders.
Londt was responding to the rape of a three-year-old girl by an Athlone man who is scheduled to appear in court today.
The man was recently released from Pollsmoor Prison as part of government’s pardon initiative after serving time for sodomising a nine-year-old boy.
The Medical Research Council says that from April 2003 to March 2004, 17597 rape cases of girls under the age of 18 were reported to the police.
The data exclude incidents of sexual assault and sodomy, with research suggesting that attempted rapes are much more common than completed rapes, which, like almost all sexual offences, remain underreported.
Dr Paul Theron, a clinical forensic psychologist at Pollsmoor, says his experience with the rehabilitation of offenders is that programmes are “more token than real”.
Theron says advanced, one-to-one therapy by highly trained individuals is needed for sexual offenders, but this is not readily available in the country’s prisons.
“Without this it will be difficult to reach a sound diagnosis or assessment of future risk. We need depth-therapy and experts to apply this, because if you have some half-baked intervention you could end up making a more sophisticated criminal,” he says.
Theron says courts also need to play a bigger role by determining that sexual offenders require specific therapy after sentencing.
The severity of the crime is directly linked to the relationship between victim and sexual offender. The longer the relationship the more violent the offence, Londt says.
“Sexual predators, particularly child sexual perpetrators, can never be cured, can never be rehabilitated. The best we can do is manage them.”
But government seems to be lacking in the management and rehabilitation of offenders.
Carol Bower, executive director of nongovernmental organisation Rapcan (Resources Aimed at the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect), says the correctional services department has made a commitment to promote the rehabilitation of sexual offenders but nothing has come of this.
“What is being done is being done by organisations, and many focus on the rehabilitation of juveniles and not adults,” says Bower.
She says rehabilitation should be a condition of release, because when rapists go to prison, they become more skilled at rape and more violent.
Londt says a checklist can be developed against which a range of criteria can be examined by parole boards before sexual offenders, especially repeat offenders, are released into communities.
Londt says current legislation is inadequate and more focus is needed to make sex offenders accountable, as well as thinking about risk assessments, community education and even poverty alleviation.
Londt says special attention should be given to of offenders who do not respond to treatment, refusing to change their lifestyles, and who continue to prey on communities, remaining a “menace to society and wreaking havoc”.
This group — including paedophiles, perverts, “flashers” and those who commit incest — are the ones more likely to move from community to community, their attacks becoming increasingly more cruel and sadistic.
“They nurture their deviancy like a drug addict, and can’t wait to get their next hit.”
Saying there is no typical profile of a sexual predator, Londt notes as a possible solution in the civil commitment procedure favoured by the US, where repeat sexual offenders are committed to a lock-up facility for the rest of their lives.
“In SA there is no facility for people that persist or continue to pose a danger to children in society,” she says. Services currently provided only cateri for so-called low-risk offenders.
Gideon Morris of the Judicial Inspectorate of Prisons says the necessary facilities and infrastructure exist, but resources are being spent on inmates who do not belong there, hampering effective rehabilitation programmes for those convicted of serious crimes.
He says programmes are offered, but on a limited scale.
“The problem is access to these rehabilitation programmes, with the department having a severe shortage of professionals, such as psychologists.”
Morris says the department agreed with the notion that rehabilitation starts with one’s self, and it cannot force inmates to attend rehabilitation classes, even if attending these can secure an earlier parole release.
Graham Abrahams, spokesman for Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour, says Balfour is considering making rehabilitation programmes compulsory for all prisoners.
“While rehabilitation takes place, it is not done at an optimal level, because of problems such as overcrowding.” Abrahams says the skills shortages in prisons are being addressed by using a “scarce skills remuneration” initiative to get professionals to work at correctional services.
He maintains that rehabilitation programmes currently on offer do work where available, given the limitations.
“Rehabilitation can only be a success if communities start accepting corrections as a societal responsibility, meaning that corrections start in homes, in communities,” Abrahams says.
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Aug 18, 2005 0:48:38 GMT -5
Post by Sher on Aug 18, 2005 0:48:38 GMT -5
If he could do it tomorrow, Gov. Bill Richardson would lock up the worst sex offenders in the state for life.
But the first-term Democrat's plan, which he unveiled Tuesday, needs legislative approval.
Gaining consent from 112 lawmakers in the January 2006 legislative session sounds easy to Albuquerque Republican Sen. Joe Carraro.
"I think all Republicans would support that," said Carraro, who has pushed sex offender legislation in the past. "It appears that some Democrats would support this type of legislation, but it's the governor who controls their vote."
Richardson's proposal includes lifetime prison sentences for some offenders convicted of first-degree aggravated criminal sexual penetration.
Whether an offender spends life in jail would depend on the circumstances of the crime, including the victim's age, the intent of the crime and its brutality.
The proposal would give District Court judges and the state's parole board the authority to sentence offenders to up to lifetime parole. And the governor wants to expand the use of electronic monitoring of sex offenders in New Mexico. There's no cost estimate for the proposal.
Under current law, the most jail time a sex offender can get is 24 years, and the longest parole sentence is 20 years.
Sen. Cisco McSorley, an Albuquerque Democrat who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he's interested in looking at the specifics of Richardson's proposal, which is still being drafted.
"I'm willing to work with the governor to make sure that the focus is on the most important indicators of what makes incurable offenders," he said.
Legislators for years have considered all types of sex offender legislation and have heard from many experts.
"Doctors in hospitals say certain sex offenders really can manage with treatment and don't need lifetime incarceration. The thing is, we don't know what to do with the rest," McSorley said.
New Mexico in 1999 was the last state in the nation to pass a Megan's Law, which created a public registry of convicted sex offenders.
The state since 1995 had registered sex offenders, but the list wasn't available to the public until years later.
Since then, lawmakers have added to the law, in part to comply with federal offender registration laws.
With the state out of compliance from 2000 until this year, it missed out on $400,000 annually in federal crime fighting money.
But Department of Public Safety officials said because of recent changes to state law, it will get that money in the future and retroactively for the years it was out of compliance.
Flanked by key House members who've worked on sex offender laws, Richardson at a news conference in Albuquerque said he wants the state on the cutting edge against sexual predators.
New Mexico would be among the first states to have lifetime imprisonment, should that become law, said John Wheeler, DPS chief counsel.
Richardson said the state still has work to do.
"We have made progress in dealing with sexual predators, but it is clear we must go further," he said. "Despite long prison sentences, compliance with sex offender registration laws and the apparent successful release from treatment programs, certain sexual offenders can never be safely released back into society."
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Aug 18, 2005 0:50:03 GMT -5
Post by Sher on Aug 18, 2005 0:50:03 GMT -5
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed sweeping penalties for sex offenders, including a requirement that paroled molesters wear satellite tracking devices for life.
The governor wants to prohibit registered sex offenders from living near parks and schools. He also seeks to increase penalties for possession of child pornography, date rapists and using the Internet to lure minors for sex acts.
"I'm sponsoring this legislation to give California the strictest laws and toughest penalties for the worst crimes," Schwarzenegger said at a news conference Tuesday. "We want to give greater protection for all Californians — especially our children — against sexual offenders."
If enacted, the legislation would give California some of the toughest laws in the nation for released sex offenders, its supporters said. Lawmakers in Florida recently adopted a similar lifetime monitoring requirement.
Schwarzenegger's proposal could face resistance in the Democratically controlled Legislature. Democrats in the state Senate rejected a bill in June by Sen. Jeff Denham, R-Merced, that would have required lifetime electronic tracking of convicted pedophiles.
The Legislature's annual session ends early next month, giving lawmakers little time to consider such a hefty bill, said Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, who chairs the public safety committee.
"I don't know how we digest a 52-page bill and give it the appropriate attention when we have as many things going on as we do," he said.
Leno said he had not had a chance to read the legislation but said placing all registered sex offenders under satellite surveillance for life would be enormously expensive. He estimated the governor's total package of proposed changes could cost as much as $500 million a year, a price he said included the satellite surveillance, additional jail time for some offenders and longer parole terms.
He also was concerned with placing limits on where registered sex offenders can live. Leno said he knew of someone who violated sex laws more than 30 years ago but who was never again in legal trouble. Nevertheless, that person could lose his apartment under the proposed ban on living near schools and parks, Leno said.
"Is this good public policy?" he said. "I think not."
Schwarzenegger said he did not know the potential cost of imposing lifelong monitoring of sex offenders but said it would be worth the expense.
He was joined at the event by key GOP lawmakers, chiefs of police and district attorneys from throughout the state. Schwarzenegger sidestepped a question about why no Democrats were at the event but said he hoped there would be bipartisan support for the measures and quick passage before the session ends next month.
The legislation, formally titled the Sexual Predator Punishment and Control Act, would be amended into existing bills and is sponsored by state Sen. George Runner, R-Antelope Valley, and his wife, Assemblywoman Sharon Runner, also a Republican. George Runner said there are less than 100,000 parolees who would be required to wear a global positioning device for the rest of their lives.
He said Democrats already have seen almost all the ideas included in the new legislation as separate bills that have been introduced previously. All of those have been rejected either this year or last, he said.
Supporters of Schwarzenegger's proposals decided to put all the changes into one bill and give the Legislature another chance. The issue will go to the ballot if they are unsuccessful this year, he said.
"We think the people of California deserve this," George Runner said. "Our thought was to give the Democrats one more shot and, if not, we've got it as an initiative."
He said the proposed ballot measure already is pending before the attorney general and most likely would be planned for the November 2006 ballot.
The Sexual Predator Punishment and Control Act is amended into Senate Bill 588 and Assembly Bill 231.
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