Calif. sex offender's law questioned, Jessica's Law.

There's no evidence Jessica's Law works, California officials say A state board says tight residency limits on sex offenders have driven many to homelessness, which could propel them back into crime. The state spends $25 million housing some of the offenders. By Michael Rothfeld January 14, 2009 Reporting from Sacramento -- A state panel is urging the governor and legislators to change "Jessica's Law," saying its restrictions on where sex offenders can live are counterproductive and calling the nearly $25 million a year spent to house them a poor use of taxpayers' money. The residency restrictions, passed by voters more than two years ago in Proposition 83, have never been shown to prevent new crimes and may reduce public safety, the panel says. Since 70% of voters approved the initiative, "the availability of suitable housing has plummeted," the state's Sex Offender Management Board said in a report sent to lawmakers this week. The state previously had more modest residency limits that applied only to certain sex offenders. Jessica's Law expanded the restrictions to all sex offenders and greatly reduced the locations where they could reside. Barring sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of schools, parks and other areas where children gather has driven many into homelessness, an unstable situation that can propel them back to crime, according to the board. State corrections officials say they find housing and pay rent for about 800 who are on parole, but they cannot house them all; the number of homeless sex offenders on parole is 12 times as large as it was when the law was passed. "It seems unwise to spend such resources as a consequence of residence restriction policies which have no track record of increasing community safety," board members wrote. Proposition 83 expanded both the categories of sex offenders included and the limits on where they could live. Scott Kernan, undersecretary for adult operations at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, said his agency is discussing plans to scale back its housing of sex offenders, some of whom have their rent paid by the state for several years while they are on parole, to a shorter period such as 60 or 90 days. "I don't know that we can continue to pay long-term for sex offender housing in the current fiscal situation," Kernan said. He said the housing, often in motels or halfway-house settings where multiple sex offenders live, was always meant to be transitional. But with the passage of Jessica's Law, he said, many have been housed for longer because they have little money and their families' residences may fall in a prohibited zone. And Kernan said some local officials have created extra barriers -- for example, creating parks on highway medians to make certain neighborhoods off-limits. The Sex Offender Management Board was created in 2006, with 17 members to be appointed by lawmakers and the governor. It includes state and local officials from law enforcement, judicial and social services backgrounds. It has advocated for the state to focus on the offenders who pose the highest risk and to use practices -- such as treatment -- that have been shown to work. The state does not provide treatment while offenders are in prison. Jessica's Law makes little distinction between high- and low-risk offenders, addressing all of them equally with lifetime residency restrictions and satellite tracking. State lawmakers can alter the initiative with a two-thirds vote. Robert Coombs, a spokesman for the board's chairwoman, said the members found it infeasible to call for abolishing the residency restrictions, given the sweeping voter approval of Proposition 83. He said state and local officials have the power to interpret the law to allow more housing for sex offenders, but the board believes that the likelihood of legislators fixing the problems in more comprehensive ways -- at least in the short term -- is slim. "I can't imagine a policymaker who would put their name on something that says we want to make it easier for sex offenders to find housing," Coombs said. "Even though it's a strong public safety concept," lawmakers would be setting themselves up for political attack. Responding to the criticism that residency restrictions have no benefit to public safety, state Sen. George Runner (R-Lancaster), an author of the initiative, said, "I do believe the general public would say a child molester should not live across the street from a school." Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a strong supporter of Proposition 83, has said he is open to revisions but has not suggested any. Jeanne Woodford, a former state corrections secretary under Schwarzenegger, said the residency restrictions should be abolished. She said many states are reexamining their handling of sex offenders in light of studies showing that there is little utility in registration requirements and other laws the public has supported to keep track of them. "The bottom line is, this is really what happens when we allow our emotions to get the best of us, as opposed to dealing with the facts," she said. michael.rothfeld@latimes.com http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-offenders14-2009jan14,0,1944251.story?track=rss

Panel urges change to Jessica's Law Los Angles Times Posted: 01/17/2009 04:41:13 PM PST Updated: 01/18/2009 07:17:14 AM PST SACRAMENTO — A state panel is urging the governor and legislators to change Jessica's Law, saying its restrictions on where sex offenders can live are counterproductive and calling the nearly $22 million a year spent to house them a poor use of taxpayer money. The residency limits backed by voters in Proposition 83 may actually reduce public safety, the panel says. Since passing in November 2006, "the availability of suitable housing has plummeted," the state's Sex Offender Management Board said in a report to lawmakers recently. "It seems unwise to spend such resources as a consequence of residence restriction policies which have no track record of increasing community safety," board members wrote. Scott Kernan, undersecretary for adult operations at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, said parolee housing assistance is meant to be transitional. But with Jessica's Law, he said, many have been housed longer because they have little money and their families' homes may fall in a prohibited zone. Some local officials have created extra barriers, Kernan said — for example, creating parks on highway medians to make certain neighborhoods off-limits. The 17-member board, created in 2006, includes state and local officials from law enforcement, judicial and social services backgrounds. It has advocated a focus on high-risk offenders and practices — such as treatment — that have been shown to work. Jessica's Law makes little distinction between high- and low-risk offenders. State lawmakers can alter the initiative with a two-thirds vote. Robert Coombs, a spokesman for the board's chairwoman, said the members did not find it feasible to call for abolishing the residency restrictions, given sweeping voter approval of Prop. 83. He said state and local officials can interpret the law to allow more housing for sex offenders, but the board believes the chance of a comprehensive fix — at least in the short term — is slim. "I can't imagine a policymaker who would put their name on something that says we want to make it easier for sex offenders to find housing," Coombs said. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a strong public supporter of Prop. 83, has said he is open to revisions but has not suggested any. Jeanne Woodford, a former state corrections secretary under Schwarzenegger, favors abolishing the residency limits. Woodford pointed to studies showing there is little utility in registration requirements and other laws the public has supported to keep track of them. "The bottom line is, this is really what happens when we allow our emotions to get the best of us, as opposed to dealing with the facts," she said. http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/localnews/ci_11480444?source=rss

State spends millions on rents for paroled sex offenders, sometimes illegally By John Simerman Contra Costa Times Posted: 01/17/2009 04:35:06 PM PST Updated: 01/18/2009 06:25:54 AM PST State corrections officials spent nearly $22 million last year on apartments and motel rooms for hundreds of paroled sex offenders, paying more than $2,000 a month for some parolees and housing others in locations apparently prohibited under Jessica's Law, according to a MediaNews analysis of bank drafts issued by parole agents and addresses from the Megan's Law sex offender database. The housing assistance, which has run for more than two years for some parolees, highlights a dilemma state officials face trying to enforce a voter-approved ban on sex offenders living within 2,000 feet of a school or a park where kids "regularly gather." They must either find scarce housing and pay to put them up, or deal with a steeper rise in sex offenders who become homeless and lose the stability that experts call crucial to preventing recidivism. A top state corrections official acknowledged that parole agents have sometimes spent state funds to house sex offenders in areas that officials later learned were illegal. He was unaware of some local examples MediaNews found using state data and a GPS handset: In El Cerrito, a parole office has spent as much as $300 a week for sex offenders to live at the Budget Inn on San Pablo Avenue. The motel is within 700 feet of Mendocino Park, a neighborhood playground where small children swing, scramble through play structures and ride tricycles. A corrections spokesman said parole officials realized a few months ago that the motel violated Jessica's Law and now they only pay for sex offenders to live there who are not subject to the 2,000-foot rule. The state has paid rent for sex offenders at an apartment complex in Martinez that stands about 1,000 feet from the gates of John Muir National Historic Site, which sees a steady stream of school field trip groups. The corrections spokesman said they don't consider the historic site, run by the National Park Service, to be a park. Jessica's Law, or Proposition 83, did not define a park, or how to measure the 2,000 feet — about four-tenths of a mile. Parole agents use GPS. Now, in the face of a worsening state budget crisis, the department plans to sharply scale back the housing payments, returning to a practice of giving limited, short-term assistance, said Scott Kernan, undersecretary for adult operations in the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. "I think it's reasonable we provide that housing on a temporary basis, but we're not going to pay for housing indefinitely," Kernan said. "Those that have been on housing subsidy for a couple of years at $500 a week, we need to ween them off of that. I'm not saying we're going to put them homeless. But if you continue to pay for housing, the offender has no incentive to go out and find other housing." Kernan acknowledged that the number of homeless sex offenders will likely grow even faster as the state pulls back. Since Jessica's Law passed in November 2006, the number of paroled sex offenders who register as "transient" has surged, from 88 to 1,257 as of Dec. 28. A report last month by the California Sex Offender Management Board, which includes state and local law enforcement, prosecutors and treatment experts, cited research linking homelessness and a higher risk of sexual re-offending. "Residential instability leads to unstable employment and lower levels of social support. Unstable employment and lack of social support lead to emotional and mental instability. Emotional and mental instability breaks down the ability to conform and leads to a greater risk of committing another sex crime," the report says. The announcement last week that the state has strapped GPS anklets on all 6,622 parolee sex offenders statewide makes the cutback more sensible, Kernan said. "It's good public safety to make sure we know where those offenders are," he said. "At the time we started a lot of this housing, we didn't have all the sex offenders strapped." Critics note that GPS only tracks where a sex offender goes — usually after the fact, since most parolee sex offenders are on "passive" GPS — not what they do there. "GPS devices are very helpful in solving crimes. It does nothing to prevent a future offense from occurring," said Deputy Attorney General Janet Neely, who sits on the state Sex Offender Management Board and says Jessica's Law created a public safety risk. Parole authorities paid to house sex offenders before Jessica's Law, but the cost has since risen sharply, despite repeated claims by corrections officials that "We are not in the housing business." In mid-2006, the department spent less than $200,000 a month on sex offender housing. By last summer it reached $1.7 million a month. One result: Growing pockets of paroled sex offenders across the state. In the Bay Area, the state paid rent for at least 125 sex offenders in October and the first half of November — the most recent data available. At one Oakland motel along Interstate 880 near the Coliseum, 18 paroled sex offenders were living on state funding, the data show. A dozen more were at a motel along Monterey Highway in San Jose, with a dozen more at a motel on Hayward's Industrial Parkway. Parole offices vary widely in their spending. A Stockton office spent the most overall, paying $112,600 in October alone to house 133 sex offenders. Kernan said the state has shied from paying rents that might be cheaper but would place sex offenders in neighborhoods where residents may balk. "I don't think we're trying to concentrate them in one area," he said. "There is just so limited housing in these communities." The spending contradicts a state policy directive last year that said the bank drafts are "not intended to be a long-term resolution to the parolee's financial problems," and "shall not exceed 60 days" except in limited cases. Under the policy, the money is a loan that parolees must repay. But that seldom happens, according to the state data. "When I first got out, they were having me pay it. When I found out only a few of us were paying it, I didn't see that was fair, so I stopped paying," said, Vincent Beas, 47, a parolee sex offender who has received free rent for more than two years at a Budget Inn in Santa Fe Springs in Los Angeles County. "They put it down like it's a loan, but I don't know where they get that." Beas lives alongside a few dozen paroled sex offenders at the Budget Inn, with the state paying $400 a week for each. Parolees watch free HBO in their rooms and get complementary continental breakfast. Maids change their sheets every other day. There's a pool, but parolees say they don't use it: Their GPS devices might get wet. The 101-room motel bills itself as an "affordable gem (that) offers great lodging for family vacations and business trips" just minutes from Disneyland. "It's decent. It's not a Hilton or anything. It's a roof over my head for right now," said Jeffery Semenoff, 39. "Look at it this way: There's probably (dozens of) registrants here. You're going to cut housing and put all those on the streets. How's the community going to think? It's a Catch-22 situation." Some parole offices already have pulled back on the housing assistance. One parolee said he was ordered last week to leave a room in the North Richmond house; he had been there too long. The parolee, who insisted on anonymity to avoid repercussions, said he now spends hours in a parole office parking lot, watching movies on a DVD player in his Honda Accord. "I believe I'm balanced. I'm levelheaded, and this right here is probably worse than prison right now," said the man, 46, who was convicted of rape in 1982, returned to prison on an embezzlement rap, then was released in May to find himself subject to the 2,000-foot ban. "If I didn't have this car right now, where would I be? It's crazy." The onslaught of paroled sex offenders struggling to find affordable and legal housing — especially in urban regions such as the Bay Area, where parks and schools pepper the landscape — owes largely to the Schwarzenegger administration's broad interpretation of a vaguely worded ballot measure. Under Jessica's Law, anyone required to register as a sex offender must heed the 2,000-foot restriction for life. Federal and state courts have ruled that it cannot be enforced retroactively, and a state appeals court recently ruled that it affects only those who committed a sex crime after the law passed. But the state Supreme Court has yet to weigh in. In the meantime, the state insists it also applies to all registered sex offenders who return to prison for whatever reason. More than 90 percent of the parolees who fall under the 2,000-foot rule committed their sex crimes before the law passed, officials estimate. Heeding the lower court rulings "would slow things down," Neely said. "Parole has had a complete disaster trying to place these people in appropriate housing situations." But the author of Jessica's Law, which passed with 70 percent of the vote, said he favored "shifting the responsibility" for parolee housing back to the offender. "One of my concerns has always been that sometimes Corrections follows the easiest path, and sometimes the easiest path is, we'll write the check out and find the easiest place," said Sen. George Runner, R-Antelope Valley. "That being said, I think, quite frankly, the people of California are prepared to pay for some of this. I think they set a priority when they said we don't want these individuals living next to schools or parks." Several experts say there is little evidence of a link between where a convicted sex offender lives and the likelihood he will reoffend. That didn't much ease Keith Wilson's mind as he played with his first-grade son in the park near the Budget Inn in El Cerrito. "Certain things are absolute," Wilson said. "If we're going to pay $2,000 a month, let's put them on a farm somewhere with an electrified fence." Runner said he recognizes problems with Jessica's Law and hopes the Legislature will fix them. Last year he wrote a bill to narrow the definition of a park and measure the 2,000 feet by travel distance, not GPS. But it also would have directed local agencies to track sex offenders by GPS once off parole, with no money to pay for it. The bill failed. The state board this year is expected to recommend legislative changes to Prop. 83, which would require a two-thirds vote. The state Supreme Court also is expected to rule on a challenge by four parolees who committed sex crimes before it passed. Board vice chairman Tom Tobin, a psychiatrist who works with sex offenders, applauded corrections officials for attempting to keep paroled sex offenders under a roof. "I think the department was trying to do its best for community safety, claiming all the while that we are not really in the housing business," Tobin said. "They didn't want to sign on the dotted line and say, 'We take responsibility for where these guys live.' I think they were kind of caught between doing that and saying, 'Oh well, so they don't have any place to live. Proposition 83 (Jessica's Law) Passed: Nov. 7, 2006, with 70 percent of the vote What it did: Increased penalties for violent and habitual sex offenders and child molesters; banned those required to register from living within 2,000 feet of a school or a park where children "regularly gather." Required lifetime monitoring by Global Positioning System of felony registered sex offenders. Expanded the pool of sex offenders eligible for involuntary commitment as sexually violent predators. Cost: The Legislative Analyst's Office estimated Jessica's Law would cost taxpayers "a couple hundred million dollars annually within 10 years." The controversy: Critics say the law is vague by not defining a park or how to measure 2,000 feet. They say the state is misapplying the law by applying it to many whose sex crimes came before it passed. Several sex offenders have challenged the law, arguing that it amounts to added punishment and unconstitutional banishment. Backers say it is a civil regulation similar to zoning laws. The state Supreme Court will likely decide its fate. http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/localnews/ci_11480390

View Full Version: Calif. sex offender's law questioned, Jessica's Law.