Congress to Hear Testimony on the Adam Walsh Act, March 10, 2009



The Adam Walsh Act Working Group would like to inform you of a LEGISLATIVE HEARING

on

The Adam Walsh Child Protection & Safety Act's Sex Offender Registration and
Notification Act (SORNA): Barriers to Timely Compliance by States By Direction
of U.S. Representative Robert C. "Bobby" Scott, Chairman of the U.S. House
Judiciary's Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security


DATE: TUESDAY, MARCH 10, 2009

PLACE: Capitol Hill, 2141 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, D.C.

TIME: 2:00 p.m.
WITNESSESS:

Majority

Amy Borror, Public Information Officer, Office of the Ohio Public Defender

Madeline Carter, Director, Center for Sex Offender Management, Center for Effective Public Policy

Emma Devillier, Assistant Attorney General of Louisiana, Chief Sexual PredatorUnit

Robert Shilling, Detective, Seattle Police Department

Minority

Ernie Allen, Executive Director, National Center for Missing and Exploited
Children

Mark Lunsford, Father of Jessica Lunsford

MEMBERS OF THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON CRIME OF THE HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE

DEMOCRATS

Rep. Bobby Scott, Chair (VI, 3rd District) - Telephone: (202) 225-8351

Resident Commissioner Pedro Pierluisi (Puerto Rico) - Telephone: (202) 225-2615

Rep. Jerrold Nadler (NY, 8th District) - Telephone: (202) 225-5635

Rep. Zoe Lofgren (CA, 16th District) - Telephone: (202) 225-3072

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (TX, 18th District) - Telephone: (202) 225-3816

Rep. Maxine Waters (CA, 35th District) - Telephone: (202) 225-2201

Rep. Steve Cohen (TN, 9th District) - Telephone: (202) 225-3265

Rep. Anthony Weiner (NY, 9th District) - Telephone: (202) 225-6616

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL, 20th District) - Telephone: (202) 225-7931


REPUBLICANS

Rep. Louie Gohmert (TX, 1st District) - Telephone: (202) 225-3035

Rep. Ted Poe (TX, 2nd District) - Telephone: (202) 225-6565

Rep. Bob Goodlatte (VI, 6th District) - Telephone: (202) 225-5431

Rep. Daniel Lungren (CA, 3rd District) - Telephone: (202) 225-5716

Rep. J. Randy Forbes (VI, 4th District) - Telephone: (202) 225-6365

Rep. Thomas Rooney (FL, 16th District) - Telephone: (202) 225-5792

-------------------------------------

A live video webcast available at:

http://judiciary.house.gov/hearings/calendar.html

Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Washington, D.C. March 5, 2009

U.S. Congress to hear testimony regarding the Adam Walsh Act

On Tuesday, March 10, 2009 at 2:00 p.m., the Subcommittee on Crime of the House Judiciary Committee of the U.S. Congress will hear testimony regarding the Adam Walsh Act (AWA) in a public hearing at 2141 Rayburn House Office Building.

The Adam Walsh Act Working Group (AWAWG) is comprised of national and tribal organizations and experts whose goal is the establishment of effective policies to protect children from sexual violence. The members of AWAWG support the legislative hearing as means of examining the difficulties government agencies are experiencing in trying to come into compliance with the law, and the Act's unintended consequences and uncertain public safety gains. Complying with the AWA carries large costs for states struggling with budget shortfalls, while the burdens on law enforcement
and the impact of registration for families--particularly for youth who appear on registries-- undermine the law's intended purpose and impede the outcome of ensuring public safety. The AWA has also raised serious questions about implementation and compliance for sovereign Indian nations.

The Adam Walsh Act Working Group is asking policymakers to push back the deadline for requiring state compliance with AWA until Congress has an opportunity to thoroughly review the evidence related to the effectiveness of the requirements of the law and to consider possible statutory reform.

AWA mandates (via penalties for non-compliance) that states participate in a national registry of people convicted of sex offenses and expands the type of offenses for which a person must register. Registration applies to both adults and children aged 14 or older convicted of certain offenses. "In the push to protect children from sexual violence, lawmakers have cast the net so wide that some children are branded as sexual predators and placed on sex offense registries, in some cases, for the rest of their lives," says Nicole Pittman of the Defender Association of Philadelphia and representing the National Juvenile Defender Center. "This is inconsistent with the goals of the juvenile justice system, and doesn't take into account that children are different than adults and are the most responsive to treatment."

In the last two years, states have analyzed the financial costs of complying with AWA and many have concluded that the costs and requirements of implementation may far exceed the penalties for noncompliance and, indeed, may exceed requirements in the Act itself. The deadline for compliance is July 2009. Furthermore, given that the AWA is duplicative of requirements under many states' own sex offender registries, this burden of compliance with the federal statute may actually hinder public safety.

"The new requirements of the Adam Walsh act will place additional financial strain on our already cash strapped state budget," said Anne Jordan, commissioner of the Maine Department of Public Safety and National Criminal Justice Association Advisory Council member. Tracy Velázquez, executive director of the Justice Policy Institute added, "States may have to choose between implementing these new regulations and the practices that have already been proven to be effective in protecting public safety. The Act also limits states' discretion in doing what they think is right in this very sensitive area of justice."

The Adam Walsh Act, as it is currently written, does not utilize the evidence-based practices that both states and researchers have found to be effective tools in preventing sexual violence and holding accountable people who have been convicted of sexual offenses. "State struggles with compliance are bringing to light the misalignment of AWA with what is known about sexual violence prevention and intervention," says Alisa Klein of the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers.

The hearing, called by Congressman Robert C. "Bobby" Scott, Chair of the House Subcommittee on Crime, will be the first public hearing held for the Adam Walsh Act, which was passed in 2006. The hearing will include testimony from:

Majority

- Amy Borror, Public Information Officer, Office of the Ohio Public Defender

- Madeline Carter, Director, Center for Sex Offender Management, Center for
Effective Public Policy

- Emma Devillier, Assistant Attorney General of Louisiana; Chief, Sexual
Predator Unit

- Robert Shilling, Detective, Seattle Police Department, Sex and Kidnapping
Offender Detail and Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Unit, Interpol Specialists
Group on Crimes Against Children

Minority

- Ernie Allen, Executive Director, National Center for Missing and Exploited
Children

- Mark Lunsford, father of Jessica Lunsford

The Adam Walsh Act Working Group, which is continuing to attract a growing number of organizations and experts across a number of professional disciplines concerned with the prevention of sexual violence and the protection of children, currently includes the following members:

Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers The Council of State Governments CURE Defender Association of Philadelphia Justice Policy Institute National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers National Congress of American Indians National Conference of State Legislators National Criminal Justice Association National Juvenile Defender Center Office of the Ohio Public Defender
***

“Therapy works for these people. Let them be punished for their crimes, let them out and let them get on with their lives. Let them work. Let them have stable homes and families and let them live in peace. Harassing them, making them move and continually punishing them does far more harm than good. A sex offender in therapy with a job and a place to live is less of a threat than one that is constantly harassed.”




What You Can Do.

Please contact the Members of Congress below who sit on the House Judiciary
Committee's Subcommittee on Crime. Please call their offices, especially if you
are from the state or district of one of them, and share with them (or their
staff members) the following "talking points":

- State your name and address, and if you care to, the work that you do in preventing sexual abuse and working on sex offender treatment, management, and research issues

- "I would like to encourage Representative _____________ to attend the Tuesday, March 10th legislative hearing on the Adam Walsh Act's Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA). It is at 2:00 p.m."

- I encourage Representative ______________ to support the goals of the hearing:

- to consider the issues and insurmountable barriers posed by the call for SORNA compliance by states;

- to consider how SORNA may impact public safety aims;

- to examine current research and best practices for the assurance of public safety;

- to seek alternatives to the SORNA for effective sex offender management;

- to push back the date for final compliance with the SORNA;

- to establish research committees to examine the variety of issues both
logistical/practical and in terms of the effectiveness of the public safety aims

of the SORNA, including but not limited to how SORNA impacts juveniles, the use of actuarial risk assessment-based tiering of sex offenders v. offense-based tiering, the impact of the demand for SORNA implementation in sovereign Indian nations, and the possible legal issues and ramifications of SORNA implementation; and

- to consider possible statutory reform of the SORNA portion of the Adam Walsh Act.