Well, if you can froggin' believe it, about three seconds into the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security Hearings on Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA): Barriers to Timely Compliance by States, the dang feed went to black.
Aaaggrrrhhh!
So, I had to settle for the Witness List read, which actually sounded sort of promising in their own self-serving way.
I also ran across a post over at PCMag--States Failing to Comply with Sex Offender Registry--where Rep.(and Chair) Bobby Scott asks the obvious...
(I love this guy).Rep. Scott questioned whether an expensive registry would help reduce crime.
"I don't think there'd be much question in the minds of the states [about implementation] if they were convinced that it would have a significant impact on crime," he said.
Also, seems like the development of a task force "...to examine the practical effects of the Act on public safety and possible reform to address the concerns raised here and those recommended by the task force..." is a possibility.
But...
...nothing is as great as being there, so if anyone downloaded the video, please feel free to post the link. Also, I'd love to hear your thoughts, observations, who was there, (specifically Deb Wasserman Schultz) who wasn't, what you thought, etc. etc. etc.
I want to know!
Witness List Highlights
The Majority
Emma J. Devillier
Asst. Attorney General
Criminal Division
Office of the Attorney General of LA
Chief Sexual Predator Unit
Baton Rouge, LA
"We, however, believe very strongly that SORNA, did not get it right.
SORNA is not the pinnacle of good public policy where sex offender tracking is
concerned. In fact, in some respects it is not good policy at all."
FIRST HURDLE: LACK OF TIMELY AND ACCURATE GUIDANCE
SECOND HURDLE: GUIDELINES ARE NOT PRACTICAL
THIRD HURDLE: SMART OFFICE DETERMINATION THAT SUBSTANTIAL COMPLIANCE MEANS ACTUAL (STRICT) COMPLIANCE
FOURTH HURDLE: RETROACTIVE APPLICATION OF THE ACT
***
Madeline Carter
Principal
Center for Sex Offender Management
Center for Effective Public Policy
Silver Spring, MD
Point #1: Sex offender policy and practice should be evidence based
Point #2: Not all sex offenders are alike. (No kidding?)
Point #3: Risk assessment is an important tool in our management arsenal. If a one size fits all approach is not appropriate, we need a way to distinguish among sex offenders.
Point #4: There is no silver bullet.
Point #5: We should use the lessons of research and experience to build a better, stronger approach to reducing victimization.
***
Det. Robert Shilling
Seattle Police Department, Sex and Kidnapping Offender Detail
Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Unit
Seattle, WA
"Prior to becoming a detective in the Special Victims Unit, I like many citizens, believed the only way to manage sex offenders was to put them on a distant island where they couldn’t victimize anyone else. My feelings were naïve, yet a heartfelt response to a very complex problem. (...)"
"I’ve trained law enforcement officers from all over the world in the art of educating the community about sex offenders. I’ve stated: “You can’t do community notification without community education. To do so is like smoking a cigarette while standing in a pool of gasoline.” Without education there’s misinformation. Misinformation leads to heightened anxiety, which in some cases, leads to vigilantism. The community deserves to know who the high-risk sex offenders are in the community, about the relatively low sex offender recidivism rates, and what research tells us. Citizens can and will act responsibly if we are honest with them. They are better able to protect themselves and their loved ones when we educate them about sex offenders."
"I ask that you consider how the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA) impacts the public safety aims of effectively managing sex offenders in the community. The SORNA does not mandate community education as a component of community notification. This is a recipe for disaster and leaves citizens trying to sort out fact from myth, truth from emotion, and what to do next. This creates public safety concerns and does not have the citizens invested in offender success. It has the opposite effect."
***
Amy Borror
Public Information Officer
Office of the Ohio Public Defender
Columbus, OH
"Sex offender registration and notification laws are supposed to be forward-looking, aimed at protecting the public from future crimes. Risk-based systems, like Ohio’s prior scheme, do a much better job of addressing the stated aim of sex offender registries: protecting the public from future criminal acts.
In its position paper on the Adam Walsh Act, the National Alliance to End Sexual Violence(NAESV), a victim advocacy organization that conducts the public policy work of state sexual assault coalitions and rape crisis centers, states that, “over-inclusive public notification can actually be harmful to public safety by diluting the ability to identify the most dangerous offenders and by disrupting the stability of low-risk offenders in ways that may increase their risk of re-offense. Therefore, NAESV believes that internet disclosure and community notification should be limited to those offenders who pose the highest risk of re-offense.”
"The Adam Walsh Act, however, is not concerned with the likelihood of future crimes. It looks only at past offenses and labels offenders based on those past offenses, without considering what those offenders might do in the future."
"The effects of the Adam Walsh Act, once implemented, contravene the Act’s well-intentioned goals. An act intended to unify registries across the country has instead placed an incredible burden on courts and law enforcement and created confusion from one jurisdiction to another. A law aimed at protecting children from sexual predators instead places thousands of juveniles, many of whom have been sexually abused, on an online registry and into harm’s way. A system meant to simplify sex offender classification has instead muddled the meaning of offenders’ designations, and left the public to only speculate about which prior offenders might pose a future risk."
The Minority
Ernie Allen
President & Chief Executive Officer
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
Alexandria, VA
"In our judgment, providing such funding is the key to being able to finally implement this critical system. However, with the compliance date looming and with essentially no funding having been provided to date, we think it imperative that Congress act to keep the Adam Walsh Act alive by extending the deadline for compliance and reauthorizing the statute."
Mark Lunsford
Father of Jessica Lunsford
the Victim of a Sex Offense
Homasassa, FL
"In Florida, the law is so slacked that the public is only notified of sexual offenders, and thatis at the discretion of each sheriffs department. The public is not notified when a sexualpredator moves, (sic)" (BTW, the notification statement is a flat lie).
