Keeping track of sex offenders costly

All this to know where registrants SLEEP for a few hours of the day. Officials REFUSE to acknowledge the truth "TRACKING WHERE REGISTRANTS SLEEP" is all a registry does. Nothing this stupid has ever occurred before in history.

9-26-2011 Ohio:

Sheriff puts the low end of costs at about $179,000 annually.

BUTLER COUNTY — Change in laws in the past five years have forced counties to spend thousands of dollars on registering and tracking sex offenders and the way cases are handled in court.

The Butler County sheriff predicts the number of sexual offenders his office must monitor will double in five years, but despite budget woes, he believes keeping vigilant is a high priority.

On average, Sheriff Richard Jones’ office monitors 460 sex offenders. That number jumps to around 700 if juveniles and offenders who only work in the county are included.

The increase in the number of sex offenders will raise the cost of monitoring sex offenders for counties, and some law experts said it will continue to clog the court system.

“Is it expensive? It’s expensive not to do it,” Jones said. “If you look at the current trends, whatever I have now I suspect in five years it’s probably going to be doubled or tripled because some of these people have to register for life.”

Jones’ department keeps the Ohio Attorney General’s office, which manages the sex offender registry, apprised when offenders move in, move out or phase out of the reporting requirement, and the sheriff demands face-to-face random verification that offenders are where they said they were going to live.

A low estimate of the cost of dealing with sex offenders is $179,000 annually, Jones said. That number includes salaries for the assistant prosecutor, who handles all cases involving children, the sheriff’s deputies who monitor offenders once they leave prison, mailing costs for notifications that go out to neighbors when a sex offender moves into town and costs to hunt down offenders who have skipped the state and violated reporting requirements.

Those costs don’t include other prosecutors who handle adult sex cases in the seven county common pleas courts or benefits, or ancillary costs like gas for the deputies who monitor the offenders regularly, sheriff officials said.

Lawmen have had to get creative dealing with the changes in laws in recent years. Legislators in 2007 passed a law that forced the attorney general and all sheriff’s offices to reclassify sexual offenders. Then the Ohio Supreme Court struck down part of the law and did so again recently saying offenders couldn’t retroactively be required to comply with new reporting requirements. As a result, the attorney general’s office has had to reclassify almost 30,000 sex offenders.

The across the board changes, with reporting requirements for even the least severe of sex crimes, have also permeated the court system. Chris Pagan, a defense attorney who has represented people accused of sex crimes, says the law is clogging the docket.

“It is certainly a lot more difficult to settle sex cases now than it was before,” he said. “People who are truly innocent, the fact that there would be a registration requirement is a deal stopper most of the time.”

Some question why sex offenders are required to register and submit to monitoring, but murderers, robbers, burglars and other criminals remain virtually invisible once they are released from prison.

Matt Kanai, general counsel for law enforcement for the state attorney general’s office, said registration isn’t meant to punish the offenders; it is a tool for the public. Sex offenders, he said, are viewed as people who will likely attack again, so keeping tabs on them and providing their locations to the public is a service.

“Sex offenders do tend to operate in their neighborhood. Crimes like murder aren’t neighborhood specific. They are not necessarily looking at everyone that’s mowing their yard or walking down the sidewalk as their next potential victim,” Kanai said. “Murders happen in the heat of the moment or in a bar or liquor store. Those people aren’t thinking when I see people walking down the street I want to go murder that person, but sex offenders we do have that concern, that every person is a potential victim.”

However, a study by J.J. Prescott of the University of Michigan and Jonah Rockoff of Columbia University in 2010 found while registering sex offenders appears to be a good, notifying the public is not always a good thing. Public notification may scare away those inclined to be future offenders. But it appears to actually increase the likelihood that convicted sex offenders will offend again, the study shows analyzing national crime data.

Monitoring sex offenders

Glenda Moore, who owns and operates Tiny Times Daycare said she appreciates that sex offenders are monitored and keeps a notebook of local sex offenders on the front desk for staffers to reference.

“Unfortunately, in today’s climate we have to,” she said. “If someone new moves in or someone in the area moves, we get a report from the police immediately.”

The closest sex offender to the facility at 50 Smalley Boulevard facility is less than 500 feet away in the 100 block of the road.

However, that offender, who was convicted in 2004 of raping an 11-year-old boy, is allowed to live there because he perpetrated the crime before recent rules were enacted.

“He lived there before he committed that, which is kind of crazy, and he owns the property, but that’s what they told us,” Moore said. “We were all upset by that because we’re like, what does that have to do with it? He committed that (crime), he shouldn’t be that close to children, but that’s the law. We don’t have too much choice.”

Moore said a better option would be giving sex offenders a certain amount of time to find a new residence in the event they owned property near a daycare center or school prior to their conviction.

“I think you give up those kind of rights when you commit those kind of crimes,” she said. Under state licensing requirements, daycares must undergo six hours of training every three years in how to check for the signs of child abuse and how to keep informed of where sex offenders are.

Being informed as a business owner made her check out who lives around her Monroe home, Moore said.

“It makes you much more aware,” she said.

Staying aware of sex offenders’ movements also is a challenge for local schools, who take action to ensure teachers and parents are well-informed.

“On occasion, when there is a sex offender identified in the area, we get a notice from the county and our Human Resources office will make copies and distribute it to all the different buildings,” said Joni Copas, spokesperson for Hamilton City Schools. “Our director of transportation, Becky Goosey, gets the notices, too, and she also checks the website on a regular basis. She has at times made adjustments, moving a bus stop down the street a little, if there’s been a sex offender identified in the area.”

Parents also help the district keep track of sex offenders, Copas said.

“They get the notices and will let us know when they see things that are suspicious,” she said.

Cost of keeping track

Deputy Mike Jacobs and part-time help from the rest of the sheriff’s office keep track of an average 460 sexual offenders – a job two-and a half people did a few years ago. On average, Jacobs makes 20 changes a day in the system, registers about 120 new offenders a year and has about 70 registrations expire annually.

The number of offenders who don’t register is under 10 percent, but the sheriff’s office could not give an accurate number.

Lt. Mike Craft said they have adjusted to cope with the dwindling county coffers in bad economic times.

“Budget cuts have hurt Mike tremendously and Sgt. (Mike) Nutt and Mike have been able to balance this thing and utilize other people in the department to pick up some of the slack to get the same efficient job done we’ve always done,” Craft said.

The National Alliance to End Sexual Violence, an organization that focuses on public policy and public education to end sexual violence, opposes residency restrictions because research has shown that sex offenders with stable housing and social support are less likely to commit new sex offenses compared to those offenders who lack such stability.

“There is no evidence that these laws protect children,” according to NAESV policy. “In fact, those states that have studied the issue carefully have found no relationship between sex offense recidivism and sex offenders’ proximity to schools or other places where children congregate.”

“Because residency requirements cause instability, which may increase the risk of re-offense, NAESV opposes residency restrictions.”

A 50-year-old Hamilton man convicted in 1996 of raping a female adult said sex offender registration and residency requirements prevent people from getting jobs and integrating back into society.

“I know one guy, he’s certified in 10 different areas of automotive repair, one of the best mechanics there is, and he can’t get a job,” he said. “Drug dealers cost this country billion of dollars in lost life, lost property and jail time because drug dealing is way more harmful.”

Registering as a sex offender, he said, does little to actually deter people from breaking the law, he said.

What about people who want to be notified if such a person moves into their neighborhood?

“If somebody moves into your neighborhood and you don’t like it, well, this is still America,” he said. “You’re allowed to live wherever you want, to an extent.”

He said being required to register every 90 days means writing a reminder “in great big letters” 10 days before the registration date and coughing up a $25 registration fee.

“It’s turning into a money pit,” he said. “It’s going to turn into its own private little entity: the sex offender police.”

He suggested that registration be done on a case by case basis with a deputy that talks and monitors sex offenders every day, rather than a sheriff or a judge.

“He should be able to make an assessment to say ‘We’ve got this dude’s DNA and fingerprints, we’ve got files of his pictures and we know what kind of car he drives, This dude ain’t going to be able to do anything that we’re not going to be aware of if he was to recommit,’ ” he said.

A 74-year-old Middletown man convicted in 2003 of gross sexual imposition and the attempted rape of a young girl said society should weigh each case on its own merits, rather than lumping all sex offenders together and stigmatizing them for life.

However, the first-time offender said he understands the desire to have sex offenders register as required.

“I think society needs a way to have some kind of control,” he said.

The man, who works for himself, said sex offenders typically face scrutiny, if not outright rejection, when it comes to applying for better jobs.

“They want a clean record,” he said. “I wanted to apply for a certain position ... but I refrained because of not having a criminal-free background.”

Law enforcement officials checking up sometimes seemed like an “infringement” on his space but he understands why they have to do it.

Despite all the monitoring, he’s never had trouble of any kind with neighbors, customers or acquaintances who find out about his checkered past. ..Source.. by Denise G. Callahan and Eric Schwartzberg, Staff Writers