New study: Tracking sex offenders will cost millions more

2-2-2011 Iowa:

Iowa lawmakers received new evidence Tuesday that the cost and consequences of tracking sex offenders in the next decade will be at least $30 million more than is now spent, unless officials find better ways to curb costs while guarding public safety.

A report from Iowa’s Division of Juvenile and Justice Planning shows that special, post-prison sentences for sex offenders will increase parole caseloads in Iowa by more than 50 percent by 2020. An estimated 2,300 additional sex offenders will have to be monitored for 10 years or life, according to an Iowa law passed in 2005.

That rising number of offenders will increase the state’s minimum monitoring costs each year by $3.05 million, through 2020.

The new research was conducted for Iowa’s Sex Offender Research Council, an advisory group that is recommending the state begin examining best practices for supervising sex offenders. The goal would be to curb, where possible, monitoring if someone is unlikely to commit new crimes.

But leaders of public safety and judiciary committees in the Legislature said Tuesday that no major changes to existing sex offenders laws are being discussed this year. Tweaking special sentences is — in the short-term, at least — unlikely for political reasons, they said.

“Really, I don’t think that would ever happen,” said Rep. Clel Baudler, R-Greenfield, chairman of the House Public Safety Committee.

Iowa was one of more than 20 states that created special sentences in the past decade to track sex offenders after their release from prison using corrections officers and technology such as GPS monitors. The move came in response to public outrage over the highly publicized murder of Jetseta Gage, 10, of Cedar Rapids in 2005 by a sex offender.

A 2009 investigation by The Des Moines Register found the flood of new sex offenders under supervision would cost taxpayers a minimum of $168 million over 20 years, or about $8.4 million a year.

The study released Tuesday tallied only the minimum monitoring that would be required under the 2005 law and excluded other costs the Register considered.

Budget numbers show the full cost of treating, supervising and monitoring sex offenders has mushroomed substantially — from $3.3 million in 2005 to $11.5 million last year, according to Iowa’s Legislative Services Agency.

Jason Smith, a member of the sex-offender research council, said it’s too soon to say whether those special sentences will prove cost-effective. What the council does know, he said, is that sex offenders are best dealt with if they are looked at individually.

“The more you are able to identify a person’s risk factors, that is the key,” he said. “The other thing we know is that the earlier you intervene and get them in good treatment programs, the less likely they are to commit new offenses.”

Prosecutors like Muscatine County Attorney Alan Ostergren believe the supervision requirements have been much more effective than other laws enacted in the past decade.

Iowa’s 2,000-foot rule banning offenders from living near schools and other places where children spend time do little to discourage them from victimizing children whom they have ready access to, Ostergren said.

“The 2,000-foot rule does not address situations where the offender and the victim know each other, which is 19 out of 20 sexual abuse cases,” he said.

Ostergren also said prosecutors fought for a long time to have more cost-effective intermediate resources to deal with sex offenders, other than incarceration. He explained, “There’s an old saying that if the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.”

Under the 2005 law, offenders who commit sex offenses on or after July 1, 2005 are required to serve a special sentence of at least 10 years after their release. Those special sentences can include 10 years of monitoring people convicted of less serious crimes, including indecent exposure, fondling or having sex with a minor.

Anyone in Iowa convicted of a felony sex crime will receive lifetime probation.

But these harsher post-prison sentences for the vast majority of Iowa’s sex offenders will mean other convicts — drunken drivers, stalkers, even people convicted of murder — are likely to receive less supervision over time, corrections officials have said.

Though the vast majority of sex offenses now require some sort of special sentence, there are a few crimes for which the new law does not apply.

One example: Chad Alan Kemper, 38, a man prosecuted by Ostergren.
In 2004, Kemper was convicted of felony lascivious acts with a child under 13 and third-degree sexual abuse. Last month, he was sentenced to his second sex offender registry violation for leaving the state and moving in with a woman and her young child.

Kemper’s first offense pre-dates the 2005 law requiring a special sentence, and his most recent violation is not considered serious enough to require monitoring after parole. Also excluded from monitoring are people convicted of indecent exposure and lascivious conduct, a crime for those who convince minors to undress for sexual gratification.

To date, no research has confirmed that lifelong, across-the-board requirements such as monitoring are more effective than less expensive, more flexible alternatives. That point was underscored again in the Iowa study — in addition to the need for more sex abuse prevention.

More offenders to monitor means higher costs
2,300: Additional sex offenders who will require monitoring by 2020.
$3.05 MILLION: Additional minimum annual cost of monitoring. ..Source.. by LEE ROOD

Read More of Article...

Article Summary only...