Assembly GOPers: Keep sex offenders on registry

Hundreds of parolees slated to be removed from state list

April 27, 2016 By Paula Katinas Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Republicans in the assembly, including Bay Ridge’s Nicole Malliotakis (at podium) are concerned about sex offenders dropping off the state registry. Photo courtesy of Malliotakis’ office

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Hundreds of paroled sex offenders are quietly being dropped from New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services’ registry because they committed their crimes more than 20 years ago, according to Assembly Republicans who are pushing legislation to keep them on the list.

State Assemblymember Nicole Malliotakis (R-C-Bay Ridge-Staten Island) is among the members of the Assembly’s Minority Conference advocating to extend the time Level 1 sex offenders are required to remain on the state’s registry from 20 to 30 years.

Under state law, convicted sex offenders are required to register with the Division of Criminal Justice Services on a regular basis when are released from prison. The parolees must report where they are living and working.

But Level 1 offenders are not required to register after 20 years has passed.

“Those who have knowingly caused heinous sexual abuse of others, including infants, should not be allowed to disappear from the registry and blend in with society,” Malliotakis said.

There are currently 14,680 Level 1 sex offenders living in New York state, according to the Division of Criminal Justice Services.

There are three levels of sex offenders, according to a notice on www.criminaljustice.ny.gov, the division’s website: Level 3 (high risk of re-offense), Level 2 (medium risk of re-offense) and Level 1 (low risk of re-offense). The risk level is set by a judge.

Under state law, only Level 2 and 3 offenders are listed on the registry that is made available for public viewing on the division’s website. While Level I offenders are required to register with the state, their names and photos are not displayed on the website.

The website containing the public registry can be found at http://www.criminaljustice.ny.gov/nsor/.

The GOP bill would allow for certain Level 1 sex offenders to apply for removal from the state registry, if they can provide convincing evidence that they are no longer a threat to public safety.

The GOP is also fighting on another front.

In 2015, the New York State Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, overturned all local laws relating to where a registered sex offender can live citing the laws as restrictive. The only law left in place is a statute restricting a sex offender from living within 1,000 feet from a school.

In their bill, Republicans are also seeking to give local governments more leeway in dealing with the whereabouts of sex offenders.

“That is why I have introduced legislation that tackles both of these issues,” said Assemblymember Dean Murray (R-Long Island), the bill’s main sponsor. “This bill will extend the amount of time that Level 1 offenders must be on the sex offender registry from 20 to 30 years and will allow local governments to set reasonable restrictions as to where sex offenders may reside.”

Laura Ahearn, executive director of the group Parents for Megan’s Law, said the thought of sex offenders no longer having to register their whereabouts with the state is a scary one.

“What is most frightening is that your child’s soccer coach, baseball or softball coach, summer camp counselor, or even the local mall’s Santa could be a convicted sex offender, and you would never know,” Ahearn said. But not everyone supports the idea of requiring Level 1 sex offenders to register beyond the 20 year-mark. The New York Civil Liberties Union argued that keeping perpetrators as social outcasts does more harm than good because, they contend, that it increases the chance they’ll act again, WCBS-TV reported. “They have been told they would be taken off the registry, so going back on that is fundamentally unfair,” Jason Starr of the New York Civil Liberties Union’s Long Island Chapter told WCBS-TV.