Palumbo, Kilmartin Renew Call for Better Tracking of Sex Offenders
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Lawmakers want to overhaul state's notification system for sex offenders, transfer power to State Police.
According to State Representative Peter Palumbo and Attorney General Peter Kilmartin, not safe enough.
The pair announced plans this week to once again seek a complete overhaul of the way Rhode Island handles sex offenders and are asking for the General Assembly to push forward the sex offender registration and notification act (SORNA) to “keep children safe.”
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Under Palumbo’s proposal, the state would repeal its current laws and adopt federal SORNA guidelines instead.
In addition to transferring power of the sex offender registry and sex offender website from the Parole Board’s Sex Offender Community Notification Unit to the State Police, the act would also create an offense-based classification the determine on what tier level an offender is, based on the “severity of the offense.”
If approved, the act would also mandate that offenders use the revised web-based and automated notification system that would allow residents to search potential offenders directly from the site and receive e-mail notifications when an offender “commences residence, employment, or school attendance within the state, a specified zip code, or a certain geographic radius.”
Palumbo says the changes are much –needed.
“Under current law, it is the duty of local law enforcement agency, the police department of a city or town in which the offender resides, to provide notification to another community if the offender moves,” Palumbo said. “This makes for a very disjointed method of notification, and requires local police to spend time on what are essentially clerical matters when they should be spending that time protecting their community.
By making one central agency – the State Police – responsible for this process will free up local law enforcement resources and save communities money.”
Rhode Island lawmakers also have another reason to move forward with the legislation: the loss of federal funding.
Under the federal Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, Rhode Island was required to implement federal SORNA provisions by July of 2011 or lose 10 percent annually in federal Byrne Grant Funds, which are used to finance state and local law enforcement programs.
“It is a priority of the Office of Attorney General, and me personally, to advocate for laws that better protect our community and, more so, laws that better protect our children from child sex offenders,” Kilmartin said. “The SORNA legislation will give greater protections for the citizens of Rhode Island and will give law enforcement the information to keep sex offenders accountable.”
Palumbo has experience stiffening laws regarding sex offenders.
The Cranston Democrat worked to enact Megan’s Law in Rhode Island, a piece of legislation that requires the state’s parole board and courts to determine the risk posed to the community when evaluating sexual offenders leaving prison.
He also played a large role in getting Jessica’s law passed, a bill that requires first-degree child molesters and Level 3 sex offenders to wear a GPS monitor.
“This is a significant piece of legislation, a comprehensive bill that encompasses a number of issues regarding sex offenders and public information about them,” Palumbo said. “But it is really about just one thing – keeping people, and especially young people, safe from sexual predators.”
