Sex offender registry may be expanded
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By THATCHER MOATS STAFF WRITER - Published: October 7, 2009
BARRE – Though the state expanded its online sex offender registry just last week, there's a chance it will be bolstered with even more information in the years to come, a state senator said on Tuesday.
"We are going to be revisiting the sex offender registry, and I expect there will be improvements. It will be expanded and it will continue to mature," said Sen. Richard Sears, the Bennington Democrat who is the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which was integral in passing new sex crime laws in the last legislative session.
More information would be welcome news for Barre Mayor Thomas Lauzon, who has called the state's registry "remedial." Lauzon has been outspoken in seeking enhanced information on sex offenders for his city and had a city ordinance passed – later rejected by a judge – that limited where sex offenders could live.
The registry expansion increased the number of sex offenders on the Internet from 461 to 1,149 when a new law took effect on Thursday.
That law was passed following the death of Brooke Bennett, a 12-year-old Braintree girl who was raped and killed in July 2008, allegedly by her uncle, Michael Jacques, who had been convicted of previous sex crimes. Bennett's death and Jacques' arrest put a spotlight on how the state deals with sex offenders and prompted the passage of new laws.
The state's expanded online sex offender registry is designed to give the public more information about potential predators living in their midst. But the information listed on the Web site is in some cases cryptic, according to Lauzon, and he is hoping the Legislature will expand the expanded registry.
For example, the new online registry says some offenders have been "non-compliant" with their treatment and in other cases their "treatment status" is listed as "unavailable." But no information explains these labels, which may raise more questions than they answer, Lauzon contends.
"All that column does is raise my level of anxiety," said Lauzon. "It just doesn't give you a good feeling."
For example, the registry — which a person can search by town, county or name – states in bright red lettering that 14 out of the 69 sex offenders living in Washington County are noncompliant with their sex offender treatment. The treatment status for four more offenders living in Washington County was "unavailable."
If a label related to treatment causes people to worry, it's essentially serving its purpose, according to Sears.
"The threat of re-offending is much higher for people that don't complete treatment, so to me it's like a red flag if you look on the person's treatment status and it's noncompliant," said Sears.
Noncompliance with treatment is different from noncompliance with the sex offender registry.
If an offender doesn't comply with the registry, it's a crime. But that's not necessarily the case with treatment.
Noncompliance with treatment can trigger violations of probation or parole, but that's only if an offender is still being supervised by the Department of Corrections.
If a person simply serves his maximum sentence in jail, they are free to go whether they successfully complete sex offender treatment or not, said Lisa Menard, the deputy commissioner for the department of corrections.
Menard said it's hard to say what the "unavailable" label means without examining specific cases.
"It's possible the offender was from out of state and didn't have a treatment requirement from out of state," said Menard.
Lauzon thinks Vermont should offer information on the level of New York State, which includes details such as the sex and age of the victim, the type of vehicle the sex offender drives and street addresses.
Some of those provisions may be enacted in the future.
Language in the law relating to Vermont's sex offender registry says by July 1, 2010, the specific street addresses of certain offenders will be posted. But that will only happen by that deadline if the state auditor declares the sex offender registry a success.
Part of the reason for taking a cautious approach and limiting the amount of information on the Web for now is because it is important for the information to be correct, said Sears. Sears said he has found incorrect information on the registry before and that one thing the audit will examine is how accurate information on the registry is before adding more.
The Legislature will also be revisiting the registry in the next couple years as part of the federal law known as the Adam Walsh Act, said Sears, though how that might affect the registry is unclear.
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