By Hector Flores
Laura Ahearn, executive director of the nonprofit Parents for Megan's Law, has for the past decade watched a game of political football played between the New York state Senate and Assembly. Both houses keep proposing their own versions of legislation to strengthen Megan's Law, but neither can come up with even one bill that both can agree on.
The 1995 Megan's Law requires police to notify schools when a high-risk sex offender moves into an area. But Ahearn and elected officials believe that the current law needs updating to reflect today's technological advances and to offer children greater protection against all levels of sexual predators. In fact, proposals to upgrade Megan's Law have been debated in the Legislature -- though never passed by both houses -- since the law took effect.
"Each house has proposed their own legislative amendment and have passed their own version," Ahearn said. "But you need each house to have the same exact language in order for the bill to become law."
Ahearn said the Republican-controlled Senate generally proposes bills to hit convicted sexual predators with stiffer penalties. The Democratic-controlled Assembly proposes similar bills, she said, but they generally come with certain limitations. "The Senate traditionally comes up with legislation focusing on crime issues, and it's a fact that they are always passing stronger legislation," Ahearn said. "The Assembly counters state proposals with weaker bills."
One bill that passed the Senate but not the Assembly was the Omnibus Megan's Law Reform Act of 2005, which Sen. Dean Skelos, a Republican of Rockville Centre and the Senate's deputy majority leader, authored. The bill would require:
€Posting of information on all sex offenders on the Division of Criminal Justice Services' Web site. Currently, only Level 3 sex offenders are posted on that database.
€Community notification of all sex offenders, including levels 1 and 2. Right now, communities are notified only when a Level 3 sex offender moves into an area.
€Registration of all sex offenders for life. Under the current law, only the worst sex offenders are required to register for life.
€Tracking of sex offenders who are released from prison with a Global Positioning System.
The Skelos bill did not pass the Assembly. The Assembly passed a similar bill of its own, however, and sent it to the Senate, where it stalled. The Assembly bill would require:
€Posting of information about Level 2 and 3 sex offenders on the Web, but not Level 1. Public schools and high-risk areas would be notified when a Level 1 sex offender moved into an area.
€Lifetime registration of all sex offenders, levels 1 to 3, but only in 10-year increments. District attorneys would have to petition the courts to extend any sex offender's registration past 10 years.
€Monitoring of Level 3 sex offenders with a Global Positioning System for a period of time set by the courts and parole boards.
Assemblyman David McDonough, a Republican of Merrick, said the Assembly's GOP minority proposed its own bill to reform Megan's Law, which was nearly identical to the Senate's bill. But Assembly Democrats locked the minority's bill in the Rules Committee, never allowing it to reach the Assembly floor for a vote by the entire house.
Tom Dunham, Skelos's spokesman, said the Senate bill was killed in the Assembly, despite sponsorship by one of its most prominent members, Assemblyman Harvey Weisenberg, a Democrat of Long Beach. Dunham said, "The Senate is planning to come back in a month, and Skelos will introduce a new bill, which will be a compromise reform act. This bill will hopefully prevent sex offenders from coming out of the registry and get more sex offenders listed on the Internet."
Dunham hopes that the next Senate bill will be enough of a compromise to allow for Megan's Law reform. "This is important for us because next January, 33,000 convicted sex offenders will come off the registry," he said, because the current law only allows registration for a maximum of 10 years.
Weisenberg said Megan's Law reform is important to him. But he said there is a process that must be followed in passing legislation, and bills do eventually become law. "We have evidence that shows that [sex offenders] can't control themselves," Weisenberg said. "I'm a strict supporter of strict enforcement and oversight, and that we have to protect our children from people who have this illness. Not only do they emotionally destroy children, they can also take their lives.
"You try to negotiate," Weisenberg added. "The Assembly puts together a package that doesn't pass the Senate because it's different or vice versa. But a conference committee can be made to negotiate an agreement. In order for a bill to become a law, it has to be identical in both houses, and the only way to do it is to negotiate until the bills are the same."
Weisenberg believes that neither house is to blame for the lack of progress in reforming Megan's Law. "It has taken me years to pass my bills," he said. "Nothing is easy. It's politics, and no one is at fault. This is the process, and the only way."
Ahearn, who is disheartened by Albany's political process, disagreed. "It's really frustrating," she said. "Each year we go through this. New York state has one of the weakest Megan's Laws in the country. It's an embarrassment."
Ahearn added, "The Assembly leadership is focused on issues protecting the civil rights of individuals. What they are forgetting is that children's civil liberties are being overlooked.
"If the general public was aware of this," she said, "they would be outraged."
Comments about this story? HFlores@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 283.
