The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

In a hearing Monday night, Bartle said he was against measures that would impose tough mandatory sentences for nonviolent sex offenses, such as consensual sex involving a teenager. He vowed to not let such bills clear the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee, which he oversees.

"I will stand in the way of a bill that creates a mandatory 25-year minimum for an offense that involves an 18-year-old boy having a petting encounter with a 16-year-old girlfriend," Bartle said in an interview.

Bartle also went a step further, saying he wants to re-examine the state's sex offender registry to make sure the roughly 11,000 people on the list are truly a threat to the public.

At Monday's hearing, he and other members of the committee said some people had landed on the registry for nonviolent offenses that happened years ago.

That issue is at the heart of a case currently under deliberation by the Missouri Supreme Court, which is being asked to tighten the standards for placing offenders on the registry.

Sen. Chris Koster, R-Harrisonville, told of a man in his district who was placed on the registry for statutory rape of his girlfriend. Koster said that the two later married and had children but that the father was unable to clear his name.

Koster called for an appeals process, similar to those in neighboring states such as Arkansas and Nebraska, to allow certain offenders to petition to be cleared from the registry.

"There should be some mechanism where that father can extricate himself from that net," Koster said.

Senate President Mike Gibbons, R-Kirkwood, said the sex offender registry had value only if it accurately listed those who were truly a risk to the public. He said the list lost credibility if it included too broad a range of criminals.

"The one thing you don't want to do is have a list that people don't take seriously," he said.

In recent weeks, lawmakers have filed more than a dozen bills calling for increased prison terms for offenders, particularly in cases involving forcible rape or sodomy of a child.

But a few of the bills are more aggressive, imposing mandatory sentences for lesser, nonviolent crimes. The same bills would broaden the types of offenders who would be placed on the registry.

Prosecutors, including some who testified Monday, have said tough sentences for nonviolent offenders will make it harder to win over jurors. They call for more selective use of 25-year prison terms.

"You want to do it in an appropriate way so you don't cast such a wide net," said St. Louis County prosecuting attorney Robert McCulloch.

The enthusiasm over sex-offender bills was triggered by several high-profile child abductions and murders across the country, though experts note that sex crimes are down substantially on the whole.

What wasn't mentioned at Monday's hearing was the hefty price tag that accompanies many of the tough sex-offender bills. According to Senate researchers, some of those measures would cost as much as $140 million over 10 years just to cover prison costs.

Bartle is among those who have sponsored bills calling for increased sentences, though he targets severe offenses involving younger victims. Even so, his bill would cost the state more than $50 million over 10 years.

Bartle said Monday that he planned to take at least eight sex-offender bills already heard by the committee and roll them into one. He said the new bill would heed the concerns shared by prosecutors, while potentially re-examining the sex-offender registry.

The bill also could include a wide range of provisions unrelated to tougher sentences. For example, a bill by Gibbons would widen the circumstances in which employers could be sued if they hired sex offenders who worked around children.
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/AC
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