The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

"I think there's a strong parallel," said Sen. Velmanette Montgomery, D-Brooklyn, who delivered an impassioned speech on the Senate floor urging her colleagues to act with deliberation. And, especially, she said don't paint a teenager who has sex with his girlfriend with the broad brush of "sex criminal" and put him on a list for life.

At issue is the potential for thousands of sex criminals to vanish from a state registry this year. Currently under what's known as Megan's Law, sex offenders must register their whereabouts with authorities for 10 years. About 3,500 sex offenders in New York would see their time expired in 2006 if the law is not renewed. An estimated 168 would leave the rolls on Jan. 21, the first day some would reach the 10-year mark.

Republicans in the Senate and Assembly have made sex criminals their No. 1 issue, giving it more emphasis than the struggling upstate economy or the state's population loss. They favor a bill that would require lifetime registration for the most serious cases (known as level three), while the low-level offenders would be able to petition to be removed from the list after 20 years.

In addition, they want a law to allow the state to evaluate a sexually violent predator in prison before his release to determine whether he should be confined in an institution even after completing his sentence. Republican Gov. George E. Pataki, without supporting legislation, ordered a dozen offenders confined last year. A judge later ordered them released, saying the governor had exceeded his authority. Pataki has appealed.

Democrats say they would back the concept of "civil confinement" but have concerns about how it would be carried out and what type of criminal would be confined. Many of them also say they want to renew Megan's Law ‹ but not impose 20-year registration for low-level offenders. Further, many want to renew New York's law only through 2007 because they want to see what Congress, which is considering similar measures, does.

(State data, by the way, show that most New York counties have seen a decline in sex offenses over the last five years.)

The Republican measures would be excessive, Montgomery said. Imagine the 17- or 18-year-old boy who is put on the list because he has sex with his 15-year-old girlfriend.

"It could be that we have a young person whose name goes on the list for a minor indiscretion and at the end of 20 years he is merely eligible to petition to have his name removed," she said. "I think that's very severe ... If your name goes on the registry, there are many implications for your career, jobs and what you can do with your life."

Montgomery, a senator since 1984, compared the issue to the Rockefeller-era drug laws passed in 1973. Flummoxed by a growing narcotics problem, New York lawmakers enacted harsh sentences, some calling for 15 years to life in prison for possessing or selling small amounts of drugs. Three decades later, Pataki and legislators repealed some of the toughest provisions, saying it hadn't solved the drug problem.

Montgomery said she's for tough sentences for high-risk, violent sex criminals. But she fears 20 years from now legislators will realize they overreacted on low-level offenders.

"And we'll be back here again," Montgomery said, "after a generation or two is caught up in it."
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