new bill in Alaska Legislature on sex offenders

[templelady]

Bill would triple potential sentences for sex offenders

Proposed penalties on fast track to curtail high abuse rate against children in Alaska

By RICHARD RICHTMYER

Anchorage Daily News

Published: April 5, 2006

Last Modified: April 5, 2006 at 03:10 AM

JUNEAU -- A bill that would significantly increase prison sentences for sex offenders got on a fast track this week and was immediately scheduled for consideration on the House floor today.

"It has significant, almost overwhelming support," said Rep. Norm Rokeberg, chairman of the House Rules Committee, which decides what bills make it to the floor for a vote and when.

Proponents of the bill say it is needed because Alaska ranks high among the states in sex crimes. Tougher penalties are needed, they say.

The measure, SB 218, would increase prison sentences for sex offenses, particularly those against children.

Under current law, someone convicted of a Class A sexual felony against a child faces a minimum eight-year sentence. The bill proposes to raise that to 25 years.

Repeat sexual offenders also would face longer prison sentences. The maximum prison time for someone convicted of a third felony sex crime would rise to 99 years from the current 40-year maximum.

"The sentence for every sex crime is going up," said Sen. Gretchen Guess, an Anchorage Democrat co-sponsoring the legislation with Republican Sen. Con Bunde, also from Anchorage.

The bill also would require convicted sex offenders on probation or released from prison on parole to take lie-detector tests four times a year.

With wide, bipartisan support, the bill has unanimously passed the Senate and has attracted at least 13 co-sponsors in the House. On Tuesday, the bill sailed through the House Finance Committee, despite lingering questions about how much more it would cost to keep sex offenders locked up longer and keep closer tabs on them once they're released.

The fiscal analysis accompanying the legislation is incomplete. It accounts only for the additional cost involved with the lie-detector tests, expected to total about $1.6 million a year in 2010, when the program would be fully under way.

It does not estimate how much more it would cost to house and feed convicted sex offenders in jail for longer terms.

According to the Department of Corrections, 927 Alaska sex offenders are currently in prison, and 93 percent are repeat criminals.

The department cannot accurately forecast the future costs that would be associated with changing the sentencing laws, according to the fiscal analysis.

"We don't know what this is ultimately going to cost us, but it's an investment I'm willing to make," said House Finance Committee member Rep. Mike Hawker, an Anchorage Republican who tends to be one of the panel's more fiscally conservative voices.

Committee co-chairman, Rep. Mike Chenault of Kenai, took a similar standpoint in supporting the bill Tuesday.

"While we may not like the numbers, we've got to get these guys off the street," he said.

Other members pointed out that the legislation might actually save the state money in the long run because tougher sentencing laws for sex crimes because they would discourage sexual predators from moving to Alaska.

"This bill attempts to place Alaska on the 'do not go to' list for these creeps," said Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Fairbanks. "Five or 10 years down the road, our costs may be lower."

The bill has changed since it passed the Senate.

The House Finance Committee on Tuesday removed a section that applies to someone who fails to report a sex offender or child kidnapper to police. Members said they'd rather address that issue later in a separate bill.

Rokeberg, the House Rules Committee chairman, said the bill could be further changed on the floor when it come up for discussion today, and it's possible it will advance to a "third reading," meaning members would vote on its final passage.

If it passes the House, a majority of the Senate would have to concur with the changes before the bill could be sent to the governor to sign.

Richard Richtmyer can be reached at rrichtmyer@adn.com or in Juneau at 907-586-1531

Edited April 5, 2006 by templelady

[Shellon]

Michigan is proposing some changes as well. I can't find the link, but I think Abi posted it recently.

Abi?

[excathedra]

Alaska ranks high among the states in sex crimes

wonder why that is

[Abigail]

Michigan is currently working on similar legislation. Our senate recently passed a bill that calls for a minimum 25 year sentence for sexual crimes against children under 13. Once paroled, these offenders would be on an electronic tether for life. I fully support this bill.

[templelady]

Alaska ranks high among the states in sex crimeswonder why that is

1) Alaska has 6 times the national average of reported child sexual assault. does that necessarily mean that we have more cases or just that the rest of the states are underreported ? I don't know

2) the population of the state of Alaska is 626,932. that means if, as a hypothetical figure we have, 350 cases a year that would be 5.58% of the population. That again is for reported cases. not all cases are found to be factual, in fact there is quite a bit of unsubstantiated abuse charges thrown around in divorce and custody cases and other cases that just don't pan out

Compare that to the Eastern half of the state of Washington which has a population of 1,371,802. You would have to have 68,590 reported cases in order to reach 5.58%

3) we have a "culture shock problem" here in Alaska.

Outside of the major population areas most people live in villages, and those villagers are mostly Alaska Native Americans. Bush Alaska has no roads. Many villages, if they have electricity at all, only have it in say the school and the general store, it's just cost prohibitive to have it in private housing. Many villages have no septic or sewer systems, Food as we think of food has to barged in on the rivers or brought in by small plane $6-$8 for a regular can of corn is the going rate with other supplies commensurate.

Why I am tell you all this is

These people, for the most part, live just as their Ancestors did, Subsistence based.

Sons are hunting by age 6 often bringing home their first kill at 7, and I mean A moose or caribou, not a bunny rabbit. Girls at the same age, are cooking, cleaning and caring for babies. Many families live in one room cabins. It is not unusual for an 8-10 year old to be left weeks at a time; while parents are out hunting and fishing or otherwise engaged; caring for the house and siblings -- that means cutting, wood, hauling water, cooking, etc etc etc. Needless to say there are no Secrets when it comes to sex, or babies or anything else.

In this culture a girl is a women when she hits 12 ditto a boy.

And here lies the problem, at 13 she is a woman both in what she knows and her ability to make decisions, act on them, and fill her place in her society. these "girls" are far more mature than their city bred contemporaries. So in that culture for a 20 year old to have relations with a 13-14 year old ranks about on the same par as a 23 and a 30 year old in "our world"

Enter the Indian Child Protection Act--enacted to protect children in the lower 48's, But lower 48 natives aren't living in the culture of 1840, so there it works

but in Alaska you have the dichotomy of a women who is a "adult" in every sense of the word as we understand it being called a "child" by a social worker, who could care less about reality as long as the figures on the paper say they are "fighting sexual abuse of minors among the native population"

I, who hate child molesters with all my being , have a real problem with this violation of the "spirit of the law". And this violation, IMO, vastly inflates the numbers for Alaska

[excathedra]

thank you so much, mo

[CoolWaters]

Mo, well handled!

I have been hesitant to discuss this "culture shock problem" you describe.

There is something vitally important about raising children in such a way that they are prepared in every way to live in this world...

[coolchef1248 @adelphia.net]

mo thanks for that eye opener

i would never have guessed