Iowa To Kansas: Sex Offender Residency Limits Don't Work

Pamela Dettmann, senior assistant county attorney from Burlington, Iowa

From the Wichita Eagle:

Proposals for keeping sex offenders from living close to schools or day care centers may appear attractive politically, but they won't protect children, a key legislator said Thursday.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman John Vratil's assessment came a day after Iowa officials warned Kansas legislators against passing such restrictions, saying they actually put communities at greater risk.

Vratil, R-Leawood, and other members of a committee studying judiciary issues this summer and fall had a hearing Wednesday on whether the state should prevent sex offenders from living within a certain distance -- such as 1,000 feet or 1,500 feet -- of schools and day care centers. The study committee took no action.

The idea enjoyed some support early during the Legislature's 2006 session, but backing waned amid questions about whether it would have unintended consequences. Legislators eventually told cities and counties they couldn't impose such restrictions and decided to study the topic.

But with Vratil's opposition and negative reports from Iowa and other states, such proposals have less of a chance of passing next year.

"It sounds good on the surface, and that's why it's politically attractive, but when you really determine what the facts are and the experiences the other states have had, it's a bad deal," Vratil said Thursday.

Iowa officials told Kansas legislators that a 2005 law in their state had such consequences. Prosecutors and law enforcement officials there are working to get the Iowa statute repealed.

"The bottom line is, it doesn't protect children," said Pamela Dettmann, a senior assistant county attorney from Burlington, Iowa.

Supporters of such proposals contend sex offenders who are released from prison should be kept a safe distance away from places where children congregate.

Iowa officials told the committee that their state's law has forced sex offenders to live in remote areas where it is difficult for law enforcement and parole officials to keep track of them.

Also, they said, the number of sex offenders who are unaccounted for has doubled since the law went into effect last year.

In addition, some communities now have clusters of offenders living in motels or other places outside the residency restriction.

Dettmann also said that the law misdirects public attention toward offenders who are strangers to their child victims, when most sex crimes against children are committed by a relative or acquaintance.

I am glad to see county prosecutors from Iowa coming down here to tell other politicians that the sex offender residency laws do not work. Although, in a way, you'd think these politicians would have enough smarts to Google around and discover that they've been a disaster in every place they've been imposed.