Assemblywoman Ann-Margaret Carrozza sponsored the Child Safety and Sexual Predator Punishment and Confinement Strategy - a plan resulting from a series of public hearings. The package includes not only civil confinement, but tougher penalties to expand the monitoring of sex offenders and other requirements to improve services for crime victims.

Carrozza’s plan includes life sentences for the most heinous sex crimes - those where the perpetrator physically harmed the victim, threatened the use of a weapon, committed the crime against multiple victims, or was previously convicted of a felony sex crime.

Adults convicted of serious sex crimes in which the victim is under the age of 13 could spend the rest of their lives in prison, regardless of any other aggravating circumstance (A.8939-A).

A key element of the plan provides for the potential lifetime civil confinement of sexual predators after they finish their prison sentences. Under the Assembly’s plan, the process would begin with the state Attorney General petitioning the courts after a psychiatric examination of the offender and input from mental health professionals.

Sex offenders subject to civil confinement would have the same due process as in a criminal proceeding - including access to a public defender and a probable cause hearing. Civil confinement would be ordered if a jury decided that an offender is a violent sexual predator who is likely to repeat a horrific crime again (A.9282).

The Assembly’s package also requires mandatory treatment for incarcerated sex offenders. The state Department of Correctional Services currently operates a sex offender treatment program but it is not required by law and it lasts for only six months - one of the shortest prison-based programs in the nation. Under the plan, all sentenced sex offenders would also be subject to a mandatory two-year sex offender treatment program carried out by the state Office of Mental Health.

The first law of 2006 - resulting from a joint conference committee - sought to strengthen Megan’s Law by increasing the registration periods for all sex offenders (Ch. 1 of 2006). This new law filled in the gaps of a current law which would have allowed sex offenders to be removed from New York’s sex offender registry after the initial 10-year registration period began to expire in January.

Unfortunately, a recent Federal District Court ruled the new law unconstitutional. It’s imperative that we not allow one single sexual predator to slip through the cracks while we work to resolve this issue. To protect our families and ensure that sex offenders remain registered, Assemblywoman Carrozza urges Governor Pataki to ask the Attorney General to appeal the ruling. Currently, there are 740 Level 1 and Level 2 registered sex offenders in Queens.

Legislation is also included in the Assembly’s plan to make the statute of limitations obsolete in some cases so that police can do DNA testing and punish the perpetrators of unsolved cases. More specifically, this legislation would:

• Help prosecutors use DNA evidence to indict sex offenders by specifically authorizing so-called "John Doe" indictments, in which an unknown person is charged within the statute of limitations based on DNA evidence (A.7607)

• Eliminate the criminal and civil statute of limitations for some felony sex crimes in which DNA evidence links an unknown perpetrator to a crime (A.8416-A)

Carrozza is sponsoring legislation that makes it a crime to knowingly harbor, house, or employ a sex offender who has not registered or verified his or her residence. The measure also requires the individual or agency to notify local law enforcement as to the location of the offender (A.10099).

As a mother, nothing is more important to me than the safety of our children. I will continue fighting to protect our families from sexual predators.

- Ann-Margaret Carrozza

The recent Dateline series "To Catch a Predator" has shown that perverts are now targeting children via the Internet. We, as parents need to be ever more mindful of what kids are putting out there on the Web in order to keep them safe... especially in chat rooms and on social networking sites. Here are a few tips to help us protect kids from online predators.

1. Establish rules and go over them with your children

2. Remind children not to give out personal information, like addresses, phone numbers or photos to online strangers

3. Keep the computer in a family living area so children cannot use the computer privately

4. Spend time with your children online

5. "Block" certain services through your Internet provider that you want your children to stay away from

6. Be aware if your child spends too much time online or tries to hide what they’re viewing from you

For more information on how to talk to your kids about online safety, please visit:

staysafe.org
wiredsafety.org