By: Houston Criminal Attorney John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
In 1994 the United States Congress passed the Jacob Wetterling Crimes Against Children and Sexually Violent Offender Registration Act which required all states to create programs mandating that certain kinds of sex offenders register with state or local authorities. Congress added teeth to the Act by threatening the states with a ten percent loss of federal anti-crime funding for failure to comply.
Child protection advocates like Marc Klaas, whose daughter (Polly) was brutally raped and murdered in the 1990s by a released sex offender who is currently on California’s death row, offer these reasons for sex offender registration laws:
- Sex offenders pose a high risk of re-offending after release from custody;
- Protecting the public from sex offenders is a primary governmental interest;
- The privacy interests of persons convicted of sex offenses are less important than the government’s interest in public safety; and
- Release of certain information about offenders to public agencies and the general public will assist in protecting the public safety.
Two years later, in 1996, Congress amended the Jacob Wetterling Act with Megan’s Law which mandated “community notification” when a sex offender moves into a given neighborhood. The notification laws make public virtually all private information about sex offenders. Klaas defends “notification” laws on these grounds:
- Assists law enforcement in investigations;
- Establishes legal grounds to hold known offenders;
- Deters sex offenders from committing new offenses;
- Offers citizens information they can use to protect children from victimization.
Then in 2006 President George W. Bush signed into law the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act. This Act requires the U.S. Justice Department to create a national sex offender database accessible to the public through the Internet allowing nationwide searches about registered sex offenders.
There are currently 700,000 registered sex offenders in the United States. Today more than twenty states have gone far beyond the Jacob Wetterling Act and Megan’s law by enacting “residency restriction laws” which prohibit sex offenders from living within 1,000 to 2,000 feet from schools, parks or child care facilities. Legal challenges to these laws have met with mix results but at least one federal court of appeals rejected a challenge to these laws saying there is no constitutional right “to live where you want.” The end result is that sex offenders in many communities are forced to live in limited neighborhoods—and this practice has prompted some communities to enact city ordinances making these neighborhoods virtually “off limits” to sex offenders.
The city council in New Richmond City, Wisconsin is currently considering what it calls a “safety zone ordinance” which would place a buffer around all the city’s parks, schools, and day care centers thereby practically eliminating any neighborhood for sex offenders to live. With 10,000 registered sex offenders in Pennsylvania, communities all over that state have done or are considering doing precisely what New Richmond City is trying to do. This prompted one federal judge in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania to overturn a local ordinance which prohibited convicted sex offenders from living within 2500 feet of schools, playgrounds, and child-care facilities.
While all of these restrictive “residency laws” and ordinances are being enacted across the country, the American Association of Correctional and Forensic Psychology released a study last year that said these restrictions have absolutely no effect on whether a sex offender is arrested again. These laws are playing particular legal havoc in California where there are more than 100,000 registered sex offenders. California’s Proposition 83, which prohibits sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of schools and parks, is currently under constitutional challenge before the California Supreme Court, according to the San Jose Mercury News.
Reeling from the mass murders allegedly committed by a convicted sex offender named Anthony Sowell who was arrested in Cleveland last year, Ohio officials have reacted by proposing legislation that would increase monitoring for the worst sex offenders. The classification system in place at the time of Sowell’s arrest involved the following three tier system:
- Tier I is the lowest classification system, Offenders in this tier must register annually for 15 years.
- Tier II offenders are required to register every 180 days for 25 years. This level sometimes requires notification postcards being sent to neighbors.
- Tier III offenders must register every 90 days for life. Notification postcards must be sent to neighbors informing them of the offender’s address.
New legislation being proposed by State Sen. Nina Turner would impose the following key changes in Ohio’s sex offender monitoring laws:
- Tier III offenders would have to register their address every 30 days with local law enforcement being required to confirm the address every 90 days.
- All sex offenders would have to show proof of residency similar to that used in voter registration: photo ID, utility bill, or government check showing address.
- Notification postcards would have to be sent to neighbors once a year on the anniversary date of registration.
The problem with Sen. Turner’s “get tough” legislation is that it does not fund the costs associated with implementing the changes. This will have serious fiscal repercussions at the local level. For example, the Logan County, Ohio, sheriff’s department has seen its budget cut by $ 2 million and has lost 40 positions since early 2008, forcing deputies off serious investigations to make “spot checks” on registered sex offenders in the county.
Ohio’s current official backlash against sex offenders has even reached into the state’s nursing homes. The Columbus Dispatch reported recently that there are more than 100 registered sex offenders living in Ohio’s nursing homes “without other residents and their families knowing about their offenses.” State Sen. Capri Cafaro has introduced legislation that would require nursing home administrators to notify residents, their family members and guardians when a Tier III offender intends to move into the facility.
The Dispatch last year compared “state records of long-term-care facilities with the existing notification list [and] found that 110 nursing-home residents and six employees were registered sex offenders. Fifty-one were concentrated at four nursing homes, including 26 in one facility in Washington Court House.
“Ohio’s number of offenders in nursing home facilities nearly tripled in the past five years, according to Perfect Cause, an Oklahoma-based nonprofit group. Perfect Cause documented at least 60 murders, rapes and serious assaults nationwide in nursing home by residents who are sex offenders, including the rape of a mentally disabled woman in Cincinnati.”
These numbers at first glance seem shocking until they are viewed under the light of objectivity. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, there were 16,100 nursing homes in the United States in 2004 which housed more than 1.5 million residents. Those figures are consistent with U.S. News & World Report findings last month. Sixty “murders, rapes and serious” assaults by sex offenders in this group population is not “shocking” particularly when compared to the 725 complaints of “suspicious deaths” reported in 2007 to South Carolina’s new State Law Enforcement Divisions Vulnerable Adults Investigative Unit which was set up to “investigate abuse, neglect, exploitation and deaths in government nursing homes.” At least 231 of these deaths remain unsolved. Nursing home residents, therefore, face far greater risks of murder, rape and assault from nursing home employees than resident sex offenders.
Faced with harsher “residency” and “notification” pressures, sex offenders are increasingly joining the ranks of the transient and homeless. Dr. Richard Kreuger, a professor of psychiatry at Columbia University, specializes in the treatment and management of sex offenders. He has observed that these offenders “are almost labeled as nuclear waste; nobody wants them in their backyard.” DuWayne Gregory, a New York legislator, underscored this point recently by opposing sex offender homeless shelters in Suffolk County: “We have enough homeless emergency housing shelters, Section 8 housing, sober homes, etc.,” the lawmaker wrote in a letter to 300 civil and religious leaders. “We do not need an entire homeless sex offender shelter dumped in our community, too.”
In the wake of the Jacob Wetterling Act and Megan’s Law, the State of Texas enacted its Sex Offender Registration Program (“SORP”) codified in Chapter 62 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure. SORP applies to adult and juvenile sex offenders convicted or adjudicated on or after September 1, 1970. The following personal information is collected by the Texas Department of Public Safety for its database:
- Full name (including each alias)
- Date of birth
- Sex
- Race
- Height
- Weight
- Eye color
- Social security number
- Driver’s license number
- Shoe size
- Home address
- Photograph
- Fingerprints
- Type of offense committed
- Age of victim
- Date of conviction
- Punishment received
- Supervision status
- Each occupational license held or sought
- Notification if individual is employed
- Pursuing a vocation or attending institution of higher education
- Online identifiers
- Risk level
That’s a lot of personal information collected for a law enforcement database to which the public has access. And the convicted sex offender must register not later than 7 days after his/her arrival in a municipality or county of residence—and most sex offenses in Texas require lifetime registration. The few offenses which do not require lifetime registration require registration until the 10th anniversary of the date of discharge from supervision. Juveniles register for the post-10 years. All sex offenders must register annually while those offenders with two or more convictions for violent sexual offenses must register every 90 days. These requirements apply to the more than 57,000 registered sex offenders in the state of Texas—2.5% of whom through May of last year were identified as “absconded” by state and local law enforcement agencies.
As states continue to impose stricter “residency” and “notification” requirements on sex offenders in response to high profile sex-related offenses, the likelihood of sex offenders absconding will increase. The pressures of living as a perpetual underclass (lifetime registration) simply become too great to bear. But we must point out the fact that many will abscond does not mean they will re-offend as most child protection advocates contend. As we reported last year, a 2008 National Geographic Channel documentary titled “Prison Nation” reported that 60% of all prison inmates released nationwide will recidivate within three years while the U.S. Justice Department says that 43% of them recidivate with less than 15% of those being for sex offenses.
The State of Washington, which highlights its penal sex offender treatment programs, offers impressive data concerning sex offender recidivism. State officials report that 2.7% of the offenders who do not receive treatment during imprisonment will re-offend within six years while 1.8% of those who receive treatment will re-offend during the same period. Prisons like those in Washington, along with some in Canada and other Western countries which offer serious sex offender treatment programs, report that 9.9% of sex offenders who receive treatment re-offend with new crimes as compared to 17.4% of those who do not receive treatment.
Most reputable studies on inmate recidivism have found that sex offenders have the lowest rate of recidivism than any other class of criminal offenders. But it is high-profile and sensationalized cases like Anthony Sowell in Ohio and Philip Garrido in California that shape public policy when it comes to sex offenders. And any time public policy is shaped on the exception rather than the rule, there will be extreme consequences. For example, there are 17,000 registered sex offenders in Georgia but, according to the state’s Sex Offender Registration Review Board, just over 100 of them are deemed “predators” who pose a risk to society yet all 17,000 must bear the “dangerous predator” cross. And last year the California Attorney General’s Office found that only 9% of its registered sex offenders pose a “high risk” for re-offending while 29% posed a “moderate” to “high risk” of re-offending. Translated, that means that two-thirds of the state’s 100,000 registered sex offenders pose very little risk of re-offending yet all 100,000 are treated in the same “high risk” manner.
Clearly the facts do not match the public fears, but, unfortunately, these public fears (which are shaped by misinformation) have painted society into a corner when it comes to handling sex offenders. The latest findings (Feb. 2010) of the National Incidence of Study of Child Abuse and Neglect, a congressionally mandated study conducted by the U.S. Department of Health of Services, found a 38 percent decrease in the number of sexually abused children in this country since 1993. The number of sexually abused children in 1993 was 217,700, and that number decreased to 135,300 in 2005-2006.
“It’s the first time since we started collecting data about these things that we’ve seen substantial declines over a long period, and that’s tremendously encouraging,” said Professor David Finkelhor of the University of New Hampshire in an AP interview. “It does suggest that the mobilization around this issue is helping and it’s a problem that is amenable to solutions.”
Nonetheless, while law enforcement agencies nationwide are faced with tighter budgets and shrinking personnel, state and local governments are increasing pressure on them to monitor a social underclass that does not really pose the level of threat perceived by those in society. We do not have a solution for public fears; we can only present the facts and try to place sensitive issues like this one in proper perspective. Our soap box is not nearly big enough to allay public fears when it comes to dealing with sex offenders.
SOURCES:
http://www.johntfloyd.com/comments/october09/federal-sex-offender-registration.htm
http://www.pennlive.com/editorials/index.ssf/2009/04/local_ordinances_can_be_hurdle.html
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/episodes/january-29-2010/ministering-to-sex-offenders/5591
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/nursingh.htm
http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/best-nursing-homes/2010/01/11/best-nursing-homes-behind-the-rankings.html
http://www.nursinghomesabuseblog.com/articles/resource
http://criminal.findlaw.com/crimes/more-criminal-topics/sex-offenders/residency-restrictions-for-sex-offenders.html
http://blogs.findlaw.com/blotter/2010/01/sex-offenders-after-prison-where-to-find-a-place-to-call-home.html
http://sagharboronline.com/sagharborexpress/suffolk-close-up/housing-the-homeless-sex-offender-6196
http://www.klaaskids.org/st-tex-htm
http://www.klaaskids.org/pg-legmeg.htm
http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/01/21/CHECKUP.ART_ART_01-21-10_B1_PCGC7HS.html?sid=101
http://www.dispatchpolitics.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/01/21/copy/SEX_OFFENDERS.ART_ART_01-21-10_B1_PCGC7HQ.html?adsec=politics&sid=101
Ex parte Joselito Mercado, 2003 Tex.App. LEXIS 2886 (Tex.App.-Houston [14th Dist.} April 3, 2003
Ex parte Bryan Scott Chamberlain, 2009 Tex. App. LEXIS 9653 (Tex.App-Fort Worth Dec. 17, 2009)
http://www.star-telegram.com/462/v-print/story/1941375.html
By: Houston Criminal Lawyer John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
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Excellent article, and I hope you do not mind, I posted this on my blog with a link back to your blog, here:
http://sexoffenderissues.blogspot.com/2010/02/tx-released-sex-offenders-growing.html
Comment by Sex Offender Issues — February 15, 2010 @ 6:28 pm
One of the best articles I have read on the subject. I will be sending the link to all legislators in Georgia, where draconian laws that are better politics than justice, protect no one but ruin the lives of thousands of young people.
Comment by voice of reason — February 16, 2010 @ 8:52 am
Very good article! Please visit our web-site at http://www.txvoices.com. Our members are working for much needed cahnge to current laws.
Comment by Mary Sue — February 16, 2010 @ 9:31 am
Mr. Floyd:
Your efforts are well stated. Our law firm has undertaken four fed. civil rights actions on the behalf of various sex offenders in the last 3 yrs. or so, and so far been successfull in each one. We understand the problems you so well discuss. Keep up the good work.
Bill Habern
Habern, O’Neil and Pawgan LLP
Huntsville, Texas
936) 435-1380
Comment by Bill Habern — February 16, 2010 @ 11:29 am
I would like to know if the 38 percent decrease in the number of sexually abused children in this country since 1993 is actually caused by these new laws or not. It could just be the fact that these new laws keep people from talking because they don’t want their loved ones to be put in prison and punished the rest of their lives. If we offered real help instead of just punishment to those who can be helped, then maybe restoration can occur and people would talk. Right now all we are doing is throwing them away and putting a scarlet letter on them. What good does that do for them or the “victims”. Also, a severe problem has occurred in this society. Innocent people are being convicted of these crimes because of the fear and laws that don’t require evidence… but just false accusations. We are just trying to put a band-aid on the scab without really taking care of the problem. Let’s take one case at a time and look for the truth first and then classify and find alternative treatments other than prison. Yes, prison is an option for those who can not be helped but that is for a very small percentage of sex offenders.
Comment by gdrstrfm — February 26, 2010 @ 3:48 pm
If you believe the only way to protect your rights as an American citizen is by begging federal politicians to follow the Constitution; if you think marching on Washington or calling your Representatives, or threatening to throw the bums out in 2010 is going to further the cause of liberty -you are going to be mighty disappointed. Looking to the federal government – whether it’s through elections, or protests, or lawsuits, or rallies – has proven to be failed strategy. So I am suggesting that we try something new.
The real way to resist what comes out of Washington is not by begging federal politicians and federal judges to allow us to exercise our rights, it’s to exercise our rights whether they want to give us “permission “ to or not. The way to do this is through “Nullification”. When a state “nullifies” a federal law, it is proclaiming that the law in question is void and inoperative in that state; or, in other words, not a law as far as that state is concerned. This is peaceful, effective, and has a long history in the American tradition. It’s been used in efforts to advance free speech, help runaway slaves, resist high taxes and much more.
This year, for example, seven states have passed “sovereignty resolutions” under the 10th Amendment to the Constitution. Two states passed laws nullifying some federal firearms regulations. Led by Arizona, voters in a number of states, Georgia included, May get a chance to approve State Constitutional Amendments in 2010 that would effectively band national health care in their states. Sources indicate that we should expect to see 20 to 25 states consider such legislation. 20 states resisting Washington can do what calling, marching, yelling, faxing, and emailing almost never get done.–stop the government in it’s tracks. If you doubt this, let me remind you that 13 states are already defying federal marijuana prohibition, and the government is having such a hard time dealing with it that the Obama administration recently announced that it would no longer prioritize enforcement in states that have medical marijuana laws. That’s “nullification” at work.
Over the years, wise statesmen warned us that the Constitution would never enforce itself. The time is long overdue for people to recognizing this fact, and bring that enforcement closer to home. Here’s the bottom line; if you want to make real change; if you want to really do something for liberty and for the Constitution– focus on local activism and our state government. Thomas Jefferson said, “The several states composing the United States of America, are not united on principal of unlimited submission to their General Government“.
Comment by Bruce N — March 11, 2010 @ 7:43 pm
(Dan Gunderson, “A Better Approach to Sex Offender Policy.” Minnesota Public Radio, June 18th, 2007) “Lisa Sample, a criminology professor at the University of Nebraska Omaha, says…”
“Misinformation and a lack of information often shapes sex offender policy…Most of the legislators in her study said their primary source of information was the news media.”
In most cases, lawmakers didn’t read studies/ reports relevant to legislation they supported.
She says it’s clear most sex offender legislation follows the abduction and murder of a child, and the resulting public outrage.
Few people are aware a child is at greater risk of sexual abuse from family than strangers. If people understood that, they would support more programs to prevent sexual abuse.
In Minnesota, a panel of experts recently completed a comprehensive report to serve as a guide for sex offender policy in the state. One of the report’s authors says the biggest challenge is just getting lawmakers to read it.
Comment by B.N — March 13, 2010 @ 8:21 am
The best man at my wedding, and the one who sponsored my release from prison was ex-director of the FBI William Sessions.
I am a registered sex offender from rape convictions in California in 1976.
I have recently experienced very similar things that I saw in the (GRAHAM CASE). I hope you can spare a few moments to talk to me. I am a good citizen and have listed some of my achievements since my release 12 years ago.
Cum Laude, 3.76 Bachelor of Science Degree in Occupational Safety & Health
Scheduled to receive Master of Science Degree in Occupational Safety & Health and Environmental Management in June of 2010
The only Safety Official in Texas Certified in all five divisions of Safety (CSHO)
INFO
Authorized OSHA Provider/trainer for 10 & 30 Hour Construction/General Industry Safety certification courses
Trained in FEMA Incident Command Management Systems (NIMS)
Trained in U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) & Office of Domestice Preparedness (ODP). WMD/Terrorism Preparedness & Response for electric power tranmission & distribution operators.
Certified Disaster Site Trainer, Hazmat certified
Licensed commercial/industrial master electrician #14048, State of Texas with 23 years of instalation and repair experience.
Adjunct OSHA Safety Instructor at Teex Engineering (Texas A & M UNiversity System) on a part time basis
Respectfully,
John Spinelli, CSHO, STS, MOS TDC # 281093
1570 Champions Drive
Rockwall, Texas 75087 972-200-7320 Home
married1113@yahoo.com
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Comment by asseretes — December 2, 2010 @ 2:44 pm
Judiciary Review of America’s sex offence laws being invented in direct response to the horrific murders; Angelic Mena, Polly Klass, Megan Kanka, Jessica Lunsford, Adam Walsh, etc. with Sen.Joe Biden’s Input. The Oprah Bill and The Adam Walsh Act were actually written by OPRAH and John Walsh themselves. For decades OUR US Representatives have followed this pattern of of passing laws in response to horrific murders. Now, America has the Largest prison system, America has th Largest sex offender/ predator Hit List and America has the largest back ground ‘branding’ system for citizen’s with and without criminal records and want your DNA. Perhaps, Oprah, John Walsh and our well paid government officials can help pay for their laws?
Here are 2 articles demonstrating Oprah’s hand in America’s Murder/ sex offence laws and all inclusive ‘branding’ Data base system:
December 02, 1991
Vol. 36
No. 21
Oprah’s Crusade
Source: http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20111407,00.html
By Mary H.J. Farrell
Impelled by Her Tragic Past, Winfrey Draws Up Her Own Child Abuse Legislation
WHEN OPRAH WINFREY HEARD ON THE EVENING NEWS IN mid-February that a 4-year-old Chicago girl, Angelica Mena, had been molested, strangled and thrown into Lake Michigan by a repeat-offense child abuser, something snapped. “I didn’t know the child, never heard her laughter,” said Winfrey, 37, herself a survivor of childhood sexual abuse. “But I vowed that night to do something, to take a stand for the children of this country.”
So she has, and given her drive and celebrity, her vow has already produced results. After the Mena murder, Oprah said she found that using her popular talk show to discuss child victimization and sending checks to child advocacy groups was no longer enough. So last April she hired former Illinois Gov. James Thompson, now a partner in the high-voltage Chicago law firm of Winston & Strawn. Thompson helped her draft federal child protection legislation that would create a national data bank of offenders convicted of child abuse and other serious crimes. “When millions of people look to you to both set an example and to add your voice to theirs, it empowers you to do more than you ordinarily might,” says Thompson of Oprah’s efforts. “This is a woman with extraordinary commitment.”
Winfrey then went to Sen. Joseph Biden (D. Del.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, to plead her case. Although it’s unusual for citizens to prepare legislation themselves, Biden agreed to sponsor Winfrey’s proposal. “He asked for some changes—which we agreed to—and he said, ‘We’ll have hearings in two weeks,’ ” Winfrey said. “I was stunned.”
On Nov. 12, Winfrey testified before most of the same men who had questioned, praised and damned Anita Hill during the Clarence Thomas Supreme Court confirmation hearings. This time, though, the panel was upbeat, united and almost reverential of its witness. But the business at hand was grim. “I wept for Angelica,” Winfrey told the packed chamber, referring to the Mena case. “And I wept for us, a society that apparently cares so little about its children that we would allow a man with two previous convictions for kidnapping and rape of children to go free after serving only seven years of a 15-year sentence.” (Michael Howarth, 31, who had been convicted twice before of abducting and raping children, confessed to the Mena crime last February and is now awaiting trial.)
“This is the best proposal that’s come before us,” said Biden. “The idea is simple: that you must do everything you can to detect the convicted criminal before…another tragedy takes place.”
“Pedophiles,” Oprah testified, “seek employment where they will be in contact with children.” The bill, which is awaiting Senate action, provides for an FBI-administered data base available to schools and other child care institutions for screening job applicants or current employees—but only with their consent. Biden pointed out that in the past year 6,200 applicants for jobs involving children were identified as convicted criminals in the six states (California, Florida, Iowa, Minnesota, Texas and Washington) that already have similar laws in place.
Sadly, as beneficial as the proposed legislation would be, it would not stop the frequent abuse of children within the family. It would not have helped Winfrey when she was a child, a fact that became clear as she recounted her painful history in a press conference following the hearing. At age 9, she said, she was raped by a 19-year-old cousin, and from ages 9 to 14 she was repeatedly molested by a family friend. As a teenager, she was sexually molested by a favorite uncle. “You lose your childhood when you’ve been abused,” she told the senators. “My heart goes out to those children who are abused at home and have no one to turn to.”
That is one reason that the national registry under way is just the first of Winfrey’s goals. She also plans to lobby for mandatory sentencing of child abusers. “We have to demonstrate that we value our children enough to say that when you hurt a child, this is what happens to you,” said Winfrey. “It’s not negotiable.”
MARY H.J. FARRELL
KATY KELLY in Washington, D.C., BARBARA KLEBAN MILLS in Chicago
*******
President Clinton Signs
The National Child Protection Act
Source: http://vachss.com/mission/president.html
By Associated Press
The New York Times National
Tuesday, December 21, 1993
President Clinton signed the National Child Protection Act yesterday, attended by, from left, Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala, Andrew Vachss, Oprah Winfrey, ex-Illinois Governor Jim Thompson and Representative Pat Schroeder, D-Colo. The law will create a database to help track child abusers. Later, Clinton met with Mark Klaas, who pressed for harsher penalties for violent repeat offenders such as the suspect in the kidnap-slaying of his daughter, Polly.
At the signing of the National Child Protection Act, President Clinton invited Oprah Winfrey, a supporter of the legislation, to speak. Also attending were Health Secretary Donna E. Shalala and Andrew Vachss, an author and lawyer specializing in juvenile justice and child abuse. Mr. Vachss suggested the bill while a guest on Ms. Winfrey’s talk show. Later, Mr. Clinton awarded grants of $50 million to 74 cities to increase the number of police officers.
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release December 20, 1993
FACT SHEET: THE NATIONAL CHILD PROTECTION ACT
Today the President will sign the National Child Protection Act of 1993, which seeks to give parents the assurance that their children are not being cared for by criminals.
To accomplish this, the bill:
*
Establishes a national database of all indictments and convictions on child abuse and sex offense charges, violent crimes, arson, and felony drug charges.
*
Allows all businesses or organizations who employ a childcare provider to ask a state agency to check this database for all job applicants.
*
States would be required to report crime records to this database, giving highest priority to reporting child abuse crimes.
*
The bill also seeks to ensure that the rights of job applicants are protected. It establishes that reports may only be released on applicants who provide written permission for a background check to be made, and allows for background checks to be appealed.
Among those joining the President at the signing ceremony today will be actress/producer Oprah Winfrey, a survivor of child abuse who has been a vocal proponent of the legislation, which is informally known as “the Oprah Bill.”
Also at the Roosevelt Room ceremony will be Andrew Vachss, the originator of the idea of a national background check, the bill’s Congressional sponsors—Sen. Joseph Biden, Rep. Patricia Schroeder, and Rep. Don Edwards—and former Illinois Governor James R. Thompson, who has worked with Ms. Winfrey on the legislation.
Among the organizations represented at the ceremony will be the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children(JOHN WALSH ), the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, Girl Scouts USA, the National Committee for Prevention of Child Abuse, Children’s Defense Fund, Child Welfare League of America, Big Brothers/Big Sisters of America, and the National Collaboration for Youth.
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