Senate panel weighs restricting where sexual predators can live

INDIANAPOLIS -- The state would broaden its definition of sexually violent predators and bar them from residing within 1,000 feet of schools, parks or youth centers under legislation that received largely favorable discussion before a state Senate panel Tuesday.\nOpponents of the bill, however, objected that it was overly broad and would possibly banish some released convicts from their hometowns.\nChairman David Long, R-Fort Wayne, postponed votes until Wednesday because that bill and two other measures have been pieced together from a total of 10 sex offender bills filed in the Senate, and because some members of the Senate Corrections, Criminal and Civil Matters Committee had not seen or discussed the amended versions before Tuesday's hearing.\nThe other measures would place convicted child molesters under electronic monitoring and parole for the rest of their lives and would tighten requirements for those prison parolees who must register their addresses for the Indiana Sex and Violent Offender Registry.\nThe sexually violent predator bill would broaden the state's definition to include those who commit repeat offenses of 13 crimes, including rape, child molesting, incest and the kidnapping or criminal confinement of someone under 18, or who use deadly force or cause serious injury during the commission of those crimes.\nCurrently, the law limits the definition to those who are determined by clinical experts to suffer from mental or personality disorders that make them likely to commit one of the 13 crimes more than once.\nPrison parolees under the new definition would be prohibited from residing within 1,000 feet of a school, park or youth center, or within a mile of their victims' residences. The legislation also would bar them from work or volunteering at schools, parks and youth centers.\nMuch of the testimony in support of the bill, and in support of the other two pieces of sexual offender legislation that will be voted on Wednesday, were driven by concerns that the state must do more to protect children from predators, and that predators will repeat their crimes once released from prison.\n"If we don't get the job done, one of our children is going to pay," said Lt. Donald A. Bender, a detective with the Indianapolis Police Department who checks on where paroled sexual offenders are living.\n"Most offenders cannot be rehabilitated," testified Sen. Jeff Drozda, R-Westfield.\nSeveral witnesses raised objections to parts of the bills. Associate Director Lena Snethen of the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana said the residency restrictions would effectively bar sexually violent predators from living anywhere in certain small towns, which she said would violate the constitutional ban against cruel and unusual punishment. She said the courts have held that lawmakers have the power to curtail the rights of certain offenders, but only if the laws are narrowly written.\nSnethen presented U.S. Justice Department statistics that showed only 5 percent of sex offenders released from state prisons in 1994 were rearrested for another sexual crime within three years of their release.\nLarry Landis, executive director of the Indiana Public Defender Council, said most of the offenders covered by the proposed legislation are not predators and are not violent.\n"We have a truth-in-labeling issue here," Landis said.