http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/11/state_sen_nina_turner_proposes.htmlState Sen. Nina Turner proposes changes to Ohio sex offender laws
By Mark Puente, The Plain Dealer
November 30, 2009, 11:00PM
CLEVELAND, Ohio — Ohio’s most serious sex offenders would be forced to register their addresses more often, and
deputies would be required to knock on their doors every 90 days if a new state law is passed.
State Sen. Nina Turner, a Cleveland Democrat, introduced legislation last week to revamp the way Tier III offenders
register their addresses and the way deputies track them. She sponsored Senate Bill 217 in the wake of police
unearthing 11 decomposing bodies on Anthony Sowell’s property on Imperial Avenue.
Sowell’s neighbors never knew he was a convicted sex offender and questioned why they weren’t notified by the Cuyahoga
County Sheriff’s Office about the 15 years he served in prison for attempted rape.
They never knew because Sowell moved into the house after getting out of prison in 2005 - three years before a law too
k effect that required that neighbors be notified about his past.
Turner believes the monitoring system for Tier III offenders is broken.
"The Imperial Avenue slayings on Cleveland’s East Side are a gruesome reminder of the many cracks that still exist
within the system of monitoring the sexual predators who reside in our communities," Turner said in a news release.
"Unfortunately, criminals are able to manipulate these cracks every day. Under the current system, a Tier III sex
offender can fulfill their monitoring requirements and still remain largely off the radar."
Ohio was one of the first states to enact legislation in January 2008 to comply with the Adam Walsh Act, a set of
federal laws that stiffened registration requirements for convicted sex offenders. States were told to increase
registration requirements by 2009 or lose some federal funding.
The act mandated that all states uniformly register sex offenders and place them into a national registry by 2009.
It was billed as a way to prevent people who commit sex crimes from slipping through the cracks and committing other
offenses.
Turner’s legislation deals mostly with Tier III offenders. Tier III is for the most serious crimes, such as rape or
kidnapping a minor. A 2008 law forced those offenders to personally register their address every 90 days.
Deputies are required to perform spot checks every year if the address is unchanged. But if an address changes, the
law requires deputies to verify it. Notices are then mailed to every address within a 1,000-foot radius of the offender’s
home.
Those guidelines would change under the proposed legislation. These are the key elements:
Tier III offenders must register their address every 30 days instead of every 90 days. Deputies must confirm the
addresses of Tier III offenders every 90 days through face-to-face contact at the offender’s residence and track the
outcomes of such visits.
Deputies must confirm the person’s address through personal contact at the offender’s residence after a Tier III
offender initially registers. Sheriff’s offices must notify the community once a year of a Tier III offender address
on the anniversary date of the original registration.
All sex offenders must show a proof of residency similar to those used for voter registration under Ohio election laws
.
The legislation doesn’t address how sheriff’s would pay for cost of increased monitoring.
Cuyahoga County Sheriff Bob Reid questions how all sheriffs would pay for the added monitoring. He speculated that it
might take three or four additional deputies to perform the tasks in Cuyahoga County but conceded that more
enforcement is always better.
"It’s well intended, but there are unfunded mandates," Reid said. "This involves a lot of work. Who pays for that?"
The Buckeye State Sheriff’s Association will not comment until its legislative committee meets Dec. 15, its executive
director said.
Mike Rowe, a spokesman for Turner, said the senator is aware of the cost and has asked a state committee to complete a
cost analysis of the legislation.
"She is willing to work with the sheriffs on cost," Rowe said. "What is the cost of closing the loopholes? The bottom
line is: What is the cost of doing nothing."
The bill will be assigned to a committee this week and hearings could be held early next year.
still dont think these types, of changes will be enough, to protect the children
