OF POLITICS AND PERVERTS
Over the last eight years I have worked with some delegates and senators who have filed bills which attempted to protect the children of Maryland from the threat posed by pedophiles and sexual offenders. We have worked together in the House and Senate to assure that various bills worked their way through the treacherous process of bills becoming law.
When you are successful in passing a bill into law, usually you celebrate briefly. Photographs are taken when the governor signs your bill into law. You are given a ceremonial pen, which is taken back to the office and placed in a cup, on a shelf, with all the others. Then you move on to the next legislative priority.
Until this year, I would never have thought that I would have to investigate whether the administration had actually implemented the bills I had helped to pass. Recently, it was exposed that the state agency responsible for putting together a sex offender advisory board which was passed into law in 2006, never did so and thus the board has yet to meet.
It was also just learned that the courts had failed to implement the requirements of a law, passed into law, in 2007, which required that all persons convicted of sexual crimes had to be ordered to be given a mental health evaluation to determine their threat assessment. Since 2007 this protection has been ignored because out of a possible 300 assessments, only 2 have actually been ordered.
Once I learned of these two instances of ignoring laws passed by the state legislature to directly deal with protecting children from sexual predators, I decided to check whether anything had been done to implement HB-18 passed in 2008. HB-18 required providing to the sex offender registry the nicknames, aliases, and any former names of sex offenders appearing on the sex offender registry list. I looked on the list and found that none of the information required is being posted for the public to view. The law took effect in Oct. 2008 and since that time not one of the more than 5,000 sex offenders had the information about the other names they have been known by posted. I called and could not receive any logical answer as to why nothing had been done to comply with the law. I learned the state is collecting the information but had decided not to post any of it on the sex offender web site.
Imagine my surprise when I see a bill introduced this year by the O’Malley administration that asks that sex offenders be required to have their nicknames, aliases, and any other former names listed on the state sex offender registry. At the hearing on the bill on February 23, 2010 I then listened to the state employee responsible for posting information on the sex offender web site testify that the system was ready and able to handle the additional information being posted on the site. At this point, my curiosity was peaked and I had to ask that state employee if the system was up and ready to print the names and other information on sex offenders, why were none of the names being collected since the passage of HB-18, almost two years ago, not being published now?
Prior to my being able to get an answer to my question the Chairman interrupted to say don’t ask any questions about previous legislation (not a restriction that has ever been made before). I protested that I was questioning about what is required by the Governor’s bill and what the witness testified he was able to post on the sex offenders list. I argued to the Chairman that if they could claim an ability to post the information now, then it is certainly a legitimate inquiry as to why they have been unable to comply with State law for the last two years.
At this point the Chairman must have disagreed since he turned off my microphone. Fortunately when I wish to I can be heard without a microphone. I chose at this time to be sure the Chairman heard that if I was not allowed to ask questions of the administration which may prove embarrassing to them then why am I here? At that point, I left, I did not want to take part in the farce being presented to the public, so I went out in the hall and watched the proceedings on the closed circuit T.V.
An administration that has seen major pieces of legislation which deal with protecting the public from sexual predators passed in 2006, 2007, and 2008 all go un-implemented must be held to answer for such institutional incompetence. Even if you choose not to hold the administration responsible for the failure to implement the legislation there is no excuse for the failure of the administration to try to get answers to why this happened in the first place and how they will prevent future acts of neglect.
If we are to protect our children from sexual predators then we need the full effort of all three branches of government every year, not just in election years.
