NJ - Twenty years later, has Megan’s Law delivered?

Maureen Kanka

Original Article

08/24/2014

It’s been 20 years since New Jersey’s Legislature passed Megan’s Law. The two decades since have been filled with legal challenges and disappointment it didn’t accomplish what many thought it would. It’s what happens when politics and emotion team to shortcut the legislative process.

The law is named for Megan Kanka, who was raped and killed in 1994 when she was 7 after being lured into the home of a twice-convicted sex offender, Jesse Timmendequas, who lived across the street from the child.

Her parents, Maureen and Richard, lobbied the Legislature for a law to require registration of sex offenders; it was named after their daughter. It went into effect just months after her horrible death.

Typical of legislation rushed through, New Jersey’s version has been much challenged. Other states and the federal government took their time and did it better. In New Jersey, there is a back story involving Republican Garabed “Chuck” Haytaian, who was Assembly speaker and wanted to replace Frank Lautenberg in the U.S. Senate. His colleagues saw the law as an opportunity.

In his campaign ads, Haytaian bragged he “fast-tracked Megan’s Law.” Both chambers of the Legislature were controlled by Republicans, and so was the Governor’s Office. They wanted to see Lautenberg, a Democrat, beaten. Haytaian came within 3 points of winning.

Emotion and political ambition are not a good combination for strong, effective legislation — the usual vetting and debate got lost. After its passage, it was tied up in court for years, a lot of it because of unforeseen problems. As much as we hate it, there is a reason the legislative process is slow and deliberate by design.

In 2009, a study by the state Department of Corrections and Rutgers University concluded Megan’s Law doesn’t deter sex offenders in New Jersey. The report says it makes it easier to find them because of registration, but you don’t need a report to tell us that. It also said the cost of carrying out the law — the report used $5.1 million, the cost in 2007 — may not be justified.

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NJ - Ex-NJ prison guard (James Kriegner) faces more child porn charges in Bensalem

James Kriegner

Original Article

03/27/2014

By Jo Ciavaglia

Last month a 43-year-old former New Jersey prison guard was arrested on charges of possessing child pornography. Now he is charged with creating porn with a 15-year-old girl.

James Kriegner of Bensalem, a former Mercer County corrections officer, was arrested last month after police allegedly found more than 100 images of child porn on his computer following a three-month investigation into child pornography distribution.

Bensalem Detective Kevin Cornish reportedly found that Kriegner downloaded files of known child sex abuse from an IP address registered to Kriegner's Knights Road apartment, according to a probable cause affidavit.

Kriegner, who has been unemployed since December, later turned over two laptop computers for forensic examination under a search warrant, and one had more than 100 images of child sex abuse, court documents allege. Fifteen files were identified by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children as containing known victims of child sex abuse, police said.

The forensic examination also found image files of Kriegner video chatting with an unidentified girl, and a folder containing sexual images that appeared to be of the same girl, police said.

Kreigner identified the girl as a 15-year-old, the affidavit shows.

Police said the girl told them she had been engaging in sexual activity with Kreigner since April.

Bensalem Detective Kevin Cornish, who handled the investigation, said he is not aware of Kreigner posting or sending photographs of the girl, but that the photos have to be sent to the National Center For Missing and Exploited Children to be checked.

Kriegner was arraigned Thursday before Bensalem District Judge Leonard Brown on charges of statutory sexual assault, indecent sexual assault on a person under age 16, unlawful contact with a minor, and related child porn and sex crime offenses.

His bail was set at 10 percent of $750,000, but he remains in Bucks County prison in lieu of 10 percent of $500,000 bail from his earlier child porn arrest.

NJ - State Senate to vote Thursday on Jessica Lunsford Act

DiAnne Gove

Original Article

03/25/2014

By STEVE PRISAMENT

GALLOWAY – A state Senate vote on the Jessica Lunsford Act has been scheduled for Thursday, March 27, according to the District 9 delegation, which has cosponsored the legislation in both state houses.

The vote is the final legislative hurdle for the bill to be sent to Gov. Chris Christie’s desk for approval. It was passed 77-0 Thursday, March 20, by the state Assembly.

That same day it was passed by the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee, clearing it for this week’s floor vote.

Galloway resident Anna Jezycki said she is hopeful for the act to become law.

“This has been going on for so many years,” Jezycki said. “It would be one of the best things that ever happened for New Jersey.”

For the past dozen or so years, Jezycki has been the leader of CUFFS, Community United for Family Safety, which she started with some neighbors when they learned of a sex offender living near a school bus stop.

“This is long overdue,” Jezycki said. “It’s been a long time coming and will be well accepted by the people.”

She said she expects that if Gov. Christie considers whether to sign the bill, the governor will remember receiving thousands of letters from CUFFS a few years ago during a previous attempt at sex-offender legislation.

The District 9 senator and Assembly members who represent Galloway and Port Republic in Atlantic County and coastal communities to the north have been pushing for the legislation for a while based – in part – on input from Galloway residents.

“For nearly a decade, our delegation has cosponsored and consistently advocated in favor of enacting the Jessica Lunsford Act, here in New Jersey, just as at least 25 other states have done,” Sen. Christopher J. Connors told The Current Monday, March 24. “Mandatory sentencing would serve the interest of public safety, as sexual predators who prey upon children would be incarcerated for longer periods of time as opposed to being released onto the streets.”

The act, which is named after a Florida girl who was sexually assaulted and murdered by a convicted sex offender, requires mandatory terms for persons convicted of aggravated sexual assault against a child under the age of 13. Sentences would range between 25 years and life imprisonment, with 25 years having to be served before parole eligibility.

Assemblyman Brian E. Rumpf said victims’ interests would be better served.

“The courts would be enabled under the law to mandate that sexual predators serve sentences befitting of the heinous nature of their crimes,” Rumpf said. “For these and other compelling reasons, there is tremendous support for the Jessica Lunsford Act among concerned parents, grandparents, community groups and local public officials, including in our legislative district, who remain actively engaged in the effort to strengthen the state’s sexual offender laws.”

Assemblywoman DiAnne C. Gove cited strong support from two major forces.

“It is extremely important to note that this legislation is supported by Mark Lunsford (Video, Child Porn), Jessica’s father, who has worked tireless for Jessica’s Law to be enacted by every state so that a conviction of a sexual assault committed against a child in the first degree carries with it a mandatory minimum prison sentence of 25 years,” Gove said. “Critical to the continued advancement of this legislation is that both the Senate and Assembly versions of the Jessica Lunsford Act have strong bipartisan support from representatives across the state.”

The Assembly Judiciary Committee passed its version of the act, A-892 (PDF), Feb. 24. The Judiciary Committee was the only committee to hear A-892 before it moved to its unanimous Assembly approval March 20.

In the Senate, it required approval from two committees to reach this week’s vote. The Law and Public Safety Committee approved S-215 (PDF) Jan. 30 and the Budget and Appropriations Committee OK’d it March 13.

The 9th District delegation has established an online petition drive in support of the Jessica Lunsford Act as well as other sex offender legislation that residents can sign.

Connors, Rumpf and Gove are also prime sponsors of legislation that would require a sexual offender to be tiered – rated on the risk for re-offense – prior to his release from prison.

Currently, the ability of an offender to obtain housing following release is a determined by his tiering level.

NJ - Legislators Want Sexual Offenders’ Re-offense Risk Determined Prior to Prison Release

Original Article

03/20/2014

To address what they see as a flaw in the state’s current sexual offender laws, Sen. Christopher J. Connors, Assemblyman Brian E. Rumpf and Assemblywoman DiAnne C. Gove have reintroduced legislation to require county prosecutors to determine sexual offenders’ risk of re-offense – or tier – prior to their release from incarceration.

Prosecutors classify sex offenders in one of three tiers based on the degree of risk they pose to the public: low risk/tier 1, moderate risk/tier 2, or high risk/tier 3.

“Current law prevents sex offenders from being tiered until they have been released into the community because the offender’s residence status is a factor that is considered in determining risk of re-offense,” the three members of the 9th District delegation said in a joint statement. “To address this glaring defect in the current law, our legislation would remove the residency from the factors used in the determination process so that sexual offenders are tiered before they are released into the community.”

The introduction of this legislation, the lawmakers explained, followed conversations with local law enforcement personnel, including county prosecutors, “who warned about the inherent problems created by tiering convicted sex offenders after they have been released from incarceration. Given the transient nature of sexual offenders, it is not uncommon for these individuals to flee before ever being tiered.”

“As a consequence, in these situations law enforcement and the public do not have a complete picture as to the offender’s likelihood of re-offending. Tiering classifications determine the level of community notification, which includes such information as an offender’s name, description and photograph, address, place of employment or school if applicable, a description of the offender’s vehicle and license plate number, and a brief description of the offense.”

Throughout the past several legislative sessions, Connors, Rumpf and Gove have called for the state’s existing sexual offender statutes to be strengthened to better protect children and communities.

“While there are those that would argue that the residency factor allows for better determination of a sexual offender’s risk of re-offending, we strongly feel that it actually serves to the detriment of public safety and only complicates the responsibilities of law enforcement in tracking persons required to register under Megan’s Law,” they noted.

Upon reintroduction, the measures were referred to the Senate Law and Public Safety Committee and the Assembly Judiciary Committee. Both companion measures have bipartisan sponsorship.

NJ - Jessica Lunsford Bill Clears Assembly Judiciary Committee

Original Article

02/25/2014

SPARTA - Assemblywoman Alison McHose announces the Jessica Lunsford Act, which she has co-sponsored with Assembly Republican Deputy Conference Leader Mary Pat Angelini, has cleared the Assembly Judiciary committee.

Named for 9 year-old Florida resident who was abducted, raped and murdered by a registered sex offender nine years ago.

The prime sponsor of the bill is Assemblywoman Nancy Munoz, following the death of her husband Eric Munoz, the bill's original sponsor.

“New Jersey is one of the few remaining states in the nation that has not yet enacted Jessica’s Law,” said McHose, R-Sussex,Warren and Morris. “We must take a stand against sexual crimes against children and against those criminals who specifically target children. Children are among the most vulnerable members of society. The physical and emotional harm done them, as well as the trauma suffered by their families and communities, deserves the strongest possible response by the justice system."

According to McHose's office, "The measure, A-892 (PDF), imposes a mandatory prison term of 25 years to life without possibility of parole for at least 25 years for persons convicted of aggravated sexual assault against a child under the age of 13. Parole ineligibility may be extended beyond the minimum 25 years if the convicted sex offender has been convicted of other crimes. In addition, if a victim is unable to testify, a prosecutor would be permitted to negotiate a plea agreement for a prison term of at least 15 years without parole.”

The Senate Law and Public Safety Committee last month unanimously approved S-215, which is identical to the Assembly version.

NJ - Offenders pushed through an automated system

Original Article

02/16/2014

By Dave Neese

They’re certified, known offenders, you could say. And there are 16,000 of them out there in New Jersey neighborhoods — 5,200 of them labelled sex offenders.

They’re parolees who have been released under pressure to make room in near-capacity prisons for incoming waves of new inmates.

There’s additional pressure to keep the parolees moving along through four levels of supervision, to categories requiring less intense scrutiny by over-extended parole officers.

The unofficial motto of the system might be: “Keep ‘em moving!” As with a manufacturing assembly line, any unplanned bottlenecks or backups can bollocks the system.

So how’s it working?

A recent state audit has prompted intense debate on the question.

The nonpartisan Office of State Auditor, in a report to the state legislature and governor’s office, noted what it characterized as unsettling parole glitches.

A spot check of parolee cases concluded that many parolees, including sex offenders, are falling through cracks in the system and going unmonitored. This could be dangerous, the auditors added.

The State Parole Board takes emphatic exception to the report. It says auditors failed to grasp the new, smarter approach the system has for supervising parolees these days — what the board calls “evidence-based practice.”

This gives officers training and discretion to focus on potentially problem parolees and to make unannounced visits to check on them, instead of scheduled checks, parole authorities say.

But in a response to the audit, Parole Board chairman James T. Plousis, the former top U.S. Marshal for New Jersey and former Cape May County Sheriff, cited a statistic on which critics pounced. Of 165,873 unannounced home visits by parole officers in 2012, he acknowledged, fully 40,937 found nobody home.

To critics in the legislature, media and elsewhere, this statistic spotlights a troubling flaw in a parole-supervision system that counts on parole officers’ face-to-face contact on a regular basis with parolees.

But Plousis says unannounced drop-ins by parole officers “will always result in a significant number of no-contact visits.” The alternative, he says, is to rely on what he scoffs at as “staged or manipulated visitations.”

One lawmaker who remains skeptical is Sen. Linda Greenstein, D-Cranbury. The state’s approximately 360 parole officers have unmanageably big case loads, she says.

She sponsored legislation that included a provision to cap a parole officer’s sex-offender case load at 40. At the request of the Parole Board, however, Gov. Christie deleted the cap from the legislation. More officers, of course, means more pressure on the state budget. The median salary for a parole officer is $73,000.

Sen. Greenstein faults the Parole Board, not the officers, for the system’s problems.

The Office of State Auditor spot-checked 320 parole cases for Fiscal 2012-13 and reported that required face-to-face contact was not made in 148 of them. These cases included, the audit report added:

• 60 spot-checked sex-offender parolee cases, with required face-to-face contact not made in 32 of them.
• 100 spot-checked violent-crime parolees, with required face-to-face contact not made in 48 of the cases.

While the Parole Board’s own official standards set forth face-to-face contact requirements, the board’s case-management protocol “does not require a review of parole officers to ensure compliance with supervision contacts,” the report said.

The Parole Board says it’s augmenting its unannounced drop-ins with drug-detection sweeps and better monitoring technology. The parole system, with a $100 million budget, is the tail-end component of New Jersey’s $1 billion correctional system.

Parole cases have been edging upward while the state’s total inmate population has been inching downward. Still, there are 23,000 offenders under state incarceration, in facilities near their capacity, at an annual cost, for example, of $44,500 per inmate for the New Jersey State Prison in Trenton.

Some 27,000 parole hearings a year churn out streams of additional parolees to be added to officers’ case loads. The stream of parolees is sluiced through four categories of monitoring. Category I, for example, requires at least two parolee contacts every 30 days; Category IV at least one contact every 120 days.

The Parole Board says the system, for all its challenges, is slowly but steadily improving. In his response to the audit, Chairman Plousis cited a three-year follow-up study commissioned by the legislature focusing on 12,989 inmates who were paroled or who “maxed out” in 2008.

The study, he noted, shows an annual drop in parolee recidivism and absconding. The study found recidivism down by as much as 6.6 percent and absconding down to low, single-digit percentages, around 300 vanishing parolees a year.

Not mentioned in the chairman’s response were less encouraging findings.

The study said that though recidivism was indeed down, it was still at a 41.9 percent parolee re-arrest and re-conviction rate; that on average re-arrests occur within one year of release, and that offenders tend to get collared for doing the same crimes that originally landed them behind bars.