a public defender

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HB 7408 seeks to give the Risk Assessment Board (who knew we had one!) until October 1, 2007 to submit its report. This is great news. For one, I had no idea a Risk Assessment Board for sex offenders existed and secondly, the more time they have to soak in the national debate and make a recommendation, the better. The RAB has the following duties:

The board shall develop a risk assessment scale that assigns weights to various risk factors including, but not limited to, the seriousness of the offense, the offender’s prior offense history, the offender’s characteristics, the availability of community supports, whether the offender has indicated or credible evidence in the record indicates that the offender will reoffend if released into the community and whether the offender demonstrates a physical condition that minimizes the risk of reoffending, and specifies the risk level to which offenders with various risk assessment scores shall be assigned.

The board shall use the risk assessment scale to assess the risk of re-offending of each person subject to registration under this chapter, including incarcerated offenders who are within one year of their estimated release date, and assign each such person a risk level of high, medium or low.

The Board will have to report by October

1. Whether information about sexual offenders assigned a risk level of high, medium or low should be made available to the public through the Internet;
2. The types of information about sexual offenders that should be made available to the public through the Internet which may include, but not be limited to,
   (A) the name, residential address, physical description and photograph of the registrant,
   (B) the offense or offenses of which the registrant was convicted or found not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect that required registration under this chapter,
   (C) a brief description of the facts and circumstances of such offense or offenses,
   (D) the criminal record of the registrant with respect to any prior convictions or findings of not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect for the commission of an offense requiring registration under this chapter, and
   (E) the name of the registrant’s supervising correctional, probation or parole officer, and contact information for such officer;
3. Whether any of the persons assigned a high risk level by the board pursuant to subsection (c) of this section meets the criteria for civil commitment pursuant to section 17a-498;
4. Whether additional restrictions should be placed on persons subject to registration under this chapter such as curfews and intensive monitoring on certain holidays; [and]
5. Whether persons convicted of a sexual offense who pose a high risk of reoffending should be required to register under this chapter regardless of when they were convicted or released into the community; and
6. Whether persons determined to be guilty with adjudication withheld in any other state or jurisdiction of any crime the essential elements of which are substantially the same as any of the crimes specified in subdivisions (2), (5) and (11) of section 54-250 should be required to register under this chapter.

Fantastic! I love this. A tiered system for sex offenders based on risk levels is optimal and I’m glad the state is taking a step in the right direction.

Technorati Tags: sex offenders, tiered system, risk assessment