Sex offender laws need to be refined

Recent high-profile cases in Hawaii involving sexual predators, and subsequent review of the 1997-created sex offender registry and related laws, are revealing holes in the public safety net. For instance, the state does not know the whereabouts of one in five registered offenders and many may conceal being on the list. State legislators need to solicit testimony next session about how the system should be improved and make refinements.

Many other states appear to share the complicated problem. Unlike at least 26 other states, Hawaii does not restrict where sex offenders can live or work. This is one area that needs serious consideration, at least when it comes to sex offenders whose crimes involved minors.

Another area that needs more discussion is whether volunteer activities by sex offenders need stricter regulation. While some youth organizations, such as AYSO, Pop Warner football and the Boy Scouts, have criminal background-check policies for prospective coaches or other adult volunteers, many groups do not. Short of new laws, such groups must take it upon themselves to set up better self-screening of volunteers.

Only seven states are known to completely ban offenders from volunteering for jobs or organizations that serve youth, according to a 2010 survey by the National Institute of Corrections and Washington College of Law. On first blush, such laws might seem attractive — but, practically, such a requirement might be cumbersome to enforce, to say the least.

Even with a screening policy ostensibly in place, for instance, Hawaii’s public school system hired 40 percent of 271 "casual hires" last fiscal year without ensuring background checks, according to a recent in-house audit. The audit called such inadequacies "unacceptable" and warned that they could lead to someone with a criminal history working with children.

At or away from schoolyards, sex offenders in Hawaii are not required to disclose their criminal past to any organizations, including youth groups, where they want to work. However, they are required to inform such activity to the state.

For example, Frederick Rames of Wahiawa, who completed five years in prison in 2011 for his conviction of molesting boys he coached on a soccer team, drew attention this summer for becoming involved in the Wahiawa Soccer Club, which held indoor matches involving elementary schoolchildren. Rames, 71, has said he was strictly helping run the league, not coaching or being involved with the club’s players.

Rames is among 39 registered sex offenders, including rapists, kidnappers and child molesters, who have reported to the state that they are doing volunteer work in Hawaii. However, state officials are not allowed to publicly divulge where or the name of the organization. While many of those offenses were made years or decades ago, studies have shown that sex offenders are four times more likely than offenders of non-sex crimes to be arrested again for a similar offense.

While some are pushing for stricter laws, others are questioning the efficacy of some existing ones. For example, Parents for Megan’s Law, a New York-based nonprofit, is lobbying for a federal law that would prohibit sex offenders, as volunteers or for pay, from having direct, substantial contact with minors. Meanwhile, University of Hawaii law professor Carole Petersen and public administration professor Susan Chandler point in a 2011 paper to studies indicating that "registration and community involvement have done little (if anything) to increase public safety." They contend that public support of such laws are "largely due to misconceptions about the nature of sex offenders, their recidivism rates and the ability of sex offender registration to prevent crime."

Enough experience with Hawaii’s sex offender registration has occurred to consider changes. For example, requiring lifetime registration from all sex crimes, ranging from public exposure of one’s private parts to serial rape, is unforgivingly sweeping. State lawmakers should propose legislation to attract extensive testimony about alterations that maintain vigilance for public safety — especially for Hawaii’s youth — while balancing that against overzealousness in painting all crimes as equal offenses long after punishment has been served.