Thousands of people in Illinois have been convicted of sex offenses, have completed their sentences and are free.
Want to know if any of them live near you? It’s easy. A state website (isp.state.il.us/sor/) can be searched by town and ZIP code and has the names of 25,000 convicted offenders. Most of the listings include their home addresses and a brief description of their offenses.
Congress wants the states to do more. The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, signed into law five years ago, requires states to expand their registries to include more sex-related crimes. The Illinois General Assembly started work on that this spring. Bills passed the House and Senate, but in different forms. Efforts to reconcile the differences stalled and lawmakers left Springfield without completing their work on this.
The registry bills that are pending would add thousands more criminals to the online list. That’s in keeping with the federal requirements. But Illinois should use this legislation to go one better: Deliver stepped-up supervision of the riskiest offenders after they’re released.
As is, the state’s supervision of sex offenders once their prison time concludes has become less effective in recent years, even as the registry has expanded. One reason: Under state law, no more than one sex offender on parole may live in a single-family home or apartment. That restriction goes away after parole is completed, although other prohibitions about where sex offenders can live, work and visit continue to apply.
In part because of that restriction, many offenders eligible for parole cannot find a suitable place to live. So they stay behind bars during the period when they would be making the transition from prison back into the community. More than 1,000 offenders are serving their parole time in prison right now.
At the end of their parole, the prison door swings opens, they walk out and they have no supervision. All they need to do is sign up for the registry. That’s an abrupt and dangerous shift from prison rigor to unsupervised freedom. Illinois would better protect its citizens by supervising sex offenders after their release from prison, and keeping the most dangerous offenders in prison for a longer time.
A few offenders are held under civil commitment orders, after their sentences conclude, when a judge finds that they are still a serious danger to the community. Some convicted of particularly heinous crimes get lifetime supervision. Civil commitment is a drastic step, but it’s probably warranted more often than it is used in Illinois. The state can make a wider range of offenses eligible for lifetime supervision. A little-used statute aimed at habitual criminals should be amended to require longer supervision for repeat sex offenders.
Monitoring by no means guarantees someone won’t commit another sex crime, but it can reduce the risk if the officers in charge of monitoring have reasonable caseloads. Such steps as random address checks and periodic drug tests constantly remind a convict that he or she is being watched.
Another step: Pull the plug on the state Sex Offender Management Board. This was created 14 years ago by the Legislature, with a mandate to develop tracking and monitoring systems for offenders.
The board has made no progress. It has no plan to monitor sex offenders, no timetable, nothing even on the drawing board. It has no staff and a tiny budget.
The Department of Corrections and the attorney general’s office are better equipped to handle the limited functions of the board. So disband the board and let the pros take over.
State Sen. William Haine, D-Alton, a lead sponsor of one registry bill, says he can craft legislation that will meet the demands of the federal law, step up strategic supervision of sex offenders, and provide an overall safer environment in the state. Let’s get it done this year.
