Vermont to Implement New Sex Offender Laws
Vermont to implement new federal law for sex offenders.
July 28, 2008— -- MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) -- When a state Senate committee begins deliberating later this summer on how to respond to the kidnap and killing of 12-year-old Brooke Bennett, it also will be under pressure to deal with a new federal law named for another slain child.
The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006 establishes new mandates for the way states set up their sex offender registries -- mandates Vermont currently does not meet.
"It will mean some huge changes for Vermont," said Sherry Englert, sex offender registry program coordinator with the Department of Public Safety.
Adam Walsh was 6 when he was abducted from a Florida shopping mall 27 years ago; his body was found 16 days later. No one was ever charged in the abduction and slaying. He became one of a sad gallery of dead children for whom various laws trying to crack down on sex offenders have been named.
State Sen. Richard Sears, D-Bennington and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said that meeting the federal requirements could present a new cost to the state "in the millions of dollars." Failing to meet them, on the other hand, will result in some cuts of federal law enforcement grant money.
Sears said the Adam Walsh Act requirements are sure to be part of the discussion when his committee holds hearings later this year on how to respond to the death of Bennett, whose uncle, Michael Jacques of Randolph, has been charged in her abduction.
Vermont currently has about 2,500 sex offenders on its registry, but access to the information is tightly controlled in a system lawmakers designed to take into account the privacy rights of people who've already served their time and in the hope that they'll have a smooth transition back into society.
Sears said he expects one result if the state complies with the Adam Walsh Act will be a larger number of offenders with information posted online, including some as young as 14 if they are convicted in adult court.
But with Gov. Jim Douglas and others calling for a "Jessica's Law," with 25-year mandatory minimum sentences for sex offenders, and with national media personalities pummeling Vermont as being soft on sexual predators, any concern for youthful offenders or for the privacy of those promising to mend their ways is at an ebb.
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