May 2000 - OUR RIGHT TO BE INFORMED

Nearly two years ago I made a telephone call that changed my life and the lives of millions of parents in our communities across New York State and now in communities across our nation. This call sparked inquiries that eventually revealed that parents in New York State were under the false impression they would be informed if a known predatory sex offender moved in next door to them. Thanks to the efforts of Maureen Kanka, Marc Klaas and other advocates and lawmakers our community had the "right" to access and be informed about known predatory sex offenders under Megan's Law. However, that right to know couldn't be exercised and access was denied to most information because nearly 7,500 of the total 10,000 registered sex offenders in New York have been protected from community and neighborhood notification and placement in the state's subdirectory of high risk sex offenders because of an injunction placed on the state. Parents For Megan's Law was instrumental in helping to bring this injustice to the public's attention and to the attention of lawmakers who have subsequently closed the loopholes in the law which will "lift" the injunction. We should expect a significant increase in the number of sex offenders appearing in the New York State Subdirectory of High Risk Sex Offenders and should expect an increase as well in the number of high risk sex offender notifications implemented in New York State over the next year. We will continue to keep you up to date.

Although loopholes in the New York law have been closed as of January of 2000 there are still 7,000 known registered sex offenders who are protected from notification and are NOT being subject to notification, are not included on the website and are not included in the publicly accessible book available in police departments. This means that you will not be notified about their presence even if they are predatory and even if they move in next door to you. In fact, nearly 3,000 of these known offenders are the highest risk (Level 3) and are determined to pose a high risk of reoffending.

Contact your state senator and assemblyperson and inform them that you want the process of including these offenders back into the notification pool (as the January amendment provides for) expedited.