The Sham of the Sex Offender Registries

Published March 21, 2005, by Protect.org

Another tragedy.

Still no action.

Across the nation, Americans are reeling from the latest tragedy involving a murdered child. Convicted sex offender John Couey has confessed that he abducted and killed a nine-year-old Florida girl, Jessica Lunsford.

Now authorities say Couey was not even living at the address the Florida sex offender registry said he was. Neither was convicted sex offender Frederick Fretz when he abducted an 11-year-old boy in January. Fretz was officially listed on Florida's sex offender registry as an "absconder."

As millions of angry and saddened Americans wonder whether sex offender registries really protect anyone, what are their elected officials doing? Not much. In state after state, politicians seem to view the registries not as a public safety safeguard, but as a public relations bonanza! But while too many of them are acting like dime-store cowboys, PROTECT is here to remind them, "Bonanza" was just a television show. And it's off the air.

This winter, PROTECT put one state on notice. In the Commonwealth of Virginia, legislators introduced no fewer than six different bills to tweak the sex offender registry this year. Not one dealt with the enormous public safety crisis caused by their failure to make the registry work in the first place. So PROTECT, together with two prominent conservative groups, put every single lawmaker on notice.

We told them that one in every four of their registered sex offenders is AWOL—whereabouts unknown. That's over 3,000 convicted sex offenders simply unaccounted for. And while the Virginia state police seem to be doing a very good job tracking absconders down, the rest of the criminal justice system gets an "F." Less than 5% of absconders are ever convicted. Less than 1%—you read that right—ever do any prison time.

Our call for action in Virginia has been met with deafening silence so far. We hope, for the sake of children, families and some politicians' careers, that they don't wait until the next John Couey shows up—in their state.

For American families, here's some truly bad news: As slack as Virginia is, in some ways it's better than many states when it comes to putting teeth in its sex offender registry system. The Commonwealth has about 11 officials staffing the program. Many states have two or three. It has Failure to register penalties of up to five years (even though they are not enforced). Many states make that crime a misdemeanor or presumed probation.

Sending postcards as a way to monitor someone … wasting taxpayer dollars chasing violators who are never prosecuted … scoring cheap political points with silly legislation … and doing nothing when child after child pays the price. …

This is not public safety. It's further evidence that people who care about protecting children better join together and fight for the most important "special interest" of all. That's why PROTECT is here. And that's why we have just begun to fight.