State hits the street to notify Jessica's Law sex offenders
SAN DIEGO ---- State officers toting satellite-aided tape measures have started visiting paroled sex offenders throughout California to tell them to move if they live within 2,000 feet of schools or parks ---- a violation of the Jessica's Law provision that voters passed in November.
State corrections officials said that includes about 190 parolees in San Diego County and 65 in Riverside County, and those living too close to schools and parks would be given about 45 days to move on.
However, San Diego County officials said they haven't started notifying the 16 or 17 sex offenders they monitor on probation ---- which is different from parole ---- because of uncertainty in the law.
Parole is a conditional release of a person who has served prison time, and it can be revoked. Probation is a sentence that can be ordered by a judge, instead of a jail sentence, that allows the offender to be free with supervision.
Although the state has more than 63,000 registered sex offenders, and San Diego County more than 4,000 ---- ranging from felony rapists and child molesters to those guilty of misdemeanor crimes ---- Jessica's Law provisions apply only to offenders whose cases were heard after voters approved the measure on Nov. 7, 2006.
Riverside County officials said they hadn't notified anyone yet either, but that was because they did not have any sex offenders who would be affected.
Dave Cranford, San Diego County's acting probation chief, said the county expected to start its notification process within 60 days. He said the county wasn't dragging its feet, it was just unclear about the law.
For example, Cranford said, while Jessica's Law states that sex offenders can't live within 2,000 feet of parks and schools, it doesn't say what the penalty should be if offenders refuse to relocate.
Cranford said that could lead to confusion if probationers are brought into court.
Cranford also said the county had legal questions about whether they could force offenders out of their homes, and whether the county and its taxpayers could be held legally liable for doing so. He said those questions could be answered by "cleanup" legislation from state legislators or by court rulings.
"Have we fully implemented Jessica's Law?" he asked. "No. We haven't. Are we going forward? Yes, we are."
State officials said they had similar problems, but took care of them by adopting regulations that make the Jessica's Law provisions conditions of parole.
Bill Sessa, spokesman for the state's Department of Corrections, said if a paroled sex offender violates the 2,000-foot provision, it's also a parole violation that would send them back to prison.
Sessa said that was one of the big reasons it took the state until now to start its own notification process.
"There were things we had to put in place administratively," he said. "That took time."
However, Sen. Dennis Hollingsworth, R-Murrieta, said Friday that the state had been slow to implement the new law, and that he was especially disappointed that San Diego County hadn't started doing so.
Hollingsworth was one of many politicians who campaigned to pass Jessica's Law, and was co-creator of "Project KidSafe" ---- a slew of state bills put together in 2003 focusing on preventing sex crimes, as well as tracking and sentencing of sex offenders. Some became law, others died in legislative committees, and some pieces passed as parts of other legislation.
"There's been a level of apathy (toward Jessica's Law) that shouldn't be tolerated," Hollingsworth said. "I think there's been an unacceptable lag time."
Summer Steffen, chief of the sex crimes and stalking division of the San Diego County district attorney's office, said Jessica's Law had already done a lot to make communities safer from sex offenders even though governments were still trying to put the 2,000-foot provision into place.
"You know, Jessica's Law includes a good 50 pages of law that are critical to public safety," Steffen said.
She said that included provisions that made it a felony for criminals to possess child pornography and made kidnapping with intent to commit child molestation carry a life sentence. The law also broadened the definition of certain offenses and lengthening sentences.
Cranford, meanwhile, said law enforcement and sex offender-monitoring teams do a good job of keeping track of the offenders they monitor ---- whether they would be subject to Jessica's Law's provisions or not.
He said that as recently as last week, surveillance teams were traveling to the homes of hundreds of registered offenders to conduct checks.
Contact staff writer Gig Conaughton at (760) 739-6696 or gconaughton@nctimes.com.