Brown files sex offender legislation
State Senator Scott Brown has filed new legislation seeking to oust two sex offenders from a Norfolk neighborhood.
The bill that Brown and 31 cosponsors filed last week would have far-reaching implications. Unlike a previous attempt by the Wrentham Republican to respond to angry residents, this measure would prohibit almost all Level 2 and Level 3 sex offenders in Massachusetts from living or working near a school or day-care facility.
An amendment that Brown tried unsuccessfully to tack on to this year's state budget applied only to sex offenders under state care.
For more than three months, a group of Norfolk residents has been working to have two convicted sex offenders removed from a Cleveland Street group home for the mentally retarded. The state Department of Mental Retardation and its subcontractor, Delta Projects Inc., have stated repeatedly that the 24-hour supervision at the home is adequate to protect public safety.
Local residents have rejected that claim and last month collected more than 1,600 signatures on a letter to Governor Mitt Romney that criticizes the commissioner of the Department of Mental Retardation. The letter was given to Brown late last month, and he said he plans to deliver it to Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey this month.
The two men Norfolk residents are worried about, ages 33 and 35, are both Level 2 offenders, which means the state believes they pose a ''moderate risk" of reoffending. Level 3 offenders are considered to be a ''high risk." One of the men was convicted of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14; the other was convicted of assault with intent to rape.
Brown said he's hoping for a hearing and a vote on the new bill this month, which would be an extraordinarily quick turnaround.
''If they can have hearings and pass through a special election on appointing a new senator in a day, they can certainly do something like this to protect the Commonwealth's children in a reasonable time," Brown said, referring to the bid by the Democrat-controlled Legislature to remove the governor's power to name a replacement for Senator John Kerry if he is elected president.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Mental Retardation declined to comment on the bill, as did Richard Hayes, an attorney for Delta Projects Inc.
Brown's sex-offender bill would bar any Level 2 or Level 3 offender whose crime involved a child from living or working within 1,000 feet of a school or child-care facility. It would also prohibit a Level 2 or Level 3 offender in state-owned or state-funded housing from living within a mile and a half of a school, child-care facility, or residence of a minor.
When he was asked if it would force a sex offender to relocate every time a new school opened or a new child moved to a neighborhood, Brown said he is not concerned about that right now. ''Obviously, we'll have to review the process," he said. ''I'm more concerned right now with the rights of the victims and the rights of the children and the citizens that have been affected by this."
Twenty-one other states have passed some kind of placement guidelines, which Massachusetts now lacks, Brown said.
The bill also seeks to subdivide the Level 2 category so that any offender whose victim was a child would be treated as a Level 3, meaning police could post their name, photograph, and address around the community. The measure also proposes creating a commission to review the existing sex offender registry.
Leo Sarkissian, executive director of the Arc of Massachusetts, the largest advocacy group for people with developmental disabilities, said that, while the current sex offender law probably does deserve a review, the way to decrease recidivism is through treatment, not geographic restrictions.
''At the end of the day, you could have someone 2,000 feet away from a school and they could end up getting to a child in a neighborhood," he said.
''I think the treatment issues are a lot more important than where people live."
Sarkissian said he hoped such a bill would not be implemented quickly without a thorough review of the potential ramifications.
Norfolk residents are hopeful some kind of legislation will help them, but they aren't counting on any single approach. According to Selectman Jim Lehan, residents have been making contacts in other communities, including Harwich and Woburn, that are confronting a similar issue.
''We are gaining some statewide allies," Lehan said.
Brown's bill, which also limits where sex offenders can live in relation to victims and victims' families, is named for a Woburn family. It's called the Joanne and Alyssa Act, after Joanne and Alyssa Presti, a mother and daughter killed in January, allegedly by a convicted sex offender.
Lisa Kocian can be reached at 508-820-4231 or lkocian@globe.com.
