CALIFORNIA STRUGGLES WITH JESSICA’S LAW

California state courts have been flooded with claims by people required to register as sex offenders challenging the residency restrictions of Jessica’s Law. Jessica’s Law mandated that registered sex offenders live at least 2000 feet from any school, playground or place where children congregate. While this may sound good in theory it has caused a lot of problems. For one thing, there are whole counties in the state which have no residences or very few places that meet this qualification. At the same time many registrants are under conditions of parole that they live within a certain county.

Last February, the Supreme Court in In Re E. J held that the constitutionality of the residency restriction must be decided on a case by case basis. Since then numerous suits have been filed by those required to register. While these suits can crawl along at a very slow pace many judges have restrained the state from enforcing the residency restrictions against the individuals who have sued and some judges have gone so far as to order countywide bans on enforcement. In Los Angeles County the Superior Court has prohibited enforcement of the registration requirement countywide until the individual suits have been decided.

California State Senator Mark Leno is attempting to terminate the residency ban in order to improve public safety. The ban forces many sex offenders to live on the street. As a result of the ban over 2100 sex offenders, statewide, are homeless. Approximately one third of the states paroled sex offenders are homeless. This makes it more difficult for law enforcement officials to keep track of the parolees. California’s version of Jessxica’s Law was passed as an initiative in 2006. Since that time the number of homeless sex offender parolees has increased by 24-fold. In San Francisco 80 per cent of sex offenders on parole are homeless. But Leno has an uphill battle. Since it was enacted as a statewide proposition it either requires another statewide vote or a two thirds majority in the legislature. Jessica’s Law still has strong support in the legislature where Democrats do not want to appear to be soft on crime and Republicans want to support law and order. In order to be successful Leno will have to show his fellow legislators that amending Jessica’s Law will improve public safety by getting sex offenders off the street and improving the ability of parole officers and police to keep track of sex offenders whereabouts.