State House News Service

Sept. 9, 1999--After a late-night negotiating session and days of trading proposals, lawmakers rushed onto Gov. Paul Cellucci's desk today a long-awaited bill aimed at protecting the constitutional rights of convicted sex offenders while simultaneously letting parents and police know where those offenders are living. 

Passed by the Legislature in a few hours, the bill also allows judges to keep dangerous sex offenders behind bars for life or sentence them to lifetime parole.  Gov. Paul Cellucci said he plans to sign the bill tomorrow, some two years after the state's highest court ruled the original public registry was unconstitutional. 

"I like the fact that we have lifetime parole.  I like the fact that we have civil commitment," said Cellucci, who also welcomed the changes revamping the state's Sex Offender Registry law.  "I think it puts public safety first.  These are very good measures to protect the public safety." 

The federal government will withhold $1.2 million in community policing grants if the law isn't in place by Sunday. 

The proposed new registry law: 

* Allows judges to decide if people convicted of minor sex crimes like streaking should be included in the public registry. 

* Allows anyone required to register to do so by mail. 

* Gives all new offenders - and those convicted of crimes since 1981 - a chance to appeal whether their addresses will be given out publicly or kept only by police.  The addresses of "Level 1" offenders will be kept private, while parents will be able to get the names of local "Level 2" offenders. Police will actively notify residents of a "Level 3" offender lives in the 
area. 

* Creates a full-time seven-member board to hear those classification appeals, at a cost of $4.7 million annually. Currently, the three-member part-time board is facing a 16,000-case backlog created when the Supreme Judicial Court ruled that every offender was entitled to a classification hearing, and halted registrations. 

* Allows judges to keep dangerous prisoners locked up, or "civilly committed" for life if they are likely to re-offend.  "There are some people who are so bad ... that they ought never to walk the streets of a civilized society," said Sen. Robert Bernstein (D-Worcester), who worked on the bill. 

Bernstein, who worked on the bill for several years, said it was hard trying to come up with a compromise that would satisfy the SJC's requirements that the registry protect offenders' appellate rights while meeting the federally mandated guidelines. 

"There was a perception (among lawmakers) that more was needed than minor tinkering," added House Criminal Justice Committee Chairman Stephen Tobin (D-Quincy).  "It just behooved us to work it out." 

Added Senate Chairwoman Cynthia Creem (D-Newton): "It would be irresponsible of us to pass legislation without trying to incorporate the understanding of the SJC." 

Bernstein said the two-year delay in fixing the registry gave lawmakers a chance to become familiar with the issue.  He said Sunday's federal deadline was "helpful" but said "this was not about chasing federal dollars." 

"This bill has been around and about for a long time," he added. "This is not a new concept.  If anything has matured and not gone through quickly, it is the sex offender registry bill." 

Cellucci turned up the heat on lawmakers last week when it appeared they might not get the fixes to his desk before Sunday. 

Last year, a similar effort aimed at fixing the registry died in informal legislation when Rep. Byron Rushing (D-Boston) objected to a provision allowing certain juvenile offenders to be kept locked up for life.  Rushing was in the House chamber today but did not object to the bill's passage. 
 

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