Megan's Law Upgrades Needed to Protect Our Children

In 1995, New York State passed "Megan’s Law," which was named after 7-year-old Megan Kanka, who was raped and murdered by a sex offender living across the street from her. The neighbor already had two previous convictions of sex crimes against small children.

Megan’s Law requires convicted sex offenders to register with the state and provides parents and other concerned members of the community with access to this lifesaving information. Megan’s Law protects the most vulnerable of our population: our children. However, two problems have arisen with Megan’s Law in New York State that the Legislature must act to correct.

Due to a recent New York State Court of Appeals decision, counties no longer have the authority under Megan’s Law to establish reasonable residency restriction laws for convicted sexual offenders. Rather, the Court of Appeals stated in its decision that state law alone will establish residency restrictions for convicted sex offenders.

The issue is state law is vastly inferior to the local county residency restriction laws. Specifically, the New York State residency restrictions apply only to sexual offenders currently on parole. This excludes thousands of convicted sexual offenders who have completed their parole period. Additionally, New York State law does not include residency restrictions to prevent convicted sex offenders from living near libraries and parks, which are two locations frequented by our children.

Additionally, the original language of Megan’s Law called for Level 1 sex offenders to be removed from the notification list after a 20 year period. The section of Megan’s Law allowing the removal of Level 1 sex offenders must be eliminated or the time period extended to prevent offenders from dropping off the registry.

I am proud to co-sponsor legislation (A.1651) with Assemblyman Dean Murray and Sen. Tom Croci that returns the power to establish reasonable residency restrictions for sex offenders back to our local counties, which would include both paroled offenders and offenders who have completed their parole under said restrictions for the time periods prescribed by law. The same legislation extends the length of time a Level 1 sex offender must be registered from 20 to 30 years.

You can help by going to www.parentsformeganslaw.org/legislation and signing the petition to urge your state legislator to fix Megan’s Law.