The Associated Press
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) - Rhode Island police departments have started notifying residents about convicted sex offenders in their communities, following revisions to state law.
Under the revamped law, passed last year, police must inform the public about Level III offenders, those deemed most at risk to reoffend.
A state review board separates the convicted sex offenders into the three levels based on factors including criminal history, behavior in prison and course of treatment.
According to The Providence Journal, it recently classified the first group of 25 offenders since the law’s revision, but still faces a backlog of about 100 cases.
Since 1992, anyone convicted of a sex crime has been required to register with the local police department upon sentencing, release from prison or moving to a new town.
All the information was accessible only to the police until 1996, when the state passed its version of the federal Megan’s Law. The law requires that the community be notified of the presence of sex offenders who are classified as high-risk.
Several convicted offenders challenged the constitutionality of Rhode Island’s law, effectively putting it on hold after only a few notifications had occurred. Similar legal battles have been launched across the country, all the way up to the Supreme Court.
A revised version of the law passed the General Assembly last year. It changed the makeup of the Sex Offender Board of Review and the process by which it determines the risk the offender poses to the community.
The board categorizes an offender as high-, medium- or low-risk status, considering factors including criminal history, disciplinary record in prison and course of treatment, said Peter Loss, the chairman.
After a risk level is assigned, it is up to police departments to notify the community in which the offender lives. Each department has its own notification policy, which follows state guidelines and is filed with the Parole Board.
For low-risk, or Level I offenders, the police notify the victim and any witnesses who testified against the offender, if they have requested notification.
For Level II offenders, in addition to victims and witnesses, the police alert appropriate community groups and organizations.
For the high-risk, or Level III, police must give community-wide notice. This can include advertisements, Internet postings, widespread fliers and letters to parents whose children fall into the offender’s potential target age group.
Level II and III offenders have the right to appeal the board’s ruling within 10 days. Nine of the review board’s first 25 classifications are being appealed, said Paula Kocon, coordinator of the Parole Board’s sex offender notification unit.
The board labeled 21-year-old Joshua Maciorski, of South Kingstown, a Level III offender.
Maciorski was arrested last year after Narragansett police officers found him having “consensual sex” with a 14-year-old girl, according to Detective Lt. Gerald Driscoll. He pleaded no contest to third-degree sexual assault and was sentenced to serve one year of a four-year term.
Two years earlier, the state police had charged Maciorski with first-degree child molestation for having “consensual sex” with a 13-year-old, according to the police report.
His mother, Melissa Maciorski, attributes his actions to his youth.
“To me, it’s common,” she said. “It’s just teenagers.”
She doesn’t think her son is a threat to the community, although she acknowledged, “I was fed up with him myself. He kept repeating himself.”
The company that oversees Meadowbrook Apartments in South Kingstown, where she lives, told her last month that Joshua can’t be on the premises. He now lives in his car, she said.
Maciorski said she worried the notification could make it harder for her son to reestablish himself and stay out of prison.
Steven Brown, executive director of the Rhode Island Affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union, agrees.
“This type of notification will haunt him his entire life,” Brown said. “It undermines attempts to remain a law-abiding citizen. It does nothing to promote rehabilitation.”