Reforming Laws Affecting People Convicted of Sex Offenses

By Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma

There is a quiet struggle in New York State to ease the irrational burdens on people convicted of sex offenses.

While the political winds mostly blow in the direction of more and more restrictions, policymakers are coming to realize that making life miserable for people does not actually improve public safety.

As we enter the new legislative session in Albany, I hope that the state legislature will consider and pass bills (1) getting rid of the Sex Offender Registration Act Risk Assessment Instrument, the notorious “RAI” that judges and social scientists agree systematically yields inaccurate risk estimates; (2) preventing local police from gratuitously spreading negative information about people convicted of sex offenses; and (3) creating a commission to study supervision and management of people convicted of sex offenses, especially the issue of housing for people released from prison who, under current law, are prevented from living in most residential areas.

These are all commonsense ideas that would improve public safety and marginally reduce the stigma and risk associated with having a sex crime conviction on your record. They all have the support of the New York City Bar Association, a mainstream organization of more than 24,000 lawyers that has a working group devoted to analyzing the effects of sex offense laws. They will improve public safety while reducing the burden on people convicted of sex offenses.

To learn more about these initiatives, please browse the Sex Offense Working Group committee reports linked below.

• Committee Report - The New York State Commission on Sex Offender Supervision and Management (Nov. 5, 2021)

• Committee Report - Prohibiting the Release of Level One Sex Offender Information Over the Internet (April 2021)

• Committee Report - Updating the Guidelines of the Sex Offender Risk Assessment Instrument (Jan. 23, 2020)

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