Civil confinement bill falls short of expectations

Assemblyman Bill Reilich (R,I,C - Greece) is discontent with a civil confinement bill proposed by Speaker Sheldon Silver and his Assembly majority members on January 23. Relich and his Assembly Republican colleagues are critical of the bill because civil confinement wouldn't apply to thousands of sexual deviants currently serving prison sentences and the standards necessary to commit sexual predators are unnecessarily high.

In a press release, he said. "Our bill covers all of the bases," state Reilich. "The one submitted by Speaker Silver would not do anything to prevent currently incarcerated criminals from striking again."

Assembly Democrats, joined by some Republicans, passed Silver's version of the civil confinement bill on Monday afternoon. A different, stricter civil confinement measure has been passed by the state Senate, and that legislation has the backing of Assembly minority members.

According to the press release, Assembly Republicans have tried to pass a civil confinement bill for 13 years, and Democrats have successfully stopped the measure from gaining the floor to be put to a vote, Reilich noted.

Members of the Assembly Republican conference, in turn, are calling for establishment of a joint conference committee to discuss the differing bills and reach an agreement on a bipartisan civil confinement policy. A similar approach met with success less than two week ago when both sides overcame a stalemate to vote on and approve a stronger Megan's Law.

"Gov. George Pataki on Monday proposed Jessica's Law," Reilich stated in the press release. "I commend the idea and truly believe that anyone who kidnaps and harms a child should be put away for life. It has been shown that sexually violated predators are incredibly difficult to reform, so why take the chance?"

A study by the state Division of Criminal Justice Services showed that, of 5,200 Level 3 sex offenders, 572 soon returned to prison on other sex offense convictions.

January 29, 2006