Maine not part of sex offender registry project

Monday, August 22, 2005

By JOEL ELLIOTTStaff Writer

Is the guy who lives across the street a child molester?
If this question has ever crossed your mind, you're not alone, judging by the national interest in a new Web site devoted to mapping sex offenders.
The site, MapSexOffen ders.com, reported more than 1 million hits on Wednesday alone after it was featured on the front page of MSNBC's Web site and in Newsweek magazine. The sex offender site's team of eight designers has posted the street addresses of registered offenders in 37 states since the beta site went up in July. The site's creators, part of Orbizon Inc., said they would like to complete the public service by mapping the remaining states. Although the site has not been completed, the team has been deluged with requests via e-mail and telephone, creator Mark Olsen said.
"Everyone that we talk to, including (people from) Maine, are asking, 'Could we please be mapped?' " he said. "We've had ... county (governments) and sheriffs calling, saying 'What can you do to help us get online? What have we done wrong that you can't map us?'"
Olsen said the Utah-based team is working to map the last eight "mappable" states.
Most likely, Maine won't be mapped any time soon.
The site lists Maine as impossible to map because state legislation requires a written request to obtain the street address for each sex offender. Maine is one of only six states to have such a requirement, according to the site. People making such requests must also provide their own name, mailing address, city, state and zip code, although the requested information is displayed on the screen, not mailed. Using this system to map the sex offenders in Maine would be a lengthy process, given their numbers: Maine has 1,652 registered sex offenders, according to Donna Cote, supervisor of the state sex offender registry (http://www.informe. org/sor/). Portland is home to 118 sex offenders, Augusta, 89; Bangor, 115, according to the registry.
More sex offenders could be in jail and haven't had a chance to register yet, Cote said.
Maine legislators devised this relatively involved process of providing information about sex offenders to protect both children and the sex offenders, according to Maj. Robert Williams of the Maine Department of Public Safety. Williams said legislators thought that making personal information about sex offenders, such as their street address, might make it too easy for people to harass them. Cote said as much, but declined to comment about her own opinion of the law. She said the majority of people in Maine probably would like to have easier access to the information.
Sen. Bill Diamond, D-Cumberland, said he found the system frustrating when he tried it. Diamond chairs the Joint Standing Committee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety, a committee that is now deciding what bills to introduce in January concerning sex offenders.
"We're trying to provide as much information as we can on convicted sex offenders," Diamond said. "It shouldn't be the intent of the law to make it difficult for people to find the information on where these people are located."
The committee was shocked to hear at its last meeting on Aug. 11 estimates of unreported sex offenses range from 71 percent to 95 percent, Diamond said.
Even the lower estimate is "very disturbing," he said.
Perhaps even more disconcerting, he said, was a report from Martin Magnusson, commissioner of Maine Department of Corrections, who told about a sex offender who is due to be released in the fall and who told officials that he planned to go out and commit more sex offenses. Magnusson declined to comment for this article, but Diamond said the committee is looking into various avenues -- including making the sex offender registry more user-friendly -- to protect children from sexual predators.
One such piece of legislation that may come out of committee will be to unify across the state the process of registering sex offenders, according to Rep. Stan Gerzofsky, D-Brunswick. Maine Attorney General Steven Rowe is examining the wording of the bill.
Gerzofsky said the committee also is looking at legislation that will provide tougher penalties to sex offenders who fail to register.
Mainers say registering sex offenders is helpful only as the information is made public, said Denise Lord, associate commissioner of the Maine Department of Corrections. Streamlining the sex offender registry to make it possible for Mainers to learn where sex offenders live would be a good move, she said.
"I'm sure they would appreciate it," she said. "...The public is very eager for more information."
Joel Elliott -- 487-3566, 861-9252
jelliott@centralmaine.com