Image Credit: capitol.tn.gov
The Tennessee Conservative Staff –
A bill that would extend the length of time that an individual is on the Tennessee Sex Offenders Registry was heard by the House Criminal Justice Subcommittee on Tuesday and will be moving on to the full committee.
Representative Bryan Richey (R-Maryville-District 20) introduced House Bill 1617 (HB1617). Current Tennessee law requires that a person who is classified as a “sexual offender” be listed on the Registry for a minimum of ten years after their criminal sentence is complete. The new legislation would extend that minimum to fifteen years.
Richey stated that 32% of individuals on the sex offender registry commit repeat offenses.
Representative Bud Hulsey questioned whether increasing the time on the registry was completely fair.
“There’s a percentage of people who reoffend and recommit but there’s another percentage of people who don’t,” Hulsey stated. “I cannot see where five more years on the list is really a benefit.”
Richey stated that the bill would extend the penalty but said, “I think we need to do everything we can to protect our precious children.”
Hulsey noted that he was “not an advocate of being soft on that. I just want it to be just.”
Representative G.A. Hardaway (D-Memphis-District 93) asked where Richey had gotten his data to determine the additional five years. Richey stated that the recommendation had come from his district attorney.
After going out of session to ask the representative of the District Attorney’s Conference for thoughts, he stated that the conference did not have a public decision at this time as they felt it was a policy decision for the legislative body.
Previous question was then called by Representative William Lamberth (R-Portland-District 44) ending discussion on the legislation.
Chairman Clay Doggett (R-Pulaski-District 70) called for a voice vote. The bill passed the subcommittee with ayes prevailing. No one requested to be recorded as voting against the bill.
The bill will be sent to the Criminal Justice Committee.
Senator Mark Pody (R-Lebanon-District 17) sponsored the companion Senate Bill 2630 (SB2630) which has been referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
13 Responses
Please inquire of Richey where he came up with the 32% repeating offenses. There is NO research that supports his statement. The problem is that Richey is looking at overall re-offense rates which include a lot of arrests of technical violations or failure to register or report changes. What citizens need to know is the actual SEXUAL re-offense rate.
Even the U. S. Department of Justice says that the word recidivism is so often misused. The DOJ’s own studies only look at those released whose most serious offense was rape or sexual assault. They do not include the sex crimes, such as child porn, that would bring the sexual re-offense rate down.
The American Law Institute recently recommended major changes be made for the registry siting the low sexual recidivism rates.
The U. S. Department of Justice May of 2019 Recidivism Report found that released inmates in 30 states, whose most serious offense was rape or sexual assault, were arrested at a rate of 7.7% for rape or sexual assault over the 9-year period from 2005 to 2014. That means that 92.3% did NOT re-offend. This study only considered the most violent of sex crimes. When all sexual offenses are included, the rate is lower.
Of the 11,898 registered sex offenders released from prison between 1985 and 2001, 251 (2.1%) were returned to prison for another sex crime. The Arizona Department of Corrections reported that between 1984 and 1998, the recidivism rate for sex offenders was 5.5%, and Ohio reported that sex offenders released from prison in 1989 had a 10-year recidivism rate of 8%. According to the US Department of Justice, registered sex offenders are the least likely class of criminals to re-offend, with 3.5% of registered sex offenders released from prison in 1994 being reconvicted for another sexual offense within 3 years of their release. Finally, Harris and Hanson found that the risk for recidivating decreases significantly over time, with most re-offenses occurring within 5 years of the original conviction.” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2820068/
Well said. I would also add that overzealous parents often demand incarceration for a juvenile committing statutory rape. The kid winds up on the list and has a hard time making a life after that.
“Richey stated that 32% of individuals on the sex offender registry commit repeat offenses.”
This is misinformation and readers deserve some fact checking on this. It’s a long established fact, through numerous studies including by the USDOJ, that recidivism is 3-5%, the second lowest rate across all classes. Please fix this article and inform Richey that he shouldn’t spread lies.
A politician misstating statistics? I’m shocked, shocked I say! 😉
My rule of thumb is to run far away from any politician who talks about “our precious children” (or anything similar. It’s transparent manipulation and dishonesty to collect votes from the ignorant. People who know that Mr. Richey is dead wrong on his numbers ought to consider donating or volunteering for anyone who runs against him in a primary or general election.
I have no idea where Rep. Bryan Richey or the district attorney he consulted get their recidivism numbers. I suppose one can always cherry pick studies with little veracity to get a desired result. However, the generally accepted numbers are well below 10% with 5% being a reasonable average. All laws should be be based on factual data and not speculation. The vast majority–around 95%– of sex offenses against children are perpetrated by family members, teachers, clergy or other trusted associates who are not on the registry.
People need to do their own homework and research the actual recidivism rate of people on the registry instead of listening to the the FALSE information of the AG and this guy on the subcommittee.
All the empirical and reliable data including that of the Department of Justice show that the recidivism rate is actually only around 5%-and only 2% of that 5% are re-offenses against children-most of the others are technical violations such as parole, failing to register, etc.
Do your own homework people instead of listening someone else so you can find out the real truth and not want someone else wants you to believe.
Far better prevention money would be putting cameras in classrooms, day-care centers, doctor’s offices, etc. where 95% or more of these crimes occur by people NOT on the registry.
Use common sense. People are offenders BEFORE they are caught.
Registration is an after-the-fact obligation, and very few ever sexually re-offend.
The only lower recidivism rate is murder.
Research this yourself and see that the 32% recidivism rate is absolutely FALSE!!
This number is false. And people need to know that the registry isn’t working, it’s just a lazy approach to tackling sex crimes. The accepted recidivism rate for new sex crimes is between 3-5%. This is based on hundreds of studies tracking thousands of individuals and includes studies by the government as well as reputable academia. Where the number gets inflated is when technical violations that are related to reporting information in a timely manner get added. For instance if a person on the registry changes their employment and doesn’t report it in 48 hours they are subject to incarceration with a new felony charge and it reflects as a reoffense, but it is not a new sex offense.
The recidivism rate has been the same since it was tracked back in the 70’s so the registry has nothing to do with having such a low rate of recidivism.
https://azcapitoltimes.com/news/2024/02/28/its-time-for-a-new-direction-in-sexual-offense-policy/
This article contains statistics about recidivism and better policy ideas.
Ben Richey is either ignorant or the facts or being willfully disingenuous.
Truth be told, you cannot simplify the complexities of recidivism into some arbitrary number with no context. What study is it citing? Is he referring to rearrest, reconviction, or reincarceration, and is he referring to any type of offense, including parole violations, or only s*x offenses? How long was this study and who published it?
I suspect that the legislator just threw out a number.
Perhaps Mr. Richey suffers from Dyslexia or should nominated for the Jackass Award?!?
You see these are politicians that are Paid by the Taxpayer. There needs to be a better accounting of these politicians that Fleece taxpayers along with the District Attorneys and the Actors that Wear the Black Robe Costumes sitting behind The Bar-but they have Absolute Immunity like their poop does NOT stink!
No Jurisprudence!
Perhaps Mr Richey Suffers from Dyslexia or some other Medical Impediment. The Actual Numbers per USDOJ around 3%-ish.
Mr Richey has now libeled over 900K people!
For someone who is paid by tax payers, Mr Richey needs to utilize and apply Empirical Data that has been Verified and Validated. He is violating the RICO Act!
I would surmise that if the 32% recidivism rate cited by Mr. Richey were accurate, that shows that the registry did absolutely nothing to prevent that recidivism. It naturally follows that extending the registration obligation would be equally pointless.
However, in no way do I surmise that Mr. Richey’s claim is accurate. I’ve also seen all the studies regarding recidivism rates and am pretty sure the 32% Richey claims are the overall recidivism rates of all crime across the board from the USDOJ study in 2006.
Ironically, the recidivism of convicted murderers and sex criminals is what brought overall recidivism to the 30-ish percentile range. Drug offenders – users and dealers – are by far the worst recidivists (70+%) followed by burglars and thieves (50+%).