Site does not list sex-offender threat

| Tuesday, July 25, 2006

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SIOUX FALLS (AP) - South Dakotans can check the state's new Internet registry of sex offenders for a list of all transgressors. What they won't find is any information about each criminal's threat level.

Unlike other states, South Dakota does not determine whether a sex offender is a serious threat or someone with a 30-year-long clean slate.

"We have no classification system here," said Sioux Falls Police Detective Arden Goering, who maintains the city's sex-offender registration program. "I've got one guy on my list whose conviction dates to 1949, and he gets treated the same as three-time offenders."

There are supporters and detractors as to whether a risk-rating system would be beneficial to South Dakotans.

Supporters say listings would spotlight those most likely to commit another sex crime.

Detractors say it is impossible to know if a person would re-offend.

Minnehaha County Sheriff Mike Milstead is open to changes, but families need to make their own decisions about safety, he said.

"I'm not saying there's not a better way to do it, and maybe our system will evolve," he said. "But I do like the idea that any citizen can look at all the information on any sex offender, read it and make personal decisions about whether that person poses a risk."

South Dakota considered using a risk rating, but lawmakers rejected a move in sex-offender task-force meetings last summer, said state Sen. Gene Abdallah, R-Sioux Falls. Legislators didn't want to ease restrictions for in-state sex offenders, he said.

"We didn't want to become a haven for sex offenders," Abdallah said. "We wanted the word to get out that we wanted to be tough."

Eric Lipman, Minnesota's sex-offender policy coordinator, said his state realized that it was possible to tell which sex offenders were dangerous.

"There is some risk. It's not perfect," he said. "But we're committed both in attitude and policy to using the best available science."

Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin and other states classify sex offenders according to risk. In some cases, that means low-risk sex offenders aren't announced to the community or plastered on the state Web site.

Different states label dangerous offenders in different ways. Who determines risk levels also varies by state; it could be a single person or a committee that includes prison officials, a victim's-rights advocate and probation officers, among others.

Abdallah said lawmakers shouldn't change laws simply because there might be some unusual exceptions among sex offenders.

South Dakota judges might adjust a sex offender's sentence based on a psycho-sexual evaluation, Milstead said. Judges in other states don't get as much leeway.

"South Dakota judges have much more flexibility," he said.

Other states have devised a way to give control to local authorities. In Wisconsin, although correction officials decide an offender's risk level, local officials determine who should be notified about a sex offender and how that should be done.

With about 1,700 registered sex offenders in the state, South Dakota has relatively few compared with some states. They're all listed on the state's Web site.

Of Minnesota's 14,000 sex offenders, 4,500 are risk-rated.

Numbers don't matter when it comes to risk-assessment laws, Lipman said.

"If it were 4,000 folks or 40 folks, we'd still be doing it," he said.

Jamie Freestone, the state Web master, said when the state's Web site was released, it was almost too much information for South Dakotans to take in. Now, she is working on a neighborhood search for the Web site so people can look for nearby offenders more easily.