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The state will conduct a far-reaching inquiry into how the sex-offender registry system is functioning.
Thomas Ullmann (pictured), the chief of the public defender’s office in New Haven, spoke about the inquiry on the “The Legal Eagle” public-affairs program on WNHH radio.
Ullmann, who has represented numerous high-profile defendants in capital murder cases, including one of the defendants in the Petit case, also discussed the state Supreme Court’s recent decision to ban the death penalty. “I am relieved it is over,” he said. The full discussion with Ullmann on the Eagle’s WNHH show appears at around 11:10 in the above sound file of the program. (The first segment features an interview about the Supreme Court with New York Times columnist Linda Greenhouse.)
Ullmann, who is a member of the state’s sentencing commission, noted that the legislature has created a special group under the auspices of the sentencing commission to take up the sex offender registry topic, adding “serious problems” have developed since the registry was first enacted in 1998. The commission is comprised of all branches of government and those who run the various criminal justice systems, the courts, the prisons and victim advocates, to name a few. The panel was scheduled to meet for the first time Wednesday. It has until 2017 to produce a report.
“If you get people sitting around a table,” Ullmann said, “you get discussion going. Compromises are made….”
Ullmann said there has been a great deal of criticism regarding the sex registries, not only in Connecticut, but across the nation. Connecticut, he said, has 6,000 people on the public registry list, a large number in a small state.
“No one knows how to pick out a dangerous individual,” he said. The sex offenders list includes names addresses, and offense or statute.
But the registry, he said, can be counterproductive, especially since it has become “increasingly more severe” over the years.
Even if sex offenders have reformed, Ullmann said, the list casts a wide net of ostracism. Individuals on the list are often kicked out of public housing and may either lose their jobs or can’t get jobs. Even if they have not committed any further criminal acts, the inability to get a job or housing, leads to other criminality, he said.
He said the sentencing commission will explore the impact of possible changes on victims and will look into additional categories. Criticism has come from many parts of the criminal justice system.
An interim report to the legislature is due in January with a final report due the following year. This will be a major undertaking of the sentencing commission, Ullmann said. He also described the fascinating story behind the creation of the commission.
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