TEXAS?? YES TEXAS "BALKING" AT THE $ COST $ of AWA

Feb. 18, 2008, 4:30AMNew federal sex offender law too harsh for some Texas officials
© 2008 The Associated Press
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AUSTIN — Normally get-tough Texas lawmakers are among scores of state officials and victim's advocates blasting a new federal law they say is unfairly harsh on some of the youngest sex offenders.

Criticism of a national sex offender Web site that would require juveniles as young as 14 to register is mounting as states face a July 2009 deadline to enact provisions of the bill signed by President Bush.

States that do not comply risk losing millions of dollars in criminal justice funding, but the law's no-exceptions scope for some young offenders is giving many Texas officials pause.
"We think our laws are strong enough," said Sen. Florence Shapiro, a Plano Republican and a leading advocate of sex offender registration laws in Texas.

Under the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006, states must participate in a national sex offender registry. Critics say the registry puts juveniles who engage in consensual sex with children younger than 13 in the same category as armed rapists and pedophiles.
The Justice Department is expected to issue final guidelines of the law this spring.

Juveniles are included in Texas' sex offender registry, but the state gives judges broad discretion in deciding which ones are placed there. Judges would lose that discretion under the federal act.
"There are an awful lot of sexual assault cases, and then there are kids who engage in sex at an early age," said Bill Hawkins, chief of the juvenile division of the Harris County District Attorney's Office. "The Adam Walsh Act wants to put them all together."

The problem, according to critics of the law, is that the registry doesn't factor the risk level of the offender. Juvenile sex offenders are said to be more capable of rehabilitation, and studies have shown than less than 10 percent of juveniles who commit sex offenses re-offend as adults.
More than 47,000 people are listed on the state's sex offender registry.

Of those, 275 are younger than 18 and 3,853 are registered based on offenses they committed as juveniles, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.

State Rep. Jim McReynolds, D-Lufkin, initially championed the Adam Walsh Act. But he now believes the law makes little financial sense for Texas, arguing it would cost local communities more to enact the stringent requirements than what the state would earn through compliance.
"It's a financial loser ... an unfunded mandate," he said.

{Well "Hang em high" Texas has finally weighed in on the Adam Walsh Act. It can only be seen as good news that the state the largest number of executions has scoffed at the implementation of the Adam Walsh Act.

Politicians on both sides of the isle have weighed in against AWA citing concerns over juvenile inclusion but also over the huge costs involved.

Its a financial LOSER? An unfunded mandate? I hope some of the other States are watching whats going on in Ohio and Texas.

Congress is going to have to pay alot more bribe money to the states to get anything near full compliance.

That's kind of hard when you have a war to fight and with all the pork that must be paid out in order to get the congress and senate to vote the way you want.

OOps? Not to mention the millions of dollars states will have to spend fighting the lawsuits from existing offenders that have had 15-life added to their sentences with no new crime committed.

This is a bad law, but its comforting to watch people "FINALLY" have to take a look at what's really going on and the true financial and human cost's involved with stripping away a persons civil rights. Hey John Walsh??? DONT MESS WITH TEXAS!! }

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/5549467.html