Errors have called the reliability of Vermont's sex offender registry into question, a new state auditor's report found, and continue to delay the publishing of home addresses of convicted sex offenders on the registry.
Tuesday, Vermont's Joint Legislative Corrections Oversight Committee discussed the report from the office of State Auditor Doug Hoffer. The study found 253 records on the registry as of Dec. 31, 2013 that had so-called critical errors. Those errors represented about 11 percent of the total number of records, the report said. The errors included 120 offenders who were not on the database long enough, and nine who didn't belong there at all, the report said.
"Now admittedly, these may not be people you want to have over for dinner," Hoffer told the committee. "But they still have a right, and I think, a reasonable expectation, that there be some accuracy. Now having said that, no system truly is perfect. There will always be some errors, human or otherwise."
In 2009, lawmakers agreed to publicize the home addresses of sex offenders. Vermonters wanted to know who was living down the street from them, recalled Sen. Dick Sears, D-Bennington, especially after the 2008 case of Brooke Bennett of Braintree Vermont, who was raped and murdered by her uncle, Michael Jacques. Jacques was a previously-convicted sex offender.
Five years after the 2009 agreement to add information to the registry, addresses are still not available to interested web users. "The real concern when we passed the bill was that we make sure we get the addresses right," Sears said during Tuesday's meeting. "This [audit] would indicate we're still not there."
The 2009 decision to make addresses available on the registry was contingent on a "favorable" audit about the registry's accuracy. Committee members noted that there was no good definition of the word "favorable" in state statute. Hoffer declined to make a direct recommendation on the publishing of sex offenders’ addresses, telling committee members it was his office's job to present the data and leave the interpretation up to them.
Hoffer also pointed out there are no national standards for reliability of sex offender registries.
The new report followed up on a 2010 audit that found more errors than were detected in the 2014 study. "It was embarrassingly unfavorable," recalled Rep. Bill Lippert, D-Hinesburg. "I think this [new audit] indicates that there's some progress being made, but personally, I do not find this to be a favorable audit."
Jeff Wallin and the Vermont Crime Information Center, housed in the Vermont Department of Public Safety building in Waterbury, manage the registry. "A registry like this is as good as the data that's put into it," Wallin told New England Cable News.
Wallin said he chalks most mistakes up to manual data entry, acknowledging digital files and smoother sharing with courts and the Vermont Corrections Department would help.
Wallin said errors flagged in the audit have been cleared up and the system's getting better, thanks to new software. "We're always looking to improve," he said.
Prisoner rights advocate Gordon Bock said an 11 percent error rate should raise major red flags. Bock, who said he served prison time for domestic assault, represents the group CURE Vermont. CURE stands for Citizens United for the Rehabilitation of Errants, Bock explained.
"When you have critical errors in 11 percent of what you sampled, that seems high," he told NECN. "If you're going to be on it, the information about you should be accurate."
Bock added he was glad to see the committee take a slow approach, because he worries about problems like vigilantism or discrimination if offender addresses go online before all the kinks are worked out. "It really does stamp a scarlet letter on their foreheads," Bock warned.
As for when those addresses will go online, it is still on hold, as it has been since 2009. Joint Legislative Corrections Oversight Committee chairwoman Rep. Alice Emmons, D-Springfield, said the committee will tell the agencies that have a hand in the registry to keep working for the next several months to improve its reliability.
The committee will again discuss the issue of publishing addresses of sex offenders at a meeting this fall, Emmons said.
To read the report by the office of Vermont State Auditor Doug Hoffer, visit this website.
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