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Interview with Bill Lockyer, Marc Klaas

Aired January 08, 2003 - 14:06   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Back to our story about sex offender registries. The problems with Megan's Law are not confined to California, but it happens to be the state for which these figures are pretty well available.
Once again, some 33,000 convicted sex offenders unaccounted for in California. Joining us now to talk more about it is Marc Klaas. He has lived the nightmare all parents fear. His daughter, Polly, was snatched from her bedroom and murdered. Also with us, Bill Lockyer. He is California's attorney general.

Gentlemen, thanks both for being with me. Bill, let's start with you. How the heck do so many sex offenders become unaccounted for?

BILL LOCKYER, ATTORNEY GENERAL, CALIFORNIA: Well, they're unaccounted for in the sense that they have not complied with the legal requirement that they tell us their current address every year. It's a felony if they don't. They can be reprosecuted and reincarcerated.

And so this is a population in California, about 100,000 of them, that move around with some regularity. They live frequently on the margins of society, and so the question is, will they go down and register on their own, as the law requires, or is there a need for some sort of oversight, kind of like parole agents or something, some law enforcement oversight that would make sure to keep an eye on them in a more regular way. Public safety demands the latter, that there be more rigorous oversight. Fiscal realities is the constraint on doing that.

PHILLIPS: So you're saying money is getting in the way of protecting our children from sex offenders?

LOCKYER: Well, money -- frankly, if you look at every system in our society, no one knows freeways and roads that are perfect, no one knows schools that are perfect. There are people that aren't getting health care that deserve it. There are people in this system that aren't getting observed that should be. Every system is imperfect. And so that's not unique to this. It's deplorable. I wish that there were a willingness to pay for this, but unfortunately, we're in a current political environment where we're cutting people's obligations to pay for these kind of systems, not expanding them.

PHILLIPS: All right.

LOCKYER: This needs to be expanded. PHILLIPS: We'll talk about the politics and expanding the program in just a moment. Mark, you know all too well. You and I both are disgusted by the name Richard Allen Davis, he is one who took the life of your daughter. And these guys do slip through the cracks. He had a rap sheet that went back years and years before he got to your daughter Polly.

MARC KLAAS, KLAASKIDS FOUNDATION: Yes, there's no question about that. I think a couple of things that could be done to strengthen California's Megan's Law, or actually to strengthen all states Megan's Laws are, No. 1, it should be a condition of parole to register as a sex offender prior to being released from prison, and then the local law enforcement agency where that individual is being located should be notified so that he can come in and register. I think, in California, it's within five days.

There has to be some way of verifying the registration itself, either by sending out a nonforwardable post card once a year or every 90 days, as is done in some states, or having law enforcement themselves go out and do it.

And finally, the penalties for noncompliance have to be so stringent that any sex offender would be crazy not to do it, knowing they would go back to prison for a good long time. These are just three of the things. I think another thing that can be done is much greater Internet access so that the public can have pictures of these guys, know who they are, and be able to track them in that way as well.

PHILLIPS: Bill, Marc brings up a good point. I mean, you have to keep these individuals accountable. You can't just expect a sex offender to go register wherever he or she moves to.

LOCKYER: Well, you can, if it's the law that exists that they do it, and in recent years, the penalty was changed from a misdemeanor to a felony. So that failure to register right now can result in multiple years in state prison. So we've done that.

The other thing that happens now is when people are going to be released from prison, we're the computer data bank. That's what my office does. The information comes from the prison authorities, from the local sheriff's and police officers, into our computer.

But right now, when someone is being released from prison, that first step does almost universally take place of getting a current address when they move out of prison into some community. The problem is subsequent to that. If they move or if they fail to register, many of them actually don't register, but they're still living in the same old address.

PHILLIPS: And the reality that you're dealing with now, you have got thousands and thousands of sexual offenders that have not been accounted for, they're loose on the streets. Mike -- I mean, Marc, put us into the mindset of one of these sex offenders. I mean, this isn't someone that is going to -- OK, maybe he did it one time, won't do it again. We should be pretty nervous as parents, shouldn't we? KLAAS: We should, and I can't put you into the mindset of one of these guys because I'm not one of these guys, but I can tell you, never in the history of the world has either a psychopath or a pedophile been cured. If there's one thing we can learn from the recent Catholic scandal, it's that each time one of these guys -- these guys can be put in as many treatment facilities as you want, but if you allow them to be anonymous in the community, they're going to reoffend time and time and time again.

That's what happened with Kenneth Parnell. He's the individual who brought a lot of attention to this in the last week, based on crimes he's committed in the past. And the -- the way he's been treated, they know that they're going to get away with it, they know that the time they spend in prison is going to be minimal compared to the crimes that they've committed, and the times that they should be spending in prison.

PHILLIPS: So Bill, as California attorney general, what can you do right now? What can you do to make us feel a little better, especially if we live in California. You're a powerful politician.

LOCKYER: Well, I've asked for additional resources to do this kind of enforcement program, and have been unsuccessful in getting the policymakers to provide. We think it's probably $15 to 20 million that this kind of oversight would cost on an annual basis to have the more rigorous review and keeping an eye on these guys.

But just -- I mean, you're talking about the tip of the iceberg. In the state of California, there are two million -- two million arrest warrants for people that should be arrested right now. Many of these people you're talking about haven't committed a crime. These are two million people that have committed a crime, there's an arrest warrant, and no one is doing anything about that. That's how thin the system has gotten when you have 85,000 law enforcement officers policing 35 million people. It's too thin, and we've got to put more resources in this to protect people.

PHILLIPS: Bill Lockyer, Marc Klaas, unfortunately, we have to leave it there. Meanwhile, as a parent, get on the database, try and find out as much information as possible -- gentlemen, thank you.

LOCKYER: Thank you.

KLAAS: Sure.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired January 8, 2003 - 14:06   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Back to our story about sex offender registries. The problems with Megan's Law are not confined to California, but it happens to be the state for which these figures are pretty well available.
Once again, some 33,000 convicted sex offenders unaccounted for in California. Joining us now to talk more about it is Marc Klaas. He has lived the nightmare all parents fear. His daughter, Polly, was snatched from her bedroom and murdered. Also with us, Bill Lockyer. He is California's attorney general.

Gentlemen, thanks both for being with me. Bill, let's start with you. How the heck do so many sex offenders become unaccounted for?

BILL LOCKYER, ATTORNEY GENERAL, CALIFORNIA: Well, they're unaccounted for in the sense that they have not complied with the legal requirement that they tell us their current address every year. It's a felony if they don't. They can be reprosecuted and reincarcerated.

And so this is a population in California, about 100,000 of them, that move around with some regularity. They live frequently on the margins of society, and so the question is, will they go down and register on their own, as the law requires, or is there a need for some sort of oversight, kind of like parole agents or something, some law enforcement oversight that would make sure to keep an eye on them in a more regular way. Public safety demands the latter, that there be more rigorous oversight. Fiscal realities is the constraint on doing that.

PHILLIPS: So you're saying money is getting in the way of protecting our children from sex offenders?

LOCKYER: Well, money -- frankly, if you look at every system in our society, no one knows freeways and roads that are perfect, no one knows schools that are perfect. There are people that aren't getting health care that deserve it. There are people in this system that aren't getting observed that should be. Every system is imperfect. And so that's not unique to this. It's deplorable. I wish that there were a willingness to pay for this, but unfortunately, we're in a current political environment where we're cutting people's obligations to pay for these kind of systems, not expanding them.

PHILLIPS: All right.

LOCKYER: This needs to be expanded. PHILLIPS: We'll talk about the politics and expanding the program in just a moment. Mark, you know all too well. You and I both are disgusted by the name Richard Allen Davis, he is one who took the life of your daughter. And these guys do slip through the cracks. He had a rap sheet that went back years and years before he got to your daughter Polly.

MARC KLAAS, KLAASKIDS FOUNDATION: Yes, there's no question about that. I think a couple of things that could be done to strengthen California's Megan's Law, or actually to strengthen all states Megan's Laws are, No. 1, it should be a condition of parole to register as a sex offender prior to being released from prison, and then the local law enforcement agency where that individual is being located should be notified so that he can come in and register. I think, in California, it's within five days.

There has to be some way of verifying the registration itself, either by sending out a nonforwardable post card once a year or every 90 days, as is done in some states, or having law enforcement themselves go out and do it.

And finally, the penalties for noncompliance have to be so stringent that any sex offender would be crazy not to do it, knowing they would go back to prison for a good long time. These are just three of the things. I think another thing that can be done is much greater Internet access so that the public can have pictures of these guys, know who they are, and be able to track them in that way as well.

PHILLIPS: Bill, Marc brings up a good point. I mean, you have to keep these individuals accountable. You can't just expect a sex offender to go register wherever he or she moves to.

LOCKYER: Well, you can, if it's the law that exists that they do it, and in recent years, the penalty was changed from a misdemeanor to a felony. So that failure to register right now can result in multiple years in state prison. So we've done that.

The other thing that happens now is when people are going to be released from prison, we're the computer data bank. That's what my office does. The information comes from the prison authorities, from the local sheriff's and police officers, into our computer.

But right now, when someone is being released from prison, that first step does almost universally take place of getting a current address when they move out of prison into some community. The problem is subsequent to that. If they move or if they fail to register, many of them actually don't register, but they're still living in the same old address.

PHILLIPS: And the reality that you're dealing with now, you have got thousands and thousands of sexual offenders that have not been accounted for, they're loose on the streets. Mike -- I mean, Marc, put us into the mindset of one of these sex offenders. I mean, this isn't someone that is going to -- OK, maybe he did it one time, won't do it again. We should be pretty nervous as parents, shouldn't we? KLAAS: We should, and I can't put you into the mindset of one of these guys because I'm not one of these guys, but I can tell you, never in the history of the world has either a psychopath or a pedophile been cured. If there's one thing we can learn from the recent Catholic scandal, it's that each time one of these guys -- these guys can be put in as many treatment facilities as you want, but if you allow them to be anonymous in the community, they're going to reoffend time and time and time again.

That's what happened with Kenneth Parnell. He's the individual who brought a lot of attention to this in the last week, based on crimes he's committed in the past. And the -- the way he's been treated, they know that they're going to get away with it, they know that the time they spend in prison is going to be minimal compared to the crimes that they've committed, and the times that they should be spending in prison.

PHILLIPS: So Bill, as California attorney general, what can you do right now? What can you do to make us feel a little better, especially if we live in California. You're a powerful politician.

LOCKYER: Well, I've asked for additional resources to do this kind of enforcement program, and have been unsuccessful in getting the policymakers to provide. We think it's probably $15 to 20 million that this kind of oversight would cost on an annual basis to have the more rigorous review and keeping an eye on these guys.

But just -- I mean, you're talking about the tip of the iceberg. In the state of California, there are two million -- two million arrest warrants for people that should be arrested right now. Many of these people you're talking about haven't committed a crime. These are two million people that have committed a crime, there's an arrest warrant, and no one is doing anything about that. That's how thin the system has gotten when you have 85,000 law enforcement officers policing 35 million people. It's too thin, and we've got to put more resources in this to protect people.

PHILLIPS: Bill Lockyer, Marc Klaas, unfortunately, we have to leave it there. Meanwhile, as a parent, get on the database, try and find out as much information as possible -- gentlemen, thank you.

LOCKYER: Thank you.

KLAAS: Sure.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com