From The Desk Of Assemblyman Joseph Saladino
Residents in the community were recently shocked to learn that a level three sex offender was residing across the street from a Babylon elementary school. What is most disturbing is that the current NYS law allows dangerous convicted predators to live that close to a school. Residents are asking why?
Despite the fact that the sex offender status requires registration, the current law demands that an offender be on probation or parole in order to restrict how far they live from a school. This allows too many of these convicted offenders to live wherever they choose. Local government is not included in decisions relating to residency restrictions. This approach is dangerous.
Clearly, we must embrace common sense and make the safety of our children the priority.
My goal as your elected official is to ensure that the laws that protect communities from sexual predators are strengthened, giving local government the ability to set restrictions and monitor dangerous sex offenders as they deem appropriate to protect their citizens.
During the years I have served in the NYS Assembly I’ve made protecting our children from sex offenders one of my highest priorities. I began my work in Albany by fighting along with my colleagues to establish the Civil Confinement Law. This legislation, which we passed with the public’s help, forces the most dangerous offenders to go through a rigorous screening process before being released into our communities. As a result, we can provide a level of protection by keeping the worst offenders from posing a threat to our children. Other legislation essential to the community that I have sponsored or supported set mandatory sentences of 25 years for offenders who rape children, life imprisonment without parole for offenders who murdered their victims, increased penalties and jail time for offenders who prey upon children through the internet, intensive supervision for level two and level three sex offenders and mandated DNA samples from all violent offenders to help make arrests and subsequently to get convictions.
Currently I am sponsoring a bill with Assemblyman Edward Ra and Assemblyman Dean Murray in the Assembly and Senator Michael Venditto in the Senate which would allow local government (our county, town and villages) to decide what sex offender residency restrictions are best for the residents of their communities’. I ask for your help. Please support this bill by signing our on-line petition at http://tinyurl.com/SexOffenderPetition2016 or you can call my office for more information 516-541-4598.
