Legislature Must Get Serious About Protecting Children

By Tom Harman

It has become a sad, predictable ritual in the Capitol--tough new laws are proposed, but then quickly disposed of without any real debate.

Here are some examples from last year:

• Two bills to expand the information on the Megan's Law online database (http://www.meganslaw.ca.gov) were killed by the Assembly Public Safety Committee. I supported these bills, because I firmly believe that parents should have access to more complete information about child molesters in their neighborhood. But I never had a chance to vote for AB 35 or AB 807, because three members of the Public Safety Committee stopped the proposals from reaching the Assembly floor.
• A plan to require alleged child molesters to wear electronic monitors when they're out on bail was defeated by the same committee. AB 335 would have helped police keep track of perverts who may be loitering near our kids' schools and parks.
• Another bill, AB 1109, would have extended the time for the public to comment on any proposed release of sexually violent predators in their neighborhood. Again, those who run the Public Safety Committee killed the proposal and kept it from being heard on the Assembly floor.

Under the current make-up of the state Legislature, however, these proposals will never become law. Thanks to the votes of three ultraliberal lawmakers ­ a tiny minority of the 80-member Assembly--the Public Safety Committee has become the graveyard for efforts to get tougher on crime. It might as well be renamed the Public Endangerment Committee.

For the past several years, my Republican colleagues and I have asked Assembly leadership to exercise its power and make the committee more reflective of California's population. We're not trying to turn jaywalking into a death penalty offense--we just want to have a reasonable debate over reasonable proposals, especially those that would better protect children from the depraved actions of pedophiles.

Assembly leadership has refused to make any changes, so the committee is still chaired by the assemblyman who went on national television to proclaim that he's "reluctant to make new felonies for just about anything" because he opposes California's three strikes law. Never mind that nearly 6.3 million California voters rejected that view last year when they voted against an initiative that would have weakened the sentencing law.

Nor has the assemblyman been replaced whose claim to fame is carrying legislation to reduce the punishment for possession of crack cocaine. That proposal to weaken our anti-drug laws actually passed the committee, but it was never brought up for a floor vote, so I didn't get an opportunity to vote against it.

This is all fresh in my mind as I begin the 2006 legislative session. I am a major supporter of Jessica's Law, which would require sex offenders to wear electronic monitors and ban them from living within 2,000 feet of schools or parks, but already this bill has died in the committee of no return.

I hope you'll join me in fighting for this much-needed legislation. Working together, we can put the "public" back in public safety, and we will give our children the security and safety they deserve.

Signed,

TOM HARMAN Assemblyman, 67th District