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			    GENERAL-RKBA Digest 352
Topics covered in this issue include:
  1) CRIMESTRIKE: NC Puts Sex Offenders On The Internet by NRA Alerts 
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Topic No. 1
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1998 21:23:50 -0400 (EDT)
From: NRA Alerts 
To: general-rkba-real.nra
Subject: CRIMESTRIKE: NC Puts Sex Offenders On The Internet
Message-ID: 
                        NRA CrimeStrike's
                        CrimeWatch Weekly
            Breaking news on critical crime-fighting 
                 issues, policies and legislation
Vol. 4, No.  15                                    April 14, 1998
                     North Carolina Puts Sex 
                    Offenders On The Internet
     By 10 p.m. on April 1st, the first day of operation, over
31,700 residents of North Carolina had logged on to the state's
new on-line sex offender registry.  The registry gives easy
access to the names, addresses, photographs, convictions and
sentences of the more than 2,000 registered sex offenders living
in the state.
     Convicted criminals are required to register with the county
sheriff upon conviction of one of 14 sexual crimes.  Failing to
register is a felony.  Sex offenders declared predators, those
most likely to repeat their crimes, must stay on the registry for
life.  Others stay on for 10 years, unless they commit another
crime that requires registration.
     One Charlotte offennder listed said most members of his sex
offender therapy group think it's a good idea.
           The web address is: sbi.jus.state.nc.us/sor.
                 Serial Killer's Artwork For Sale
     Joel Rifkin, who confessed to slaying and dismembering 17
women in New York City and Long Island,  had numerous paintings
displayed for sale last week, along with hundreds of others in a
show of inmate artwork called "Corrections on Canvas."  Fifty
percent of profits go to the state's Crime Victims' Board, and
the rest to inmate artists.
     Most of Rifkin's twenty works were done at the Attica
Correctional Facility where Rifkin is serving 203   years to
life.  His works range in price from $27 to $81, and to date at
least six have sold.
     Many of Rifkin's paintings depict serene landscapes and
portraits of flowers and birds, while others are much darker and
disturbing. 
     State Senator Dale Volker said that the pictures make him
"uncomfortable," but added that crime victims will at least
benefit. "If this really benefited Joel Rifkin, I think I'd take
the pictures down myself," he said.
                 Tennessee Prison Privatization 
                     Bill Hits Bump In Senate
     Tennessee SB 1893, which would turn up to 70% of that
state's prisons over to private operations (CWW 01/13/98), was
voted down by the Government Operations Committee by a 6-5 margin
on March 31, according to Corrections Digest.
     The bill's sponsor, state Senator Ben Atchley, acknowledged
that he did not have the votes for passage in the State and Local
Government Committee, the bill's next stop.  The bill could be
defeated in that committee.
     
     Supporters, who include Gov. Don Sundquist,  Lt. Gov. John
Wilder, and House Finance Committee chairman Matt Kisber, claim
SB 1893 could save $25 million a year,
     The companion bill, HB 1888, sponsored by Rep. Kisber, is in
the House State and Local Government Committee, and should be
voted on next week.
                  Survey Finds 0.8% Increase In 
                   Crime In Schools, 1989-1995
     A joint survey by the Justice Department's Bureau of Justice
Statistics and the National Center for Education Statistics
released Monday found that 28.4% of students ages 12-19 reported
street gangs in schools in 1995, compared to 15.3% in 1989. 
Students reporting violent crime at schools defined for
purposes of the survey as "physical attacks or a robbery by
force, weapon or threat" rose from 3.4% in 1989 4.2% in 1995,
the survey found.
     The results were met with some skepticism, since FBI crime
statistics for the period show youth violence peaked in 1994 and
declining since.  Jack Levin, director of the Program for the
Study of Violence at Northeastern University in Boston, told USA
Today that belonging to a gang has become a fad among young
people, and that "What we used to call peer groups are now called
gangs."
     President Clinton described survey findings as
"unacceptable," and used their release to call for passage of
S.10, juvenile crime legislation pending in the U.S. Senate. 
S.10, the "Violent and Repeat Juvenile Offender Act of 1997" was
described in a Legal Times front page headline on March 2 as "The
Crime Bill No One Likes"
                   MD Home Detention Companies
                    To Be Regulated, Licensed
     The Maryland General Assembly gave final approval yesterday
to legislation allowing the state to regulate private home
detention firms to ensure they are properly supervising criminals
in their charge, according to The Washington Times.  
     The bill stems from a 1996 Prince George's County case in
which Brian Sowell, a convict on home detention, attacked a 21
year-old woman minutes after checking in with his home detention
company.  Owners of these companies say the crime was the result
of unsuitable offenders being placed on monitoring due to prison
overcrowding, rather than any failure of the monitoring systems.
=+=+=+=+
This information is provided as a service of the National Rifle
Association Institute for Legislative Action, Fairfax, VA.
This and other information on the Second Amendment and the NRA is
available at: http://WWW.NRA.Org
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End of GENERAL-RKBA Digest 352
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