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			    GENERAL-RKBA Digest 331
Topics covered in this issue include:
  1) CRIMESTRIKE: More States Eye Laws To Hold Sex Offenders by NRA Alerts 
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Topic No. 1
Date: Wed, 21 Jan 1998 19:15:59 -0500 (EST)
From: NRA Alerts 
To: general-rkba-real.nra
Subject: CRIMESTRIKE: More States Eye Laws To Hold Sex Offenders
Message-ID: 
                        NRA CrimeStrike's
                        CrimeWatch Weekly
            Breaking news on critical crime-fighting 
                 issues, policies and legislation
 
Vol. 4, No.  3                                   January 20, 1998
                   More States Eye Laws To Hold
                   Sex Offenders For Treatment
     Legislation patterned on a Kansas law that allows the state
to retain custody of certain sex offenders after they complete
their prison sentences is sprouting in legislatures across the
nation, and more may be forthcoming.
     Gov. George Pataki has proposed such a law in New York, and
political leaders in Colorado, Iowa, Maryland, Missouri,  New
Hampshire and South Carolina have offered similar bills,
according to wire service reports. 
      In addition to Kansas, Arizona, California, Illinois,
Minnesota, Washington and Wisconsin have versions of what Kansas
adopted as its "Sexually Violent Predator Act" in 1994. 
     A 5-4 U.S. Supreme Court decision last June in Kansas v.
Leroy Hendricks upholding the constitutionality of the Kansas law
may be fueling the drive for similar laws.  
     Also, the legal challenges many states are encountering as
they attempt to enforce so-called Megan's laws calling for
community identification of convicted sex offenders may be
driving enthusiasm for the Kansas system. That law permits the
continued custody for treatment of convicted sex offenders after
they have completed their sentences if they are deemed to be a
threat to the community because of "mental abnormality" or
"personality disorders."
     Hendricks, the man who triggered the lawsuit and remains in
Kansas' Sexual Predator Treatment Program, was interviewed
recently for CBS TV's "60 Minutes," where he claimed that he
could "live up to my promises that I will never do this again."
                  Connecticut Authorities Agree,
                   Locking Up Criminals Works,
     "Forcing inmates to do the time has cut down on crime in
Connecticut," the Associated Press reported last  week, noting
that four of the state's five largest cities saw homicides
decline last year.
     "We had a crisis in this state from 1988 to 1992 where
convicted felons were doing 15% of their time and, as a result,
felt they were getting away with crime," Chief States Attorney
John M. Bailey told the wire service. Bailey credited the state's
"Truth-in-Sentencing" law requiring inmates to serve at least 85%
of their sentences with causing the turnaround.  
     Bridgeport Police Lt. Richard Pettite agreed, saying most of
the city's killings are committed by persons with criminal
backgrounds.  "There is no question that since gang leaders and
many drug dealers have been incarcerated, there has been less
homicide," he said.
     Connecticut's prison population has grown from11,000 in 1992
to about 15,600 inmates as of last July.
     "We had a community of very savvy inmates who know the
system," said State Sen. William Varese,  "and knew when they
were going to be released.  Now, however, we are keeping
potential repeat offenders incarcerated so that they are not
available to commit other crimes."
                     Prison Growth Rate Slows
     The nation's prison population grew at a slower rate between
midyear 1996 and 1997, a period when crime was declining, the
Bureau of Justice Statistics said Sunday, but the nation's jail
population growth actually accelerated.
     The federal and state prison population grew by 4.8%, or
55,198 inmates, during the year, down from an average annual
increase of 7.7% since 1990. The jail population grew by 48,587,
up 9.4% vs. the 4.9% average growth since 1990.
     Four states accounted for more than half of the inmate
growth: California with 11,475; Texas , 6,662; Missouri, 3,146,
and Illinois, 2,052.  Just two states, Massachusetts and
Virginia, along with the District of Columbia, recorded inmate
declines for the one-year period.
                 Parolee Kills New York Detective
     New York City undercover police officer Sean Carrington,
murdered last night during an investigation of a drug den in the
Bronx, becomes the latest in a series of  city officers killed or
wounded by a paroled criminal.
     Actually, Leon Smith, 33, the man who shot Det. Carrington
was an ex-parolee, having been released from parole status Jan.
10.  He had served eight years on a 1986 manslaughter conviction,
a charge reduced from murder.
     Smith, who was killed by police officers after Carrington
was shot, had four prior felony arrests.  The incident occurred
as Det. Carrington assisted in a drug operation, Police
Commissioner Howard Safir said.
               Select Ohio Inmates To Get DNA Tests
     Ohio is stealing a march on prison inmates it views as
likely repeat offenders by collecting DNA samples from as many as
17,000 of its 46,000 prison inmates.
     The Ohio General Assembly established a $2.1 million DNA lab
at the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation
at London two years ago.  A DNA specialist has been hired, and
blood tests for the creation of a DNA computer database are
underway.
     Eight other states have linked their DNA databases with the
FBI as part of the new DNA Index System, NDIS for short, the FBI
recently announced.  The system already contains profiles of
75,000 convicted offenders.   
=+=+=+=+
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 331
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