Lackawanna Takes Action on Sex Offenders; Niagara Falls Continues to Ignore Problem

The growing problem of convicted and registered sex offenders from around the state and around the country being dumped by the New York State Division of Parole into communities on the Niagara Frontier is being handled in drastically different ways by local officials in those communities, whose primary duty is to the health and safety of the people living there.
Last week, the Lackawanna City Council moved to publish the names, addresses and photographs of the 13 registered sex offenders living there on the city’s official website.

Duane Biro

“We want to know if somebody convicted of sex crimes is living in our neighborhood,” said Councilman Joseph Jerge. “I have noticed the number of registered sex offenders is growing in our town, at least since I’ve been on the Council.”
Lackawanna Police regularly provide Council members with updates on sex offenders living there, said Jerge, who sponsored the proposal.
“I’m getting more and more of these bulletins, and I think they should go on the city’s website so any citizen can find out about it,” he said.
Earlier this month, seven registered sex offenders were removed from two group homes in West Seneca following complaints by outraged neighbors and action by government officials.
But in Niagara Falls, Mayor Paul Dyster and the city Council have adopted an open arms policy toward sex offenders and other paroled criminals. The city stands to lose millions of dollars in federal grants if its population falls below 50,000 and, in the 2010 census, registered sex offenders and other parolees with a history of violence helped it scrape by with exactly 50,193 residents.
Currently there are 177 registered sex offenders living in Niagara Falls. In 2006, when residents became concerned about the presence of a group home for sex offenders being located less than 1,000 feet from Niagara Street Elementary School, Dyster told them, “They’ve got to live somewhere.”
In Lackawanna, they’re taking a different approach.
“The funny thing is there’s people on there who I know, who I would never suspect could be on there,” Jerge said. “I’ve got 13-year-old and 10-year-old daughters, and if I have someone living across the street from me that has been convicted of a sex crime, I want to know.”
Dyster and others have argued that closely monitored registered sex offenders aren’t likely to commit another offense. But a study done by the U.S. Justice Department suggests otherwise.
Within three years following state prison release, 5.3 percent of sex offenders were rearrested for another sex crime, the study concluded. If all crimes are included, 43 percent of sex offenders were rearrested for various offenses.
Of the almost 9,700 sex offenders examined, nearly 4,300 were identified as child molesters. An estimated 3.3 percent of the 4,300 released child molesters were rearrested for another sex crime against a child within three years. Most of the children they were alleged to have molested after leaving prison were age 13 or younger.

 

Gerald Zimmerman

Gerald Zimmerman

Ronnie Brundidge

Ronnie Brundidge

The Justice Department survey showed that 70 percent of all men in prison for a sex crime were men whose victim was a child. In almost half of the child-victim cases, the child was the prisoner’s own son or daughter or other relative.
The average sentence imposed on the 9,700 sex offenders was eight years and, on average, just 3-1/2 years of those eight years were actually served prior to release.
Of the released sex offenders, 3.5 percent were reconvicted for a sex crime within the three-year follow-up period, 24 percent were reconvicted for a new offense and 38.6 percent were returned to prison, either because they received another prison sentence or because of a parole violation.
Research has demonstrated that repeat offenders account for a disproportionate amount of crime and that offenders released from prison are arrested at rates 30 to 45 times higher than the general population
Unfortunately, recidivism remains a difficult concept to measure, especially in the context of sex offenders. The surreptitious nature of sex crimes, the fact that few sexual offenses are reported to authorities and variation in the ways researchers calculate recidivism rates all contribute to the problem.
So it is easy for Dyster to say having a lopsided number of sex offenders in the community isn’t dangerous. In West Seneca, local officials weren’t taking any chances.
In April 2014, the West Seneca Town Board passed a resolution asking the state to review its policy regarding the placement of sex offenders and the policy on giving neighbors notice that sex offenders are moving in.
The state’s practice currently is simply to notify the local police that a sexoffender changed addresses.
Assemblyman Michael Kearns, whose district includes West Seneca, filed a formal request for records in July 2014 but it wasn’t until last September that he received an incomplete response from the office. He called the response “vague answers” and filed an Article 78 in State Supreme Court in Buffalo.
That action sought to compel the state Office of People with Developmental Disabilities to fully respond to a Freedom of Information Law request, and apparently generated enough heat that the state vacated the two homes.
According to the website Homefacts, which provides detailed information on municipalities and neighborhoods, the problem of registered sex offenders in Lackawanna, West Seneca, North Tonawanda and even Buffalo is miniscule in comparison with Niagara Falls.
In Lackawanna, the 13 registered sex offenders living there translates to 7.2 offenders for every 10,000 residents.
In West Seneca, 11 registered sex offenders are statistically irrelevant, according to Homefacts.
In North Tonawanda, 20 registered sex offenders works out to six per 10,000 residents.
And in Buffalo, there are 646 registered sex offenders, or 25 for every 10,000 residents of the much larger city.
But Niagara Falls and its 177 registered sex offenders means that there are 35.5 for every 10,000 residents, the highest ratio for a community of its size anywhere in the state.
In all of Niagara County there are 14 offenders for every 10,000 residents, and in Erie County there are nine offenders for every 10,000 residents.
Statewide, the average is 12 offenders per 10,000 population and nationally there are 15.2 sex criminals for every 10,000 people.
Clearly, whatever’s going on in Niagara Falls is far out of step with what is happening in the rest of the region, state and country. The mayor and the city Council – who have spent most of the past month trying to come up with a law designed to control the city’s feral cat population – appear unconcerned.

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