Mr. David J. Karp, Senior Counsel

U.S. Department of Justice

Office of Legal Policy, Room 4503

950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW

Washington, DC 20530

 

Re:       Campus Sex Crimes Prevention Act Regulatory Comments

 

Dear Mr. Karp:

 

We appreciate this opportunity to comment on the Attorney General’s proposed guidelines (A.G. Order No. 2563-2002) to implement the Campus Sex Crimes Prevention Act’s amendment to the Wetterling Act. As you know, this amendment is designed to capture information about registered sex offenders studying and working at institutions of higher education.

 

One of the main reasons Congress adopted these new standards was to ensure that campus communities receive the same type of information about convicted sex offenders in their midst that other communities currently receive, yet the proposed guidance as published in the March 8^th Federal Register doesn’t address Megan’s Law disclosures to campus communities.

 

An excerpt from the October 11, 2000 Congressional Record statement of the Act’s primary sponsor, United States Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona, makes it very clear that Congress intended for registered sex offenders on college and university campuses to be publicly identified just like they would be in any other community:

 

The purpose of this provision is to guarantee that, when a convicted sex offender enrolls or begins employment at a college or university, members of the campus community will have the information they need to protect themselves. Put another way, my legislation ensures the availability to students and parents of the information they would already receive--under Megan's Law and related statutes--if a registered sex offender were to move into their own neighborhood.

 

This is a critical public safety issue. Members of college and university communities deserve to have access to this information so that they can be better prepared to avoid victimization from sexual predators.

 

This type of disclosure is consistent with the public disclosure of sex offender registry information generally as required by subsection (e)(2) of the Wetterling Act. There the law specifically states that the “State or any agency authorized by the State shall release relevant information that is necessary to protect the public concerning a specific person required to register under this section.”

 

To help ensure that campus specific information would be shared publicly, Congress also amended two federal education laws to help facilitate such public dissemination. On this point Senator Kyl said:

 

In order to ensure that the information is readily accessible to the campus community, the Campus Sex Crimes Prevention Act requires colleges and universities to provide the campus community with clear guidance as to where this information can be found, and clarifies that federal laws governing the privacy of education records do not prevent campus security agencies or other administrators from disclosing such information.

 

The federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), a student privacy law, was amended to specifically permit schools to release sex offender registry information, and the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act was amended to require institutions of higher education to notify students and employees where public information about registered sex offenders on campus can be accessed.

 

While, as noted in the March 8^th Federal Register, the U.S. Department of Education will be responsible for issuing any regulations associated with the educational law changes, there is an important distinction in these two amendments that further supports the public disclosure of campus specific information under Megan’s Law.

 

The FERPA amendment broadly permits disclosure by a school of information obtained under any provision of the Wetterling Act. The Clery Act amendment, however, specifically requires institutions of higher education to provide the campus community with notice of where public Megan’s Law information created exclusively under “subsection (j) of the Wetterling Act” may be obtained.

 

This distinction is important as “subsection (j)” is the subsection dealing with information about offenders at institutions of higher education added by the Campus Sex Crimes Prevention Act. It seems clear from this distinction that Congress intended for campus specific information to be available to the public in a manner comparable with how other public Megan’s Law information is released in a given state.

 

Otherwise it would be impossible for any institution of higher education to provide the type of specific notice required by the Clery Act, not just of where general Megan’s Law information can be found, but of where campus specific Megan’s Law information can be accessed.

 

It is also critical that campus police be given the same discretionary authority to disclose information that their off-campus colleagues have, as it is very clear Congress believes them to be on the front-lines of protecting their campuses from sexual predators. Senator Kyl notes:

 

An institution's law enforcement unit will have the most direct responsibility for protecting that school's community and daily contact with those that should be informed about the presence of the convicted offender.

 

Given all of these factors, it is very clear that Congress intended the public disclosure requirement of subsection (e)(2) to apply to subsection (j) information. A narrow reading of the March 8^th guidance alone, however, could lead a state to not specifically make campus status information public. California, for example, has already indicated that a “registrant’s enrollment or employment at a campus will not be displayed on the Megan’s Law CD-ROM, which is available for public viewing.” This statement was made in a February 11, 2002 letter from California Attorney General Bill Lockyer, a copy of which is enclosed for your reference.

 

Without clear guidance from the U.S. Attorney General that the states need to specifically make campus sex offender registration information public we are concerned that they may make the changes needed to collect this information and share it with campus police, but not the public despite clear Congressional intent favoring comparable public disclosure under Megan’s Law.

 

To address these concerns, we believe that the final CSCPA amendment guidelines should make it clear not only that campus specific information must be collected, but that there must also be specific guidance providing for public disclosure of this information. Public disclosure of such information should be accomplished in a manner comparable with how other sex offender registration information is disclosed in any given state.

 

Therefore we respectfully urge the Attorney General to include language in the final guidelines that makes it clear that campus sex offender registry information must be shared with the public, and specifically the campus community, under Megan’s Law. Again thank you for this opportunity to offer comment.

 

Sincerely,

 

 

 

S. Daniel Carter

Senior Vice President

Security On Campus, Inc.

 

Enclosures

 

c.c.:      United States Senator Jon Kyl

            David A. Bergeron, U.S. Dept. of Education

            Howard K. Clery, III, Security On Campus, Inc.

            Det. Sally Miller, Santa Rosa Jr. Col. Police Dept.

            Terri Hardy, The Sacramento Bee