Published: August 13, 2009 12:53 am      

OUR VIEW: McKinney case sheds light on larger problem

It is one of the most pressing issues facing law enforcement and parole officials in New York today. We have to find a sensible — and lawful — policy for sex offenders after they are released from prison.

The failings in our current system have been on full display in Niagara County over the last two weeks as legislators and law enforcement officials struggle to find a suitable place for James McKinney to live.

McKinney was convicted of raping four young girls in North Tonawanda and Niagara Falls. He served his prison term and has been released, though state Supreme Court Judge Richard Kloch, after lengthy hearings, found that McKinney was still a substantial risk to attack another child. McKinney is subject to court-ordered intense supervision by the state parole division, but that decision did not offer a definitive answer on where he should live. This finding set into motion a game of political football over his residence, with state, county and community leaders all crying “not in my backyard!”

McKinney was first moved into a home with other sex offenders in Niagara Falls. Community leaders there cried foul — justly — because of his proximity to an elementary school. After public outcry reached the necessary volume, officials moved him to the B Cozy motel in North Tonawanda. Community leaders here cried foul — justly — because of his proximity to a daycare center. After public outcry reached the necessary volume, officials have promised to move him again, to somewhere where we can safely presume the process will start itself anew.

Though society’s dregs — men like McKinney are the most loathsome criminals, preying on innocent children — they still must be housed somewhere. If this case has exposed anything, it’s the complete inadequacy in the state’s process of deciding where.

State parole officials dropped the ball twice with McKinney, plopping him within a stone’s throw of young girls. Power brokers in the Falls, catering to their narrow interests, saw an opportunity to score some easy political points with the block club brigade by shuffling McKinney to a North Tonawanda motel and proclaiming “problem solved.”

Of course the problem was nowhere near solved; rather, they should have proclaimed “buck passed.”

This situation cries out for some coherent leadership from Albany. The state legislature has grappled with the problem and so far not produced any helpful legislation. Republicans pressed to house sex offenders in a closed state prison after their release. Democrats balked, arguing that the state can’t simply lock up someone forever. Some offenders, Democrats agreed, should be housed in mental facilities after their prison term. Others, like McKinney, are returned to society, albeit with intense monitoring. One wonders, though, how closely they are actually being monitored if state parole officials twice failed to notice that his residence was a potential disaster. In all fairness, even if he’d been placed in a more appropriate location from the start, nothing short of monitoring him 24 hours a day would guarantee he won’t do it again.

Half-way houses seem like a reasonable middle ground for the James McKinneys of our state. It would be an expensive undertaking at a time when money in Albany is tight, but the idea offers some measure of compromise. For those capable of being reformed, round-the-clock supervision, counseling and evaluation would shepherd an offender’s gradual reintegration into society. Those who fail at their last, last chance to be a lawful member of society should find themselves with a lifetime ticket to a guarded mental institution.

It’s just one idea, but it would certainly be a better alternative to the system — or lack thereof — we have now.