SB 323 - SEX OFFENSES & OFFENDER REGISTRATION SENATOR PEARCE came forward to present SB 323, saying the use of children in the production of sexually explicit material is a form of sexual abuse than can result in physical and psychological harm to the children involved. SENATOR PEARCE said individuals who are attracted to children often seek out this type of sexually explicit material. Access to the Internet has become one of the preferred methods of obtaining this kind of pornography and law enforcement agencies across the country are finding thousands of pieces of child pornography in their investigations. SENATOR PEARCE noted that Congress passed the Child Pornography Prevention Act in 1986 and several states are taking action to strengthen their pornography laws. SENATOR PEARCE explained that the Alaska penalty for distribution of child pornography is not more than five years, and law enforcement officers are having trouble proving distribution and are having to charge offenders with lesser crimes, such as possession of child pornography, which is merely a class A misdemeanor. SENATOR PEARCE stated that SB 323 increases the penalties for both possession and distribution of child pornography to class B felonies, punishable by not more than 10 years in prison. SB 323 also creates the crime of indecent exposure in the first degree if an offender knowingly masturbates within the observation of a person less than 16 years of age. SENATOR PEARCE said this offense would also be a class B felony, and the existing offense of indecent exposure becomes a class C felony when committed before a person less than 16 years of age, and a class A misdemeanor when committed before a person 16 years of age or older. SENATOR PEARCE said the bill also requires sex-offender registration for the offenses of indecent exposure in the first and second degree, and the possession of child pornography. Currently, only offenders convicted of the crime of distribution of child pornography have to register. SENATOR PEARCE remarked that the existence and distribution of child pornography creates the opportunity for many types of harm in a community and presents a clear and present danger to all children. She stated this bill is intended to help protect children by inhibiting the creation and distribution of child pornography. Strengthening the penalties for these crimes will send a clear message that the degradation and exploitation of children will not be tolerated. SENATOR PEARCE added that the original idea for the bill came from an Anchorage police officer frustrated with the difficultly of proving distribution of child pornography. SENATOR PEARCE said this individual officer has seen thousands upon thousands of different pictures in the possession of a single child pornographer. SENATOR PEARCE said the bill brings in some other areas due to the fact that the drafter thought some of the ancillary crimes should be looked at in order to maintain consistency in sentencing. Number 095 CHAIRMAN TAYLOR commented on the frustration he experienced, as a judge, sentencing people guilty of these same crimes. He said, in one particular case, an offender was apprehended in what appeared to be the execution of an even more serious crime and CHAIRMAN TAYLOR sentenced him to the maximum available penalty, ninety days. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR said, after imposing this maximum penalty, he was disqualified by every public defender in Anchorage for this act. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR said this law would provide another level of consideration when faced with this type of offenders, who are often serial offenders. He believes this is an important piece of legislation and thanked SENATOR PEARCE for bringing it forward. SENATOR PEARCE noted that the drafter had made an error in drafting the bill, she offered amendment #1 as a technical change, addressing this error. SENATOR MILLER moved amendment #1. Without objection, it was so ordered. Number 177 OFFICER GLENN KLINKHART testified via teleconference from Anchorage and thanked SENATOR PEARCE for the bill. He said his involvement with the prosecution of these crimes began three years ago when he joined the police force. Up until then, he was totally unaware of the volume of child pornography and pedophiles out there. He said, unfortunately, he could be kept continuously busy working these cases. OFFICER KLINKHART said the U.S. Customs officers have also reported a marked increase in this type of crime. OFFICER KLINKHART reported about a man in Eagle River who plead guilty to possession of child pornography in addition to other charges and was found to possess pornographic pictures equivalent to the volume of 17 reams of paper. OFFICER KLINKHART said these pedophiles trade pornographic pictures like baseball cards and, at any given time, several Alaskans can be found downloading pornographic pictures in Internet chat rooms. OFFICER KLINKHART said several reasons explain why this type of crime is found in Alaska: the young population, coupled with a high percentage of home computers and widespread Internet access makes this an easy crime to commit. OFFICER KLINKHART said this type of material used to be distributed through the mail from Europe and dealt with by the U.S. Customs service. OFFICER KLINKHART spoke of different varieties of crimes committed by pedophiles and stressed the need for officer training in order to more effectively fight this type of crime. He said with more training, there will be more arrests. As it is now, OFFICER KLINKHART generally has to bring in federal authorities to charge cases, as they have stricter statutes. He does not mind doing this but the process is sometimes slow. Number 269 SENATOR PEARCE asked about the fiscal note from the Public Defender's Office and OFFICER KLINKHART replied that the reason there are only two cases pending is due to the fact that they are generally charged as federal cases, since a misdemeanor charge is not adequate to punish these crimes. MR. TERRY VRABEC testified via teleconference from Fairbanks and agreed with the testimony provided by OFFICER KLINKHART. MR. VRABEC also mentioned the fact that, in order for these pictures to be taken, children were sexually abused. He agrees with increasing the penalties for this type of crime, and requiring offenders to register as sex offenders. MR. VRABEC said if there were more police officers working on this type of case, they could catch more offenders. MR. PAUL SWEET testified via teleconference from Mat-Su. MR. SWEET asked about disqualification from holding a teaching certificate under this bill, he wondered how private school teachers, without certification, would be dealt with. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR remarked he was not sure they could restrict hiring by a private enterprise. MR. SWEET said then only certified teachers would fall under the bill. SENATOR PEARCE commented that, in schools where the state does not require certification, it is up to the parent of students to ensure the school performs background checks. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR added that the bill does require registration of offenders and this list is accessible to any interested parties. Number 340 PAUL SWEET said there are currently about 3,500 sex offenders in the state required to register and only about 450 of them are actually signed up. If these people are not signed up and he is unable to get information on them until they do, he sees this as a problem. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR responded that those who worked on the passage of the original sex offender registration legislation were dismayed to find out about the glitch in the law that allowed for misinterpretation. He said the intent was that the Department of Corrections would register them before they were set loose, and they have another law working its way through the process to mandate this. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR said he shares MR. SWEET's frustration in this regard. MR. SWEET asked about parolees who are not included. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR said he believed they were required to register and that was one of the many things they were trying to work on. MR. SWEET suggested that if they published a few names of those offenders who failed to register, the rest of them would come running. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR said there are lots of devices that could be used, they're trying to do it through legislation. MR. SWEET mentioned one sex offender who was restricted from unsupervised conduct with children less than 14, but whose court order explicitly allowed him to teach above the seventh grade. MR. DON BOWMAN testified via teleconference from Anchorage and simply stated that the Department of Public Safety and the Alaska State Troopers support SB 323. SENATOR ELLIS expressed concern about the definition of child pornography. He cited a case in Oklahoma where police seized copies of an academy-award winning film, which fell under their state's definition of child pornography. He asked if this might happen here, under Alaska's definition of child pornography. SENATOR ELLIS also asked about the definition of indecent exposure, and how it might relate to breast-feeding. He also asked about "mooning" and how it might be looked upon. SENATOR PEARCE mentioned there was no intention to change any present definitions, only to address the problem of prosecuting these crimes. MS. ANNE CARPENETI, representing the Department of Law, came forward and said "mooning" falls under the crime of disorderly conduct, a class B misdemeanor. Number 450 MS. CARPENETI explained that the definition of child pornography defines it as audio or visual content meeting certain criteria. SENATOR ELLIS clarified that it is not based on the gratification of the viewer and MS. CARPENETI agreed. SENATOR ELLIS said he wondered as he had just sent a postcard depicting kids in the bathtub, he considered it cute but wondered how it would be viewed by another state. SENATOR PEARCE read the definition of pornography as material that visually or aurally depicts conduct including sexual penetration, lewd touching, masturbation, bestiality, sadism and masochism. SENATOR ELLIS replied it seemed to exclude kids in the bathtub and MS. CARPENETI agreed it wasn't babies on bear rugs. OFFICER KLINKHART said SENATOR ELLIS made a good point and said in his work, they use a standard of "lewd and lascivious," and look to see what the focal point of a picture is. He concluded that he did not think the movie incident would occur here in Alaska. Number 504 SENATOR PEARCE commented on the wide availability of this material through the Internet and asked OFFICER KLINKHART if they were seeing an increase in this type of crime by adolescent males. OFFICER KLINKHART replied the offenders were primarily males over the age of 30. He sees this crime as a precursor to child molestation. SENATOR PEARCE moved CSSB 323(JUD) from committee with individual recommendations and accompanying fiscal notes. Without objection, it was so ordered.