Kona group unhappy
with sex offender list

Folks have to drive to Hilo
to view it, and they say the list
lacks vital information

By Rod Thompson
Star-Bulletin

KAILUA-KONA -- A new state law is supposed to make public the names and locations of convicted sexual offenders.

But a Kona group is complaining that the recently released state register of sex offenders is available only at the main police station on the Big Island, forcing Kona residents to drive two hours to Hilo to see it.

And a Hilo criminal justice watchdog group is unhappy because vital information on addresses of offenders is blotted out, in many cases defeating the purpose of the register.

The register was created by legislative action this spring as a Hawaii version of "Megan's law," named for 7-year-old Megan Kanka of New Jersey, raped and killed in 1994 by a convicted sex offender who had recently moved into her neighborhood.

Under the state law, one copy of the four-volume register is available in each county.

"We are disappointed and concerned that the Kona police department doesn't have it," said Ty Hanson, president of the Kona Crime Prevention Committee.

Police told Hanson that they had no money to copy the loose-leaf pages in the binder and they didn't want to make copies because of a risk of error.

The law says police must makes copies for people requesting them, but at $5 a page. There is no charge to look at the register at the police station.

Police Records Division Lt. Edwin Tanaka said the department is not trying to keep Kona people from seeing the register. "I'm sure we can work something out," he said.

Liane Moriyama, state Criminal Justice Data Center administrator, said an additional copy is being prepared for the Big Island and will probably be available this week.

But some residents will still be in the dark, because the addresses of about a quarter of the Big Island offenders are difficult or impossible to decode. Street names for all addresses in the state are left visible but the towns where the streets are located are blotted out.

Moriyama said that was deliberately done, following the letter of the law, which requires the street name and ZIP code of the offender, but is silent on the names of towns and cities.A list of ZIP codes can be found at the front of telephone books, she said.

The latest tabulation shows 372 offenders on Oahu, 79 on the Big Island, 66 in Maui County, and seven on Kauai.

Most of the Maui records list ZIP codes, but in about a quarter of the Big Island records, there is none. Big Island Assistant Chief Newton Lyman said forms may need to be revised to ensure that ZIP codes are included.

Coco Pierson of the watchdog group Citizens for Justice said, "If the bottom line is a person can't tell where this (offender) lives, then it's not effective. It's like canceling the law. Shame!"

Del Pranke, also active in Citizens for Justice, said he has two small grandchildren he wants to protect. But he disagrees with the law since it seems to continue to punish an offender after his sentence is served, rather than rehabilitate him.

As long as the law exists, the lack of a clear address makes it worse, he suggested."They're not putting enough information to make it useful, but they're putting enough to make trouble for people," he said.

Moriyama said an electronic version of the register will be ready in three to six months, and discussions are planned on how to make it better.