Senate Judiciary has convened the first of its hearings on sex offender laws and what might have gone wrong in the state's dealings with Michael Jacques, the man accused of kidnapping his niec, 12-year-old Brooke Bennett of Braintree, who was found dead this summer.
Room 10, the smaller of two hearing rooms in the Statehouse, is fairly full with state officials, vicitms advocates, legislators and media.
The Legislature has a link on its Web site related to these meetings, which will include three public hearings around the state. You can see it here:
http://www.leg.state.vt.us/workgroups/sexoffenders/The goal of the committee, according to its charge from Senate President Pro Tempore Peter Shumlin is to examine what went wrong to allow Jacques to be released from probation early, to see if there is evidence that sex offender treatment works, to see how recent changes to sentencing laws might have made a difference, to see if the laws the governor proposes (Jessica's Law, civil commitments, changes to sex offender registry) would help, to see what other changes may be warranted.
Whether they'll get the answers to the first question is unclear. There's a heap of stuff the state can't talk about for a variety of reasons. But that's one of the biggest looming questions.
What do you want them to explore?
- Terri Hallenbeck
- Terri Hallenbeck