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F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T

SPONSOR Neville

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

1/21/08

HB

SHORT TITLE Local Government Sex Offender Restrictions

SB 224

ANALYST Peery-Galon

ESTIMATED ADDITIONAL OPERATING BUDGET IMPACT (dollars in thousands)

FY08

FY09

FY10 3 Year

Total Cost

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

Total

$0.1

$0.1

$0.1 Recurring General

Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC)

New Mexico Sentencing Commission (NMSC)

Public Defender Department (PDD)

No Responses Received From

New Mexico Corrections Department

Association of Counties

New Mexico Municipal League

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

Senate Bill 224 permits cities, counties, home rule municipalities and other political subdivisions

of the state to enact residence restrictions with respect to sex offenders.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

AOC states there will be a minimal administrative cost for statewide update, distribution and

documentation of statutory changes. Any additional fiscal impact on the judiciary would be

proportional to the enactment of residency restrictions and any constitutional challenges to the

same.

Senate Bill 224 – Page

2

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

AOC states residency restriction would likely face constitutional challenges on at least the

following grounds:

•

As being an unconstitutional form of ex post facto law when applied to offenders whose

convictions are final, if the restrictions are found to be criminal sanctions imposed to

punish an offender;

•

As cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the eight amendment of the United

States Constitution;

•

As depriving offenders of the right to travel within or among states or the right to choose

where one lives; and

•

As not rationally advancing a legitimate state interest in violation of the equal protection

clause.

AOC suggest for policy discussion on the issue see the October 2005 report to the Florida

Legislature, “Sex Offender Residence Restrictions" By Jill S. Levenson, Ph.D. at

http://www.nacdl.org/sl_docs.nsf/issues/sexoffender_attachments/$FILE/Levinson_FL.pdf

.

See

also “The Impact of Residency Restrictions on Sex Offenders and Correctional Management

Practices: A Literature Review" at

www.library.ca.gov/crb/06/08/06-008.pdf

and

http://www.dc.state.ks.us/publications/sex-offender-housing-restrictions

, published by the

Kansas Department of Corrections regarding findings of research on residential restrictions for

sex offenders.

In December 2007, NMSC released a report titled “Distance Restrictions on Sex Offender

Residential Housing." The report states that the Sex Offender Management Board concluded

that current research does not support imposing residency restrictions on sex offenders. The

report notes that New Mexico is a rural state with limited resources that are largely concentrated

in very few communities. The report states “extensive residential restrictions would likely force

a large population of sex offenders into rural communities" with few if any resources available,

such as jobs, education, supervision, treatment and other resources. The report notes that the Sex

Offender Management Board makes no specific recommendation regarding current laws,

standards or practices regarding existing residency restrictions. (See Attachment).

PDD states the proposed legislation would allow local governments to create a patchwork of

residence restrictions. PDD notes if enacted into law, it would likely be judicially challenged by

the American Civil Liberties Union.

PERFORMANCE IMPLICATIONS

AOC states the proposed legislation may have an impact on the performance measures of the

courts in the following areas: cases disposed of as a percent of cases filed and percent change in

case filings by case type.

ADMINISTRATIVE IMPLICATIONS

AOC notes that new laws, amendments to existing laws and new hearings have the potential to

increase caseloads in the courts, thus requiring additional resources to handle the increase.

RPG/mt