The 2014 Alabama Legislature has official adjourned. A recap of the bills

The 2014 Alabama Legislature has "Adjourned Sine Die," thus signaling the end of the regular session. I guess the crappy weather kept the legislators indoors enough to push them through the legislation. Barring any special sessions, registered citizens can rest easy until the next legislative season.

So here is a recap of what passed and what didn't:

HB14: Criminal sex offenders over age 21, sex offenses against child 12 years of age or younger, surgical castration required prior to release from custody of Corrections Department.
Status: Never left committee
Comments: I never focused on this bill despite it receiving national attention. The legislature knew this law was one they would never touch.

HB21: Sex offenders, residence, sex offender clusters, licensing by sheriff, monitoring, regulation by Mental Health Department, penalties for violations, certain local and general laws repealed, Act 2010-515, 2010 Reg. Sess., repealed; Sec. 13A-11-204 repealed
Status: Never left committee.
Comments: I worked hard to get people to fight this bill. Hopefully the barrage of letters helped get this bill stalled.

HB 133: Human trafficking, Uniform Act on Prevention of and Remedies for Human Trafficking, adoption, Secs. 13A-6-150 to 13A-6-160, inclusive, 13A-6-170 repealed
Status: Never left committee
Comments: I'm always wary of human trafficking laws since they are used as mules for unrelated sex offender legislation (like Prop 35 in Cali). Thankfully no action was taken on this bill.

HB 224: Rape, sodomy, burglary in the first degree, person convicted of these crimes under certain conditions sentenced to minimum of 20 yrs in prison if victim is 65 yrs old or older, Secs. 13A-6-61, 13A-6-63, 13A-7-5 am'd.
Status: Stalled in committee
Comments: I never cared for mandatory minimums or status enhancements.

HB 413: Sex Offenders, registration and community notification, technical revisions and citations update various sections, petition for relief from employment, residency living restriction, civil division of circuit courts, absconding without registering, penalty, Secs. 12-15-107, 12-15-116, 13A-5-2, 13A-5-6, 14-9-41, 15-18-8, 15-19-7, 15-20A-4 to 15-20A-7, incl., 15-20A-9, 15-20A-11, 15-20A-14, 15-20A-16, 15-20A-18, 15-20A-21 to 15-20A-26, incl., 15-20A-28, 15-20A-29, 15-20A-32, 15-20A-34, 15-20A-35, 15-20A-37, 15-20A-39, 15-20A-40, 15-20A-43, 15-20A-45, 15-20A-46, 15-22-27.3, 32-6-49.24, 36-18-24, 36-18-25, 38-13-2, 38-13-4
Status: Stalled in committee
Comments: This law would have granted the potential for relief from registration laws under certain conditions. The only bad thing I saw was adding internet provider info. That was unnecessary.

HB 426/SB 297: Sex offenders, sex offender convicted of crime with a minor prohibited within 500 feet of public school K-12 property during instructional hours, Class C felony, Sec. 15-20A-17 am'd.
Status: Stalled in committee
Comments: SB 297 passed, but not as originally written. A highly watered down version applying to trespassing on school grounds replaced the 500 foot law.

SB 151: Bestiality and possession of obscene matter depicting bestiality, crime established, penalties
Status: Passed
Comments: It was good for a laugh, but whatever keeps Alabama from passing dumber legislation like HB21, I'm all for it.

Welcome to recycled failed law theater starring Steve Hurst and Kurt Wallace

The Alabama 2014 session is still about three months away but I'm already seeing the rehash of previous bills that failed to pass. I am environmentally conscious and recycle regularly, but some things should never be recycled, such as bad laws that have had multiple defeats.

HB 14: Sex Offender Castration Bill

HB 14: Hurst Crimes and Offenses H Pending Committee Action in House of Origin Judiciary 10/2/2013
Criminal sex offenders over age 21, sex offenses against child 12 years of age or younger, surgical castration required prior to release from custody of Corrections Department

House Bill 14 is very straightforward, of course. Below is the Sponsor's information:

STEVE HURST
State House: Room 627-C
11 S. Union Street
Montgomery, AL 36130
(334) 353-9215
District: 155 Quail Run Road
Munford, AL 36268
Home Phone: (256) 761-1935

VERDICT: It should go without saying ReFORM-AL strongly opposes this bill. 

HB 21: Revised Anti-Cluster Bill

Senator Wallace's recycled "anti-clustering" bill, now known as HB 21, on the other hand, is far more complex. I'd like to think the vastly modified anti-clustering law was at least partially the result of the efforts of ReFORM-AL. This bill is about 12 pages long so I will just summarize the bill:

1. The bill defines a "sex offender cluster" as any property, including a hotel, apartment building, or multi-family unit; and it still bars two or more unrelated registrants from living in the same unit. (Unlike last year's law, the 500 foot residency restriction from other registrants is not in this provision).
2. This bill sets guidelines for the creation and regulation of "large residential sex offender clusters." No registrant or felon can run a facility; the Mental Health Dept. establishes guidelines for facilities, but the sheriff decides who gets licenses; cannot house more than 30 registrants in any one location; the facility must pay a $100 licensing fee + $20 per registrant fee.
3. Repeals the Jefferson County anti-clustering law passed in 2010

VERDICT: Wallace is still motivated by shutting down the facility in his county, and this latest attempt at getting what he wants. His loftier speech is not fooling me. There are a few parts of the bill I can agree with, such as repealing the Jefferson Co. anti-cluster law and some of the standards adoptions are good, but this bill is still a cluster of bad laws. As written, this bill is still bad and this, ReFORM-AL opposes.

Below is the contact info.

REPRESENTATIVE KURT WALLACE

State House: Room 427-J
11 S. Union Street
Montgomery, AL 36130
(334) 242-7772
Home Address:  24 Maple Drive
Maplesville, AL.  36750
Work Phone: (334) 366-4211
Email: representativewallace@gmail.com

REPRESENTATIVE PAUL BECKMAN

State House: Room 427-D
11 S. Union Street
Montgomery, AL 36130
(334) 242-7499

District Address:

1803 Tara Drive
Prattville, AL. 36066

P.O. Box 680155
Prattville, AL.  36068

Home: (334) 361-0977
Work: (334) 834-4808
District: (334) 323-5918
Cell: (334) 300-1780
Fax: (334) 834-4801
Email: paulbeckmanjr@yahoo.com

A visual representation on Alabama's 2014 Legislative Session

Because I want awareness of these laws, I want to keep theis post at the top, so I will include media links to coverage of this bill here:

AL.com on Kurt Wallace's anti-cluster law: http://blog.al.com/wire/2013/10/legislators_want_to_require_li.html

Clanton Advertiser on Wallace's bill:
http://www.clantonadvertiser.com/2013/10/23/sex-offender-bill-pre-filed/comment-page-1/#comment-22713

The Drs TV show discusses the castration law:
 http://www.thedoctorstv.com/videolib/init/9956