Lobbying Efforts

At the recent Reform Sex Offender Laws Conference held in Washington, DC, RSOL members and conference participants took the opportunity to spend a day on Capitol Hill meeting with legislators or their aides regarding issues with the Adam Walsh Act and International Megan’s Law. Groups from all over the country sat down with aides to tell their personal stories and give law makers evidence that registry laws, in particular, are not effective at keeping children or the public safe. For those offices where the legislators or aides were not available, members simply left packets with facts and information about RSOL and the negative effects of registry laws.

Before heading out to the Hill on Monday morning, members participated in lobbying training and informational sessions presented by Lloyd Swartz of CFC New Mexico, Amy Borror, Esq. of the Office of the Ohio Public Defender, and Dr. Chrisanthi Leon, PhD, JSP, of the University of Delaware’s Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice. Presenters focused on helping members understand the legislative process, narrow down arguments against the implementation of the AWA, and understand and explain evidence to support those arguments in relation to their own personal stories. Training on how to lobby included:

• Defining the issues and not focusing on the whole of SORNA because it is too broad
• Breaking down the AWA into specific, manageable issues
• Selecting issues that are pertinent to your own stories: retroactivity, application to juveniles, cost, risk based systems vs. offense based systems
• Using our own stores to highlight objections
• Offering solutions with a good mix of personal and policy appeals

Teams practiced lobbying techniques, and those who did not already have appointments scheduled were assigned legislators’ offices to visit. Because this is a widespread, national issue, teams were encouraged to mix with several states represented by members of the group. Specific targets included legislators on the Judiciary Committees of the House and the Senate. One group made up of members from the New York and Florida affiliates addressed aides in the offices of Congressmen John Conyers, Congressman Jerrold Nadler, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Congressman Anthony Weiner, and Congressmen Bobby Scott. Another group representative of Kentucky, New Hampshire, and Virginia met with aides of Congressman Ed Whitfield, Congressman Ben Chandler, and Senator Mitch McConnell. A contingency from Delaware met with Senator Carper. A team from New Jersey spent considerable time in Representative Chris Smith’s office. Nine Ohioans met with Aides from Senators Jim Jordan and Sherrod Brown (Blue Ribbon Member) and Rep Jean Schmidt, co-sponsor of the International Megan's Law Bill.  Senators Harkin, Lugar and Bayh were visited by a constituency from Indiana. Other groups and individuals dispersed information to an additional, wide-reaching list of legislators and aides.

For many members in these groups, this was their first experience with advocating with lawmakers, especially on the federal level. "It wasn’t nearly as intimidating as I expected it to be," said Daniel, a member of the Kentucky affiliate, Kentucky Citizens for Reform. "The aides were respectful and really listened to our side of the arguments. In fact, one aide, Russell Coleman who is legal counsel for Senator Mitch McConnell’s office, remarked that this was the first time that any group had ever addressed his office with the kinds of concerns we presented regarding the registry and AWA. While he did not necessarily agree with every position we took, he did express appreciation for our courage to speak out."

Rita, from the New York RSOL, added, "All of our meetings consisted of a combined effort to address sex offender issues including registry laws, child pornography sentencing and collateral damage. We each had an opportunity to tell our personal stories and how these laws have impacted our lives, family and future. My overall impression was that these issues were well –understood and need to be addressed. All meetings were well-received and seemed to be sympathetic to our cause. It was suggested we continue to work with allies (law enforcement, mental health professionals, and criminal defense lawyers) to address these issues with scientific data."

While describing their experience on the Hill as "pretty uneventful," Dennis and Donna, from Missouri RSOL, shared that the highlight of their day was a meeting with Lilian Coranado, an aide to Congressman Bobby Scott. Ms. Coranado expressed that she and Representative Scott are open to reform and Donna thought her to be helpful and willing to hear from RSOL in the future.

All in all, members will agree that the day was successful in disseminating information regarding the issues and making contacts with legislators, something that every citizen should do on issues that they are passionate about.

"Never doubt that a small group of committed people can change the world! For indeed, it is the only thing that ever has!" Margaret Mead