As the New Jersey legislature tinkers with portions of Megan's Law and prepares for an online registry of sex offenders, the state's prison system might get part of the job done first.
Officials at the state Department of Corrections are working on a Web site of their own with a list of inmates, their sentences, and their estimated release dates, spokesman Chris Carden said recently.
Corrections officials have no exact date for when the Web site will be completed, but they do have samples of what visitors would see.
Lawmakers have yet to approve bills to allow the state to create a Web site listing the names and addresses of sex offenders.
The Assembly voted on November 20 to allow potential home buyers access to any notifications allowed by Megan's Law. That would change current statutes that prevent such notices until the sale is competed.
The Assembly had been scheduled to vote on the bill to expand Megan's Law to the Internet in New Jersey. Legislators delayed that vote so they could act on the amendment that broadens notices to potential home buyers. House rules prevent Assembly members from amending a bill and voting on it in the same session.
Megan's Law is named for 7-year-old Megan Kanka, a Mercer County girl raped and murdered near her home in 1994. State and federal courts have required strict controls for the sex offender notification law.
Critics say those years of judicial review forced a constitutional amendment approved overwhelmingly by voters this month.
The change in the constitution allows the Legislature to approve laws permitting the state to post names, addresses, physical descriptions, and criminal histories of convicted sex offenders.
Without that change, supporters said, state and federal courts probably would strike down any law that allows such information to become widely known.
Defense lawyers have criticized the amendment, saying it allows the state to broadcast what courts have said is confidential information. They also contend that the state amendment will not protect Megan's Law from a federal challenge.
The Corrections Department is not bound by court rules.
An inmate's criminal conviction is a court record, available for public inspection. So are criminal sentences, including possible early release dates calculated under state laws.
The prison system Web site was announced this year after the mistaken early release of Raymond Alves.
Alves was freed in March after serving less than half of a 47-year sentence.
Prosecutors in Bergen and Passaic counties said they would have tried to block his release had they been alerted by the state ahead of time, as required by Megan's Law.
Once the site is running, prosecutors and police officers would be able to search it to see when an inmate is nearing release. Crime victims and any other member of the public would have access.