Fresh from the passage of a stronger Megan’s Law, we now must focus on and continue to push for the civil commitment of sexually violent predators. A joint conference committee was instrumental in passing the Megan’s Law legislation, so I’m calling on Assembly and state Senate leaders to once again form such a panel to address the issue.

A stronger Sex Offender Registry under Megan’s Law is a victory for women, children and families across New York, but we cannot become complacent when it comes to protecting communities from the damage inflicted by sexually violent predators.

We in the Assembly minority conference have promoted civil commitment laws for 13 years, and our attempts to bring this legislation to the floor has been blocked by the majority and their leaders for 13 straight years.

A civil commitment law would determine, by a unanimous jury verdict, if a person was a “sexually violent predator” and suffers from a mental abnormality that predisposes the person to commit more sexually violent offenses when released from prison. Once the decision to commit has been made, the individual would receive yearly evaluations to determine if he or she remains a threat to commit more sex crimes.