The agency that oversees sex offenders doesn’t check whether perverts really live where the state database says they do — leaving some free to live illegally within 1,000 feet of schools, sources told The Post.
The predators provide their addresses to the state, which has been taking them at their word.
The law “does not allow for the [state] Division of Criminal Justice Services to ask for proof of residency to verify addresses of offenders who mail in their forms,” a state official said.
“We have to go with what they tell us if it is an address recognized by the US Postal Service.”
With that policy in place, convicted rapists are easily able to hide from concerned parents who use the database to scope out threats.
“It’s very important that the address-verification process is pristine, which obviously it’s not,” said state Sen. Jeff Klein (D-Bronx).
“It creates a problem in verifying the location of these dangerous sexual predators, and it makes it impossible to verify whether they’re living within 1,000 feet of a school.”
Klein’s office released a report Monday that revealed six convicted sex offenders were housed unlawfully close to elementary schools. The report shocked the Cuomo administration into freezing the release of all parole-eligible perverts from prison until authorities can fix the system.
State officials insisted that verifying addresses of homeless offenders is not their responsibility.
“[The State] Department of Corrections’ role is strictly supervisory. Housing is handled by the city and violations of the law would be handled by law enforcement,” a state official said.
A union rep for downstate parole officers described how a freed sex offender could fall through the cracks. For example, if an offender who had previously been convicted on rape charges was being paroled on a drug conviction, it’s possible Department of Corrections and Community Supervision workers would only classify the parolee based on the more recent, non-sex offense, said Tony Perez, an executive board member of Public Employees Federation.
“The one percent of the time when somebody didn’t do their job or missed something, that’s when a sex offender comes out into the community and doesn’t get properly classified,” said Perez.
Mayor de Blasio ducked the hot-button issue, declining to comment — but other politicians jumped in.
Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito is “very concerned about the safety of our children and will look into measures the council can take” related to offenders living near schools and at false addresses, said her spokesman, Eric Koch.
Kelly Cummings, a spokeswoman for state Sen. Dean Skelos, a Long Island Republican, said he “applauds Senator Klein for uncovering shocking and disturbing problems within the sexual-predator tracking system that have allowed dangerous criminals to flout the law and put New York’s children at risk.”
Meanwhile, convicted child abuser Jamal Mitchell, 27, one of the six mentioned in Klein’s report, has been moved to a Brooklyn shelter a legal distance from any school.
“That’s a good idea. I feel safer now,” said Billy Marquez, 28, whose 6-year-old son attends PS 15.