Attempt to end lifetime sex-offender registration in California fails

SACRAMENTO — California will not end lifetime registration requirements for sex offenders after a bill to overhaul the registry stalled in the Assembly on Friday.

SB421 by state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, would have allowed most sex offenders to be removed from the registry 10 to 20 years after they are released from prison, so long as they have not committed another serious or violent felony or sex crime. The bill was sought by law enforcement and scholars who argued California’s registry has become so bloated — 100,000 sex offenders and counting — that it makes it difficult for officers or the public to determine who is a high-risk for reoffending.

The bill passed the Senate in May, but faced a more difficult path in the more moderate Assembly. On Friday, the Assembly Appropriations Committee said the bill would not move forward following a day in which the fate of hundreds of bills is determined by both houses’ fiscal panels. Wiener could take the bill up next year.

The bill was estimated to cost the Department of Justice, which oversees the registry, more than $70 million over the first six years to implement the changes. It was unclear how much savings the state would see from no longer having to monitor all sex offenders for life.

“Our sex offender registry is broken and useless to law enforcement, with many non-violent and low-level offenders who committed their offenses decades ago,” Wiener said in a statement Friday. “If we’re serious about monitoring high-risk sex offenders — as we should be — we must reform this registry.”

Critics of the bill said too many crimes were included in categories that allowed sex offenders to eventually come off the registry, including rape, lewd acts with a child or forced sodomy. Supporters of the bill argued that research shows that the longer a person is crime-free, the less likely they are to reoffend, thus keeping sex offenders on the registry for decades does not reduce crime.

Melody Gutierrez is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mgutierrez@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @MelodyGutierrez