PUT SEX OFFENDERS, JUVENILES ON INTERNET

When Missouri's sex-offender law -- requiring criminals to register with the sheriff's department in the county where they live -- went into effect in 1997, there was general support for the idea. Making the list of registered offenders public, however, was another matter. Under the law, anyone can go to the sheriff's department, sign a form and pay $2 to get that county's list.

In his State of the State address, Gov. Mel Carnahan suggested making the list even more accessible by posting all the registered offenders on the Highway Patrol's Web site.

While the current system appears to be working pretty well, it seems that making the list more widely available would be in everyone's best interests.

In addition, the governor suggested a computerized registry of juvenile sexual offenders that would be available only to schools, state agencies and law-enforcement officials. This is another good idea. In fact, a computerized list of all juvenile offenders should be available to the appropriate agencies across the state.

So far, only about 60 requests have been made in Cape Girardeau County for the sexual-offenders list. When the lists were first made public, some newspapers -- including the Southeast Missourian -- published those records in their entirety. Other newspapers chose not to publish the names, and still others published lists only after verifying such information as addresses.

While there is no quarrel with the reasoning of the various ways newspapers handled the lists, newspapers ought not to be in the business of sanitizing government records. And the more access the public has to government information it wants, the better.

Governor Carnahan deserves credit for suggesting the computerized lists and for including funds in the budget to accomplish that goal.