Editorial: Legislating requires thinking several moves ahead

Chess is a game that demands more than just following the rules. To master its art, a player has to develop the ability to look beyond the move being made to the next step and the next and the next. To see how this move affects what happens down the road. To see how the whole game plays out with each piece that is touched.

There is a reason chess is used as a way to build other skills that require similar forethought. Military leaders can use it to learn battle planning. A football game is practically a live-action chess match.

And yet sometimes it seems like our most important long-range planning is done without looking at the whole board. Lawmakers and government leaders excel at the short-term, left-or-right decision-making of checkers instead — a game that is about shortcut jumps and getting crowned king.

The Tribune-Review investigation of sexual predators admitted to nursing homes shows that the Pennsylvania Legislature could use a chess club.

The state made laws about the registration of sexual offenders going back 25 years. Even after sentences are completed, offenders must update police about their location to ensure that people are able to search the Megan’s Law database to find out exactly what kind of threats to themselves or their children could be next door, down the block or around the corner.

But Megan’s Law has experienced a series of moves that weren’t foreseen.

The system was tweaked in 2011 to include juvenile offenders adjudicated for crimes like rape or aggravated indecent assault, making sure that committing a crime at 16 instead of 18 didn’t circumvent the process. In 2017, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that there were constitutional problems with application of the law to those whose crimes predated to the 2011 modifications. Today there are 10-year and lifetime levels to Megan’s Law registration.

There also have been issues with registrants having trouble finding a place to live, which could make them noncompliant or transient.

And then there is the failure to look forward to realize that offenders will age, creating situations where they will require care. They also could experience dementia, making them unable to remember that they have to register. They also could have no family left to report that information to caregivers.

Government should not have to be reminded that today’s 30-year-old rapist or 45-year-old child molester will someday be an elderly individual who does not remember the consequences of their actions. That points to an ongoing tendency to forget about planning for senior care until it becomes a problem.

Our leaders have to become better at looking at the next moves in the game. Until then, lawmakers will continue to play checkers with important issues when they should be mastering the art of chess.