Thursday, July 31, 2003

Because three (or four) categories weren't enough

Today the Governor signed SB5, a new sex offender registration and notification law. This is an ugly, complicated law that has the bonus of going into effect immediately, instead of the usual ninety days.

I am dreading how convoluted this will make an already complicated registration system.

Some changes wrought by SB5:

* Sex offenders can't live within 1000 feet of any school
* Some offenses have been recategorized as "child victim offenses" this will overcome the problem identified in the Dayton case last month.
* adult offenders must also register their employment or higher education addresses.
* The bill creates clever new categories such as "presumptive registration exempt offenses" and "habitual child-victim offenders."

The bill is over three hundred pages long so it will take a while to sort out the nuances. Oh wait. This is an emergency. Never mind.

This should be fun.

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