On May 4, the Senate approved, by unanimous consent after first agreeing to the committee-reported substitute amendment, a bill (S. 1086) to improve the national program to register and monitor individuals who commit crimes against children. Similar provisions are included in a crime package (H.R. 4472) approved by the House on March 8 (see The Source, 3/10/06).
The bill, sponsored by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), would establish a National Sex Offender Registry and would require the Department of Justice to maintain a website that would allow the public to access the registry. It would establish a Sex Offender Management Assistance program to assist states and localities with the costs of maintaining registries. The legislation would establish three levels associated with a sex offender’s risk of committing another offense, and would require sex offenders to update their registration regularly on a specific schedule and over a time period dictated by the tier to which they are assigned.
The legislation also would establish mandatory minimum prison terms for violent crimes against children under the age of 12. A crime resulting in death would result in a term of 30 years to life; kidnapping or serious bodily injury would mean a term of 20 years to life; and the use of a dangerous weapon would result in a term of 10 years to life. Penalties for other sexual offenses against children, including crossing a state line with the intent to engage in a sexual act with a child, would be increased as well. A pilot program would provide grants to states and localities to outfit sex offenders with electronic monitoring devices. The Bureau of Prisons would be required to establish treatment programs for sex offenders.
The Bureau of Justice Assistance would be authorized to make grants to hire additional law enforcement personnel or expand training to prevent child sexual abuse “through community education and outreach, investigation of complaints, enforcement of laws relating to sex offender registries, and management of released sex offenders; investigate the use of the Internet to facilitate” child sexual abuse; and “purchase hardware and software necessary to investigate sexual abuse of children over the Internet.”
In order to improve the compliance rates for registration of sex offenders and to reduce the number of crimes against children, the bill would authorize $3 million for the National Institute of Justice to conduct a study of “the control, prosecution, treatment, and monitoring off sex offenders,” and make recommendations in a report to Congress, the states, local governments, and the public.
Sen. Bill Frist (R-TN) expressed his strong support for the bill: “Currently, there are over 100,000 missing sex offenders who have failed to register under current State laws. This bill will enhance the penalty for failure to register from a Federal misdemeanor to a Federal felony. I am proud the Senate is acting to protect our Nation’s most valuable resource our children.”
