Several bills were heard in the Senate and House Judiciary Committee related to sex offenders in efforts to once again limit the rights and discriminate against this group of offenders, making it much harder for them to reintegrate into society.
H-5159 and S-897 would bar residential facilities receiving state assistance from providing more than 10% of its units to sex offenders. Over the objections of the ACLU and advocates for rights of the homeless, the Senate version of the bill was signed into law by the Governor. The ACLU is considering a legal challenge to the legislation.
Other problematic bills passed as well. H-5207 and S-55 requires homeless shelters to report the presence of a sex offender to the police. This legislation passed and was signed by the Governor in July. H-5722 would limit how many days a Level III sex offender can stay in a hotel, but this bill did not pass. A related one that did, H-5724, requires school departments to notify parents of students whose residence is within 1,000 feet of a Level III’s sex offender’s residence. There is a good deal of irony in bills to bar sex offenders from staying in shelters or hotels. Some of those offenders are there because of the residency laws the General Assembly has passed in the last few years limiting where they can live. The ACLU is presently in court challenging one of those laws. Read the ACLU’s full testimony about the bundle of bills.
