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October 19, 2005
Dear Friends:
Recent rapes and murders of children by registered sex
offenders in Florida, Idaho and North Dakota have
highlighted the stricter monitoring of convicted sex
offenders.
Maryland's 1995 Megan's Law, which I sponsored, required
that when released from prison, convicted sexual
predators register their current address with law
enforcement officials. This registration requirement,
now law in every state, is named after Megan Kanka, a
New Jersey child, who was raped and murdered by a
convicted sex offender who was a neighbor.
In Maryland, sexually violent predators, the most
serious offenders, are required to report to a local law
enforcement agency every 90 days to verify their address
for the rest of their lives. Most child sex offenders
are required to register in person annually. This month,
law became effective to require them to submit a new
picture each year they register. Most of the child sex
offenders register for life. In Maryland, the addresses
of about 20% of the 4,300 offenders in the online
database are questionable. I support the call made by
the Mayor and others for an aggressive statewide effort
to track down these questionable registrants.
Mayor Martin O'Malley has called for a law, patterned
after Florida's Jessica Lundsford law, to require
violent sexual predators to wear ankle bracelets for
life to allow law enforcement officials to track their
whereabouts with Global Positioning System technology.
The U. S. Bureau of Justice Statistics shows that these
violent offenders re-offend at about an 80% rate.
According to the agency, the average pedophile is likely
to commit about a dozen offenses before being caught.
Another bill, which will be considered to require
involuntary confinement of the most dangerous offenders
in secure mental institutions when they are released
from prison. They can gain release only when judged by
medical experts as no longer posing a danger to the
public. Patterned after Kansas law, this measure has
been adopted by fourteen states. It has been upheld by
the U.S. Supreme Court because offenders are being
treated and not being subjected to preventative
incarceration.
Indeed, these proposals are harsh. However, when
considering whether to curtail civil rights of sex
offenders, I believe we should err on the side of
protecting our children.
Please do not hesitate to contact me on this or any
other legislative matter of concern to you. As always, I
encourage and welcome your input.
Sincerely,
Ann Marie Doory
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