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Congress works on national sex offender tracking

Sex offenders nationwide would face stricter registration requirements and would have to wear monitoring devices under a wide-ranging bill filed Wednesday in Congress.

There are more than 500,000 registered sex offenders throughout the country who are no longer in prison, and authorities don't know where about 150,000 of them are, said U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, R-West Palm Beach, who is sponsoring the bill that's designed to keep better track of people who commit those crimes.

Sex offenders are four times more likely to be re-arrested than other criminals, Foley said.

"We are playing Russian roulette with our children's lives. We need to stop these predators now," said Foley.

The bill, which is sponsored in the Senate by Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, is being introduced just more than two weeks after Gov. Jeb Bush signed a similar bill named for 9-year-old murder victim Jessica Lunsford.

Convicted sex offender John Couey is charged with kidnapping, raping and killing the Citrus County girl. He had moved without notifying authorities.

"Every day that goes by without this bill is another day that we risk another victim," said Foley, who also noted the death or 13-year-old Sarah Lunde of Ruskin.

The bill contains a number of provisions, including language that would:

Require sex offenders to wear monitoring devices during their supervised release and repeat offenders to wear such devices the rest of their lives.

Force offenders to update their registration in person every six months, or every three months if they are a sexually violent predator.

Set a three-day deadline for offenders to update their registration if they move or change jobs instead of the current 10-day deadline.

Require offenders to have their registry photographs updated annually.

Require the U.S. Attorney General's office to notify states if offenders plan to move from another state.

Establish a federally maintained sex offender DNA database.

Make failing to register or update registration a felony.

States would have three years to comply with the law and a study would be conducted to recommend other improvements in how law enforcement tracks sex offenders.

[Last modified May 19, 2005, 00:44:07]