Georgia Adopts Toughest Laws in the Nation
ATLANTA—House Majority Leader Jerry Keen (R-St. Simons) today applauded the work of his colleagues in the Georgia House and Georgia Senate as they completed work on the sex offender legislation.
“In January, we introduced tough new measures to protect the children of this state by strengthening our laws relating to sex offenders and sexual predators,” Keen said. “Working with corrections personnel, district attorneys, law enforcement officers, and my colleagues in the House since last summer, we crafted a piece of legislation that will make Georgia’s laws regarding these heinous crimes some the most restrictive in the country. Every sex offender in Georgia will now serve time in jail and every sex offender in Georgia will be monitored after their release.”
The final version of the bill as worked out by a conference committee of House and Senate members includes:
* Mandatory minimum sentencing of 25 years to life for certain sex crimes with the minimum time served on a life sentence of 30 years.
* All registration information will be sent to the county sheriff before a sexual offender is released from prison or put on probation.
* GPS monitoring will be required for any offender declared a sexually dangerous predator by the Sexual Offender Registration Review Board.
* No longer will sex offenders be subject to the first offender treatment – everyone convicted of a sex crime will serve time in prison, and everyone convicted of a sex crime will be monitored after his or her release.
* The living/working/loitering distance restrictions were further defined so that those criminals convicted as “offenders” cannot live or loiter within 1,000 feet of an area where minors congregate and “predators” cannot live, work or loiter within 1,000 feet of an area where minors congregate. Both “offenders” and “predators” are restricted from working in a church, school or day care, or within 1,000 feet of a church, school or day care.
“The success of this legislation will be measured by not by how many sex offenders we put behind bars, but by how many children in Georgia are able to live normal lives without being exposed to these criminals.”
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04/26/06 - House Date Signed by Governor
07/01/2006 - Effective Date
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