Fairness for Prisoners' Families
Strict
sex offender bill passes Senate 52-1
March 31, 2006
A sweeping bill to get tough on sex offenders
cleared the Georgia General Assembly on Thursday night and goes to
Gov. Sonny Perdue for his expected signature.
House Bill 1059 won final Senate approval, 52-1.
Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor called it the "most
important piece of legislation this session" as he banged the gavel
for order in the Senate before the vote.
"Every sex offender in Georgia will now serve
time in jail and every sex offender in Georgia will be monitored
after their release," House Majority Leader Jerry Keen (R-St.Simons),
who sponsored the bill, said in a press release immediately after
the vote.
Georgia soon will have some of the most
restrictive sex offender laws in the nation, he and other supporters
said.
Here are highlights of HB 1059:
• Requires mandatory minimum sentencing of 25
years to life for certain sex crimes — with minimum time served of
30 years on a life sentence before any chance of parole. Current law
allows parole at 14 years, although the average time served on a
life sentence is at least 20 years, state prison officials say.
• Requires all registration information to be
sent to the county sheriff before a sexual offender is released from
prison or put on probation.
• Requires global positioning satellite
monitoring for any offender declared a sexually dangerous predator
by the Sexual Offender Registration Review Board. Requires offenders
to pay for the monitoring.
• Sex offenders no longer will be subject to
first offender treatment. Everyone convicted of a sex crime will
serve time in prison.
• Imposes living, working and loit- ering
restrictions. Convicted offenders cannot live or loiter within 1,000
feet of an area where minors congregate, including school bus stops,
and predators cannot live, work or loiter within 1,000 feet of an
area where minors congregate. 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.
• Acknowledges the need for flexibility in
so-called "Romeo and Juliet" cases so that consensual sex between
teenagers wouldn't be criminalized. For example, the bill reduces
sodomy from a felony to a misdemeanor if the victim is at least 13
years old and the person convicted is no more than four years older
than the victim.
Staff writer Sonji Jacobs contributed to this
article.
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