Sacramento – California Gov. Jerry Brown on Tuesday signed Senate Bill 1199 (SB 1199), the Community Protection Act authored by Sen. Scott Wilk, R-Antelope Valley, which requires, when reasonably possible, a family or community connection before paroling a sex offender into a community.
“The dumping of sex offenders stops with the governor’s signature on SB 1199,” Wilk said in a statement. “This change in the law is great news for people living in rural and affordable areas of California, like the Victor and Antelope valleys. Up until now families living in these areas were bearing the brunt of rehousing and rehabilitating the state’s sex offenders. That’s all about to change.”
SB 1199 expands current protections against the “dumping” of sexually violent predators into random communities to include, when reasonably possible, taking family and community ties into consideration, as well as the availability of reentry services when determining where inmates convicted of registrable sex offenses are placed.
This would apply except in cases where such placement would violate any other law or pose a risk to the victim.
Many of the laws put in place to protect citizens from predators have had the unintended consequence of putting rural communities at a higher risk, which is why SB 1199 was needed.
Jessica’s Law prohibits sex offender parolees released from prison on or after Nov. 8, 2006, from residing within 2,000 feet of any school and park where children congregate.
The unintended consequences of residence restrictions include transience, homelessness, instability and other obstacles to community reentry that may actually compromise, rather than promote, public safety.
Currently, offenders are disproportionally clustered in areas with more compliant and cheaper housing. Such has been the case in affordable and rural areas around the state.
“The governor’s signature on SB 1199 is good for rural Californians and will also ensure offenders have access to the services needed to help them not re-offend,” Wilk said.
SB 1199 goes into effect January 1, 2019.
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1 Comment
Jessica’s Law was a terrible idea in theory and a catastrophe in practice. It should be repealed entirely!