Statewide Sex Offender Residency Bill Gets Public Hearing

MADISON, Wis. (WTAQ) - A public hearing will be held Thursday on a bill to create statewide limits on where sex offenders can live. It would wipe out tough local ordinances with restrictions so tight, offenders are driven elsewhere. The bill would let the Corrections Department come up with statewide limits on keeping sex offenders away from schools and other places where kids congregate. But corrections’ officials have opposed some of the tougher local ordinances that exist now. They say it encourages sex offenders to go underground, and not register with the state as the law requires. The current restrictions have varied effects.

Milwaukee suburbs have adopted tough laws to keep sex offenders from moving the city, which does not have residency limits. But in Green Bay, the law is so tough that sex offenders have moved to suburbs which have not passed their own restrictions. And that’s got legislators from opposing parties working for the same cause. Assembly Democrat Fred Kessler of Milwaukee and Assembly Republican Phil Montgomery of Ashwaubenon both say restrictions need to be uniform throughout the state. Kessler also says it would prevent sex offenders from concentrating in rural areas, where there are not enough officers to enforce local restrictions.