Category Archive for : ‘TRACKING SEX OFFENDERS’

Newsday/James T. Madore

When Robert Gregg, 54, went into the room of another resident at an Amityville nursing home inOctober and allegedly pulled the covers away and molested her, the 84 year old woman didn’t knowthat Gregg is a registered sex offender. Four years earlier, he had been convicted elsewhere ofattempting to rape a 60 year old woman. Although police said officials at Brunswick HospitalCenter’s nursing home were told of Gregg’s criminal record, they were not required to tell otherresidents when he was admitted in 2004 after suffering a stroke. Gregg

Hearing about a Suffolk County plan to track convicted sex offenders via global positioning system devices, Lois thought the man who sexually abused her sister would be an ideal candidate but when she called probation officials, she found out Carlos C. Gomez, had been missing since last May.  Despite monitoring by probation officials, many sex offenders disappear.  According to a 2003 survey by Parents for Megan’s Law, more than 77,000 registered offenders in 32 reporting states, nearly one-quarter of the total offenders in those states, have failed to comply with

This summer, Suffolk County will embark on a program that will use global positioning system technology to more closely monitor a wide range of chronic abusers who commit serious and violent crimes.  Suffolk plans to place GPS ankle bracelets on convicted sex offenders, repeat DWI offenders, drug users and dealers, and the perpetrators of spousal abuse.  The devices will provide monitoring 24 hours a day, giving probation officers minute by minute reports of an offender’s exact location.

Laura Ahearn of Parents for Megan’s Law praised the use of GPS but

Suffolk Life/Michelle Pirraglia

Suffolk County is about to launch a pilot program to study the effectiveness of GlobalPositioning System monitoring for those on probation, with legislation passing last week to includeall sex offenders as potential subjects for the study.

According to Laura Ahearn, executive director of Parents for Megan’s law, there are currentlybetween 275 and 300 sex offenders on probation in Suffolk County. We’re very encouraged by thisstudy, Ahearn said, emphasizing the importance of including level one offenders in the mix. Theprocess of risk assessment doesn’t always work out. You can have a

Newsday

States that accepted Katrina evacuees are being urged to locate about 2,000 registered sexoffenders who fled the Gulf region during the hurricane and many have vanished from legallyrequired tracking. The Administration for Children and Families estimated that about 30 states areaffected.

(Washington)

Researchers estimate that one in five girls and one in 10 boys will be sexually victimized in some way before they reach adulthood.  Yet only one in three will tell anybody about it.  Most convicted sex offenders are not in prison; they are in our communities.  We know that of the nation’s 563,000 registered sex offenders, at least 100,000 are unaccounted for.  A comprehensive system for sex-offender registration that includes better sharing of information between states and increased penalties for failure to register is needed.  A stronger enforcement of these