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CONGRESS CONSIDERS JESSICA LUNSFORD ACT TO PROTECT CHILDREN
Washington, DC,
April 29, 2005
First there was Megan's Law, and then came the Amber Alert law. Now Congress is considering the Jessica Lunsford Act.
By Mary M. Shaffrey All three bills have something in common: They were named after slain children, and their goal is to prevent future tragedies. Several Unlike current notices, which are sent at a specific time each year, these notices would be unannounced. The bill was introduced in the House last
week in response to the February abduction, sexual assault and murder of
Jessica Lunsford, a 9-year-old Detective Geanine Pregel, who works on sex-abuse cases for the Davidson County Sheriff's Office, said that if passed, the law would be a big help. "If you send that one notice today, I have a whole year for you to not know where I am," Pregel said. "To make that stricter would go a long way." Offenders who did not respond to the notices would face increased penalties and fines, and be required to wear an electronic monitoring device. Jessica was taken in the middle of the night from her father's home. Her body was found several weeks later. John Evander Couey has confessed to her killing. "Eight weeks ago I had a beautiful 9-year-old daughter who was the light of my life," Mark Lunsford said yesterday during a press conference to highlight the bill. "I will never see Jessie go on her first date. I will never be a grandfather to her children." Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-5th, a co-sponsor of the legislation, said she feels that the bill isn't enough, but is a step in the right direction. "I would like to see them stay in jail a lot longer than we do (but) anything that we can do to try to minimize the opportunity a sex offender has to harm children is a good thing," Foxx said. Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-10th, another co-sponsor, agreed. "I don't think we can do enough to protect children," McHenry said. "We need to have the harshest possible punishment for those who hurt those who cannot protect themselves," he said. Since Jessica's killing, a second girl was
abducted, assaulted and killed by a registered sex offender, also in There are 1,100 registered sex offenders in
the five counties surrounding Lt. Mike Flowe, a member of the Winston-Salem Police Department who oversees investigations of sex crimes, said that the legislation would help keep track of offenders, but cautioned that it should not replace education and stricter enforcement of current laws. He said that because the monitoring devices can be hidden under boots or shirts, and are not well known, without increased awareness, "the average person would not know what to look out for." Registered sex offenders do not have parole or probation officers who keep track of their whereabouts, so a device would only work if someone was monitoring the offender, Flowe said. The monitoring device, which would be similar to electronic devices used by people under house arrest or other forms of probation - including Martha Stewart - would be waterproof and would be worn at all times. Once a person went outside of a prescribed monitoring area, a signal would be sent back to the appropriate office. According to crime statistics compiled by the U.S. Department of Justice, sex offenders are four times more likely to commit another sex crime once they are released from prison than those not previously arrested for a sex crime. Foxx said that issue should be addressed as well. "We need to do a lot more study on recidivism rate of these people and look very carefully at what we should be doing. If we can't protect (children) then why are we here?" she said. The Jessica Lunsford Act, introduced by Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite, R-Fla. - who lives less than 10 miles from Lunsford's home - has been sent to the House Judiciary Committee for consideration. • Mary M. Shaffrey can be reached in
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