Several bills for tracking registered sex offenders will soon be introduced to the state Legislature for consideration by Rep. Mark Gundrum, R-New Berlin.
“There are two particular legislative measures I plan on introducing,” said Gundrum.
“One prevents sex offenders from legally changing their name. They are supposed to be on this registry, and if they changed their name there would be no way of knowing they were a registered sex offender.”
Gundrum said one of the purposes of having a registry is so that employers can check personal records before considering individuals for jobs.
“Someone with a changed name wouldn’t show up on the registry, and that information wouldn’t show up when an employer does a background on a person for a position they’re filling, such as an elementary school janitor,” Gundrum said.
The second piece of legislation Gundrum will introduce would make it a felony for a convicted sex offender to register improperly. Currently, under state law, a convicted sex offender who does not correctly register information such as a change of address is committing a misdemeanor.
“The hope is that if not registering properly is made a felony, it will provide more incentive for sex offenders to keep their information current,” Gundrum said.
He said state citizens see the maintenance of an accurate registry as a tool for protecting potential victims of sex crimes, particularly children.
“These people are convicted sex offenders, and we want to know who they are and what they’re doing,” Gundrum said.
Gundrum said currently there are around 2,900 sex offenders in Wisconsin who have not registered properly with the state. Gundrum’s estimation of the state’s 2,900 improperly registered convicts makes up 20 percent of Wisconsin’s known 9,900 released sex offenders.
In January, the trend drew national attention when California announced that it did not know the whereabouts of 44 percent of its sex offenders, constituting 33,000 released convicts.
All 50 states have laws allowing for the creation of databases of registered sex offenders, making their names and addresses accessible to the public. The laws have commonly stemmed from a New Jersey statue known as Megan’s Law, named for a young girl who was murdered by a released sex offender.
The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to issue a ruling sometime this year in two cases involving Megan’s Law spin-offs. Sex offenders are arguing they have already served their debt to society through prison time and that they suffer ostracism from communities and people who use a registry to identify them as sex offenders. They say registry use leads to additional punishment for the same crime and is therefore unconstitutional.
While states require sex offenders to register, some offenders give false addresses or ignore registration all together.
In accordance with the Campus Sex Crimes Prevention Act, the University of Wisconsin has gathered information on sex offenders who are enrolled, employed or somehow affiliated with the campus. The UW Police Department’s website has a link to the sex offenders’ registry run by the Wisconsin Department of Corrections.
