Cordray Announces New Efforts to Track Sex Offenders

First notice the micro management of the lives of registrants. i.e. e-mail addresses and phone numbers. Of course this new system of tracking likely will catch offenders unaware and maybe arrested, when they are actually compliant. For instance, if a phone is shut off because one cannot pay a bill, that would cause the registrant to be arrested. Next, if the registrant doesn't use his/her e-mail addresses frequently, the e-mail provider will tag them for being dormant and eventually close the e-mail address, causing the registrant to be arrested. Next, if a registrant has many e-mail addresses each for different purposes, will s/he be arrested because he decides to no longer use one of them? There is a big difference in having a e-mail address and using it, this new system forces registrants to use ALL e-mail addresses regularly or face arrest. Insanity in law!

8-30-2010 Ohio:

(COLUMBUS, Ohio) – Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray announced today that his office has received a federal grant that will help county sheriffs keep better track of registered sex offenders.

The $155,546 grant will pay for two new programs.

The first will allow the Attorney General’s Office to develop a phone and e-mail alert system that will send automated messages to offenders and sheriffs’ offices around Ohio, five days before offenders are supposed to re-register as part of their reporting requirements. The system also will track phone numbers or e-mail addresses that no longer are in operation, alerting sheriffs’ offices if the contact information provided by offenders is incorrect.

“This automated system will ensure that offenders know when they must register and will help county sheriffs’ offices make sure that those offenders comply with those requirements,” Cordray said.

“Monitoring registered sex offenders is a difficult task for sheriffs’ offices, especially those that have had to make staffing cutbacks," said Coshocton County Sheriff Timothy Rogers, president of the Buckeye State Sheriffs Association. "This new callback system will help our sheriffs better keep track of offenders, especially those who do not comply with their registration requirements, and we thank Attorney General Cordray for his support.”

The second part of the grant will help county sheriffs’ offices fund extradition of offenders who moved to other states without notifying local authorities as required by law.

The grant will fund extradition of up to 50 of the most serious sex offenders, which will allow them to be prosecuted in state courts.

Why are local courts wanting to prosecute these cases, when the offense is a federal offense? AWA has a built-in jurisdictional hook to make this circumstance a federal offense. Should anyone see why a local prosecutor would want to prosecute these cases rather than allowing federal courts to do so, please send me a e-mail. eAdvocate

“Too often noncompliant offenders avoid prosecution simply because smaller counties cannot afford the overtime and travel expenses needed to pick them up. This grant will help address this problem.” Cordray said.

The grant money was awarded by the federal Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering and Tracking and the Adam Walsh Act Implementation Grant Program, which is part of the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs.

In 2009, Ohio became the first state in the nation to reach substantial implementation of the federal Adam Walsh Act. ..Source.. Ohio Attorney General's Office