Connecticut’s Sentencing Commission will again be pushing for considerable changes to the state’s sex offender registry.
After a lengthy study, the commission proposed a bill summarizing the recommended changes.
The measure includes moving to a “risk-based” approach instead of the current offense-based registry, which forces offenders to register for 10 years or life, depending on the offense committed.
It would also create two registries, one that is public for high-risk offenders and one that could only be seen by law enforcement for those who are low-risk.
At a meeting in December, commission Chair Judge Robert Devlin reiterated that the proposal would create a more manageable registry and allow some low-risk offenders to get off the public sex offender registry entirely.
“It would say, ‘Let’s look at the risk of this individual person by some people who really have experience and knowledge in this and make an informed judgement about it,’” Devlin said. “That’s just one feature of it. There’s lots of others that I think improve the law -- more supervision of people who are high-risk by the state police, a path off for people who really deserve a path off where a judge has a hearing and decides it. All those, I think, are positive aspects of the proposal.”
The General Assembly’s judiciary and appropriations committees advanced the bill last year, but the session ended before it could be passed. The Sentencing Commission says it will try again in the upcoming session beginning in February.
