Jessica's Law

A bill that would impose tougher sentencing and monitoring requirements on child sexual predators has hit a snag. The budget doesn’t include money for the new prison cells that will need to be built to house violators of the law. “The current budget… does not factor in the cost of this bill,” said Rep. Dan Blue, D-Wake and chair of a House judiciary committee that is looking at the bill. Legislative fiscal analysts estimate that the proposed law, which would give a minimum 25-year prison sentence to an adult convicted of raping a child younger than 13 years old, would cost about $1.5 million for 20 new prison cells. Other costs would put the total at an estimated $2 million for the first year of the new law.
Rep. Tim Moore, R-Cleveland and a bill sponsor, said he did not think the snag was a delay tactic and was hopeful that the bill would still be approved before the General Assembly adjourns. The Senate handler of the bill, Sen. David Hoyle, D-Gaston, was also optimistic. “That’s not a reason it won’t get passed,” Hoyle said. The bill passed the House last year. Earlier this month, a modified version of the bill passed the Senate. The House committee is now reviewing the changes made by the Senate.
The bill would also require lifetime GPS monitoring for people who rape children once they are released from prison. It would also strengthen sex-offender registry requirements. People on the registry would be prohibited from being on the premises of places where children are known to congregate, such as schools, playgrounds and children’s museums. The proposed law would require a 30-year sex-offender registration for people convicted of offenses against a minor or for violent offenses. The current law requires a 10-year registration. The measure, the Jessica Lunsford Act, is named for a 9-year-old Gaston County native who, after moving to Florida, was kidnapped, raped and murdered by a sexual predator in February 2005. (Barry Smith, FREEDOM NEWSPAPERS, 6/26/08).