Senator Golden: Our Children Are Safe

Brooklyn- State Senator Martin Golden (R-C-I, 22nd District), a former New York City Police Officer, is announcing that an agreement has been reached in the State Legislature that will insure that no sex offenders will come off the New York State Sex Offender Registry.

Under the agreement reached:
-Level 2 and 3 offenders will be on the registry for life
-Level 2 offenders can petition to get off the registry after 30 years
-Level 1 offenders automatically come off the registry after 20 years

Senator Marty Golden stated, "Megan's Law was truly one of the ground breaking criminal justice measures in the history of New York State, but as we approach the tenth anniversary, we were faced with the horrifying reality that thousands of convicted sex offenders were about to drop from the registry."

Senator Golden continued, "To keep our children safe and to keep communities throughout New York State secure, I worked with my colleagues in the State Legislature so as to not allow these dangerous offenders to blend back into society as result of our failure to act. We have taken the right step to keeping our neighborhoods better informed and we have protected the most vulnerable members of our communities -- our children."

Currently, most sex offenders are only required to register for ten years. On January 21, 2006, the 10th anniversary of the effective date of New York State's sex offender registry, 168 sex offenders were to have dropped from the registry because they have met the 10-year mandate to keep police posted of their whereabouts. Hundreds more would have dropped off the sex offender registry each month thereafter, totaling over 3,500 offenders by the end of 2006.