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Thursday, June 22, 2006

Help Support Jessica's Law and Protect Our Children

I don't usually blog about national or political issues, but this post about sex offenders affects everbody and it relates to real estate somewhat.

The California Organization of Police and Sheriffs (COPS) is fighting for America's children by pushing for National passage of the Sexual Predator Punishment and Control Act of 2006, a.k.a. Jessica's Law.  As most everybody probably knows, Jessica's Law is named in honor of 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford, who was taken from her home in Florida and brutally murdered by a registered sex offender with an extensive criminal history.  The U.S. Attorney General's Office has created the National Sex Offender Public Registry, which connects the sex offender databases of all fifty states.  But just by watching the news every night, I think we all know much more still needs to be done.

According to the COPS website, Jessica's Law will:

• Ensure that all child molesters who molest children under the age of 14 are put into a prison with a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years or 25 years to life. Closes all loopholes in California's "one-strike" laws.
• Eliminate all "good-time" credits for sex offenders ensuring that these sex offenders are required to serve their entire sentence and will not be released for good behavior.
• Electronically monitor convicted sex offenders for life, if they are ever released from prison, through GPS tracking.
• Create a 2,000-foot "predator-free" zone around schools and parks to prevent sex offenders from living near where our children learn and play.

The "Megan's Law Report Card'' was released this past May by the watchdog group, "Parents for Megan's Law".  The report card compared the sex offender registries and community notification programs of all 50 U.S. states.  While 24 states received a grade of "F", Arizona received a "B", making it one of only 5 states that received a "B" or higher.  And this doesn't even sound right to me for some reason, but Florida earned the top grade of "A+".

Arizona, along with Oklahoma, Florida and Louisiana were among the first states to pass an equivalent of Jessica's Law.  But many lawmakers believe that in order for the legistation to really work, all 50 states need to adopt the same approach to dealing with these predators.

Please sign the Jessica's Law petition today to help keep the entire U.S. safe for our children!

Written By: Shannon Hubbard Realtor®-Investor Great American Realty, Inc. Cell: (480) 695-6672 Email me

Posted by Shannon Hubbard, AZ Realtor & Computer Guru on June 22, 2006 | Permalink

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