Provides residency requirements for sex offenders

Title of bill

An act to amend the correction law, the executive law and the penal law, in relation to certain residency requirements for sex offenders

Purpose

To prohibit sex offenders from moving to a residence that is within 1000 feet of any school building regularly used for instructional purposes, a building in which child day care is provided or a park.

Summary of specific provisions

Section 1: Section 168-b of the correction law is amended by adding a new subdivision 14 to read as follows: 12. The division, when acknowledging initial registration and thereafter in annual correspondence, shall advise each sex offender, to whom the residency restriction in section one hundred sixty-eight-w of this article applies, concerning the terms and specific duration of such restriction.

Section 2: Section 168-t of the correction law, as amended by chapter 373 of the laws of 2007, is amended to include in the penalty section that a violation of section one hundred sixty-eight-v or subdivision one of section one hundred sixty-eight-w of this article shall be guilty of a class D misdemeanor upon conviction for the first offense, and upon conviction for a second or subsequent offense shall be guilty of a class D felony. Any sex offender who violates the provisions of subdivision one of section one hundred sixty-eight-w of this article shall be guilty of a class E felony.

Section 3: section 168-w of the correction law, as relettered by chapter 604 of the laws of 2005, is relettered section 168-x and a new section 168-w is added,

Section 4: Section 259-c of the executive law is amended by adding a new subdivision 18.

Section 5: Section 65.10 of the penal law is amended by adding a new subdivision 6.

Section 6: Sets the enactment date.

Justification

Throughout New York State, municipalities have enacted residency requirement legislation to keep sex offenders away from children. Recent court action has created the need for a uniform state standard to protect children from dangerous sexual predators. This legislation would create this standard.

Legislative history

New bill.

Fiscal implications

None.

Effective date

This act shall take effect on the sixtieth day after it shall have become a law and shall apply to sex offenders convicted or released on or after such date.