Sex Offender Placement Bill Passes State Assembly

The State Assembly this week approved a bill that would place restrictions on where violent sex offenders can be placed. State Representative Mark Born of Beaver Dam authored the bill and State Representative Michael Schraa of Oshkosh was a co-sponsor. It grew out of the placement of two sex offenders within a few hundred feet of a Brownsville home where two younger children lived. But another component had to do with a controversy over a sex offender from Milwaukee County that a judge was considering placing in the Town of Eldorado in Fond du Lac County. The bill would limit placement of a violent sex offender to no closer than 1500 feet of a school, daycare, park or place of worship. They also couldn’t be placed on a property adjacent to children if they committed a sexually violent offense against a child, or next to a nursing home or assisted living facility if they committed a sexually violent offence against an elderly or disabled individual. The legislation also stipulates that local law enforcement must be consulted before a placement may be made. It also creates a limited exemption of local ordinances. Judges would not be able to use local ordinances as a reason to place a violent sex offender in a different county. The bill is now headed to the State Senate.