ME: Law reaches back to early 1990s.

October 26, 2001

By Bobbie Hanstein

As it is, Laurie Draper sits at her desk at the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department that never sees the light of day for all the paperwork. She is three months behind in all the state-mandated paper shuffling, and knows it is about to get worse.

Since the 120th Legislature revised the sex offender registration and notification laws to include all sex offenders convicted on or after June 30, 1992, local law enforcement departments are wondering how they will handle the influx, estimated to be 10 times more than the numbers of sex offenders currently requiring registration.

The reason for the jump is the new, retroactive registration requirement that kicked in at the end of last month now encompasses a total of 13 crimes, 12 more than when it was first passed. And the registration, which includes a thorough background check and notification procedure, has expanded to include all sex offenders, said Data Entry Supervisor Donna Cote at the state’s sex offender registry.

Back in 1992, when the sex offender registry was first enacted, just one crime - gross sexual assault - defined a sex offense, and the registry required an address verification. Currently, there are 700 registrants on the state’s sex offender registry, Cote said.

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Source: © 2001 Lewiston Sun Journal