Sex Trafficking Bill Passes Committee, Moves to House for Vote
Thursday, March 26, 2015
The House Judiciary Committee has heard and passed Representative Doreen Costa's bill which aims to tighten penalties for sex trafficking. The bill has now moved to the House floor for a vote on March 26.
“My bill won unanimous support in the House in 2014 and I look forward to robust support from my legislative colleagues this year," said Costa.
The Bill aims to increase jail time for convicted sexual predators from 40 to 50 ears and also anyone found guilty of interfering with or obstructing enforcement of sex trafficking laws will face 35 years of imprisonment as opposed to 20.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTThe fine has also increased from $20,000 to $40,000.
“These offenders don’t belong on our streets. We all know it and if legislation passes out of the Senate this year then we’ll be sure that offenders will now know that they’ll be spending significantly more time behind bars, where they belong,” Costa added.
Related Slideshow: Rhode Island Communities with the Most Sex Offenders
The State of Rhode Island Parole Board and Sex Offender Community Notification Unit provides a searchable online database of Level 2 and Level 3 sex offenders, which are "moderate risk" offender and "high risk" offenders, searchable by city and town, zip code, or offender level. Not all towns in the state have registered sex offenders in the database.
In addition, categories include "whereabouts unknown", "moved out of state", "incarcerated out of state", "deported", and "deceased."
Below are the sex offenders registered on the site as of November 2013, ranked accoring to offenders per capita in each community -- which can change daily. The population numbers are taken from Rhode Island DLT 2011 estimates.
Search the site for names, and addresses, here.
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