Katrina sent sex offenders off the radar

[Rocky]

lost sex offenders

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Governors in states that accepted Katrina evacuees are being urged to locate about 2,000 registered sex offenders who fled the Gulf region during the hurricane's mayhem and may have vanished from legally required tracking.

"When sex offenders know they're being watched, when they know they're being monitored, they are less likely to offend again," said Wade Horn, assistant secretary for children and families at the Department of Health and Human Services.

The Administration for Children and Families estimated that about 30 states are affected. In November, agency officials matched the names of sex offender registries in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama with the names of evacuees who applied for disaster assistance.

The agency came up with more than 2,000 matches. The find led Horn to work with the Federal Emergency Management Agency on a system that would allow state law enforcement agencies to find registered sex offenders who are receiving disaster assistance.

All states are required to have sex offender registries, and people convicted of sexually violent offenses are required to register their current addresses.

Horn wrote the nation's 50 governors in late November to alert them to the new search they could undertake with FEMA, and the process they were to use.

"I am greatly concerned that known sex offenders who may have relocated to your state may take advantage of their anonymity and harm children once again," Horn wrote in a letter to Gov. Rick Perry of Texas.

The letter indicated that Texas law enforcement officials had already done a cross-check, and that it was the only state at that time which had.

Federal authorities told Texas of 304 known sex offenders who had relocated to the state, of which they know of 14 who have registered and provided contact information to law enforcement, said Jerry Strickland, spokesman for Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott.

We were talking about this in a thread a while back, but it seems to have disappeared...

 

[mysteriew]

If they had been on GPS/satalitte monitoring, we wouldn't be having this problem. At the very least, we would know where they were when they took the ankle bracelet off.

 

[concernedperson]

This has been a big worry of mine since Katrina hit. They never had good track of them before and now it is just impossible. I check the Louisiana sites daily and there are so many sex offenders it would make your skin crawl. Daily, abuse of a 2 month old, a 70 year old and so it goes. This is not a state with clout and certainly with enough degenerates to fill the justice system for a long time. I know I am originally from there so I can say this.

 

[BillyGoatGruff]

In a somewhat related subject, apparently there was a rash of lootings over the Christamas holidays in the Lakeview/MidCity area, where criminals broke into unattended houses that had already been cleaned up, or at least partially so, taking what little the owners still had left. I learned about this reading the message boards on the Times Picayune's webslite, www.nola.com

 

[concernedperson]

Thst is only material things. Yes, it is bad. But it is only part and parcel of the real things. JMO.

 

[BillyGoatGruff]

Thst is only material things. Yes, it is bad. But it is only part and parcel of the real things. JMO.

It's the insult to injury part that makes it totally repugnant behavior in my view. And it's being done by people who clearly know what it's like to lose everything (or damn near)l. Apparently a lot of the hardcore gangbanger/criminal element types are filtering back into the city after wearing out their welcome elsewhere, and realize the pickings are pretty good, considering out much of the city is unpoliced/empty.

 

[Opie]

How sad that some people are so morally bankrupt as to act in such a manner.