By Edith Brady-Lunny . . . Major changes in Illinois’ rules for sex offenders, including how long an offender must remain on a public registry, are part of a final report on its way to the governor’s office from the Sex Offenses & Sex Offender Registration Task Force.
The report set for release Thursday recognizes that Illinois lacks sufficient resources to monitor and assess treatment of sex offenders at the state and local level.
As of November 2016, 32,239 individuals were on the state’s public registry, about 70 percent of them required to register for life. The vast majority of sex offenders are reportedly compliant with registration requirements, according to the report.
Among the recommendations is a revision to automatically remove low-level offenders from the public registry after a set time, a move that could allow law enforcement to focus tracking efforts on high-risk individuals.
