TRENTON — The state Senate on Thursday will vote on legislation to allow towns to restrict where sex offenders live. The bill (S837), sponsored by state Sen. Fred Madden (D-Gloucester), would let towns keep moderate or high risk sex offenders from living within 500 feet of a school, playground or child care center. School boards would also not be...
View from above the Senate Chamber dais in this January 2010 file photo.TRENTON — The state Senate on Thursday will vote on legislation to allow towns to restrict where sex offenders live.
The bill (S837), sponsored by state Sen. Fred Madden (D-Gloucester), would let towns keep moderate or high risk sex offenders from living within 500 feet of a school, playground or child care center.
School boards would also not be able to put a bus stop within 250 feet of a sex offender’s home.
Over 100 New Jersey towns used to have ordinances restricting where sex offenders could live. But they were struck down by a 2009 state Supreme Court decision that said the strict language of Megan’s Law bars them from enacting their own restrictions. Megan’s Law requires neighbors to be notified when a sex offender lives nearby, and allows parole officers to decide where the offenders live.
The bill contains several exemptions. Detention and psychiatric facilities that house sex offenders would not be subject to the ordinances. The parole board and courts that discharge offenders from psychiatric facilities could also make exemptions for certain offenders. Sex offenders who already live within the boundaries would not be forced to move, and towns could not write the ordinances in such a way that sex offenders could not live within their boundaries at all.
The Senate Law and Public Safety Committee approved the bill September. An Assembly version was introduced in October but has not advanced.
A similar bill cleared an Assembly committee shortly after the Supreme Court decision in 2009, but never made it to the floor of either house.