Major changes could be coming to Illinois’ sex offender registry laws, based on recommendations from a task force that has spent months assessing the state’s laws. The task force released its recommendations this week.
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.
The task force also supports a tiered registry system to reflect a person’s actual risk to sexually re-offend based on an assessment completed after their conviction.
The level of offense also would be a consideration in proposed changes to stringent state laws that limit where sex offenders may live and go.
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There are more than 32,000 people on Illinois’ sex offender registry. Approximately 1 in 227 men (1 in 100 African-American men) in Illinois is labeled a “sex offender.”
The task force’s full report can be found here.