Child sex offenders would need to live at least 2,000 feet away from schools, bus stops and parks, if new bills sponsored by two Baltimore County delegates become law.
“You may find this hard to believe, but in relationship to this very school building, not one, not two, not three, but four child sexual offenders live within 1,000 feet,” said Del. John Olszewski Jr., standing in front of Sandy Plains Elementary School in Dundalk on Monday. “There are three other sex offenders living within the same distance. One child sex offender lives a mere 140 feet away.”
Olszewski, D-District 6, and Del. Eric Bromwell, D-District 8, are sponsoring two bills ? one for the state and one solely for Baltimore County ? that would make it illegal for a person convicted of a child sexual offense to live near places where children congregate, such as schools, bus stops, playgrounds, day-care facilities and arcades.
The bills would require a prison sentence of one to five years for anyone caught in violation.
Bromwell said the issue first came to his attention when residents complained to him of sex offenders living near a school in his district.
“The school I learned about first was St. Ursula?s Church School in Parkville,” Bromwell said. “There are two sex offenders living adjacent to that school. … These offenders will commit dozens of offenses without ever being caught. We want to make sure these people are kept away from our schools.”
State Sen. Norman Stone Jr., D-District 6, last year attempted to get a similar bill passed in the legislature, but the measure failed to make it out of committee.
Some critics of the legislation have said such restrictions make it nearly impossible for a person convicted of a sex offense to live in a metropolitan area after being released from custody.
Bromwell said he doesn?t care where people convicted of sex offenses live, as long as they don?t reside near children.
“We don?t want them living anywhere near our kids,” Bromwell said. “It?s almost a situation where you have sharks that are circling a minnow pool. We can?t let that happen. We can?t give them access to our kids.”
