ANNAPOLIS — The Maryland Senate sent two more bills cracking down on sexual offenders to the House of Delegates on Monday.
One bill conforms the state’s sex offender registry to federal standards — at the cost of $237,000 in fiscal 2011 — and the other brings back the Maryland’s defunct Sexual Offender Advisory Board that Gov. Martin O’Malley set up four years ago.
Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. sponsored both bills on behalf of the governor.
The measures knock out two of O’Malley’s six legislative objectives regarding the state’s sex offender laws. The House passed its versions of the two bills last week.
O’Malley is not the only lawmaker pushing for reform — cracking down on sex offenders has been a strong, bipartisan effort this session, following the slaying of 11-year-old Sarah Foxwell, who was abducted by a registered sex offender on the Eastern Shore and found dead on Christmas.
Sen. Bryan W. Simonaire, R-Anne Arundel, said he has been trying to get the state to align its sexual offender registry with federal law for the past two years.
Federal standards would establish three tiers of offenders In Maryland, with the third tier being the most violent. Tier One offenders would have to register every six months for 15 years, Tier Two would register every six months for 25 years, and Tier Three would register every three months for life.
If registered offenders move, they would have a three-day deadline to submit change-of-address information. Homeless people on the registry would have to re-register weekly.
Federal law also requires more information from sexual offenders — from Social Security numbers to passport information.
The other legislation passed Monday restores the state’s dormant Sexual Offender Advisory Board. O’Malley established the board in 2006 to review the state’s sexual offender laws, assess technology for tracking offenders, and develop standards for supervising offenders.
But the board never convened in four years.
The bill would redefine the role of the board and require members to develop a checklist for courts to judge the probability that offenders will relapse.
