You asked about the provisions of Connecticut’s sex offender registration laws that apply to perpetrators whose victims are children and how they compare with Florida’s law.

SUMMARY

Connecticut’s sex offender law treats child sex offenders differently depending on whether the offense involved violence. Connecticut subjects more first-time offenders to mandatory minimum sentences, while Florida imposes tougher penalties on repeat offenders.

With a few exceptions, non-violent offenders in Connecticut must register with the Department of Public Safety (DPS) and keep the department apprised of their whereabouts for 10 years after they are released from prison; violent or repeat offenders must do this for life. All those required to register must provide DNA samples for inclusion in state and federal databanks. Their names; photographs; work, school, and home addresses; and a brief description of their offenses are included in the statewide sex offender registry, searchable on the DPS website or in hard copy at DPS headquarters and state and local police stations. Failing to keep this information current is a Class C felony, punishable by one to ten years incarceration, up to a $ 10,000 fine, or both.

The law does not address other restrictions the state may impose on offenders released under court supervision. But Connecticut courts, its probation and parole board, and sex offender treatment programs impose limitations, other than registration, on released offenders on a case-by-case basis. These include electronic monitoring; restrictions on where they can live, work, or visit; and prohibitions against having contact with youngsters or using the Internet.

Florida’s laws are more complex than Connecticut’s. Life registration and reporting is required for all offenders. Statutes make mandatory several post-release restrictions, such as electronic monitoring, that are discretionary in Connecticut. They also have established criteria for designating an offender as a sexual predator, subjecting him to more intense monitoring and requiring the community to be informed of his presence and details about the offense he committed. Other provisions mandate chemical castration for serial rapists, authorize involuntary civil commitment when dangerous offender would otherwise be entitled to be set free, and make it a crime for anyone to knowingly harbor or assist a sex offender who is in violation of his release conditions.

Most analysts agree that Florida’s sex offender law is the most comprehensive in the nation. But many states have adopted the sexual predator designation. At least 16 states have laws authorizing civil commitment for certain sex offenders and six of these authorize chemical castration under certain circumstances.

CONNECTICUT

Table 1 lists the child sex offenses that subject offenders to registration, statutory penalties for these offenses, and the duration of the registration period.

Table 1: Sex Offenses Requiring Registration

Table 1: Continued

Table 1: Continued

Table 1: Continued

Table 1: Continued

Enhanced Penalties for Repeat Offenders

The law allows courts to extend incarceration and supervision periods for individuals designated a persistent dangerous sexual offender, persistent serious sexual offender, or serious felony offender when they determine that an offender’s history, character, and the nature and circumstances of his criminal conduct warrant it. And it deems it a parole violation when a released offender ordered to undergo sex offender treatment refuses to acknowledge committing the acts that led to his conviction.

Dangerous Sexual Offender. A “persistent dangerous sexual offender” is a person awaiting sentencing for sexual assault in the 1^st or 3^rd degree, aggravated sexual assault in the 1^st degree, or sexual assault in the 3^rd degree with a firearm who has previously been incarcerated for at least one year for a serious felony, including sex offenses. The court may subject him to a sentence of imprisonment and a period of special parole which together constitute a life sentence in lieu of the statutory sentence for the crime for which he is awaiting sentencing (53a-40(i)).

Serious Sexual Offender. A “serious sexual offender” is a person awaiting sentencing for fondling a child or 1^st or 2^nd degree sexual assault who has previously been incarcerated for more than one year for any of those crimes. The court may subject him to a sentence of imprisonment and a period of special parole which together constitute the maximum sentence for the next more serious degree of felony (53a-40(j)).

Serious Felony Offender. A “serious felony offender” is a person awaiting sentencing for a serious felony offense who has previously been incarcerated for at least one year for a serious felony offense. The court may subject him to a sentence of imprisonment for the next more serious degree of felony in lieu of the statutory sentence for the crime for which he is awaiting sentencing. The sentence must include a three year mandatory minimum period of incarceration (53a-40(m)).

FLORIDA

Table 2 below lists Florida’s child sex crimes that require registration, statutory penalties, and applicable registration periods.

Table 2: Sex Offenses Requiring Registration

Table 2: Continued

Table 2: Continued

Table 2: Continued

Table 2 (Continued)

Sentence Enhancements

Florida law requires people designated a dangerous sexual offender to serve up to life in prison, with mandatory minimum sentence of 25 years. This designation applies to offenders with a prior record of committing sex offender and those who, during the commission of the current crime:

1. seriously injured the victim,

2. used or threatened to use a deadly weapon,

3. victimized more than one person, or

4. were under court supervision for the commission of a felony (FSA § 794. 0115).

Chemical Castration

Florida law allows courts to sentence a first-time rapist, in addition to statutory penalties for the offense, to treatment with a drug (medroxyprogesterone acetate, “MPA”) which has the effect of chemically castrating him. Chemical castration is mandatory for second-time offenders. This sentence is contingent on a court-appointed medical expert’s determination that the offender is an appropriate candidate for this treatment. The court must specify the duration of MPA treatment, which can exceed the maximum sentence for the offense committed, up to life.

Involuntary Civil Commitment

Dangerous sex offenders at high risk for re-offending are subject to involuntary civil commitment in Florida after they have completed their prison time. The state must petition the court for civil commitment and the court or a unanimous jury must find by clear and convincing evidence that the person committed a violent sexual offense and suffers from a mental abnormality or personality disorder that makes the person likely to engage in acts of sexual violence if not confined in a secure facility for long-term control, care, and treatment (FSA § 394. 412). Confinement continues until the court determines that the offender is unlikely to commit acts involving sexual violence if released (cite).

The Department of Corrections must begin treatment at least one week before releasing the offender. An offender who refuses to take the medication commits a 2^nd degree felony, punishable by up to 15 years imprisonment, up to $ 10,000 fine, or both.

The law permits a serial rapist to choose surgical castration instead of taking MPA. The court must first make sure that the offender’s consent to the procedure was given intelligently, knowingly, and voluntarily (FSA § 794. 0235).

Post-Release Obligations Other Than Registration

Unlike Connecticut, Florida has enacted statutes mandating other forms of sex offender regulation after release into the community. The most significant include the sexual predator designation with attendant restrictions on the offender’s movements and mandatory electronic monitoring.

Sexual Predator Designation. Florida’s sexual predator law applies to offenders without a prior record who commit (1) aggravated child kidnapping or false imprisonment; (2) a capital or life offense; (3) 1^st degree sexual battery or selling or buying a child for use in depictions of sexually explicit conduct; or (4) sexual battery of a minor. It also applies to offenders convicted of a 2^nd or higher degree sex offense who have a previous felony sex offense conviction.

All sexual predators assigned that designation on or after September 1, 2005 are subject to the following post-release restrictions:

2. banned from living within 1,000 feet of a school, day care center, park, playground, public school bus stop, or other place where children regularly congregate;

3. active participation in, and successful completion of, a qualified sex offender treatment program, at their own expense;

4. prohibited from direct or indirect contact with the victim without prior approval from the victim or child victim’s parents or guardian, the offender’s therapist, and the sentencing court;

5. prohibited contact with children without parental consent, a comprehensive risk assessment and the probation commission’s approval;

6. banned from accessing the Internet without a risk assessment;

7. banned from viewing, owning, or possessing obscene, pornographic, or sexually stimulating visual or auditory material, including telephone, electronic media, computer programs, or computer services that are relevant to the offender’s deviant behavior pattern unless otherwise indicated by his approved sex offender treatment program;

8. submission of a DNA sample for registration in Florida’s DNA database;

9. making restitution for the victim’s necessary medical, psychiatric, and psychological care, as determined by the sentencing court or commission;

10. submission to warrantless searches of the offender’s person, residence, or vehicle;

11. submission, at the offender’s expense, to at least one polygraph examination each year to obtain information necessary for risk management and treatment and to reduce the offender’s denial mechanisms;

12. maintenance of a driving log and a prohibition against driving alone without his supervising officer’s prior permission;

13. banned from obtaining a post office box without prior approval; and

14. if there was sexual contact, submission to HIV testing and release of the results to the victim or a child victim’s parent or guardian (FSA §§ 943. 0435 and 944. 607).

Electronic Monitoring. Florida law subjects sex offender releasees to three types of electronic monitoring, all of which require the offender to wear a tracking wrist- or anklet. The simplest and least expensive is passive radio frequency monitoring, where the tracking facility is alerted when an offender leaves an area to which he as been restricted (for example, leaves home during curfew). The next is passive monitoring using global positioning system (GPS) technology. This creates a permanent record of where the offender travels. The third, and most expensive, is active GPS monitoring, which allows the tracking agency to designate certain areas as off-limits and tracks the offender in real time. An alarm alerts the tracking agency when the offender enters one of the forbidden areas. It also stores a record of all the offender’s movements.

Sexual predators and offenders convicted of child kidnapping or false imprisonment of a child under age 13, luring or enticing a child, sexual battery, lewd and lascivious offenses, and offenses related to engaging a child in an obscene performance whose crime was committed after September 1, 2005 must be electronically monitored for life using an active GPS tracking device that identifies the offender’s location and can produce records of the offender’s presence near or within a crime scene or a prohibited area or leaving a specified geographic location (FSA § 775. 082).

Monitoring for other sex offenders is discretionary and can be ordered for a period of up to life (FSA § 948. 30).

Harboring or Assisting a Non-Compliant Sex Offender

Florida also has a law holding third parties criminally responsible for knowingly assisting non-compliant offenders. A person commits a 3^rd degree felony when he permits any sex offender to live with him knowing that the offender is not in compliance with registration and reporting requirements. He commits the same level of offense when he aids or abets or gives false information about such offenders (FSA § 943(13)).

SP: ts

¹ Court may excuse registration if actor was under age 19 and registration is not required for public safety.

² Offender may be excused from public release of registration information would identify his victim.

³ Actor may be excused from registration if not required by public safety.