N.C. sheriff to implement sex offender system

Jun 27, 2006 4:32 PM

Sheriff Jim Pendergraph has announced that his office will be the first in the nation to install the Sex Offender Registry and Identification System (SORIS), which registers and positively identifies conviced sexual predators using iris recognition.<br>
Pendergraph made the announcement at last week's National Sheriff's Association annual conference.<br>
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, 60 percent of convicted sex offenders are on parole or probation.<br>
In addition, when compared to non-sex offenders released from prison, released sex offenders were four times more likely to be re-arrested for a sex crime.<br>
The SORIS System was developed by BI2 Technologies, Plymouth, Mass. It should go into operation in mid-July.<br>
The proposed legislation -- N.Y. Senate Bill 7990-Spano/Assembly Bill 10583-
Gottfried -- also known nationwide as the Wal-Mart bill, seeks to assess
companies employing 100 or  more people, both full-time and part-time, a
$3-an-hour fee to off-set state healthcare expenses.
"The Conservative Party, and most business-oriented organizations, oppose
this legislation," said Long, "We have implemented a grassroots initiative
to educate legislators regarding the negative impacts on employers and tax
payers." <br>

A high percentage of sex offenders on parole, coupled with the increased likelihood of these offenders re-committing a sex crime, means employers have to be especially diligent in screening employees for sex offenses, says employee screening provider USIS, Falls Church, Va., which has launched a search product for employers to use when screening employees.<br>
Previously, sex offender searches could only be conducted on a state-by-state basis, and many employers would run a sex offender search for only the state in which the business was located. However, this sometimes resulted in missed information, as some sex offenders fail to register when moving to a new state of residence.<br>
The company's software initiates a search of 47 state registries plus Washington, D.C., a company representative says.<br>
Visit <a href="http://www.usis.com">www.usis.com</a> and <a href="http://www.bi2technologies.com">www.bi2technologies.com</a> for more information.

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