Dru’s Law
In response to serious problems in our system for tracking sex offenders, made evident by the tragic case of Dru Sjodin, I introduced a bill (S. 792) to create a national sex offender registry that the public can access through the Internet. The bill also requires prison officials to notify states attorneys whenever “high risk” offenders are about to be released, so that states attorneys can consider petitioning the courts for continued confinement of the offender. And the bill calls for intensive monitoring “high-risk” offenders who are released after serving their full sentence. At the request of Dru Sjodin’s family, we have called this bill “Dru’s Law.”
I am pleased to report that Dru’s Law was incorporated into the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act. I was honored to join the President in the White House on July 27, 2006, when he signed this legislation into law.
Dru’s Law will provide tough new tools that we can use to prevent known sexual predators from offending again, and I believe that it will save lives.
To find out more about my efforts to pass Dru’s Law, you can read this speech that I delivered on the floor of the Senate.
In October of 2006, the Department of Justice launched the Dru Sjodin National Sex Offender Public Website at www.nsopr.gov.
