North Carolina Department of Correction news release

Gov. Hunt Wants To Increase Supervision Of Sex Offenders

FEBRUARY 17, 1997

RALEIGH -- Gov. Jim Hunt wants to increase the supervision of sex offenders on probation. In his 1997-99 budget, 144 officers would be added to specialize in the supervision of sex offenders sentenced to probation.

"The specialized officers will be assigned to communities based on the number of offenders sentenced to probation or paroled into those communities," state Correction Secretary Mack Jarvis said. "In addition to increasing control of sex offenders, our officers will make sure sex offenders meet the requirement of registering with the county sheriff."

Supervision of sex offenders would focus on an equal balance of control and treatment. The officers would receive training in the supervision of sex offenders and would have smaller caseloads allowing them to devote more individual attention to these offenders.

These steps would greatly enhance efforts begun last year to increase the level of control over probationers sentenced for sex offenses.

New probation policies require probation officers to verify that sex offenders under supervision register and make change of address notifications with the local sheriff's office as required by the Sex Offender Registration Program; make monthly face-to-face home visits with supervised sex offenders; and provide the highest level of probation supervision for sex offenders.

New laws created provisions for mandatory conditions for sex offenders sentenced to probation, established special conditions for paroled sex offenders and extended the supervision of paroled sex offenders to five years.

Probation officers are supervising more than 3,100 sex offenders on probation or parole. Correction managers project 850 more sex offenders will be placed into supervision next year and another 875 in 1998-99.

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