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Megan’s Law and the Right to Travel  


Author:  John S. Furlong, J.D..


Source: Volume 22, Number 06, October/November 2021 , pp.81-87(7)




Sex Offender Law Report

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Abstract: 

The least reported and least understood aspect of the efforts to control convicted sex offenders has been a full-throated government program to restrict the right to travel, or more precisely, the right to relocate. Certified Criminal Trial Attorney Jack Furlong examines these practices and the statutory amendments and interstate agreements that both federal and state law enforcement agencies now follow in order to effectively prevent citizens who have been convicted of sex crimes from traveling or moving across state and federal lines except under tightly controlled conditions. That a relocation process exists at all is not widely known. While some states’ plea forms or general conditions of probation forms reference the ICAOS, few defense lawyers are familiar with this agency’s very existence, leaving probationers and parolees to figure it out on their own. Probation and parole officers are not advertising the relocation option. These increased restrictions on the registrant’s right to travel signal a new era in the evolution of sex offender monitoring schemes.

Keywords: Interstate Compact on Adult Offender Supervision (ICAOS)

Affiliations:  1: Furlong and Krasny.

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