Number of missing sex offenders not as high as headline suggests

The headline is frightening. “Wisconsin corrections officials don’t have current info for nearly 3000 sex offenders.” That is a scary thought, but the headline may be somewhat misleading. There are more than 25,000 names on the state of Wisconsin’s sex offender registry, which is an alarming number. A report by the independent Legislative Fiscal Bureau finds that of those 25,000 offenders, 2735 of these people, all convicted of sexual crimes, are considered non-compliant with the registry. But that doesn’t mean they have all run off and hidden somewhere. There are a number of issues that can make someone on the sex offender list non-compliant, including not updating their place of employment with the state. It could be that they have moved and have yet to update that information with the state. Of the nearly 3000 considered non-compliant, 308 of them are considered to have absconded. That is a high number, but it seems most of those considered non-compliant simply need to update their paperwork. And there is some comfort in knowing that the highest risk offenders are tracked by the Department of Corrections 24 hours a day. And the state refers hundreds of cases each year to district attorneys for prosecution. Critics are laying the blame for the number of sex offenders considered non-compliant at the feet of Governor Scott Walker. But the fact is the percentage of those Wisconsin sex offenders considered non-compliant has dropped in recent years. It is alarming that hundreds of sex offenders are nowhere to be found despite state efforts to track them, but it is not as if nothing is being done about it.