Sex offenders prohibited from Harrisburg, Eldorado bike paths
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Bike trails in Harrisburg and Eldorado are now designated as off-limits to persons on the Illinois Sex Offender Registry thanks to a new law, Senate Bill 3258, passed this spring and signed by the governor June 22.
Previously, Illinois law designated public parks such as Harrisburg Township Park or state facilities such as the Tunnel Hill Bike Trail off-limits to sex offenders, but remained vague on the status of municipal bike trails.
The new law clarifies that among a number of other technical changes.
All of Southern Illinois lawmakers supported the measures.
"We can never do enough to protect our children from the threats posed by sex offenders," stressed state Rep. John Bradley, D-Marion, last week. "This new law will effectively ensure that all registered child sex offenders will be prohibited from loitering around public park bike trails."
Most of the changes in the law updated and clarified technical inconsistencies between the state's sex offender laws and the requirements of the Illinois Sex Offender Registry which can be found on the Illinois State Police's website at http://www.isp.state.il.us/sor.
The new law adds the following offenses against minors to the Illinois Criminal Code: forcible detention; custodial sexual misconduct; sexual misconduct with a person with a disability; promoting prostitution; grooming, traveling to meet a minor; and permitting sexual abuse of a child.
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Musgrave receives e-mail at jmusgrave@dailyregister.com</li>
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