SENATE, No. 300

 

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

 

Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel

 

PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 1996 SESSION

 

 

By Senator BENNETT

 

 

An Act establishing a toll-free "Sex Offender Relapse Prevention" telephone hotline.

 

    Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

 

    1. a. The Commissioners of Corrections and Human Services shall jointly establish and maintain on a 24-hour daily basis, a toll-free information "Sex Offender Relapse Prevention" telephone hotline service. The hotline service shall receive and respond to calls from juveniles and adult sex offenders who are no longer incarcerated but who believe they may relapse and commit other sexual offenses and who wish to be referred to appropriate services to prevent such sexual offenses from occurring.

    b. The Commissioners of Corrections and Human Services shall each identify funds within their existing appropriations that can be used to support the costs of the "Sex Offender Relapse Prevention" telephone hotline. The costs of the hotline are to be shared equally between the two departments.

 

    2. This act shall take effect on the 90th day after enactment, but the Commissioners of Corrections and Human Services may take such administrative actions as may be necessary to establish the telephone hotline prior to the date of implementation of the act.

 

 

STATEMENT

 

    This bill requires the Commissioners of Corrections and Human Services to jointly establish a 24-hour "Sex Offender Relapse Prevention" telephone hotline service. The hotline service would receive and respond to calls from released juvenile and adult sex offenders who believe they may relapse and commit other sexual offenses and who wish to be referred to services that can help them deal with such problems.

    Funding for the telephone hotline service is to come from existing appropriations to the Departments of Corrections and Human Services. The telephone hotline service may be provided by the Departments of Corrections and Human Services or the departments may contract with a non-State agency to operate the telephone hotline service. To allow sufficient time to establish the telephone hotline service, the two departments are allowed 90 days to implement the hotline service.

 

 

 

Establishes "Sex Offender Relapse Prevention" telephone hotline.