In an interview airing on MSNBC's 'Scarborough Country', Congressman Mark Foley (R-Fla.) said that 'Scarborough Country' was a motivating reason behind the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act of 2005.
The following is Congressman Foley's entire statement:
"Scarborough Country's probably one of the reasons we're filing this legislation, the comprehensive bill. It does things like DNA testing; finding out who the perpetrators are, have they committed prior offenses? Doing the ankle bracelet, which your show had suggested would be a deterrent and a monitoring device, that's incorporated in our bill. Joe has said specifically many, many times that these people shouldn't be roaming freely because they're highly likely to be recidivism criminals, meaning they recreate the crimes they've done before. We put teeth in this, we finally federalized and created a federal penalty if you remove your ankle bracelet, if you go out without notifying your authorities, if you've fled the state and failed to register your whereabouts. These will be punishable crimes, finally getting tough on these criminals. We, after all, track library books better than we do our sexual predators, and it's time we balance the scales of justice, get tough with these people and also to let every citizen who evenly remotely has the idea that they're interested in a crime against a child, that do so at your own peril, because not only will Scarborough Country come find you, but so will authorities from every state in the union including federal prosecutors. We will track you down and you will ruin your life by creating this kind of violent, disgusting crime against our most vulnerable, and that is our children."
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A full transcript of the program will be available at . 'Scarborough Country' with Joe Scarborough airs Monday through Friday at 10 p.m. ET.
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