Wyoming, with 97,818 square miles and a population of 515,004 in 2006 seems to be attracting more than just vacationers and good old country boys to it's open ranges and beautiful landscapes.
Wyoming is home to about 1,200 known sex offenders. That is not a large number for such a sparsely populated state. But law enforcement officials and legislators are worried because 56 percent of those offenders moved to Wyoming after being convicted somewhere else.
Afraid that the word is out among ex-convicts that Wyoming has some of the nation's loosest restrictions on sex offenders, state legislators are rushing to tighten the laws, and they are meeting little resistance.
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Wyoming also lacks a standardized system for accepting convictions from other states. That means authorities must obtain court papers on each sex offender before determining the corresponding Wyoming crime and deciding whether that person must register. That can cause long delays, because only one person is in charge of such efforts.
"It becomes daunting," said that person, Bob Brackett, program manager for the Wyoming sex offender registry.
Brackett recalled getting a call recently from a Florida sex offender who wanted to discuss the state's laws. The man eventually moved to Wyoming.
"A short time later, he called our office to ask a question, indicated that it was much easier to live here, and that he was going to call a buddy of his," another Florida sex offender, to urge him to move to Wyoming, Brackett said.
The only bright side to this is that people are starting to take notice, and are acting fast to improve the laws that govern sex offenders, both those convicted in the state, and those that choose to move there after convictions in other places.