Free Republic

SACRAMENTO -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger today signed a package of bills that will increase prison terms for many sex offenders and bar them from loitering near schools and parks once released. The measures, signed just seven weeks before voters face a ballot initiative containing many similar provisions, also require sex offenders considered ''high risk" by authorities to wear electronic tracking devices while on parole. Backers said the new laws give California the nation's toughest restrictions on sex offenders, a group of convicts targeted in a growing national crackdown spawned by a series of high-profile crimes against children. Under one of...