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restrict an offender from residing within a specified distance of certain locations, such as schools and parks. Child safety zones restrict offenders' movement within and/or around areas where children congregate, such as schools, parks, libraries, etc. Residency Restrictions The available research found by the OCDA suggests that residency restrictions have little impact on sex offender recidivism and may even compromise public safety. Generally, researchers have been unable to correlate any meaningful relationship between residential proximity to schools, parks, etc. and sexual recidivism_ Research indicates that residency restrictions diminish housing options in urban areas, which forces offenders to move to more rural locations. This limits offenders' access to social services and community resources that help prevent recidivism by transitioning into the community. Residency restrictions also decrease employment opportunities for offenders and increase their transience and homelessness. These unintended consequences reduce the number of offenders accurately tracked by local law enforcement agencies. The research findings were anecdotally supported by conversations with local and State law enforcement officials. For more detailed discussions of this topic, please see the articles and the sources cited in the quarterly bulletin Geography and Public Safety, Vol. 2, Issue 1, May 2009, and listed at: http:l/www.oip. usdoi.oov/nii/maps/q ps-bu Iletin-v2i 1 . pdf_ Residency restrictions also face constitutional challenges relating to the right to privacy, the right to intrastate travel, substantive due process and other rights. The outcome of such challenges is uncertain in California. In In re E.J. (2010) 47 Cal.4th 1258, the California Supreme Court suggested a residency restriction must be narrowly tailored to further the government interest of protecting children from sex offenders. The Court remanded the petitioners' constitutional claims to the trial court for evidentiary hearings concerning, among other things, the supply of available housing for each sex offender in their respective community_ If a residency restriction makes a substantial portion of a community off-limits to sex offenders, it may be difficult to sustain its constitutionality. Meanwhile, the OCDA was waiting for the enactment of Chelsea's Law, which contained the language of the County Ordinance. Ctietsea's Law -Amended The language in the drafted sex offender ordinance is adapted from proposed language in Chelsea's Law and from Penal Code 626.81, which prohibits sex registrants from entering school grounds without written permission. Until 2010, Chelsea's Law (AB 1844) would have added as Penal Code 647.9 much of the language set forth in the County Ordinance_ On July 15, 2010, Chelsea's Law was amended to delete the originally proposed language as Penal Code 647.9. The bill was signed into Law on Sept. 8, 201 O. Instead, the bill added section 3053.8 to the Penal Code. That section precludes Penal Code 290 registrants from entering parks where children gather without express permission, but only applies the restriction to parolees who served prison time for certain sexual offenses in which one or more of the victims was under 14 years of age_ Thus, the "park restriction" in Chelsea's Law does not apply to sex registrants who have been discharged from parole. Some of these sex registrants are subject to lifetime parole and some are be subject to parole for 20 years, depending upon the particular crime committed_ 5 50A-21