Hwaseong Mayor Jeong Myeung-geun (Hwaseong City)

Jeong Myeong-geun, the Mayor of Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, is pushing for new regulations against sex offenders, to provide a safer environment for citizens.

On October 31, 2022, Park Byung-hwa, a sex offender who committed multiple crimes in Suwon decades ago, was released after completing a 15-year prison term. Park moved into a studio apartment in Hwaseong, which his family had prepared in advance. Nearby residents, who belatedly learned of this, strongly protested.

After learning the issue of the sex offender's residence in Hwaseong, the major of the city Jeong Myeong-geun held a protest rally in front of the Ministry of Justice, and demanded the enactment of a Korean version of hte US' Jessica Act.

Park is a serial rapist who sexually assaulted 10 women in their 20s in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, from 2002 to 2007. Near the building where Park currently resides, there are number of studio apartments where many female college students live, and there are two day care centers and one elementary school within a 500-meter radius.

Jeong tightened security near Park's residence after he was released from prison. Currently, 67 surveillance cameras, 110 security lights, and 24-hour police patrols are deployed to protect residents, but the tension throughout the area continues.

Whenever violent sex offenders are released from prison, residential problems arise, and about 5,000 sex offenders are expected to be released over the next three years, raising calls for urgent countermeasures. With Park's release from prison, Jeong began to strongly advocate the enactment of the "Jessica Bill" to the government.

The US' Jessica Act was named after Jessica Lunsford, a 9-year-old girl who was raped and murdered by 46-year-old John Couey in Florida on Feb. 24, 2005. At the time, Couey was an ex-convict who had been sentenced to 10 years in prison for sex crimes against children, but he was released after only two years for being a model prisoner and subsequently reoffended.

Florida enacted the Jessica Act, which mandates child sex offenders to be sentenced to more than 25 years in prison even if they are first-time offenders, life imprisonment in case of recidivism and puts electronic location tracking devices for lifetime on child sex offenders. The law, which is in effect in more than 30 states in the United States, also restricts sex offenders from living within a radius of about 610 meters of schools and parks.

Locals and Hwaseong Mayor Jeong Myeung-geun hold a rally in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, where convicted serial rapist Park Byung-hwa lives, demanding Park's eviction, on Nov. 1, 2022. (Hwaseong City)

Jeong visited the National Assembly and the Ministry of Justice on Dec. 27 and submitted a "proposal to revise the law to prepare housing measures and medical treatment and custody for serial sex offenders" and a citizen's signature against the sex offenders’ residence in Hwaseong. Jeong also repeatedly urged the Justice Ministry, the Gender Ministry and the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission to come up with countermeasures through multiple statements and press conferences.

Finally, in its New Year's address in 2023, the government said it would actively consider the introduction of such a bill, and the Ministry of Justice decided to submit a revision to the Electronic Device Attachment Act, which will include restrictions on residence, to the National Assembly in May.

The Korean Jessica bill pushed by the Ministry of Justice is somewhat different from the original version of the US. The bill would ban sex offenders from living within 500 meters of elementary, middle and high schools, day care centers, and kindergartens. Unlike the US, parks were excluded from the restriction. A Justice Ministry official said, "We considered the fact that the population density in South Korea is higher than that of the United States and the domestic situation in which there are more parks than schools."

However, some point out that the Jessica bill could create areas where sex offenders reside in groups, due to excessive regulations on where they could live, leading certain area to effectively become ghettos.

In St. Petersburg, a city in central Florida, about 120 to 130 sex offenders reside in a place called "pervert park," an area of about 2,000 square meters. It is the only area where sex offenders can dwell according to the strict housing restrictions against the sex offenders in Florida. It is common for sex offenders who are released from prison to live on the streets, as they cannot find a place to live.

If the Jessica bill is passed in Korea, a similar phenomenon is likely to occur.

First of all, sex offenders will not be able to live in places with a lot of educational facilities, such as Seoul. But in countryside areas with population decrease -- such as North Jeolla Province and North Gyeongsang Provinces -- are likely to face more numbers of sex offenders within their region, causing underdevelopment and isolation of the area.

Also, in order to draw out practical effects such as preventing recidivism, some say that beyond the Jessica Act, medical treatment and custody -- a system to quarantine felons at high risk of recidivism for a certain period of time after completing their sentences -- should be discussed. The system was also one of the presidential election pledges of President Yoon Suk Yeol.

Countries such as Germany, Austria and Switzerland have implemented post-sentence medical detention for criminals, such as protective receptors. Only those who have sufficient medical evidence for the possibility of recidivism are admitted to mental hospitals and social treatment facilities for a certain period of time.

Mayor Jeong said he is aware of the existing problems and promised to endeavor to come up with satisfying solutions. He called for fundamental measures through the improvement of related laws and systems, saying, "Following the National Assembly, the Ministry of Justice has begun discussions on the eviction and residence restrictions of sex offenders. I will continue to make efforts to come up with measures as soon as possible.”

By Lee Jung-youn (jy@heraldcorp.com) and Park Joung-kyu (fob140@heraldcorp.com)