More than 60 Horry County sex offenders serving parole or probation sat in a courtroom under a watchful eye on Halloween.
"It's about community safety," said Richard Loskill, a senior agent with the Horry County Office of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services.
Whereas in years past parole officers would conduct door-to-door compliance checks on offenders, this year the department rounded them up and placed them in one central location.
"A lot of them aren't happy about it," Loskill said.
The offenders, as part of their parole or probation, will sit in the Horry County Court House from 5:00 - 10:00 p.m. Saturday. State law mandates that paroled sex offenders abide by a curfew on Halloween night, Loskill said.
As for the other 600-plus sexual offenders in Horry County, they are free to participate in Halloween activities, as there is no law on the books that requires a curfew for them.
A therapist gave presentations during the five-hour sit-in to help offenders with "their problems," Loskill said.
"It's not like they're just going to sit here for five hours," the agent said.
Loskill said all of the offenders at the court house were men, and only three of his paroled offenders were not present. Two of them have medical problems, and there's a warrant out for a third man for a recent parole violation, Loskill said.
The two women offenders in Horry County were not required to come but were being monitored other ways, Loskill said.
Loskill added that an additional 10 sexual offenders were being monitored through GPS tracking.
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