NATCHEZ &8212; The U.S. Department of Justice announced that Mississippi has been added to the National Sex Offender Public Registry Web site.

The site provides real-time access to public sex offender information to parents and concerned citizens as well as law enforcement agencies.

Adams County sheriff&8217;s deputy Ricky Stevens, the department&8217;s crime scene investigator, also heads the effort to keep track of the county&8217;s registered sex offenders.

&8220;This helps because, if one of ours goes out of state, we can make sure he&8217;s followed the rules. It helps us keep track,&8221; he said.

If Stevens sound possessive, it&8217;s because his department is charged by the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation with registering and keeping track of all sex offenders who live in Adams County.

Sex offenders are required by law to re-register with local authorities every 90 days. Each offender is now given an identification card that can be updated at a department of motor vehicle office.

When an offender is judged non-compliant, the sheriff&8217;s office must find and reregister him or her or initial criminal prosecution for the offense.

The second offense for non-compliance carries a mandatory prosecution.

Stevens said most of the offenders follow the letter of the law, but the department deals strictly with those who don&8217;t.

&8220;The times when we used to baby-sit offenders is over,&8221; Stevens said. &8220;If they fail to re-register in this jurisdiction, they are going to be arrested.&8221;

Sheriff Ronny Brown presented three such cases to the grand jury last week. The jury&8217;s decision whether to hand down indictments or not will not come down until January.

The Web site, www.nsopr.gov, was launched July 20 with 22 states part of it. With Mississippi&8217;s inclusion, the number is up to 44 states, the District of Columbia and Guam. Tennessee is the only southern state not on the network, but it, along with the other five states, will be added by the end of the year.