PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- A New York man was sentenced in U.S. District Court to serve 21 months in federal prison for failing to register as a sex offender after coming to Rhode Island to work with a traveling carnival.

Leonard F. Roupe, 51, of Watertown, N.Y., in January pleaded guilty to the crime, admitting that between April 27, 2008, through June 5, 2008, when he was arrested, that he knowingly failed to register as a sex offender while working in Rhode Island.

Federal prosecutors say Roupe knew he was required to register as a sex offender in any new state in which he traveled after being convicted of a sex offense in Georgia in 1998. Roupe had come to the state with a carnival operated by Rockwell Amusement and Promotions Inc., a Rhode Island company, they said.

Chief U.S. District Judge Mary M. Lisi on Monday sentenced Roupe to 21 months and ordered him not to have unsupervised contact with children during the three years of federal supervision that will follow his release, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Roupe is the second sex offender prosecuted in Rhode Island under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act, which Congress enacted in 2006 as part of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act.