Juvenile Sex Offender Registration/ Notification Rule Amendments

The handling of juvenile sex offenders has been one of the most contentious issues for states trying to implement the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006, Linda Baldwin, head of the department's compliance office told USAToday.com. last Friday.

The law, which set tough new rules for registering sex offenders, now requires juveniles 14 and older who commit serious sex crimes to register for the rest of their lives and states to post that information publicly.

The Justice Department, however, has now issued a set of proposed revisions to those rules – that are open to public comment thru July 13th -- that would let states decide whether to include teen offenders in their public registries. The law also currently requires sex offenders who completed prior sentences, but then commit a new crime, to register again regardless of the crime. Another proposed change would give the states discretion to decide that as long as the new crime is not sexual or a felony. [See 75 FR 27362 on May 14, 2010]

Another proposal includes requiring jurisdictions to exempt sex offenders’ e-mail addresses and other Internet identifiers from public Web site posting, pursuant to the KIDS Act, 42 U.S.C. 16915a.

Retroactivity applies. "SORNA's requirements apply to all sex offenders, regardless of when they were convicted," the proposed rules read. "However, the SORNA Guidelines state that it will be deemed sufficient for substantial implementation if jurisdictions register sex offenders with pre-SORNA or pre-SORNA implementation sex offense convictions who remain in the system as prisoners, supervisees, or registrants, or who reenter the system through a subsequent criminal conviction… This feature of the Guidelines reflects an assumption that it may not be possible for jurisdictions to identify and register all sex offenders who fall within the SORNA registration categories, particularly where they have left the justice system and merged into the general population long ago, but that it will be feasible for jurisdictions to do so in relation to sex offenders who remain in the justice system or reenter it through a subsequent criminal conviction."


Comments regarding the proposed rules may be mailed to Linda M. Baldwin, Director, SMART Office, Office of Justice Programs, United States Department of Justice, 810 7th Street, NW., Washington, DC 20531. To ensure proper handling, please reference OAG Docket No. 134 on your correspondence. You may submit comments electronically or view an
electronic version of these proposed guidelines at http://www.regulations.gov/