The Providence Journal has an article discussing the difficulties states are having implementing provisions of the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA). From the article:
In 2006, Congress enacted legislation to standardize the way states classify and register sex offenders and to make it easier for the public to learn about an offender’s presence in their communities.
Under the provisions of the federal Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA), each state and all federally recognized Indian tribes are required to set up centralized computer banks to track people convicted of sex crimes — even many whose sentences were completed decades ago — and to post detailed information about each of them, along with a photograph, on a Web site that anyone can access.
The aim of the law — also known as the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act — is to reduce the number of sex crimes committed, especially on child victims, and to increase public safety through improved monitoring of sex offenders as they move from neighborhood to neighborhood and state to state. It establishes an easy way for the public to find out if there’s a sex offender living nearby or working or going to school with them or with members of their families.
Already a homeless convicted rapist has been given a 30-month federal sentence in U.S. District Court in Rhode Island for his failure to register as a sex offender when he moved from Massachusetts to Woonsocket in 2007, as required under SORNA.
But implementation of the law has proven to be a legal and economic nightmare. Some judges have ruled the act unconstitutional. Civil liberties groups, criminal defense attorneys and, surprisingly, even some law enforcement officials, are crying foul. Last week, a veteran sex crimes prosecutor in Louisiana told a subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee in Washington that implementing the law might actually result in fewer convictions of criminals who prey on young children because it will be hard to get offenders to plead guilty if they know they will be required to register on a Web site as a sex offender for the rest of their lives.
About a dozen states have gone about revising laws, reclassifying offenders and setting up new computer systems to try to comply with the law. But to date, all of them have failed to convince the Department of Justice — which has set a July 27 deadline for compliance — that they have done enough to do what SORNA requires.
Under the provisions of the federal Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA), each state and all federally recognized Indian tribes are required to set up centralized computer banks to track people convicted of sex crimes — even many whose sentences were completed decades ago — and to post detailed information about each of them, along with a photograph, on a Web site that anyone can access.
The aim of the law — also known as the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act — is to reduce the number of sex crimes committed, especially on child victims, and to increase public safety through improved monitoring of sex offenders as they move from neighborhood to neighborhood and state to state. It establishes an easy way for the public to find out if there’s a sex offender living nearby or working or going to school with them or with members of their families.
Already a homeless convicted rapist has been given a 30-month federal sentence in U.S. District Court in Rhode Island for his failure to register as a sex offender when he moved from Massachusetts to Woonsocket in 2007, as required under SORNA.
But implementation of the law has proven to be a legal and economic nightmare. Some judges have ruled the act unconstitutional. Civil liberties groups, criminal defense attorneys and, surprisingly, even some law enforcement officials, are crying foul. Last week, a veteran sex crimes prosecutor in Louisiana told a subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee in Washington that implementing the law might actually result in fewer convictions of criminals who prey on young children because it will be hard to get offenders to plead guilty if they know they will be required to register on a Web site as a sex offender for the rest of their lives.
About a dozen states have gone about revising laws, reclassifying offenders and setting up new computer systems to try to comply with the law. But to date, all of them have failed to convince the Department of Justice — which has set a July 27 deadline for compliance — that they have done enough to do what SORNA requires.
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