Support the Jessica Lunsford Act

The Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act will require:

1. NEW CHANGES TO CURRENT LAW: GENERAL
   • Full Integration: Fully integrates Megan’s Law and the “Lychner Amendments” into the Wetterling Act.
   • Expands Covered Offenses against Children: Adds the “use of the Internet to facilitate or commit a crime against a minor”
     as one that could trigger registration.
   • Tribal Lands: For the first time, the sex offender registration law will cover “federally recognized tribal lands.”
     
2. NEW REQUIREMENTS FOR SEX OFFENDERS
   • Prior to Release: A sex offender will have to register prior to release from prison or supervised release. Current law requires registration after release. [Dodd bill]
   • Bi-annual Registration: Sex offenders will have to re-register twice a year (every three months for a sexually violent predator)
     – not just once. [Dodd bill requires re-registration for all offenders every three months].
   • Increase of Duration for Periodic Registration: The duration to register for a first-time sex offender increases
     from 10 years to 20 years and for second offenders and sexually violent offenders for their lifetime.
   • Shortened Time to Comply: Any change of status requiring a registry update (change of address, employment, etc.)
     must be made three business days after the change occurs – not 10 days. [Dodd bill is within 2 business days]
   • Social Security Number: Social Security numbers will now be a required piece of information that sex offenders must supply
     to the state registries. However, that information will not be released on state sex offender notification websites.
   • Annual Photographs: The bill adds a mandatory annual update (current law is just once) to the taking of a sex
     offender’s photograph. The state is required to maintain that information as part of their registry. [Dodd bill]
   • Tracking Devices: Creates a three-year pilot program to help states and local governments outfit sex offenders
     with electronic and GPS tracking devices. The program will fund a variety of tracking systems and require the
     Attorney General to study and report on the efficacy of the various technologies and approaches.
   • New Notification Requirements for those Attending Educational Institutions: Requires an individual to notify
     police when they enroll or attend (current law is just attend) high schools, vocational/technical institutions or
     higher education institutions. [Dodd bill]
     
3. NEW STATE REQUIREMENTS
   • Searchable Statewide Sex Offender Registry: Requires states, not local governments, to maintain a multi-field,
     searchable sex offender registry.
   • In-Person Registration Requirement: Requires that a sex offender register / update their registry in person at
     an office designated by the state twice a year.
   • Tracking of Persons in Prison: Provides funding for law enforcement to purchase programs – like JusticeXchange
     – to identify individuals currently in jail.
   • Civil Commitment: Title II (the Dru Sjodin Act) requires state prisons to notify states attorneys whenever “high risk”
     offenders are about to be released, so that states attorneys can consider petitioning the courts for continued
     confinement of the offender. The “civil commitment” option is available under the law in many states if an individual
     is deemed a continuing threat to the public safety.
   • Monitoring of Released Persons: Title II (the Dru Sjodin Act) requires states to monitor “high-risk” offenders who
     are released after serving their full sentence – and are otherwise not subject to probation or other supervision
     – for a period of no less than one year.
   • Missing Child Reporting Requirements: Section 112 (the Prevention and Recovery of Missing Children Act) requires
     missing child reports to be input within two hours of receipt. Research shows that a two-hour time frame is crucial
     to the safe recovery of an abducted child. Prohibits law enforcement agencies from removing a missing person
     entry based on the child turning 18. [Dodd bill]
     
4. NEW FEDERAL REQUIREMENTS
   • National Sex Offender Registry: Title II (the Dru Sjodin Act) requires the U.S. Justice Department to create a
     national sex offender database accessible to the public through the Internet. The public web site would allow
     users to specify a search radius across state lines.
   • Immediate Electronic Notification to States of a Sex Offender’s Intent to Relocate: Requires the U.S. Attorney
     General to send out immediate electronic notification of a sex offender’s intent to move to a new state once the
     Attorney General is notified by the current domiciliary state of the sex offender’s intent to relocate.
   • Model Sex Offender Registry: Requires the U.S. Attorney General, in consultation with the states, to develop
     a sex offender registry template that can be used by those states that currently do not have such a registry
     or have a substandard one.
   • Strict Liability Crime: Makes failing to register or update registry information as proscribed in the Act a strict liability
     crime. There is an affirmative defense if failure to update information results from uncontrollable circumstances.
   • Felony: Makes failing to register or updating registry information a federal felony. [Dodd bill]
   • Taxpayer and Social Security Information: Allows for the release of taxpayer and Social Security information
     to law enforcement, when necessary, in trying to locate the sex offender or to verify information supplied by the sex offender.
   • Immigration Provision: Makes failing to provide sex offender registration information a deportable offense.
   • Releasing Numbers of Sex Offenders to the Public: Requires the U.S. Attorney General to poll states every
     three months to assess the total number of sex offenders in their registry and to release that information to the public.
   • Study: Requires the U.S. Attorney General to examine ways for law enforcement to do a better job of actively
     notifying communities when a sex offender moves into their neighborhood.
     
5. COMPLIANCE
   1. Bonus Payments: Provides bonus payments to states for complying with this Act sooner than its three-year timeline.
   2. Penalties: Provides a 10 percent reduction in Justice Assistance Grants and certain reductions of Sex Offender Management Assistance Program monies for those states that do not comply.

For more information, contact the Jessica Lunsford Foundation at www.jmlfoundation.com