The Adam Walsh Act Tier System and why it is useless.

The AWA Tier System.

Several readers have asked me to explain the Adam Walsh Act tier system for them, they wanted to know where their (friend, son, grandson, etc.) would be classified and what each tier meant; Tier I II III.

Start this way, suppose you were given a box of multicolored Legos and asked to sort them by color into different colored piles. When finished you look at the colored piles, reds, oranges, yellows, blues, greens and smile, all done.

Next, do you remember when you were younger and your mom showed pictures of you, usually at family gatherings, of when you were a baby, and how that upset you. You don't look anything like that today because you have grown up, you are an adult now and along the way you have become wiser, learning from many different folks.

Now, I’ve just explained all there is to know and understand about the Adam Walsh Act's classification system, and what is wrong with the system.

What, you ask? Now lets explain.

Lawmakers, when they define a crime, they set up its elements and decide, what is a suitable punishment for that crime. So, the punishment shows how severe lawmakers think a crime is. Now, suppose lawmakers assigned a color to crime, red, orange, yellow, blue and green, until they ran out of colors. With reds being the most severe crime and green the least.

In your mind, sort the crimes and picture them, reds, oranges, yellows, blues and greens. Keep in mind that, what you just did was to sort the Legos. Now, all you know about each Lego (crime) is, what the elements of the crime are and what punishment lawmakers assigned to that crime, nothing more. Ahhh, you also know, the colors represent how severe the crime was in the minds of the lawmakers when they wrote the law.

Now you ask? What does this have to do with the tier system in the Adam Walsh Act and the registrants?

First, here is verbatim what AWA says about assigning tiers:

SEC. 111. RELEVANT DEFINITIONS, INCLUDING AMIE ZYLA EXPANSION OF SEX OFFENDER DEFINITION AND EXPANDED INCLUSION OF CHILD PREDATORS.

In this title the following definitions apply:
(1) SEX OFFENDER- The term `sex offender' means an individual who was convicted of a sex offense.

(2) TIER I SEX OFFENDER- The term `tier I sex offender' means a sex offender other than a tier II or tier III sex offender.

(3) TIER II SEX OFFENDER- The term `tier II sex offender' means a sex offender other than a tier III sex offender whose offense is punishable by imprisonment for more than 1 year and--
(A) is comparable to or more severe than the following offenses, when committed against a minor, or an attempt or conspiracy to commit such an offense against a minor:
(i) sex trafficking (as described in section 1591 of title 18, United States Code);
(ii) coercion and enticement (as described in section 2422(b) of title 18, United States Code);
(iii) transportation with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity (as described in section 2423(a)) of title 18, United States Code;
(iv) abusive sexual contact (as described in section 2244 of title 18, United States Code);

(B) involves--
(i) use of a minor in a sexual performance;
(ii) solicitation of a minor to practice prostitution; or
(iii) production or distribution of child pornography; or

(C) occurs after the offender becomes a tier I sex offender.

(4) TIER III SEX OFFENDER- The term `tier III sex offender' means a sex offender whose offense is punishable by imprisonment for more than 1 year and--

(A) is comparable to or more severe than the following offenses, or an attempt or conspiracy to commit such an offense:
(i) aggravated sexual abuse or sexual abuse (as described in sections 2241 and 2242 of title 18, United States Code); or
(ii) abusive sexual contact (as described in section 2244 of title 18, United States Code) against a minor who has not attained the age of 13 years;

(B) involves kidnapping of a minor (unless committed by a parent or guardian); or

(C) occurs after the offender becomes a tier II sex offender.

The above is found in the Guidelines on pages 21-26 "Classes of Sex Offenders," written in administrative terms, more of here is how to classify registrants using ONLY their crime code.

All that tells states to do is, based on your state crime code (given to an offender on conviction) and its severity, assign that crime code to either Tier-I Tier-II Tier-III. Since it is impossible to have umpteen tier levels AWA groups them into three ranges.

So, now everyone knows, based on the tier, how severe a specific state crime code is, if committed. Folks now know what their state lawmakers thought about how severe a crime is, if committed.

This is the same as separating Legos into different colored piles (tiers), adjusted a touch by putting more than one color in a pile (Tier).

Oh, you ask, what does this tell me about how dangerous the offender living down the street from me is, TODAY?

Not a dam thing, the tier system is showing BABY PICTURES (pictures of the person when s/he was convicted) and facial pictures of the person TODAY! Lawmakers DO NOT want the public to know anything about what has occurred between the two pictures, unless it is more crime. They want that hidden, which is why it is absent from any registry.

So, when you look at someone's tier designation, what you are seeing is, nothing more than your state's lawmakers’ thoughts on how severe this crime code was, when enacted.

Under AWA there is NO EVALUATION of the person, ever. Again, politicians have bamboozled the public, and every day they tout -to the media- of how bad a person is because s/he is a Tier-III person. The media is bamboozled too, but for them it brings in bucks, and for the politician, votes.

This is a clever and egregious system with hidden motives, a cash cow, to fool the public! No one is safer but many have employment, at taxpayer expense.

eAdvocate