The Florida Senate on "FISCAL, POLICY, AND LEGAL CONSIDERATIONS REGARDING STATE COMPLIANCE WITH THE ADAM WALSH ACT"

11-6-2008 Florida:

Statement of the Issue
Florida is approaching a crossroad regarding its laws on sex offender registration and notification. Legislators will need to determine whether Florida should substantially implement the federal Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA), which is Title I of the Adam Walsh Protection and Safety Act of 2006 (AWA),1 or not substantially implement SORNA, which would result in Florida incurring a 10 percent reduction in Byrne Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) funding (the penalty Congress has provided for non-compliance with SORNA requirements).

Discussion
This brief focuses on fiscal, policy, and legal considerations that may be relevant to legislators in determining whether to substantially implement SORNA. To the extent information is available, the potential fiscal impact of substantially implementing SORNA will be compared to the impact of non-compliance. This brief will also focus on three SORNA requirements that Florida has not adopted and that appear most likely to generate discussion and debate: the registration of employment information and public listing of the address of the employer of a registered sex offender; the registration of school information and public listing of the address of a secondary school of a registered juvenile sex offender; and the retroactive application of SORNA requirements.2


Background
The AWA, of which SORNA is a part, is the latest in a long line of federal legislation affecting states. registration/notification laws, and attempts to make all of these states. laws uniform with respect to requirements (or “minimum” standards) that Congress has judged to be necessary to be included in states. laws. It appears that the AWA has generated significant debate and controversy. Illustrative of this controversy, the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) has described the AWA as an “unfunded mandate,” a “one-size-fits-all approach to classifying, registering and, in some circumstances, sentencing sex offenders,” and legislation that was “crafted without state input or consideration of state practices.”3

For the remainder of the publication: by The Florida Senate