TN- State Not In Compliance With Federal Law, Adam Walsh Act

7-29-2009 Tennessee:

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The state is not in compliance with a Federal law called the Adam Walsh Act because Tennessee does not have a sex offender registry for juveniles which could cost the state $250,000.

Tennessee's sex offender registry is powered by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. A touch of a button brings up adult sex offenders, down to where they live.

"Law enforcement, it's very important to them, they feel like, it helps them do a better job dealing with the sex offender when they move back into the community," says State Rep. Debra Maggart.

The TBI says juvenile sex offenders should also be on a list.

"We're talking about someone that has committed a violent sex offense," says Maggart. "It's not just about outing someone and saying that they did this and look at what they did, it's about protecting the community from someone who might do it again."

Maggart is crafting legislation that calls for 14 through 18 year olds, convicted of rape or attempted rape to go on a juvenile sex offender registry. She will introduce her bill in January. She's pushed different versions of it over the past two years.

Creating the registry would mean Tennessee would be compliant with the Adam Walsh Act and more than $250,000 would head to Tennessee law enforcement agencies as a result.

"I am very concerned about the negative impact of putting children on a sex offender registry," says Linda O'Neal, Tenn. Comm. on Children and Health.

Child advocates will fight the upcoming legislation on Capitol Hill because they said while adult sex offenders regularly re-offend. It is a different story for juveniles.

"We really need to give these kids a second chance because the research is very clear that treatment is effective, that most of them, overwhelmingly in the 90 percent range, they will never re-offend again," says O'Neal.

The Department of Children services and many in the juvenile court system are also against this type of registry, believing the system they have in place works just fine.

"For the really serious, really violent offense, most these adolescents get transferred to the adult systems and they go on the registry, and the judges know the ones that are really dangerous," said O'Neal.

Since there are federal dollars up for grabs some version of a juvenile registry maybe created. Most likely it could be a registry that only juvenile court judges and police are allowed to see.

Meantime the TBI has filed an extension with the Federal government, so Tennessee can comply with the Adam Walsh Act. That way those federal grant dollars will keep coming, at least for now. ..Source.. by News Channel5.com