UPDATE: Today (5-14-2010) The PROPOSED GUIDELINES (Now called Supplemental Guidelines) mentioned below were posted in the Federal Register and the guidelines were moved to the federal register, I changed the link below as well; it should work fine now.5-13-2010 National:
Today the Justice Department PROPOSED additional (and a few reinterpretations of old ones) Guidelines for the Adam Walsh Act which will be in the Federal Register likely on the 14th of May.
But, before getting into what they are folks need to remember this, the very fact that AWA can be reinterpreted as time goes on is a problem (no finality), as no new law or revision of law has passed, this is just "we (DOJ) think it says now." This proves that there are never ending changes permissible as a they (whoever is in office at the time) find a desire to change something, whether that be good or bad for RSOs.
Now, while most of the current PROPOSED CHANGES are GOOD, there is one which is based on a law not yet passed by Congress "International Megans Law" which is not good for -at least- two reasons:
1) Lumping all the reasons we all know of into one, International Megans Law is plain a BAD idea as it affects RSOs' rights both nationally and international (that discussion at another time);
2) Allowing the Dep't of Justice to ADD something like the "International Megans Law" to the Adam Walsh Act, without passing a new law, permits ADMINISTRATIVE lawmaking which is flat against the U.S. Constitution. Yes, it is true that Congress allowed the US Attorney General to interpret the Adam Walsh Act, Congress CANNOT pass on lawmaking powers to administrative personnel. i.e. the US Attorney General.
NOTE: For those who have been reading laws proposed by Congress you likely have noticed this comment buried in most proposed laws "and for other purposes," this has been something many have complained about. Well it appear that has now extended to Guidelines as well.
"International Megans Law" has been coupled with GOOD changes to get folks to pass all of them. However, folks have 60 days -from when it appears in the Federal Register- (it was not in the 13th FR) to voice their opinions, so NO ONE can sit back on this one, folks need to be vocal about the "International Megans Law" portion of these PROPOSED GUIDELINES (or anything else folks noticed detrimental to RSOs).
Within the proposed guidelines they explain how to voice your opinion. Wherein it states:
"Comments may be mailed to Linda M. Baldwin, Director, SMART Office, Office of Justice Programs, United States Department of Justice, 810 7th Street NW., Washington, DC 20531. To ensure proper handling, please reference OAG Docket No. 134 on your correspondence.
You may submit comments electronically or view an electronic version of these proposed guidelines at http://www.regulations.gov."
Here is a link to the PROPOSED GUIDELINE CHANGES.
If anyone sees anything, but the following, in those guidelines I would appreciate knowing what you see. The following are what I have been advised is in the proposed guidelines:
1) Gives jurisdictions discretion to exempt juvenile offenders from public website posting.
2) Provides information concerning the review process for determining that jurisdictions have substantially implemented.
3) Gives jurisdictions discretion to modify the retroactive registration requirement to apply to new felony convictions only.
4) Provides mechanisms for newly recognized tribes to elect whether to become SORNA registration jurisdictions and to implement SORNA.
5) Expands required registration information to include the forms signed by sex offenders acknowledging that they were advised of their registration obligations.
6) Requires jurisdictions to exempt sex offenders’ e-mail addresses and other Internet identifiers from public website posting.
7) Requires jurisdictions to have sex offenders report international travel 21 days in advance.
8) Clarifies mechanism for interjurisdictional information sharing and tracking.
A special thanks to Tara Andrews at the Juvenile Justice site for letting us know about these proposed changes.
eAdvocate
