7-11-2009 National:
Sex Offender Registry deadline pushed back
States and tribal nations are finding it difficult to comply with a federal law that created a database to categorize and monitor sex offenders and post offender information online. According to a representative of the U.S. Marshals Service, the failure of law enforcement to comply will result in a 10 percent loss in funding.
U.S. Attorney Eric Holder extended the compliance deadline from July 27 this year to July 2010 in response to pressure from lawmakers, law enforcement and related personnel regarding the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006.
Further, a pronounced rift in the enforcement between U.S. and various Indian nations may occur.
The Washington Post reported that in accordance to guidelines created by the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006, enacted by former President George W. Bush, states and other jurisdictions must feed information into a national Internet database about where the nation's estimated 674,000 registered sex offenders live and work. A jurisdiction that fails to do so faces the mandatory 10 percent of its Byrne Justice Assistance Grant, which supports crime control and prevention and funds victim programs as well as public defenders.
Like other U.S. states, Oklahoma is not compliant, said U. S. Marshal and Coordinator Marc K. Crawford of the Marshals Service Sex Offender Investigations for the western district of Oklahoma.
“Oklahoma is known as a checkerboard state with its tribal lands. It’s created a huge difficulty to enforce,” said Crawford.
“In 2006, every state, tribe and territory was given three years to come into compliance with the Adam Walsh Act or to be punished by a 10 percent reduction in Byrne federal law enforcement grant funding,” said Lawana Hamrick, coordinator of the Sex and Violence Offender registry for the Oklahoma Department of Corrections.
While boundaries have hampered participation, so have issues of sovereignty.
“Everyone I spoke to is officially going to opt in ... [meaning] no tribe has officially said we want to come to an agreement with the state,” said Hamrick. “We have offered assistance to everyone but most have decided to make their own registries.”
Without the participation of Indian tribes, offenders currently on the Oklahoma registry may be removed if they are determined to be in the jurisdictional area of Indian law enforcement, Hamrick said.
According to Hamrick, only the Kickapoo nation already has its own registry in place.
James Leclair, Sex Offender Registry Act project coordinator for the Tonkawa Tribe, said, “The tribe will do its own list and then we will register with the state and Federal Bureau of Investigation on the national offender registry list.”
The tribe has also been in discussion with the Bureau of Indian Affairs law enforcement services, he said. According to Leclair, there is not yet any memo of understanding with U.S. law enforcement to handle otherwise.
“The perspective is to get sex offenders registered but those on tribal land don’t want to register. We are getting registered through the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Marshals and the Bureau of Indian Affairs and working with U.S. Department of Justice division Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering and Tracking,” said Leclair.
“We have paperwork to track offenders,” Leclair said. “It will be really nice to digitize everything on our own Web site.”
Leclair said he expects online technical delays to be resolved within the next few months.
“We have met with state and county officials to work together against and track offenders. I think it’s a great thing for the tribe.”
Of concern to Hamrick and Leclair is the fluidity of offenders.
“These are people who don’t stay in one place. Bottom line, it comes down to whether or not law enforcement has jurisdiction to enforce,” Hamrick said.
“There are people out here moving into our location who we don’t know about. People like to jump from tribe to tribe. Participating will help tribes notify each other and I think that is a great thing especially if they live on one trustland and are working for another tribe. That tribe needs to know,” Leclair said.
The issues are not without desire to resolve.
“It is a big challenge to work with tribal elders to determine if they will have their own sex offender registry or allow Oklahoma to be their repository,” said Crawford.
The next meeting with various tribes is expected to take place July 22. Additional meetings in Tulsa are slated for August, Crawford said.
Should individual tribal nations decide not to participate, “The challenge will be to develop and ensure compliance, build a database and notify law enforcement when individuals on the registry are out of compliance,” said Crawford.
“As we get closer to deadline, they will see they are not losing their sovereignty,” said Crawford.
However, unadulterated sovereignty remains an issue for some.
“You would want to be in compliance but you don’t want any sovereignty taken away,” said Tresa Gouge-Morris, tribal court administrator for the Seminole Tribe in Wewoka.
“If they take something, something else will follow down the line. Like language and the English only law. They said it would not be brought back out but they did - that happened this past session ... You tell the tribe they won’t go after anything else - it’s hard to believe. The land, the language - you have to stay on top of that.
“The Adam Walsh Act was poorly written because people did not take into consideration that tribes are different than states. They talk about reservations, not nations,” said Gouge-Morris. “There are 42 tribes in Oklahoma and that is not mentioned in new law. That it doesn’t talk about jurisdictional boundaries is the main thing.”
Congress failed to acknowledge that one house can be tribal while another might not be, she said.
“How can they make decisions with these types of boundaries?”
According to Hamrick, “I think sovereignty is definitely a factor in the decisions to make their own list.”
Creation of a tribal registry for sex offenders is new territory for the nations, she said.
For assistance, tribes can look to the S.M.A.R.T. office for assistance with compliance.
Funding may be lost if nations are non-compliant, said Gouge-Morris. “
States can come in and look at records and for people. If non-compliant, states will come in. That does not sit well. Each tribe will have its own feeling as far as jurisdiction.”
Among Indian nations, the challenge to sovereignty cleaves opinion.
“I don’t believe sovereignty was a huge issue,” said Leclair. “At one of four biggest meetings about the issue, that I wish more tribes had attended, it said you give up rights if a tribe does not register and it gave county authorities the right to come onto native land. That’s why the Tonkawa tribe has opted not to have those authorities come in. Since then we’ve found that sovereignty is not really the issue.”
Regardless of boundaries, offenders will be handled through courts and according to codes, said Leclair. ..Source.. by Monique Headley
July 11, 2009
State, tribes don’t comply
May 16, 2008
States to enforce molester law on tribal land
5-16-2008 Tribal News
A little-noticed provision in a 2006 federal sex-offender law is rankling American Indian tribes in six states because it would give state law enforcers unprecedented authority to monitor child molesters living on tribal land.
Tribal officials are raising objections because they see the provision as an erosion of their sovereignty, and they argue they weren’t consulted when Congress drafted the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, which overhauls how sex offenders across the country are registered and tracked.
“It’s kind of like us calling France and telling them what to do,” said Kristen Anderson, who has analyzed the Adam Walsh Act as deputy director for case analysis and support with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, a quasi-governmental organization that seeks to prevent sexual abuse of children.
Meanwhile, state officials in Alaska, California, Minnesota, Nebraska, Oregon and Wisconsin worry how they are to enforce the law on vast tracts of self-governed tribal land within their borders.
The law, named after the murdered 6-year-old son of “America’s Most Wanted” host John Walsh and due to take effect in full by next July, gives the six states new powers to supervise sex offenders who reside on tribal lands that are home to hundreds of federally recognized American Indian communities.
Unlike 28 other states with federally recognized American Indian populations, the six states have had jurisdiction over most criminal matters on tribal lands for decades under long-standing federal policy. Monitoring of sex offenders who have rejoined society, however, is a civil regulatory procedure that previously had fallen to the tribes or the federal government.
The change would mean the states soon must ensure that sex offenders within tribal borders register more frequently with law enforcement authorities and often for longer periods of time. The states must add molesters to existing online sex-offender registries and collect and publish information about their appearance, whereabouts and even the cars they drive. In some cases, they must see that offenders who currently are not behind bars are identified and added to state registries retroactively.
In the other 28 states, tribes were given a choice under the act to track offenders independently or to designate that authority to their states. A total of 198 of 212 tribes rejected state control, though they still can reconsider. Experts predict that many of the tribes will retain authority and choose to form working partnerships with states to ensure the law is enforced.
At a meeting of state legislators this month in Washington, D.C., Laura L. Rogers, the U.S. Justice Department official responsible for communicating with states about Adam Walsh Act requirements, cautioned lawmakers that the act demands new and widespread cooperation among states, localities and tribes across the country.
“I encourage everyone — whether you represent a tribe, you represent a local entity or you represent your state — to recognize that we all need to work together in this effort,” said Rogers, director of the Justice Department’s Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering and Tracking (SMART).
There are more than 636,000 registered sex offenders in the United States, but there are no reliable estimates for how many live on American Indian land, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The Indian Health Service, a federal agency that seeks to improve health in tribal territories, estimates that one in four girls and one in seven boys will fall victim to sex abuse on American Indian lands.
In the six states where authority over sex offenders is being transferred to the state, tribal officials are upset not only because of sovereignty concerns. Some say they can keep track sex offenders on tribal land more effectively than state or local law enforcement.
“The tribal law enforcement have their ear to the pavement a lot better than the county law enforcement. They know who’s coming and who’s going and who the new people are. We feel we do a better job in that regard,” said Joe Plumer, tribal attorney for the White Earth band of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe in northwestern Minnesota.
The 20,000-strong band was among 75 Native American communities in the six states that last year petitioned the U.S. Justice Department for the right to monitor sex offenders independently. But it would take an act of Congress to return that authority to the tribes.
Leslie A. Hagen, an assistant U.S. attorney with the SMART office, said the Adam Walsh Act “doesn’t mean those tribes need to dismantle (the registration systems) they have.” Instead, she said, having a registration system in place will make it easier for tribes to share information with the state.
While tribes have expressed anger about the Adam Walsh Act, state lawmakers also are raising objections about the law and the costs of implementing it before next year’s deadline. States that do not comply with the act face a 10-percent cut to their share of annual congressional grants used to fight crime.
Alaska state Rep. Nancy Dahlstrom, a Republican, said the complexity of the native population in her state — which itself has 227 federally recognized American Indian, Eskimo and other communities — makes it difficult to ensure that the state can comply by next year.
“Each of them has different rules and regulations and ways that they govern themselves,” Dahlstrom said. “It’s been a constant struggle in trying to work with the different groups.” ..more.. by John Gramlich
Tribes reject state authority under Adam Walsh Act
5-15-2008 Tribal News
Most tribes have asserted their authority to develop sex offender registries rather than cede jurisdiction to state governments.
In 2006, Congress passed the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act. A provision that was drafted without tribal consultation allows states to assert jurisdiction on reservations in order to monitor sex offenders.
Of 212 tribes that responded to the mandate, 198 adopted resolutions that prevent the state from encroaching on reservations, according to Stateline.org. But more than 200 tribes in six states weren't given that opportunity because the Adam Walsh Act automatically gives Public Law 280 states authority in Indian Country.
Tribes complained about the provision and persuaded the House to pass a bill to delay implementation of the law. The Senate never took up the measure because Republicans placed a hold on it. ..more.. by Indianaz.com
March 28, 2008
TRIBAL- Sovereignty issues plague Adam Walsh Act
3-28-2008 National:
WASHINGTON - Violence against women, domestic and sexual abuse are grim enough wherever they occur.
But in Indian country, according to accounts that have emerged from multiple sources over several years, the aftershock is often complicated by practical unpreparedness on the part of health care providers, jurisdictional limitations on police, and off-reservation doubts about the validity of referrals from tribal court and legal systems.
Now another shade of gray further complicates Native participation in a national sex offender registry that would let law enforcement know of a sex offender's presence in the often remote communities of Indian country. Congress has passed two laws that authorize national sex offender registries. One, the Violence Against Women Act, would establish a national tribal sex offender registry, as well as a related tribal registry of civil and criminal orders of protection issued by tribes and proximate jurisdictions.
The other national sex offender registry, under the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, is not Native-specific and does not authorize a tribal orders-of-protection registry. But because it will assign tribal registration duties to states if Native governments and organizations do not respond timely to aggressive deadlines (so far federally unfunded), 198 tribes have agreed to establish their own registries. In addition, the Adam Walsh Act delegates implementation of the new law to Public Law 280 states - Minnesota, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Oregon, California and Alaska - where tribes are held to have compromised certain jurisdictional powers under proceedings.
Suffice to say that still more than sovereignty is at stake. The national tribal registry of VAWA is necessary ''because administrative barriers delayed or prevented the inclusion of tribal data on the National Order of Protection Registry and National Sex Offender Public Registry,'' which in turn hindered all-important access to state-administered criminal information links with the National Crime Information Center, according to a joint publication of the National Congress of American Indians and Sacred Circle National Resource Center to End Violence Against Native Women.
''The effectiveness and credibility of any database [in this case, of registered sex offenders and subjects of court orders of protection] depends on the timely entry of information and the ability to keep that information current and correct,'' the publication states. ''Delayed entry or inaccuracies of information can place a Native woman at immediate risk.''
Virginia Davis, associate counsel at NCAI, summarized a situation that hasn't changed in its essentials since March 3, when she spoke at a meeting of the NCAI National Task Force to End Sexual and Domestic Violence Against Women.
''Unfortunately, the Adam Walsh Act basically tells about half the tribes in the country that if they don't comply with these really onerous mandates that are in the law - that, again, don't really make sense for tribal communities - if the tribes fail to comply with those, then all of the tribe's authority to track and register and manage sex offenders on tribal lands will be given to the state,'' Davis said. ''So it raises some serious sovereignty concerns and we're continuing to really struggle with the Adam Walsh Act.
''It's a really costly law for tribes to implement. No money's been made available for it. The law passed in July of 2006. And here we are now at the beginning of 2008. And basically, you know, when Congress passes a law, then it goes to the executive agencies to really kind of interpret it and give you details, the guidance or the regulations on how you're going to implement that law, and the Department of Justice still hasn't finished their guidelines for the Adam Walsh Act implementation. ... Those guidelines will have the force of law and the tribes will have to comply with them, and we don't even know what they are yet.
''So the Adam Walsh Act is becoming a quagmire, a real challenge for Indian country that I think we're going to keep talking about for the next couple of years.''
Tribes must comply with AWA provisions by July 7, 2009. On a showing of significant effort, two one-year extensions can be provided under the law.
Some states have objected to AWA as an unfunded mandate of the federal government. At the March 3 meeting Robert Moore, a councilman of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe in South Dakota, said tribal and state interests on AWA are evolving in a helpful way. ..more.. by Jerry Reynolds / Indian Country Today
