Posting #205 – Information that Assisted the Registered is Removed from the Virginia Sex Offender Registry

Date:  03/30/2010

Dear VSP Lt. Reed,

It has been brought to our attention that the Date to Re-register was removed from the Virginia Sex Offender Registry web-site when the site was revamped.

The majority of registered offenders must re-register every 90 days (not every 3 months) so there is no specific day of the month to know that your re-registration is due.

As we've mentioned in our e-mail exchange last June many registered letters are not mailed out 14 days before the re-registration due date as is VSP policy, the VSP does not accommodate the mailing date around holidays and Sundays, many letters sit at US Post Office locations for days before delivery is attempted and many times a receipt stating the letter is sitting at the Post Office is never left.

So when a registrant is wondering when is their renewal due? They can no longer go to the VA Registry to look that up. They are left waiting and depending on both the VSP and the U.S. Postal Service to fulfill their daily duties but when they fail it's the registered person who pays the price with a felony conviction.

First, what was the reasoning this re-registration date was removed from the VSP web-site postings?

Second, what needs to be done to get it added back to the postings?

For the VSP and the Post Office it's just a job, but when they fail it's the registered person who pays the price with a felony conviction.

Especially now that the U.S. Postal Service is planning on dropping Saturday mail delivery when most registrants are home to accept their registered letter this small detail is more important than ever.

We look forward to your response.

RSOL of Virginia

Date:  03/31/2010

Dear RSOL of Virginia,

Good Morning

You are correct; the re-registration date is no longer displayed. 

In many cases, when the offender failed to register the date continued to calculate after the re-registration date providing both the offender and the public erroneous information.  Additionally, when an offender is convicted of failure to register, the calculation of the date changes and is no longer associated with the initial registration date but with the conviction date.  As soon as we are able to upgrade the database that contains the registration information, we will provide additional information to the public and the offender via the website.  However, we no longer have the financial resource to make any programming changes due to budget reductions.  We continue to attempt to identify grant funding, so these improvements can be made.

I hope this information is of assistance to you.
Sincerely,
Lt. William Reed

To read the e-mail exchanges on this topic from last summer go to:
http://www.rsolvirginia.org/blog_92.html

For more information on re-registration letters go to:
http://www.rsolvirginia.org/blog_172.html
http://www.rsolvirginia.org/blog_139.html
http://www.rsolvirginia.org/blog_131.html
http://www.rsolvirginia.org/blog_85.html
http://www.rsolvirginia.org/blog_84.html
http://www.rsolvirginia.org/blog_26.html

1st Response to Posting #205
From: Erin
Date:  04/01/2010

This is outrageous!!  It's as though they do this intentionally just to set people up to fail.
Erin

 

2nd Response to Posting #205
From: Bob
Date:  04/01/2010

We have done programming and it’s free to delete the registration date.
The VSP took it out to keep SO guessing thinking they may plan around the date. I see the Lt. said general public first, but who in the general public cares about re register date?

The goal is to incarcerate as many SO as possible.

They will not do anything that helps us and glad if we miss registration
Bob

 

3rd Response to Posting #205
From: Joe
Date:  04/01/2010

It depends on what database system they are using and which server side scripting language they are using. I went to the VSP’s registry site and all their pages have a .html extension, which I find odd to say the least. Usually any webpage that uses dynamic data from a database has a .php, .jsp, or .aspx extension depending on which scripting language they use to handle the database.
Joe