Posting #225- U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Attorney General has Proposed Changes to the Adam Walsh Act/SORNA Guidelines for the States to Follow. Public Comment is Needed!

By:  RSOL of Virginia
Date:  05/16/2010

Virginia Supporters,

We have less than 60 days to tell the U.S. Attorney General's Office (Dept. of Justice) what we think of proposed amendments to the Adam Walsh Act and SORNA guidelines for the states to follow.

The U.S. Attorney General has complete authority to modify the guidelines without it requiring a bill to be passed by Congress.

eAdvocate's summary on this hits all the points so I am coping and pasting his summary instead of reinventing the wheel.

The proposed guidelines link eAdvocate has isn't currently working but scroll down and we have the pages from the Federal Registry.

We’ve made comments in red next to each point that we believe is important.
Feel free to include all of the points in your correspondence.

Today the Justice Department PROPOSED additional (and a few reinterpretations of old ones) Guidelines for the Adam Walsh Act .

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.

• Gives jurisdictions discretion to exempt juvenile offenders from public website posting.                
  This is Good.
  

• Provides information concerning the review process for determining that jurisdictions have substantially implemented.
  

• Gives jurisdictions discretion to modify the retroactive registration requirement to apply to new felony convictions only. This is a small step forward, will not apply to anyone currently on the registry.
  

• Provides mechanisms for newly recognized tribes to elect whether to become SORNA registration jurisdictions and to implement SORNA.
  

• Expands required registration information to include the forms signed by sex offenders acknowledging that they were advised of their registration obligations.
  This is Good, but falls short.
  

• Requires jurisdictions to exempt sex offenders’ e-mail addresses and other Internet identifiers from public website posting.
  This is Good, but does not change anything in Virginia.
  

• Requires jurisdictions to have sex offenders report international travel 21 days in advance.  
  This is Bad, it's what the International Megan's Law would do.
  

• Clarifies mechanism for interjurisdictional information sharing and tracking.

eAdvocate

 Here is the PDF of the Federal Registers entry:
http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2010/pdf/2010-11665.pdf#page=002

Articles on this proposal:

Changes Would Give Sex-offender Law Flexibility, May 18, 2010:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/judicial/2010-05-17-walsh-act_N.htm

Walsh Act Changes are a Win for States, May 16, 2010:
http://www.stateline.org/live/details/story?contentId=485308

Justice Department Releases Proposed Supplemental Guidelines for Sex Offender Registration, Seeks Public Comment, May 14, 2010:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/usnw/20100514/pl_usnw/DC05320

More State Discretion Proposed For Federal Sex Registry Rules, May 14, 2010:
http://thecrimereport.org/2010/05/14/more-state-discretion-proposed-for-federal-sex-registry-rules/

We need every one of you to write to Linda Baldwin at the SMART office about these proposed changes.

Also when it gets loaded onto regulations.gov please send your comments there too.
We have less than 60 days to do this so we’d like to ask each and everyone of you to completed this request  by  Friday June 18th.

Thank you for your support.
RSOL of Virginia