Sex offender registry; failure to register is Class 6 felony. (HB1862)

Introduced By

Del. Steve Shannon (D-Vienna)

Progress

Introduced
Passed Committee
Passed House
Passed Senate
Signed by Governor
Became Law

Description

Sex offender registry; penalties. Provides that any failure to register is a Class 6 felony; under current law failure to register for an offense other than a sexually violent offense or murder is a Class 1 misdemeanor and a second or subsequent conviction is a Class 6 felony. The bill requires the revocation of probation or parole if a person is convicted of failure to register and is on probation or parole for a sex offense or for failure to register. The bill specifies that similar offenses in other countries and states require registration, whether they are under existing or former laws. Read the Bill »

Outcome

Bill Has Failed

History

DateAction
01/12/2009Committee
01/12/2009Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/14/09 097784724
01/12/2009Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice
01/15/2009Impact statement from VCSC (HB1862)
02/10/2009Left in Courts of Justice

Comments

L.L. writes:

Where is the fiscal impact statement? Last year it was over $350,000.

An FTR is not necessarily an intentional refusal to register - it can be a result of not fully understanding or complying with the myriad of registration requirements. Requirements include reporting change of employment status within 3 days and reporting and change of email or IM or chat iD within 30 minutes (even though the State Police have no mechanism for doing that).

HB1898 would add registration of any car the offender "drives regularly", any phone number the offender "intends to use" (not necessarily his own phone), and and change in physical job sites (not just employment changes).

HB1928 would add registration of IP addresses (remember that many are dynamic) and in person registration within 3 days of any "significant change in appearance."

The laws continually change without notification to offenders.

Registration isn't simply showing up once a year. Let's not set former offenders up with a felony and/or probation/parole revocation because the system is out of control.

L.L. writes:

The fiscal impact statement shows that this change will cost well over $500,000 per year. If this is an attempt to comply with AWA, it should be noted that we would only lose $400,000-$450,000 by NOT complying with AWA at all. So we're spending $500,000 on this bill alone (not to mention other related bills this session or ones passed last year) in order to not lose $400,000. Not what I call fiscally responsible.