Sex Offender and Crimes Against Minors Registry; reregistration schedule. (HB2089)

Introduced By

Del. Vivian Watts (D-Annandale)

Progress

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

Description

Sex Offender and Crimes Against Minors Registry; reregistration schedule. Changes the dates for required reregistration of persons on the Sex Offender and Crimes Against Minors Registry (the Registry) from a repeating specified number of days after initial registration to time periods corresponding to such person's birth month and the first letter of such person's last name. The time intervals for reregistration for each of the following four categories of reregistration do not materially change. The bill provides that (i) a person required to register, other than those persons convicted of a sexually violent offense or murder, shall reregister once each year during such person's birth month; current law is once each year from the date of initial registration; (ii) a person convicted of a sexually violent offense or murder shall reregister every three months, beginning in such person's birth month; current law is every 90 days from the date of initial registration; (iii) a person convicted of providing false information or failing to provide registration information, but not convicted of a sexually violent offense or murder, shall reregister every six months beginning with such person's birth month; current law is every 180 days from the date of such conviction; and (iv) a person convicted of providing false information or failing to provide registration information, when such person was included in the Registry for a sexually violent offense or murder, shall reregister every month; current law is every 30 days from the date of such conviction. The bill requires persons with a last name beginning with A through L to register from the first to the fifteenth of each required reporting month and persons with last names M through Z to register from the sixteenth to the last day of the month of each required reporting month. The bill also requires that for the period of July 1, 2020, to July 1, 2021, any person required to reregister shall continue to reregister with the State Police on such person's reregistration schedule in place prior to July 1, 2020, until such person has reregistered pursuant to the new reregistration schedule, at which time such person shall continue reregistering with the new schedule. The bill has a delayed effective date of July 1, 2020. This bill is identical to SB 1418. Read the Bill »

Outcome

Bill Has Passed

History

DateAction
01/07/2019Committee
01/07/2019Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/09/19 19102537D
01/07/2019Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice
01/10/2019Assigned Courts sub: Subcommittee #1
01/21/2019Impact statement from DPB (HB2089)
01/30/2019House subcommittee amendments and substitutes offered
02/01/2019House committee, floor amendments and substitutes offered
02/01/2019Reported from Courts of Justice with substitute (16-Y 0-N) (see vote tally)
02/01/2019Committee substitute printed 19105611D-H1
02/03/2019Read first time
02/04/2019Read second time
02/04/2019Committee substitute agreed to 19105611D-H1
02/04/2019Engrossed by House - committee substitute HB2089H1
02/05/2019Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE (99-Y 0-N)
02/05/2019Impact statement from DPB (HB2089H1)
02/05/2019VOTE: BLOCK VOTE PASSAGE (99-Y 0-N) (see vote tally)
02/06/2019Constitutional reading dispensed
02/06/2019Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice
02/13/2019Reported from Courts of Justice with substitute (15-Y 0-N) (see vote tally)
02/13/2019Committee substitute printed 19107088D-S1
02/15/2019Constitutional reading dispensed (37-Y 0-N) (see vote tally)
02/15/2019Impact statement from DPB (HB2089S1)
02/18/2019Read third time
02/18/2019Reading of substitute waived
02/18/2019Committee substitute agreed to 19107088D-S1
02/18/2019Engrossed by Senate - committee substitute HB2089S1
02/18/2019Passed Senate with substitute (40-Y 0-N) (see vote tally)
02/19/2019Placed on Calendar
02/19/2019Senate substitute rejected by House 19107088D-S1 (0-Y 97-N)
02/19/2019VOTE: REJECTED (0-Y 97-N) (see vote tally)
02/20/2019Senate insisted on substitute (40-Y 0-N) (see vote tally)
02/20/2019Senate requested conference committee
02/21/2019House acceded to request
02/21/2019Conferees appointed by House
02/21/2019Delegates: Watts, Leftwich, Ransone
02/21/2019Conferees appointed by Senate
02/21/2019Senators: McDougle, Obenshain, Petersen
02/22/2019Conference report agreed to by Senate (40-Y 0-N) (see vote tally)
02/22/2019C Amended by conference committee
02/22/2019Conference report agreed to by House (97-Y 0-N)
02/22/2019VOTE: ADOPTION (97-Y 0-N) (see vote tally)
03/07/2019Enrolled
03/07/2019Bill text as passed House and Senate (HB2089ER)
03/07/2019Signed by Speaker
03/09/2019Signed by President
03/11/2019Enrolled Bill communicated to Governor on March 11, 2019
03/11/2019G Governor's Action Deadline Midnight, March 26, 2019
03/11/2019Impact statement from DPB (HB2089ER)
03/19/2019G Approved by Governor-Chapter 613 (effective 7/1/20)
03/19/2019G Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0613)

Comments

Mary D. Devoy writes:

In 2015 postage for Virginia State Police Sex Offender Re-registration letters was $10.48 per letter. In 2015 55,757 letters were mailed by the VSP at a cost of $584,333.00 just for the postage.

In 2016 postage for Virginia State Police SO re-registration letters was $10.06 per letter. In 2016 58,564 letters were mailed by the VSP at a cost of $589,153.00 just for the postage.

In 2017 postage for Virginia State Police SO re-registration letters was $10.21 per letter. In 2017 56,506 letters were mailed by the VSP at a cost of $597,002.16 just for the postage.

The letters in 2018 increased to $10.52 a piece, it’s too early to obtain the 2018 totals.

Without THIS letter in hand a Registered Sex Offender can NOT walk in to a local authority OR the Virginia State Police to re-register or to mail it back to the VSP. Sometimes these letters arrive before the deadline, sometimes they don’t. Failure to meet the deadline is a felony.

Virginia could easily switch to a system with preset re-registration dates saving more than ½ Million dollars every year and allow a 2-week window for RSO’s to either go into a location and reregister or print a blank PDF document from the VSP website and mail it in.

So, what steps would be necessary to do this?

1.The current 30, 90, 180 day and once a year verbiage in Virginia Code § 9.1-904. would need to be removed and the scheduled months based on an RSO’s classification/conviction and their DOB inserted into the code.
2.Also, for the new photograph due dates the ‘every 2 year’ verbiage in Virginia Code would need to be removed and one of the dedicated re-registration times selected and inserted into the code. Currently the VSP counts this due date as every 730 days even if a re-registration date is nowhere near it plus the VSP takes new DMV photographs before the 2-year mark arrives and has reset the next VSP due date based on an arbitrary visit to the VA-DMV. If letters are no longer being mailed out (VSP stopped mailing reminders in 2017) then the photo due date needs to be based on a DOB rotating schedule too.

While we’re fixing that…..

3.Any disabled, elderly or non-driving RSO’s should be able to request that some of their re-registration letters in the year to be mailed or emailed directly to them so that they can return the paperwork (when no photograph is due) via USPS based. Something allowing for non-mobile RSO’s to file through the US Postal Service needs to be added to the code.
4.Any RSO’s who would like to mail-in their re-registration form because they are not due for a new photo, the VSP could and should have a blank re-registration form posted online for RSO’s to be able to download and print Plus a dedicated email address to the VSP SO Help Desk so the RSO could request a filled out form (which is what gets certified mailed today) up to 3 weeks before their re-registration is due with an option of it being emailed or USPS mailed (if they do not have Internet access) to them.
5.Plus, the VSP needs to return the ‘next registration due date’ onto every Registrant’s VSP posting/page. Why the VSP removed this information back in 2010 or 2011 is still an unknown and doing so has made it much more difficult for our RSO’s to know when they are due to re-register and I believe that was the VSP’s intent.
6.Finally, the VSP needs to return the giving a copy of the stamped, dated, signed and thumb printed re-registration for to every Registrant who does so in-person. This serves as evidence the reregistration was completed on time by the Registrant, if the paperwork is misplaced somewhere along to line and an investigation is opened for a failure-to-register. The VSP stopped giving these copies/receipts at the time of reregistration back in 2015.

This is a smart bill and its LONG overdue. We're wasting Millions of dollars on these letters and the state has created a system that is more often than not extremely difficult to abide by.

It's time to streamline.