Fwd: FW: HEADSUP - new SORNA regulations issued - effective Jan. 7, 2022 - the REGISTRY
Spike CO
From: William Dobbs <duc...@mindspring.com>
Date: Wed, Dec 8, 2021 at 9:46 AM
Subject: HEADSUP - new SORNA regulations issued - effective Jan. 7, 2022 - the REGISTRY
To: WACSO <wa...@googlegroups.com>
Headsup! New SORNA regulations were issued today – take effect Jan. 7, 2022. They will impact everybody on a sex offense registry. See the attachments. Feel free to circulate this email.
In the last months of the Trump administration the Department of Justice (DOJ) suddenly issued draft regulations under the federal Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA). The draft regulations were published as required and hundreds of comments received. After the comment period ended there was no response from the government. The silence continued as Trump exited and Biden took office. Any hopes that Biden might simply do nothing and leave the regulations in limbo evaporated. Today’s Federal Register has the finalized regulations. They’re lengthy and complicated, lots of questions as to what they mean and how they will be enforced. Without a doubt these federal regulations will make life even more hellish for the hundreds of thousands (900,000+ in 2018 according to National Center for Missing and Exploited Children) listed on state sex offense registries --counting their families and significant others, several million people will be impacted. While the states are at the center of registration matters, these changes expand the responsibilities that registrants have under federal law, creating more trip wires and opportunities for prosecution. The screws are being tightened, again. The existing registry regime has produced no benefit to public safety. A more draconian regime will not change that. As of 2021 every state has had a registry for 25 years. There’s still no coherent cry to get rid of these ineffective, destructive laws. I hope these SORNA changes will bring more people into this fight.
The regulations are attached as published in the Federal Register. They’re online here:
Registration Requirements Under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (OAG 157; RIN 1105-AB52)
Also attached is a letter from Daniel Hansmeier, Appellate Chief of the Kansas Federal Public Defender to the Department of Justice that gives perspective on the changes. Excerpt: “The proposed rule defines crimes Congress never envisioned. It seeks to punish offenders who are plainly compliant with SORNA. The regulations do not interpret SORNA; they expand SORNA by defining lawful acts (or impossible acts) as crimes.”
Bill Dobbs, Publisher
The Dobbs Wire
News coverage in 2020 of the proposed regulations
Associated Press || Aug. 17, 2020
Feds release nationwide sex offender registry regulation
The Justice Department has released a new regulation spelling out detailed nationwide requirements for sex offender registration under a law Congress passed in 2006
The Epoch Times | Aug. 17, 2020
DOJ Announces Proposed New Regulations for National Sex Offender Registration
The Washington Times | Aug. 17, 2020
Registered sex offenders must now report overseas travel under new DOJ regulations
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/aug/17/registered-sex-offenders-must-now-report-overseas-/