Pennsylvania Fails To Comply With Adam Walsh Sex Offender Law
A bill to bring Pennsylvania state law under compliance with the federal sex offender law, the Adam Walsh Act, is under consideration in the Pennsylvania General Assembly.

December 14, 2011 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Pennsylvania missed a federal deadline for bringing its sex offender registration laws into compliance with the federal law. According to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, one Pennsylvania senator believes the Commonwealth risks becoming a "safe haven" for sex offenders, the state lawmaker warns.

While the Pennsylvania General Assembly is considering bills that would bring Pennsylvania into compliance, other states have decided to "opt out" and not comply, as the cost of implementing the changes required by federal law would be greater than the grant money they would lose by noncompliance.

Adam Walsh Act

The Adam Walsh Act, passed by Congress in 2006, created a more comprehensive, nationwide system to track sex offenders, and contained the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA). It gave states five years to amend their laws to conform to new guidelines. Fourteen states made the July 2011 deadline.

SORNA specifies certain information that must be included in a state's sex offender registry, and the list is long and detailed:
- Name, aliases, Internet identifiers, telephone numbers and addresses
- Social Security Number
- Residence, lodging and travel information
- Employment information
- School information
- Vehicle information, including descriptions and license plates forany vehicle owned or operated by the sex offender
- Date of birth
- Physical description
- Electronic text of the registration offense
- Criminal history and other criminal justice information
- Current photograph
- Digital fingerprints and palm prints
- DNA sample that will be analyzed and entered into CODIS
- Copy of state ID or driver's license

The legislation also creates new classifications of offenses and offenders, increases the registration period (up to lifetime registration for some offenders) and requires the states establish penalties for offenders who don't register. In addition to all of this information, anyone classified as a sex offender must now personally register with the sheriff of the county in which he or she resides, works and attends school, if applicable.

Because this requirement is an "and," an individual classified as a sexual predator must personally register with potentially three different sheriffs every 90 days. This requirement caused the Ohio Supreme Court to rule amendments to the Ohio reporting law unconstitutional. They were found by the court to cross the line from being remedial, to being punitive.

The Court noted that the necessity of registering every 90 days with potentially three different sheriffs was "hardly comparable to the slight inconvenience of having one's driver's license renewed every four years."

Cost Is An Issue For Some States

The costs of implementing the requirements of SORNA have left some states deciding to reject not to comply with the federal law.

California

The California Sex Offender Management Board advised the state not to comply. In a 2009 report, it found that current state policies were more effective than those it would have to use under the Adam Walsh Act. The board also noted the loss of funding would be much less than the expense of implementing SORNA.

Ohio

The Tribune-Review story described the experience in Ohio, which was the first state to comply with the Adam Walsh Act. They noted that Amy Borrow, spokeswoman for the Ohio Public Defenders Office, had said compliance had caused an increase of about 60 percent of the workload on sheriff's offices.

Borror also estimated that compliance in Ohio had resulted in "at least $10 million" in legal costs, but the exact numbers for administering the Act were difficult to calculate because they are spread throughout the state's 88 county sheriff's and district attorney's offices.

Texas

The Texas Senate Criminal Justice Committee, like California, easily concluded that the penalty for noncompliance with SORNA would cost the state much less than actually complying with the federal law.

Texas weighed the penalty of a loss of $1.4 million in the Byrne grant funds with the cost of implementing the Adam Walsh Act in all 254 counties in Texas -- estimated at $38.7 million. The Texas Senate Criminal Justice Committee advised against implementing the federal law's requirements because of the cost, but also because the committee believes that Texas state laws on sex offender registration and classification are more comprehensive and nuanced than the federal law's requirements.

Other Disagreements Over Compliance

The National Conference of State Legislatures website notes some states claim their registration schemes are better than the federal requirements. Some states use a risk assessment to classify offenders and determine how they long they must register as a sex offender.

The Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA) requires the states classify offenders as level I, II or III, according to their conviction. There is a concern voiced by experts familiar with the treatment of sex offenders that this system is not appropriate. The broad categorization used by SORNA may be less effective at predicting actual risk levels posed by offenders and arbitrary classifications may lead to less, not greater safety.

A bill is currently pending in the General Assembly that would implement SORNA and bring Pennsylvania into substantial compliance with the federal act. Governor Tom Corbett has indicated he will sign it when it arrives on his desk.

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