Also known as SORNA, the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act greatly expanded the requirements for sex offender registration, and there has been a great deal of successful litigation around the country challenging some of these prosecutions for failure to register. This is a grossly over-broad and unfair law. It applies to juveniles as well as adults.
Another aspect of this ill-conceived law is the cost. If you remember, many law enforcement agencies opposed the legislation because of the overwhelming obligations that it placed on law enforcement. Compliance is required for each state by 2009, or they risk losing some federal funding.
Now, the Justice Policy Institute has calculated the expected costs for each state, and that the costs far exceed the amount that would be forfeited for non-compliance. Here are the estimates for Kansas:
Implementation cost: $4,502,553
Federal funds lost for failure to implement: $203,600
(I'm sure there is a Mastcard Priceless line that could follow, but I'll spare you).
The federal funds lost, Byrne grant money, is used to enforce drug laws and support LEOs.
The JPI also observes: "Most of the resources available to states would be devoted to the administrative maintenance of the registry and notification, rather than targeting known serious offenders. Registries and notification have not been proven to protect communities from sexual offenses, and may even distract from more effective approaches."
Thanks to Grits for Breakfast for the lead.
A proposal to amend the Kansas Offender Registration Act (KORA) to bring it into compliance with SORNA will be introduced in the next legislative session. Everyone who registers would be subject to the new requirements, including drug offenders, violent offenders, people convicted of person felonies with a dangerous weapon, etc. - there would not be separate registries or different provisions for different offenders. Even with the changes I anticipate seeing, Kansas arguably would not be in substantial compliance and would potentially lose the grant money anyway, but not before making the offender registry even more draconian than it is now (in my opinion).
ReplyDeleteI have more information on my website in reference to this very issue. You may calculate the cost in millions in order to save a few thousand.
ReplyDeletehere
http://cfcoklahoma.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=155%3Afederal-domestic-spending-bill-cuts-crime-funding-program-by-67-percent-i&Itemid=1