Joint Study Order Authorizing the Joint Standing Committee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety to Study Issues Related to Sex Offender Registration

the Senate concurring, that the Joint Standing Committee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety, referred to in this order as "the committee," shall meet to study issues related to sex offender registration laws as follows.

1. Convening of committee; meetings. The chairs of the committee shall call and convene the first meeting of the committee, which must be no later than June 15, 2008. The committee may meet 4 times.

2. Duties. The committee's duties include:

AUsing other states’ models for tiered systems based on risk and other examples of sex offender classification and assessment and creating a system of classification based on risk to be applied to each person required to register under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act of 1999 in order to classify registrants based on their risk of reoffending and the degree of likelihood that they pose a danger to the community;BCreating processes to apply the risk assessment and evaluate its use so that due process concerns are met and each risk assessment analysis provides useful information to those in the criminal justice system and others who receive that information; andCReviewing the current list of registerable sex offenses and determining if changes to the current Maine sex offender registry and to the Maine sex offender registry website should be made.

3. Staff assistance. The Legislative Council shall provide necessary staffing services to the committee.

4. Compensation. Pursuant to Joint Rule 353, members of the committee are entitled to receive the legislative per diem and reimbursement for travel and other necessary expenses related to their attendance at authorized meetings of the committee.

5. Report. No later than November 5, 2008, the committee shall submit a report that includes its findings and recommendations, including suggested legislation, for the consideration of the First Regular Session of the 124th Legislature. Pursuant to Joint Rule 353, the committee is not authorized to introduce legislation. The joint standing committee of the 124th Legislature having jurisdiction over criminal justice and public safety matters may, pursuant to Joint Rule 353, introduce a bill during the First Regular Session of the 124th Legislature to implement the recommendations on matters relating to the study.