An Act To Improve the Use of Information Regarding Sex Offenders to Better Ensure Public Safety and Awareness

CONCEPT DRAFT SUMMARY

This bill is a concept draft pursuant to Joint Rule 208.

This bill proposes that the Joint Standing Committee on Criminal Justice do the following:

1. Review compliance and enforcement of sex offender registration laws and identify resources and methods to ensure that all persons required to register do register, verify and update their information as directed;

2. Using other states’ models for tiered risk assessment and other examples of sex offender classification to learn from, create and adopt 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 sex offenders based on their risk of reoffending and the degree of likelihood that they pose a danger to the community;

3. Create and adopt 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;

4. Educate and support law enforcement so that they can use the sex offender risk assessment information to best inform the public and better ensure public safety; and

5. Review the current list of registerable sex offenses and determine if changes to the current Maine sex offender registry and to the Maine sex offender registry website should be made.