Changing the Laws: Part 4 - Annual Registration Requirements

301.45 Sex offender registration.
http://nxt.legis.state.wi.us/nxt/gat...tats&jd=301.45

In this section of the law, there are only a few points I want to touch on, because we already know that everyone will be included on the registry except the few nineteen year-olds that qualify under the subsection 1m or if you suffer from a mental disease or disorder. What I have posted here is just one part of the third section of this law.

4. If subd. 1., 1m., 1r., 1t., 2., 2m., 3., 3g. or 3r. does not apply, the person is subject to this subsection after he or she is sentenced or receives a disposition.

(b) 1. Except as provided in subd. 1m., a person who is subject to par. (a) shall notify the department once each calendar year, as directed by the department, of his or her current information specified in sub. (2) (a). The department shall annually notify registrants of their need to comply with this requirement. If the registrant is a person under the age of 18, the department may also annually notify the registrant’s parent, guardian or legal custodian of the registrant’s need to comply with this requirement.

1m. A person who is subject to lifetime registration under sub. (5) (b) 2. or (5m) (b) 4. shall notify the department once each 90 days, as directed by the department, of his or her current information specified in sub. (2) (a). Every 90 days, the department shall notify registrants subject to this subdivision of their need to comply with this requirement. If the registrant subject to this subdivision is a person under the age of 18, the department may also notify the registrant’s parent, guardian or legal custodian every 90 days of the registrant’s need to comply with this requirement.

2. The department shall notify a person who is being released from prison in this state because he or she has reached the expiration date of his or her sentence and who is covered under sub. (1g) of the need to comply with the requirements of this section. Also, probation, extended supervision, and parole agents, aftercare agents, and agencies providing supervision shall notify any client who is covered under sub. (1g) of the need to comply with the requirements of this section at the time that the client is placed on probation, extended supervision, parole, supervision, or aftercare supervision or, if the client is on probation, extended supervision, parole, or other supervision from another state under s. 304.13 (1m), 304.135, 304.16, or 938.988, when the client enters this state.

3. The department of health services shall notify a person who is being placed on conditional release, supervised release, conditional transfer or parole, or is being terminated or discharged from a commitment, under s. 51.20, 51.35 or 971.17 or ch. 975 or 980 and who is covered under sub. (1g) of the need to comply with the requirements of this section.

3m. After notifying a person under subd. 2. or 3. of the need to comply with this section, the person who is providing the notification shall require the person who is covered under sub. (1g) to read and sign a form stating that he or she has been informed of the requirements of this section.

4. It is not a defense to liability under sub. (6) (a) or (ag) that the person subject to sub. (1g) was not required to read and sign a form under subd. 3m., was not provided with a form to read and sign under subd. 3m. or failed or refused to read or sign a form under subd. 3m. It is not a defense to liability under sub. (6) (a) or (ag) that the person subject to sub. (1g) did not receive notice under this paragraph from the department of health services, the department of corrections, a probation, extended supervision and parole agent, an aftercare agent or an agency providing supervision.

If you read through this excerpt above from beginning to end, you will start out thinking "That doesn't sound so bad, just telling you that offenders will be notified by someone at some point of their obligation to register, right?" Then you get to number four where it states that it is not a defense if you were not notified or did not read and understand the registration requirements.

So essentially what this is a HUGE indemnity clause in the middle of this law. That if the State, the DOC, or Health Services haven't done their job, they can not be held liable for it. This is something that needs to change. If they can not prove they have informed those that are supposed to be on the registry to register, then they are not doing THEIR job.

This is one more enormous reason that these laws are not only impossible to enforce but the sheer volume of information that needs to be handled is to great for the law to be effective in protecting anyone but the State worker's pay check and job security.