SSB 6144

SENATE BILL REPORT
SSB 6144

Title: An act relating to registration requirements on sex offenders coming from outside the state who establish or reestablish Washington residency.

Brief Description: Changing registration requirements for sex offenders coming from outside the state who establish or reestablish Washington residency.

Sponsors: Senate Committee on Human Services & Corrections (originally sponsored by Senators Stevens, Benton, Carrell, Regala, Benson and Pflug).

Majority Report: That Substitute Senate Bill No. 6144 be substituted therefor, and the substitute bill do pass.Signed by Senators Hargrove, Chair; Regala, Vice Chair; Stevens, Ranking Minority Member; Brandland, Carrell, McAuliffe and Thibaudeau.

Background: In 1990, the Legislature enacted the Community Protection Act, which created one of the first sex offender registration laws in the country. A person convicted of a sex or kidnapping offense must register with the county sheriff of the county in which he or she lives. The person subject to the registration requirements must provide such information as his or her name, address, date and place of birth, place of employment, crime of conviction, date and place of conviction, aliases, Social Security number, photograph, and fingerprints. He or she must also notify the county sheriff if he or she is enrolled in public or private school or in an institution of higher education.

Summary of Bill: Compliance with the registration statute is required based upon offenses committed before 1990, instead of, in the case of offenders whose predicate offenses were committed out-of-state, on or after February 28, 1990. Compliance with registration statute is required within three business days of establishing residence in Washington by a person who is convicted of a sex offense and who enters the state to establish residence in the state.

Effective Date: Ninety days after adjournment of session in which bill is passed.

Testimony For: There is a loophole that allows offenders to leave the state, later to return and claim that they are no longer subject to the duty to register. That loophole must be closed. It is also difficult for law enforcement personnel to have to look at other state laws to figure out which Washington laws they are similar to for purposes of determining if registration is required when the conviction was under the laws of another state. It makes sense to require persons to register in Washington if they would have been required to register under the laws of their home state.

House Amendment(s): County sheriffs must give written notice to persons convicted of a sex offense, who are new Washington residents or who are returning to Washington to live, that they are subject to Washington law for any new felony they commit in the state. The person receiving the notice must sign the notice, and the sheriff must retain the signed copy of the notice as verification that the person received notice. A form of the notice is included in the proposed amendment to the act.