History

This redefined the offenses requiring registration. Montana became one of the few states to register violent offenders in addition to sexual offenders:

Qualifying Offenses – required certain violent offenders to register. Registrants also were:

• required to sign a statement indicating they were aware of their registration duties and to provide any other information required by the Department of Corrections
• fingerprinted and photographed for registration purposes

Length of Registration – duration of registration was changed to life, with the option to petition the district court for relief from registration after 10 years. A court could grant relief only if the offender met a two-part test:

• the offender had remained law-abiding for 10 years
• no public safety reasons existed for continued registration

Retroactive Applicability Clause – required registration of:

• sexual offenders who were sentenced, in the custody or under the supervision of the Department of Corrections on or after July 1, 1989
• violent offenders who were sentenced, in the custody or under the supervision of the Department of Corrections on or after October 1, 1995

Tier Levels – tier levels were assigned to sexual offenders by the sentencing court based on the likelihood that they would commit additional offenses

Public Information – the amount of information that could be released to the public varied according to the tier level assigned to the sexual offender. Law enforcement agencies could release any offender information relevant to the public if risk to the safety of the community was an issue.

Address Verification – required the Department of Justice to send annual address-verification letters to all registered offenders and quarterly letters to level 3, high-risk sexual offenders

Public Information – increased the information available to the public to include the name and address of any registered offender in Montana

Tier Levels – gave the Department of Corrections the authority to assign tier levels to registered sexual offenders being released from confinement if the registrant had not been given a tier level at the time of his or her sentence

Community Education – required that the Department of Justice develop a statewide community education curriculum regarding the release of sexual or violent offenders into a community

A Special Legislative Session provided that an offender must register within 10 days of entering a Montana county for the purpose of setting up a temporary home for 10 days or more, or residing there for a total of more than 30 days in a calendar year.

Qualifying Offenses – made operating an unlawful clandestine laboratory a qualifying violent offense

• requiring registration of out-of-state or federal offenders designated as sexual offenders by the laws of another state or the federal government
• allowing Montana to recognize risk level designations given by another state or the federal government and to post that information accordingly
• clarifying that, after 10 years, violent offenders may petition the sentencing court or the district court for the judicial district in which they reside for an order relieving them of the duty to register

• posting photos of all sexual offenders
• requiring in-person verification of registration information and more frequent photographs of offenders
• amending the definition of “sexually violent predator” to include offenders who commit a sex offense against a victim 12 years of age or younger
• requiring Level 2 sexual offenders to verify their residence every 180 days
• creating registration provisions for transient sexual offenders
• adding soliciting or promoting prostitution of a child 12 years of age or younger as qualifying sexual offenses, and kidnapping and aggravated kidnapping of an adult as qualifying violent offenses
• requiring all juvenile sexual offenders to register unless the court relieves them of that duty

Allows users to enter a specific street address and city, and the search then uses Google Maps (updated in 2013 to BING maps) to generate a map showing the location of offenders within a certain radius of that address. The mapping capability was required by the federal Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006

In October, the MT Department of Justice (DOJ) rolled-out an entirely new version of the Sexual or Violent Offender Registry Web search and application framework. The new version was built in-house by MT DOJ and has the following feature/enhancements.

• • SVOR Web presence becomes a separate website – not just a simple web search application.
  • At the heart of the new website is the mapping application which searches and displays the offender data and locations.
  • Compared with the previous design and technology MT DOJ will save 60% in annual maintenance and operations costs.
  • Mobile or Responsive design – this makes the SVOR Web site and map search more user-friendly when accessed from a mobile device.

The Legislature made several changes to the Sexual or Violent Offender Registry to narrow data gaps. These changes included:

• requiring both sex and violent offenders to provide a DNA sample upon registration.
• allowing district courts to assign a tier level for sex offenders who were not previously designated one.
• requiring both sex and violent offenders to update their registration within 24 hours when away from their primary county of residence for more than 10 days.

The Legislature amended the statute to include:

• Tier level designation for out-of-state and federal offenders is responsibility of the offender.
• Data Collection- allows the state to collect additional information on offenders which includes screen names and email addresses.
• Geographic Restrictions- residential and employment address restrictions for high-risk offenders.