After being convicted of a felony and 3 misdemeanors, I served 50% of 5 years (2.5 years) in prison and am now approaching the end of my 3 year parole.
For all of the negatives that can come with Parole, there is at least one positive: someone tells you exactly what you must comply with. You’re told where you can and cannot live, you’re told what you can and cannot do for Halloween, and you’re told where you can or cannot be.
I’m excited to have most of my limitations removed, but I’m unsure of how to make sure I stay in compliance with local, county, state, and federal regulations, especially when they are frequently changing. Does any one have a good method in place for finding out this information?
Next, I’m not sure that staying in CA is preferable due to high cost of living, fairly strict regulations, etc. However, I get incredibly confused when I try to look at what is entailed for moving to another state. Some questions:
1. How does SORNA and/or Adam Walsh CPS Act fit in to this decision? Does it matter if the new/old state is SORNA compliant?
2. Do I fall under the new State’s guidelines for classifications, tiers, rules, etc? Do I fall under California’s? Do I fall under the harsher of the two?
Thankfully I run a fairly successful small business and I’ve been able to go my time on parole without any sort of violations or police interactions (beyond annual registration), but I’m trying to get a handle on what the next phase of my life will look like. Any advice is appreciated.
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Well, it’s great to here you have a positive attitude! Personally, I’m not sure about what state your planning to move to! Also, I would be curious to know what your convictions entailed? I’m aware that some states are more lenient than others. Many states allow you to fall off the registry after 10 years if your plea was a misdemeanor. Don’t move to Texas or Florida. Best of luck
First of all, congratulations on finishing parole and being able to work for yourself. I am not too familiar with SORNA and AWA and all the laws that come with it. Your story, once again, is making me angry, though, as I see that the punishment continues after serving time in prison and finishing your parole term. Any other offender is allowed to move on, and some have committed much much worse crime than the majority of sex offenders. You should be able to live anywhere you want to without worrying about breaking any of the numerous ambiguous and vague laws that pertain to only sex offenders. Anyways, I just wanted to wish you good luck. Help us fight this fight to end this injustice.
My advice to you is to get involved in the RSOL affiliate in whatever state you move to. It’s hard to keep up-to-date on changes in the laws if you try to do this alone but as part of a team we can work together to stay informed and to fight these oppressive laws. Your best choice would be to move to a state that would not put your name/face/address on the Internet or subject you to residence/presence restrictions.
Thanks for the comments so far. I’m the OP in this post. I’ve definitely heard a lot of the Don’t move to Florida/Texas/South stuff, but I’m hoping to get a better handle on it. Additionally, I don’t want to move first and figure it out later as that seems like a recipe for disaster (the state-mandated treatment that CA parolees are required to attend reminds me that MOST of the people I see going in and out of the system aren’t committing more sex crimes, but failure to registers, drug crimes, etc. and I don’t want to put myself in a situation to get caught up with something like an ordinance violation).
Someone asked about the details of my case. Felony was attempted kidnapping (which counts as a sex crime in my case) and 3 misdemeanor child annoyance charges. Unfortunately for me, ‘attempted kidnapping’ sounds way worse than what actually happened and, as far as I can tell, even the more lenient states tend to have verbiage that basically says that a serious/life-long registrant is someone who has committed rape / kidnapping / (insert very serious crime here) “or attempts thereof”. But, I can’t change that. One thing I’ve been very intentional about is not throwing a pity party for myself (this was particularly hard when even the polygraph I was required to take confirmed that I was being truthful in my denial of the crime) and instead focusing on how to mitigate the lasting consequences.
Thanks again, folks!
My wife want to Oregon. I have been watching Oregon’s treatment of RC. It seems the least in harshness, however, there appears to be some changes that no one there knows the final impact. The final writing was supposed to be done by now, however, there appears to be a delay. I live in California, just south of the Oregon border.
Well, you can actually go onto the websites and search what convictions require registration. Every State is different. Maybe some states don’t require Registration for attempted kidnapping, but require it for Child Annoyance? Is the Annoyance register able? Good luck
If it has been over 25 years since you were convicted. If you move to a state that has a stop registering after 25 years do you still have to register because of California?
Jeff, in many states, the longest you are required to register is 25 years! So, I believe you wouldn’t have to. Go online and search the state your thinking of moving to i.e.: Colorado Sex Offender Registration
Many states impose the LONGER of where you were convicted and where you live. So if you have lifetime in CA and move to a state with 25max, they very well might require you to register for life. Each state is different, so you have to check each one for the applicable laws … and then hope that they don’t change.
I suggest that you research the state that you are considering moving to. Without specifically knowing what you prior conviction consist of, it will be difficult to be more specific on how other state laws apply. However, the only example that I could offer is my own. I have been registering for almost 20 years.
After having my photo posted on my block, I left the state of California and moved to Arizona. In Arizona, there is a form of a tiered registry system in place. I, on the other hand was considered a low level registrant….a class 1. The system is categorized by a 1,2,3 system, with 3 being the most serious. The benefits of being classified as a level 1 is that there are no posting on the internet, no community notifications, and you could reside in the same location for the rest of your life without having ever register annually again.
Lastly, I would encourage all of you to continue to research the laws that pertain to 290 registrants. I was able to have my felony reduced to a misdemeanor based on information that I discovered in the California penal code book. The felony reduction was granted all because of the language regarding law. With that being said, I should be able to move to such states as Oregon, and Washington and petition to be removed from their respective sex registries based on each states tiered system.