The California Depart of Justice (CA DOJ) has provided statistics to the Alliance for Constitutional Sex Offense Laws (ACSOL) that reflect changes in the number of people eligible to petition for removal from the registry. The statistics were accurate as of November 20 and were provided to ACSOL in response to several Public Records Act requests.
According to CA DOJ, only 41 percent of registrants have been assigned to Tier 1 or to Tier 2 pursuant to the Tiered Registry Law. Specifically, there are 15,925 registrants assigned to Tier 1 who will be eligible to petition for removal after 10 years and 22,463 registrants assigned to Tier 2 who will be eligible to petition for removal after 20 years provided that other requirements are met.
“These statistics represent a reduction in the percentage of registrants assigned to Tier 1 or to Tier 2,” stated ACSOL Executive Director Janice Bellucci. “It was previously reported that 45 percent of registrants had been assigned to these tiers.”
By comparison, CA DOJ has assigned 54,269 registrants to Tier 3 which represents about 59 percent of registrants. Of that total, the assignment of 1,594 registrants is based upon risk level and therefore these registrants can petition for removal after 20 years. However, of that total number there are 52,675 individuals who are not eligible to petition for removal.
Individuals included in Tier 3 who are not eligible to petition for removal are those convicted of Penal Code Section 311.11 and those convicted of Penal Code Section 288(c). The number of individuals convicted of one or more subsections of Penal Code Section 311.11 is 6,873. Of that total, there are 5,968 convicted of possessing unlawful images in violation of Penal Code Section 311.11(a). This number includes individuals convicted in a federal court. The number of individuals convicted of Penal Code Section 288(c) is 1,058.
“The statistics provided by the California Department of Justice are a reminder that the Tiered Registry Law must be changed in order to increase the number of people eligible to petition for removal from the registry,” stated Bellucci. “ACSOL will continue its lobbying efforts with the state legislature to achieve that important result.”