Californians can petition to be removed from the sex offender registry
Prior to 2021, California was one of just four states with a lifetime sex offender registry. The others were South Carolina, Alabama and Florida.
SB 384 is the legislation responsible for the tier system. It was passed in 2017 and signed into law by former governor Jerry Brown. It was co-authored by State Senator Scott Wiener who explained why change was necessary.
“It made the sex offender registry so massive, like 120,000 people in California, that law enforcement couldn’t even use it for its intended purpose, which is to monitor dangerous people,” Wiener said.
He said the bill was lauded by many disparate groups.
“We had a lot of support in passing this law, including from law enforcement, because law enforcement doesn’t want low level offenders clogging up the sex offender registry. They want to focus on the real bad actors, so we had a lot of support. But any time you’re talking about sex offenders, there’s going to be controversy because people jump to conclusions,” Wiener said.
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Florida does have a removal process. Its just not likely most of us will live long enough to actually get have a chance to petition..
Yes, Florida has a petition for removal after 25 years.
But for a great many of us, there is a carveout. Many of us can never petition for removal – ever.
The registry is wrong – plain and simple. It must go away in its entirety.
You forgot to mention Texas.
it doesn’t help everyone on the registry and they will continue to harass the one still left on it but it is a right step in the right direction
If the out of state challenge is successful maybe Florida will be forced to take people off their registry who currently live in there and have been law abiding. Doesn’t save any children or communities, it causes more harm than the Devil himself. Every year that passes and Florida continues with their blindness than the state should be fined per registrant, per year, or lose federal funding.
I don’t know the law for the petition but It probaly reads something like this. Anyone is eligible to file a petition for removal unless convicted of a sex offence..
Sarcasm Heavily Implied here.. Probaly next to impossible to be removed. I can only imagine all the carve outs and exceptions it has in it.
They always add a “but” to everything. So they gave themselves an “Out” by saying Low level offenders can petition to get off. So someone who peed behind a tree can maybe get removed but someone who had an under aged girl/boy friend will be told, sorry, try again.
I am afraid if Florida ever does this, that will happen as well. I am not listed a predator but since they “Milked” the charges to make it look like I was the Boston strangler, not much hope here for me and others in a similar situation.
AND, nothing changed on my end. I never committed another offense, however with each new law I went from being on the registry to being a scary monster. And I am not alone.
Having said that, some progress is better than no progress. My fear again is that backwoods Florida will hold out until God reveals Himself and demands “Let my people go”.
It is totally based on the tiered system and Level 3 are not allowed to petition. I’m in Oregon and was just taken off the registry. By the way, Oregon also is a lifetime registry state !
Hey Barry i was convicted back in 2003 in Florida moved to Seattle in 2015 and I’m a level 1 here and don’t appear anywhere on the registry here aside from Florida. I’m thinking of petitioning to get off here in Washington even though its extremely lax here (they come to my door once a year knock I sign a piece of paper and its over since I’ve moved here I’ve maybe dealt with the police for a few minutes tops its so nice compared to Florida). How much did the petition cost you?