WV: New law requires registrants to pay annual fee
A new law going into effect in West Virginia this week requires people on the sex offender registry to pay an annual fee of $125. The law, which can be found here, will hopefully be challenged.
Since the registry is supposed to be non-punitive, it is questionable whether a fee imposed as part of a criminal sentence or as a consequence of a criminal conviction can be considered anything but a punishment.
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We have a $50 yearly fee here in Michigan as well. It does have a cap. I was just informed that I only owe another $150,;and won’t have to pay anymore after that. Many in Michigan were going to be removed from the registry around July 21st. However, the Michigan Legislature has AGAIN, after losing in federal court, decided to amend the law to try to prevent that. The federal judge has even granted the State extra time to complete their legislation. I hope that the judge sticks with the wording of his original ruling, that the parts of the law that make it unconstitutionally retroactive CANNOT be removed, but only time will tell.
You’re probably aware, but Florida also requires payment.
Florida doesn’t require payment. I’ve been registering since 2007 and never once paid a fee.
ICYMI
Only some counties, My county has never made you pay to register.
Also, doing so, seems pretty damn close to being the same as probation.
Check off the list.
On probation, cops come to your house.
On probation you had to pay a monthly fee
On probation you could be violated for minor things like going somewhere without permission, on the registry we have to get permission to travel in some instance or could be arrested.
Why judges cannot rule that punitive is beyond comprehension. Why do they do it you ask? Answer, “Because they can”. Emoji sad face
Not every county does in Florida to the best of my knowledge.
So failure to pay the fee is a registration violation, and the fee goes into law enforcement’s bank account. So a homeless or indigent registrant is likely going back to prison.
BWJ
If I was homeless and had no other choice, I would gladly go back to prison. At least you get 3 meals, a small sub-par medical checkup, a shower, a bed, and a ton of buddies to hang out with, or get beat up by LOL
I learned to play spades in prison and within a week they kicked me out of the game because I got so good they accused me of cheating. (Wasn’t cheating, just they thought I was dumb as a rock) To this day I still play spades on the computer. Before prison I had no idea what spades the card game was.
Cherokee
I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t deal with being incarcerated again. I survived, but my disgust at watching some of the COs treat inmates angers me deeply. I don’t wish to deal with that. Nor the idiocy I saw amongst some inmates. Their actions threatened my goals.
BWJ
I do not WANT to go back but sometimes feel it was safer than what goes on in the world with the registry. Also, I suppose I was fortunate to go to a prison camp where you worked and had a lot of freedom. I even got paid for a while on an outside the prison job M-F.
But at the end of the day, I do want to stay free and be with my family. It just often feels like we are prisoners in our own homes with having to register and law enforcement coming to our houses and neighbors coming over asking why cops were always at our house. I got that knock this morning on my door “Why were the police at your house?”.
I’m sure their logic is that it’s no different than paying to renew drivers license and car registration. That would be their defense argument anyway. Doesn’t matter that vehicle registration, drivers license, and the registry are all unconstitutional burdens placed upon the people. Did they ever require to register horses and wagons to move freely about the country? I know I’ve never heard of such thing.
Tyranny is a long, slow, lockstep process. They’ve done this repeatedly in past ages and “great resests”. But in the last six years, they’ve picked up the pace and the plan is that it’s only going to get a whole lot worse. All we can do is keep fighting to the end.
The difference is that a person can choose not to drive or own a vehicle and forego paying fees for those things. Registrants don’t have that option.
A person can choose to be or not to be a sex offender.
Margie
Well said
Urinating outside? False and/or malicious prosecution?
False. PFRs dont have that choice when the government forces that label upon you.
Fine. I have had enough, long enough. I choose not to be. Mrs Greeene please prepare my chariot. I’m out of here.
Or at least give me due process before you blindly assert new laws to old crimes and fervent retroactive application.
Sadly I have no due process to prove anything successful to prevent such relisting- the original DA from 30 years ago told me this is not what he had envisioned for punishment.
It’s just plain ruthless to hold every offense as being one list; with two definitions, offender and predator. Just ruthless to hold someone on the hook for and give them a finish line I crossed the finish once, 18 years ago, to make someone do it again, that’s ruthless heartless unconstitutional arrogance.
Don’t get me started on the rich and powerful getting away with much much worse.
Civil or criminal. We as a society are pathetic; picking and choosing who to subjugate and who can be allowed to continue. Gold buys justice. Jails privately owned with no rehabilitation? No medical. Politicians taking money in front of our eyes and we shrug our shoulders?
Dumb and ignorant comment.
Miss Greene, are you aware of the wide ranging offenses that can force someone to register? You could be living near to a murder or someone with multiple DUI’s and never know it. Registries are political theater.
@Margie
No one chooses to be a sex offender, a judge rules that label upon people, along with law makers.
I prefer the label of “Person who made a onetime mistake”.
The state “He made a lifetime mistake”.
If someone 20 years ago stole something but never again, are they still a thief?
We are not what people often label us. People are cruel and call people fatty, ugly, stupid. Someone saying that does not make the person that label.
AND, finally, I bet if one of your loved ones was labeled a sex offender, you would not dis-own them. And if you did, I feel sorry for you, throwing your own family under the bus. A real family sticks together no matter what they go through. There are some exceptions like if someone killed their entire family or something, but you get the point. And if you don’t I feel sorry for you even more.
Have a blessed week and give your loved ones a hug, you never know what the next day brings upon us.
@Fac
I have a question that I thought of while reading this article. There are 50 states with 50 different sets of registry rules. But, what about people who do not live in a state but live in the U.S? What I mean by that is, Washington D.C is in the U.S but not a state. Do those registrants only have to follow federal law since D.C is not a state? I lived there 50 years ago when we were stationed there.
Each has their own registration requirements
In Nevada registrants have to renew their driver’s license of state ID every year rather than every 4 or 8 years like everyone else.
Interesting since here in Tennessee we’re required to pay $150 a year and some counties have updated their requirement to $200 a year (just not my county). If it’s not supposed to be punitive then what is it?
Richard
Hope they do not do that here as I am disabled and barely meet my bills quota for the month. If we had to pay to register I would be up the creek. Maybe someone getting arrested for being unable to pay would get the law reviewed since it is “Supposedly” not punishment.
Imagine being in the same cell in the jail with Bubba and he says “I killed someone, what did you do?”. And as we clear our throat, we say “Oh I owed some money I couldn’t pay so I am going to the electric chair”.
Seems we have enough burdens placed on us without making us pay a fee when the majority of us have completed probation years ago. That was not part of the registry law created by the state, otherwise every county would be doing that. Where I register, there are a ton of homeless registered folks that live in the woods. Where are they going to get that money? A few have told me they had it better in the jail than living in the woods. And in jail you no longer have to register until released again at least.
Well, that might be going too far. What is the purpose of the 125 for?
Goes to law enforcement health initiatives.
BWJ
Maybe an audit on where that money goes is in order?
I used to work in law enforcement and can vouch that not everyone who works there is honest. I quit because of that, not because I did anything wrong while working there, but all the things I saw going on. And if you reported someone, you got desk duty until you gave up and quit.
The claim is for administrative purposes…but I thought they were getting paid for their regular job? Yet, that’s how it is here in the state below Virginia.
Richard,
A scam. I mean a legal one, but they are scamming us out of our hard-earned money when there was not mention in the registry laws that were created to include “Probation like fees”. Certain sheriff’s offices push the limits on what they can get away with, knowing very well that there is really nothing we can do about it.
And what happens to those who genuinely can’t pay? Jail time? What about homeless? They cannot even afford food, and they want them to pay a fee to register? I wouldn’t want to be standing by them when judgement day comes. I am not perfect but would not take someone’s last dollar from them when they cannot even find money for food.