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An Act To Amend the Laws Governing the Sex Offender Registry
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1. 34-A MRSA §11221, sub-§9, ¶A, as amended by PL 2003, c. 711, Pt. C, §20 and affected by Pt. D, §2, is further amended to read:
 
A.  The bureau shall post on the Internet for public inspection the following information concerning a registrant:
 
(1) The registrant's name, date of birth and photograph;
 
(2) The registrant's city or town of domicile and residence;
 
(3) The registrant's place of employment and college or school being attended, if applicable, and the corresponding address and location; and
 
(4) The statutory citation and name of the offense for which the registrant was convicted.; and
 
(5) The registrant's designation as a 10-year registrant or a lifetime registrant.
Sec. 2. Development of classification system. The Commissioner of Public Safety, in consultation with an advisory group convened by the commissioner that must include members of the joint standing committee of the Legislature having jurisdiction over criminal justice and public safety matters and representatives of a state prosecutor's association, the Attorney General, the Department of Corrections, a state coalition against sexual assault and a state civil liberties union, shall create a classification system based on risk to be applied to each person required to register under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act of 1999 in order to identify sex offenders based on their risk of reoffending and the degree of likelihood that they pose a danger to the community. The level of risk that a person poses must be listed on the online sex offender registry in addition to other registrant information required by law.
Sec. 3. Website. Based on the work of the advisory group described in section 2, the Department of Public Safety, State Bureau of Identification shall amend the introductory page to the bureau's publicly accessible website, the "Maine Sex Offender Registry Online Search Service," to better describe the classification process and the bureau's intention to more accurately distinguish high-risk and low-risk offenders for the purpose of providing better information to the public and law enforcement.
 
SUMMARY
This bill amends the law regarding distribution of sex offender registrant information to the public by directing that the Department of Public Safety, State Bureau of Identification include on its Internet posting of registrant information the offender's designation as a 10-year registrant or a lifetime registrant.
The bill also directs the Commissioner of Public Safety, in consultation with an advisory group, to create a classification system based on risk to be applied to each person required to register under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act of 1999 in order to identify sex offenders based on their risk of reoffending and the degree of likelihood that they pose a danger to the community.
The bill also directs the State Bureau of Identification, based on the advisory group's work, to amend the introductory page of its publicly accessible website, the "Maine Sex Offender Registry Online Search Service," to better describe the classification process and its purpose of providing more detailed information about the risk of offenders to the public and law enforcement.