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On January
1, 2008 Ohio’s Sex Offender Registration laws changed.
Ohio became one of the first States in the nation to adopt the
provisions of the Adam Walsh Act. The
Adam Walsh Act was passed and signed into federal law in 2006.
It required States to implement the provisions and guidelines of
the Adam Walsh Act or risk loosing federal block grant money.
The intent of the Adam Walsh Act is to provide a universal method
of determining sex offender classifications and the requirements of those
classifications in all State’s nationwide.
The Adam
Walsh Act replaces previous sex offender classification designations such
as Sexual Predator, or Sexually Oriented Offender, with Tier
classification designations. The
Tier classification designations for sex offenders are determined by the
criminal offense or offenses the offender was convicted of.
The Adam Walsh Act was retroactive and included the
re-classification of all sex offenders previously convicted as well as
determining the classification of all sex offenders convicted in the
future.
The County
Sheriff is responsible under Ohio law for the registration of sex
offenders. Sex offenders must
register with the County Sheriff on scheduled periodic bases, which is
determined by their sex offender Tier classification.
In addition, sex offenders must register with the County Sheriff
any change of residential address, place of employment, or enrollment in a
school or institution of higher education.
The Tier
classification system requirements are as follows:
Tier I:
Sex
offenders must register with the County Sheriff at least once annually for
a period of 15 years. In
addition, must register any change of residential address, place of
employment, or enrollment in a school or institution of higher education.
Tier II:
Sex offenders must register with the County Sheriff every 180 days
for a period of 25 years. In
addition, must register any change of residential address, place of
employment, or enrollment in a school or institution of higher education.
Tier III:
Sex offenders must register with the County Sheriff every 90 days
for life. In addition, must
register any change of residential address, place of employment, or
enrollment in a school or institution of higher education.
Note:
Tier III sex offenders may also be subject to community notification,
which means upon a change of residential address, the County Sheriff will
provide notice to a neighborhood within 1000 feet of the sex offenders
residential address. The
County Sheriff will also provide notice to schools, registered day-care
providers, and law enforcement agencies within the county.
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