Offense Registration Handbook for Non-Lawyers

This week I had the honor of speaking at the Marion County Re-entry Coalition’s annual conference. I tried to give a bare-bones, nuts-and-bolts explanation of the obligations and restrictions placed on people who are required to register as sex or violent offenders in Indiana.

There are over 11,000 people on Indiana’s Sex and Violent Offender Registry. Over 70% of them are required to register for life.

What should be a straightforward process for registrants has over the years become anything but simple. The statutes that apply to registrants are found in different places in the Indiana Code. And over the years, as changes have been made to the law, multiple (and often overlapping) designations that determine a registrant’s duties and prohibitions have grown in number.

For my presentation to the Re-entry Coalition, I created a small handbook that I hope is simple yet helpful, not only to registrants but to those that assist registrants as they navigate these requirements. It includes a chart of every conviction that requires registration, and the specific obligations and restrictions a registrant with that conviction has.

If you’d like to check out the handbook, you can find it here. I hope it helps!