Montana Sex Offender Registration

The “Sexual or Violent Offender Registration Act” was established to ensure the safety of the people of the state of Montana, United States of America. This mandated all the local law enforcement agencies under the jurisdiction of the state to register all sex offenders in the state.

Montana Sex Offender Classification

Montana sex offenders are classified as level 1, level 2 and level 3 offenders according to their risk of repeating the crime. A level 1 offender has a low risk of repeating the offense. The chance of a repeat offense for a level 2 sex offender is moderate. In case of level 3 offenders the risk of a repeat offense is high. Level 3 offenders pose a threat to public safety. They are regarded as sexually violent predators. A sexual predator is a criminal who is known for the severity and his or her chances of committing the crime again. There is a fourth classification denoted by “N” which refers to “None”. This class of offenders are those who do not fall under any level. The system of classification of offenders into these three levels was implemented in 1997, and therefore criminals sentenced before 1997 are not included in this classification.

The sexual offenders in Montana are mandated to register with the local law enforcement agencies which in turn maintain a sex offender’s registry. This is done to maintain a record of the sex offenses and the offenders in order to be able to provide the people of the state with relevant information to help increase their safety. This also helps the authority to track the sex offenders.

Montana Sex Offender Registration

All sex offenders in the state are required to register with the local agencies. The procedure is carried out through different steps.

•    A sex offender must apply to register right after his or her sentence is announced, if the sentence does not declare the offender to be sent to any confinement of any department.

•    In case the offender was kept in confinement, he or she must register at least ten days before the date of release from confinement.

•    If a sexual offender enters any particular county in the state of Montana with the purpose of staying there temporarily or for a time period exceeding thirty days, it is compulsory for the offender to register within three days of arrival.

•    Any transient offender must register within three days of arriving and settling down in a Montana county.

•    The offenders are required to register with the appropriate agency. If an offender registers with a police department, a notification is sent to the sheriff’s department of the particular county in which the offender resides.

•    While registering the offender must provide all the information required by the department. These include name and any alias identity(s) used by the offender, the social security number, addresses of permanent and temporary residences of the offender, description like height, weight, eye color, hair color, identifying mark, details of the driver’s license and the details of any vehicle that the offender may be operating, name and location of the businesses he or she may be a part of and any other employment information, the offense he was convicted for, date and time of conviction, details of the sentence, whether it was a repeat crime or not and recent photographs.

•    If the offender is a resident of more than one county then he or she must separately register with the local authorities of each of the counties. In case the offender has more than one residence but within the same county the local authority must be provided with the addresses of all of them.

•    A transient sex offender is to report each month to the registration agency.

To learn more about the procedure of registering with the sex offenders registry in greater detail visit http://data.opi.mt.gov/bills/mca/46/23/46-23-504.htm.

Any Montana sex offender to register under “Montana State Annotated 46-23-506” must register for the remaining of his or her life. A violent offender is required to register for ten years after the hearing and sentencing is complete.

After completion of ten years an offender might apply for an order relieving the need to register any more. If the offender is found to have remained a law abiding resident for this time period continued registration may not be required anymore.

On failing to register with the appropriate authorities a sexual offender in Montana may be subjected to paying a fine not exceeding $10,000 or sentenced to imprisonment of five years or both of these.

The county sheriff’s office serves as the local authority in these cases. The sex offender registry allows the public to search for offenders. The registry was established in 1989 and is situated in the Department of Justice, Helena. The search page allows you to search offender by names, city, county or zip code and also by offender type. The registry can be accessed twenty four hours a day. Visit http://www.doj.mt.gov/svor/search.asp to conduct an online offender search.