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SUMMARY: This bill would require that the Sex Offender Registry Board collect and compile data to assess the agency’s reliability, effectiveness and impact; to evaluate effectively the accuracy of the agency’s classification system; and to allow for the analysis and quantification of individual factors, so that their relevance and the reliability of their ratings can be evaluated. Minimally, data collection should keep track of trends, disparate impact of classifications, and recidivism.
An Act Relative to Data Collection by the Sex Offender Registry Board
SECTION 1. Notwithstanding and special or general law to the contrary or regulation, the Sex Offender Registry Board shall collect and compile data to assess the agency’s reliability, effectiveness and impact; to evaluate effectively the accuracy of the agency’s classification system; and to allow for the analysis and quantification of individual factors, so that their relevance and the reliability of their ratings can be evaluated. Minimally, data collection should keep track of trends, disparate impact of classifications, and recidivism.
Said board shall submit and annual report generated from the collected data and said report shall be filed with the clerks of the senate and house of representatives and be available to the public upon request. The first report shall include data from the previous five calendar years, broken down by year, after which the annual report shall include data from only the preceding calendar year. The initial report may only include global final level decisions, but subsequent reports should include item and total score information. All data and a description of the methods relied upon in generating said report shall be contained in the report or, alternatively, made available to the public upon request.
The following data shall be reported on an annualized basis:
1. Number of Registrants on registry as of date of report
a. Number of individuals on registry as of the date of the report, broken down by Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3.
2. Final classifications by level
a. Number of individuals finally classified by the SORB during the calendar year as not required to register, finally classified as Level 1, finally classified as Level 2, and finally classified as Level 3, broken down for each level by adult males, females and juveniles (at the time of adjudication) and those identified as being served by DMH and DDS. Juveniles are defined as individuals whose sex offense(s) occurred when under the age of 18.
3. Differences between recommended and final classifications
a. Number of Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3 recommended classifications per year with number that were increased in final classification, number decreased in final classification and number that remained the same, broken down by the number of individuals at each recommended level whose classifications were raised to Level 3, raised to Level 2, lowered to a Level 2, lowered to Level 1, lowered to not required to register and remained the same.
4. Remands
a. Number of cases remanded to SORB from the Superior Court or Appellate Courts, broken down by classification level before remand and classification level after remand to include number of individuals whose classifications increased to Level 3, increased to Level 2, decreased to Level 2, decreased to Level 1, were not required to register, and remained the same.
5. Reclassification
a. Reductions: Number of registrants who sought to reduce their classification levels claiming a diminished risk of re-offense and danger to the public pursuant to 803 CMR 1.37C, broken down by classification level before request for reduction and final classification level of those individuals after request for reduction was considered.
b. Increases:
i. Number of petitions initiated by SORB for any reason to increase a registrant’s classification level, broken down by classification level before the request to increase and final classification level for those individuals after request to increase became final.
ii. Number of petitions initiated by SORB to increase a registrant’s classification level because of a new sex offense arrest or conviction, broken down by arrests and convictions.
6. Recidivism
a. Number of individuals classified as Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3 who were convicted of a new sex offense within five years of the final classification, broken down by classification level.
b. Number of individuals classified as Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3 who were convicted of a new sex offense within ten years of the final classification, broken down by classification level.
c. In all subsequent years after the quantification of the factors has been completed—the correlation and AUCs of the total scores and individual item scores with recidivism; the reliabilities of total scores and individual item scores; and a covariation matrix of all items and the total scores.
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