All:

If you or someone you love is on the registry, it is likely that you have recently seen a letter from the Virginia State Police detailing sweeping charges. Confusion and frustration are running high as people try and understand the ramifications of this change in the law.  Some aspects are good; many are not.  Notably, this change has lumped many people into higher tiers of offender than they were previously without any sort of risk assessment in the process.  

We are doing our best to break down (a) what changes occurred and how these changes affect those on the registry, (b) steps that Safer Virginia plans on taking to address these changes, and (c) common questions that people have been asking.  We’ve received a large influx of correspondence and want to ensure supporters that your concerns are being heard and addressed.

In the meantime, in an effort to gather some data, please let us know if you or someone you know was negatively affected by this by emailing info@safervirignia.org.  Please include the statute you were convicted under and how you believe this change will affect you.

Thank you,

Zachary Jesse

Safer Virginia, President

Safer Virginia educates families and communities seeking to protect children and restore families affected by sexual abuse. Safer Virginia supports research-based sexual offense laws and policies that enhance public safety, safeguard civil liberties, and focus on prevention, healing, and restoration.

Children are safer when families and communities are educated. To assist, we:

• Describe how someone becomes a registrant under existing Virginia law.
• Support programs that safely return former offenders to their families and the community.
• Explain how to effectively diminish the likelihood of new sexual offenses.
• Recommend changes to create a registry that enhances public safety.

Children are safer when legislators are encouraged to:

• Create a more effective and less costly registry. Virginia spends almost $8,500,000 annually to manage its registry and adds nearly 1,000 citizens to the registry each year, most for life.
• Change laws to deter harmful acts rather than target groups of citizens.