Evaluation of DoD Compliance with the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act

Objective

We evaluated the Department’s compliance with the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA), established by Title I of the “Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006” (Public Law 109-248). We also evaluated whether the Department effectively accounts for registered sex offenders with access to DoD facilities.

Findings

The Department:

• is compliant with SORNA registration requirements
• needs policy requiring Military Departments and Defense Agencies to account for registered sex offenders;
• needs policy to account for registered sex offenders deploying to, or returning from, foreign countries.
• lacks accountability of sex offenders accessing DoD facilities;
• can better support efforts by Federal counterparts and other agencies to account for DoD convicted sex offenders; and
• should improve processes to promote more efficient compliance.

Recommendations 

• Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness (USD [P&R]):
  • conduct a study to determine the benefits of legislation to designate DoD as a SORNA jurisdiction;
  • develop policy to:  

    • • establish a position at military correction facilities to monitor registration of released inmates;

      • require accounting of registered sex offenders on DoD installations and implement a Department of Defense Sex Offender Registry Management program;
      • require the use of DD Form 2707-1,“DoD Report of Result of Trial,” and not Service-derived forms;
      • require orders promulgating the result of trial to annotate sex offender registration requirements;
      • establish assistance agreements with agencies involved in sex offender management and tracking;
      • establish a DoD offender management program coordinator to preclude violations relating to foreign deployments of DoD affiliated sex offenders by ensuring DoD personnel are compliant with registered sex offender international travel requirements; and
      • ensure DoD offenders convicted of qualifying sex offenses overseas register upon return to the United States and the appropriate SORNA jurisdiction is notified of the offender’s return.  

• Secretaries of the Military Departments require the Services’ Judge Advocate Generals implement quality control measures to ensure DD Forms 2707-1 are completed properly.

• USD (P&R) and the Secretaries of the Military Departments share sexual offender confinement data and consider a plan for the Services’ correctional programs to use a common corrections management information system.

Management Comments

Overall USD (P&R) and the Secretaries of the Military Departments management comments were responsive and agreed with our recommendations. Where the Secretaries did not comment on pertinent recommendations, we requested their comments. As a result of management comments, we made adjustments to the body of the report.

This report is a result of Project No. 2012C012.