The legislation would spell out when people convicted in other states must register in Missouri and when some offenders can ask a court to shorten their time on the list
BY: Steph Quinn
Missouri Independent
A bill aimed at clarifying Missouri’s sex offender registry law — including when people convicted in other states must register here and when some offenders can ask to come off the list — cleared the House Tuesday.
The House voted 141-4 to approve the measure. Because amendments were added to the bill, which passed the Senate in March, it must return to the Senate for final approval before it can go to Gov. Mike Kehoe.
Republican state Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman of Arnold, the sponsor of the bill, said the legislation is meant to resolve confusion created by a 2023 Missouri Supreme Court ruling and make the law more consistent for survivors, law enforcement and people required to register.
“We’re not changing what level of crime is on what level of registry,” Coleman said. “It’s just making sure that the divisions are all behaving uniformly, that victims can know what to expect and that once people are convicted, they know what to expect as well.”
Coleman said she doesn’t anticipate opposition when the bill returns to the Senate for final approval.
Congress has required states to maintain sex offender registries meeting minimum requirements since 1994 in order to receive federal funding.
Missouri required all convicted sex offenders to register for life until 2018, when the General Assembly passed legislation matching a 2006 federal law dividing sex offenses into three tiers, with separate minimum registration requirements for each. The change allowed people to petition courts to shorten their registration time if they met certain requirements, including no new sex offense convictions and completing an approved treatment program. Someone convicted of a tier 1 offense like possession of child pornography could apply to be removed from the registry after 10 years instead of 15.
But the Missouri Supreme Court ruled in 2023 that the language in statute actually required anyone who “ha[d] been” subject to federal registration requirements to remain registered in Missouri for life.
Republican state Rep. Jeff Myers of Warrenton, the bill’s handler in the House, told The Independent that the Missouri State Highway Patrol, which administers the registry, requested to streamline state law on the system.
“It was hard for the folks administering the registry to be able to tell everybody what to do,” Myers said. “The folks that were eligible, that had completed treatment to the point where they were eligible to get off, that was difficult for them to navigate, and the courts even said so.”
The bill would also clarify that people convicted of a sex offense in another state who live, study, work or volunteer in Missouri more than seven days per year must register in the state, even if their primary residence is elsewhere. People convicted of a qualifying offense out of state who move to Missouri must also register in Missouri, the bill stipulates.
A House committee amended Coleman’s bill to add new offenses established by legislation signed into law by the governor earlier this month, including grooming of a minor and distributing or threatening to distribute private sexual images without consent.
Sexually violent predators
One House amendment, however, prompted concern from some Democrats. It lays out when the Missouri Department of Mental Health can contract with the state’s Department of Corrections to house “sexually violent predators” in prison, who were committed to treatment because they were ruled likely to reoffend.
Missouri law already allows the state’s mental health department to enter agreements with jails or the Department of Corrections for the “confinement” of people convicted of sex offenses who completed their sentences but were ruled likely to reoffend.
The House amendment would require the Department of Corrections to have “necessary space and services available” to provide “control and care, including health care services.”
Coleman said impacted individuals could only be housed in “prisons converted for rehabilitation” and that a colleague is working on language changes to clarify that part of the bill.
Democratic state Rep. Elizabeth Fuchs of St. Louis told The Independent she voted against the bill because of the provision.
“So are we just forgetting about those people?” Fuchs said. “Like, ‘You’ve served your time, you’re likely to reoffend, but too bad, instead of getting more treatment, we’re going to just put you somewhere and lock the key?’”
Fuchs said another reason she opposed the bill is that it would require people to report their biological sex when registering as sex offenders or updating their information. The bill would also prohibit people from changing their name during the period of time they are required to register.
These measures, Fuchs said, unfairly target transgender Missourians.
“There was absolutely an attack in there on trans folks,” Fuchs said.
The state’s mental health department runs a Sex Offender Rehabilitation and Treatment Services program in the Southeast Missouri Mental Health Center and Fulton State Hospital, according to its 2027 program book.
The department has faced bed shortages in other areas of its services, including for people who were ruled incompetent to stand trial and court-ordered to receive services to help them move forward with their trial. The statewide average number of people on that waiting list in March was 525, according to a spokesperson for the department. Most of them are waiting in jails.
The spokesperson also told The Independent in an email that seven people adjudicated as “sexually violent predators” are currently being housed in prison after being convicted of separate offenses.
The department anticipates a shortage of beds in 2028 in its program for people adjudicated as “sexually violent predators” and “would still provide treatment services and supports in a [Department of Corrections] facility.”