Federal coercion to implement Adam Walsh Act doesn't justify the cost

Thanks to a reader for pointing out these shocking statistics from the D.C.-based Justice Policy Institute which calculated that it will cost Texas $38,771,924 to implement the requirements in the 2006 federal Adam Walsh Act, which expands and broadens state sex offender registries into a national program at the states' expense.

As has become typical, Congress threatened states by telling them they won't get back their fair share of tax dollars they sent to Washington if they don't give up this or that measure of sovereignty - in this case they'll lose 10% of federal Byrne grant funds which are block grants given to states to support law enforcement.

The new federal law "Broadens the range of offenses covered from aggravated sex acts, such as rape, to include sex crimes with elements of sexual contact, even if they are not sex acts," according to the Juvenile Probation Commission (ppt), and expands the lifetime registry to include youth as young as 14. The federal law also quadruples requirements for verification of information in the database (from annually in Texas now to every three months), creating significant additional bureaucratic costs at all levels of government.

Regardless, different Texas state agencies are implementing pieces of the federal law on their own, but purely as an administrative decision without budgetary authorization from the state. I mentioned earlier the Department of Public Safety recently began putting sex offenders' employment information online, which it turns out is a new requirement in the Adam Walsh act. The Department of Protective and Family Services has similarly chosen to comply with the new federal regs on their own as they relate to that agency.

By contrast, Texas officialdom has received the idea much more coolly. Last year the Legislature balked at mandating implementation, so basically those agencies are doing this on their own. Wrote prosecutor association lobbyist Shannon Edmonds earlier this year on the TDCAA website:

Legislation to implement the revised Adam Walsh Act was introduced last session but failed to pass -- primarily because the bill's own sponsors ... decided it was bad public policy.

For the text of the bill, see here.

Some other states have also backed away from coming into compliance, although I can't recall which ones. All states have until the summer of 2009 to come into compliance or face the loss of some federal funds (which just so happen to be getting cut in D.C. anyway, so the loss may not actually amount to anything anyway).

As Shannon alluded, the penalty for Texas not implementing the changes would be to lose 10% of its annual Byrne grant funds, a pot of money which has declined dramatically in recent years.

In 2006, Texas received just $14,045,713 in Byrne grant funds, which means Texas would only lose $1,404,571 if the state chose not implement these new national standards. (Long-time readers will recall that these are the federal monies that once funded Tulia-style drug task forces in Texas, now abolished. Today most of it goes toward expanding treatment-oriented programs and to pay for the Governor's border security program.)

So the Texas Legislature could save taxpayers $37,367,353 and keep the public safer just by telling the feds to "go to hell" and informing DFPS and DPS the state will not comply. That's a big ol' unfunded mandate - a lot of agencies scratch and claw each others eyes out at the Legislature for a lot less money than $37 million. Given that sex offender registries increase recidivism for people on their rolls, I'd prefer we just not do it!

RELATED: See this excellent resource page on the Adam Walsh act from our pal Corey Yung at the Sex Crimes Blog and a power point presentation from the Juvenile Probation Commission about the Adam Walsh act and what would be required for Texas to implement it.