Adam Walsh Act Resources

This page contains links to resources for understanding and dealing with issues related the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006.

Bureau of Prisons Sex Offender Management Program - (SOMP) at the Federal Medical Center in Devens, Massachusetts

• Summary Memo on the SOMP - written by Amy Baron-Evans, pointing out concerns with the new civil commitment statute and certification process for the "sexually dangerous person" under 18 U.S.C. § 4248.
   
• SOMP Program Overview - written by the BOP in 2004.
   

Adam Walsh Memos - In this series of memos, Amy Baron-Evans & Sara Noonan give a superb overview of the Adam Walsh Act, and they suggest some (certainly not all) legal challenges that can be raised to its provisions.

• Part 1 - October 19, 2006 deals with the new criminal law provisions, penalties, and issues that don't involve the registration aspects of the legislation.
   
• Part 2 - November 20, 2006 - discusses the provisions which create a new sex offender registry law, prospectively repeal the current sex offender registry law (42 U.S.C. §§ 14071-73) as of July 27, 2009, and create new offenses directed at persons required to register, including failure to register, subject to stiff sentences, including in some cases consecutive mandatory minimum sentences. Defense counsel will have to deal with the new sex offender registry law when a client is charged with an offense that may require registration, has an old offense that may require registration, or is charged with one of the new offenses directed at persons required to register.
   

Please feel free to contact our office if you have any questions or comments. If for some reason you cannot retrieve the online resources, call us and we'll mail or fax you a copy.