2 Kotek bills lets sex offenders go unregistered

By Taxpayers Association of Oregon
OregonWatchdog.com

SB 820 and SB 821 would lower the rules and delay processing the threat classification for 18,000 Oregon sex offenders.  Right now there is a massive backlog of sex offenders and the Parole Board can’t handle all the requests to process them.  Governor Kotek’s solution is SB 820 and SB 821 which would delay the process of processing/identifying sex offenders and also lower the bar for qualifies as a registered sex offender.

There is a hearing on SB 820 and SB 821 in the Senate Committee On Judiciary this Thursday at 3:00 PM, HR E

SB 820 summary, “Provides that the State Board of Parole and Post-Prison Supervision is required to classify sex offender registrants convicted before January 1, 2014, into a risk level only in specified circumstances.”

SB 821 summary,  “The Act takes away the deadline for the parole board to assess some sex offenders into a risk level. The Act also repeals the sunset on the law that makes the board report to the legislature on risk level assessments every two years.”

KATU-TV explains the story behind these bills, “The proposed bill – Senate Bill 821 – removes a 2026 deadline to classify all sex offenders and is one of two pieces of legislation aimed at clearing a years-long backlog of unclassified sex offenders. The backlog is tied to a 2013 requirement from the legislature for the Oregon Board of Parole & Post-Prison Supervision to classify every sex offender in the state with a new risk assessment. For reference, of the roughly 33,000 registered sex offenders in Oregon, about 18,000 are unclassified as of January 2025. In other words, the state does not know their risk to re-offend. The other piece of legislation – Senate Bill 820 – aims to reduce the number of people who need to be classified by the end of 2026 if they have a conviction before 2014; the deadline would apply only to people with two or more sex crime conviction dates, those getting out of prison, or people 35 or under at the beginning of 2026. The board’s executive director said it allows them to focus resources on higher-risk offenders. Republican State Sen. Cedric Hayden told KATU the proposals make Oregon a “sanctuary state” for sex offenders.”

The Taxpayers Association of Oregon created this graphic to show the trend of Oregon helping criminals while making life worse for crime victims.

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