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.
Please disable your ad blocker, whitelist our site, or purchase a subscription
Sorry, an error occurred.
Already Subscribed!
Cancel anytime
Thank you .
Your account has been registered, and you are now logged in.
Check your email for details.
Submitting this form below will send a message to your email with a link to change your password.
An email message containing instructions on how to reset your password has been sent to the email address listed on your account.
No promotional rates found.
Secure & Encrypted
Thank you.
Your gift purchase was successful! Your purchase was successful, and you are now logged in.
| Rate: | |
| Begins: | |
| Transaction ID: |
A receipt was sent to your email.
(2) comments
I didn’t realize Melrose loved pedophiles so much
This is not a news article! It is a press release from a dubious source and should be correctly labeled as such. Regurgitating a biased post from any website is not journalism and shouldn’t be placed in the News-Review as anything more than an opinion piece.
This isn’t a debate on the material presented and it may or may not have some merit, this is about muddying the waters between actual journalism and “fake” news. The NR presenting this as a legitimate article on their website is doing a disservice to the readers and citizens of Douglas County.
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person.
Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.