ALPENA– In May, a U.S. District Court judge gave Michigan lawmakers 90 days to change the state’ sex offender registry law, almost three years after it was declared unconstitutional in 2016.

The sex offender registry is a clearinghouse of names, contact information, and other data about people who have been convicted of a sexual crime. Offenders remain on the registry for 15 years to life, depending on the crime for which they are found guilty.

The Michigan Supreme Court in August 2016 declared it unconstitutional that changes lawmakers made to the registry in 2006 and 2011 retroactively applied stricter limitations and lifetime registration requirements on offenders who were convicted before the changes went into effect. The state has made no changes to the laws governing the registry since that decision, contending that the U.S. Supreme Court’s judgement applied only to the defendants named in the civil suit that led to the declaration of unconstitutionality.

However, in a federal district court decision prompted by an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit, the state has now been given until Aug. 21 to make changes to the way it registers offenders.

It wasn’t immediately clear how many of the hundreds of registered sex offenders living in Northeast Michigan would be impacted by the court-ordered changes.

The registry currently lists 100 offenders with an Alpena address, some of whom have been registering and updating their information with law enforcement since the 1990s. Alpena’s number of offenders is proportionate to those in similar communities, according to statistics furnished by the Michigan State Police, which oversees the state’s registry.

The official Michigan registry, at about 40,000 offenders, is the fourth-largest in the country. The registry changes rapidly, as offenders around the state update addresses or are added by the courts. Sex offender registries exist in all 50 states, although in some places the recorded information is available only to law enforcement.

Registered offenders are required to report to law enforcement up to four times a year and inform authorities about all significant changes in their lives, including new jobs, vehicles, or email addresses. They are not allowed to live, work, or loiter within 1,000 feet of a school.

Begun in 1994 as a tool for law enforcement agencies, the registry became available to the public in 1999. Anyone with internet access can find the name, address, photo, and list of convictions of sex offenders living near any address in Michigan.

Offenders are registered in a tiered system, with Tier I designating those convicted of lower-level crimes, such as aggravated indecent exposure, possession of child pornography, and misdemeanor sexual touching. Tier I offenders, some of whom are not listed on the public site, must register with police once a year for 15 years.

Tier II offenders must register twice a year for 25 years. Their records include convictions on charges of soliciting minors for sex, distributing child pornography, and sexual touching of a victim between 13 and 17 years of age.

Offenders convicted of offenses such as rape, molesting a child under the age of 13, and kidnapping a minor — even if there is no sexual component to the crime — are registered as Tier III and must report four times a year for life.

Julie Riddle can be reached at 989-358-5693, jriddle@thealpenanews.com or on Twitter @jriddleX.

Registered sex offenders,

by the numbers

As of June 7, the Michigan Sex Offender Registry included the following:

Alpena County: 126

Alcona County: 74

Montmorency County: 51

Presque Isle County: 57

Statewide: 43,838

Offenders who are incarcerated: 10,309

Of the offenders who are not incarcerated, statewide:

Tier I: 2,680

Tier II: 8,008

Tier III: 22,841

Source: Michigan State Police