Megan's Law: The Megan’s Law Unit is responsible for the monitoring and enforcement of “Megan’s Law” which was passed on October 31, 1994. The law created a registration and notification procedure to alert law enforcement, schools, day care providers, organizations and neighborhoods to the presence of certain offenders.

Megan’s Law is intended to provide information about convicted sex offenders to individuals and groups based upon an assessment of the level of risk of the offender. Defendants convicted of certain sexual offenses are registered, evaluated and placed into tiers, which determine the level of community notification.

Registration is accomplished by either the custodial institution, shortly before release, or the police department in the municipality in which the offender/registrant resides. A Megan’s Law registrant is required to re-register with his or her municipal police department each time they change addresses. He/she must also advise the department in the municipality they are leaving. If a registrant does not move, they must visit their police department for address verification either annually or every ninety days/three months. For those who are classified as repetitive and compulsive must do so every ninety days/three months.

Completed registration materials are sent to the Prosecutor’s Office Megan’s Law Unit, which opens a file, verifies that the registrant is subject to Megan’s Law. Data is obtained about the offender’s history, including the Megan’s Law offense, other offenses, incarceration or supervision, treatment, counseling, and past and current status in the community and then the offender is classified into a tier.

Classification of an offender into a tier means that certain groups and/or individuals might be eligible to receive notices about the offender. Eligible recipients are as follows:

• Tier 1 (low risk): Law enforcement.
• Tier 2 (moderate risk): Tier 1, plus public and private schools, licensed day care centers, summer camps, (the above categories are automatically eligible), and organizations and establishments that supervise or care for children separate from their parents, or that care for women (battered women’s shelters) (the organizations and establishments must apply and be approved based upon their actual functions).
• Tier 3 (high risk): Tiers 1 and 2, plus residents in certain neighborhoods.

The passage of Megan’s Law required the Prosecutor’s Office to create, implement, and administer a process that involves not only the Prosecutor’s Office but also all county police departments, prisons, probation, parole, the courts, the Attorney General’s Office, other prosecutor’s offices, public and parochial school districts, day care providers, and various other groups, organizations, and establishments. This has necessitated the development of an entire system of procedures, files, documents and communication.

Each police department in Middlesex County has one or more Megan’s Law contact officer who is responsible for Megan’s Law duties and communications with the Prosecutor’s Office. The Unit has the ability to track cases, track offenders and maintain records and statistics. There is also a sonar mapping database which identifies areas to which public notification could be made, scan photographs and perform other operations.

To visit the NJSP – NJ Sex Offender Internet Registry please click here or visit www.njsp.org .