The act serves four basic purposes. First, it reformulates the federal standards for sex offender registration in state, territorial and tribal sexual offender registries, and does so in a manner designed to make the system more uniform, more inclusive, more informative, and more readily available to the public online. Second, it introduces a fairly extensive and diverse set of amendments to federal criminal law and procedure, featuring, among other things, a federal procedure for the civil commitment of convicted sex offenders upon their release from prison, a random search authority over sex offenders on probation or supervised release, and a number of new mandatory minimum terms of imprisonment for various new and existing federal sex offenses. The act arrived on the President's desk as H.R. Sex Offender Registration

One of the center pieces of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act is the revision of the nation-wide sex offender registration system. The earlier statute, the Jacob Wetterling Act, encouraged states to establish and maintain a registration system. Finally, jurisdictions must participate in the Megan Nicole Kanka and Alexandra Nicole Zapp Communication Notification Program under which they are obligated to provide updated registration information within five days to the Attorney General; to law enforcement, school and public housing officials in the area where the registrant lives, works, or studies; to other jurisdictions where the registrant lives, works, or studies or recently did so; to National Child Protection Act background check agencies; to child welfare agencies; to certain volunteer organizations; and to individuals and entities that request notification under a jurisdiction's law. Adjustments in Federal Criminal Law

The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act is focused, as its name implies, upon child protection and safety. murder in the course of a wider range of federal sex offenses, 18 U.S.C. 2245 Internet date rape drug trafficking, 21 U.S.C. There is no statute of limitations for federal capital offenses or for any of federal crimes of terrorism involving a risk of serious injury. State crime victims in federal habeas proceedings

The victims of federal crimes enjoy limited statutory rights to notice, attendance and participation in related federal judicial proceedings, 18 U.S.C. The National Police Athletic League Youth Enrichment Act established a grant program for the Police Athletic League, with an authorization of appropriations in the amount of $16 million a year through FY2005. Other Child Safety Initiatives

The act sets forth a wide assortment of other provisions designed to prevent, prosecute or punish the victimization of children.
The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, ( P.L. 109-248 , H.R. 4472 ), emerged from Congress following the passage of separate bills in the House and Senate ( H.R. 3132 and S. 1086 respectively). The act's provisions fall into four categories: a revised sex offender registration system, child and sex related amendments to federal criminal and procedure, child protective grant programs, and other initiatives designed to prevent and punish sex offenders and those who victimize children.
The sex offender registration provisions replace the Jacob Wetterling Act provisions with a statutory scheme under which states are required to modify their registration systems in accordance with federal requirements at the risk of losing 10% of their Byrne program law enforcement assistance funds. The act seeks to close gaps in the prior system, provide more information on a wider range of offenders, and make the information more readily available to the public and law enforcement officials.
In the area of federal criminal law and procedure, the act enlarges the kidnaping statute, increases the number of federal capital offenses, enhances the mandatory minimum terms of imprisonment and other penalties that attend various federal sex offenses, establishes a civil commitment procedure for federal sex offenders, authorizes random searches as a condition for sex offender probation and supervised release, outlaws Internet date drug trafficking, permits the victims of state crimes to participate in related federal habeas corpus proceedings, and eliminates the statute of limitations for certain sex offenses and crimes committed against children.
The act revives the authorization of appropriations under the Police Athletic Youth Enrichment Act among its other grant provisions and requires the establishment of a national child abuse registry among its other child safety initiatives.
This report is available in an abridged version, without footnotes and most citations to authority, as CRS Report RS22646, Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act: A Sketch , by [author name scrubbed].