§ 11-37.1-21. Duty of shelters and homeless shelters to notify law enforcement of the presence of sex offenders. (a) If any person convicted of any offense that requires sex offender registration pursuant to this title, or otherwise has a duty to register his or her address with the law enforcement agency in the municipality in which they reside, is provided residence in any homeless shelter, that person shall be required to inform the shelter of his or her status and duty to register and to provide his or her name and date of birth to each shelter or homeless shelter where he or she resides overnight.

(b) The obligation of the sex offender to provide the information required in subsection (a) of this section, shall be on a continuing daily and nightly basis and he or she shall provide said information to each and every shelter or homeless shelter at which he or she takes up temporary residence regardless of the length of time he or she stays at such shelter.

(c) The homeless shelter that receives information from any sex offender shall be required to transmit that information to the local law enforcement agency and if there be none, to the closest Rhode Island state police barracks before midnight of that day of the offender registering or signing in for the day, night, or any portion of a day.

(d) Any homeless shelter that violates the provisions of this section shall upon a first violation, be fined a civil penalty of up to five hundred dollars ($500); for a second violation, by a civil penalty of up to one thousand dollars ($1,000); and for a third or subsequent violation, by a civil penalty of up to five thousand dollars ($5,000).

(e) Jurisdiction over any violation by a homeless shelter shall be in the district court in the county in which the shelter is physically located.

(f) Any sex offender who fails to disclose information as required by this chapter shall be subject to the same penalties as set forth in § 11-37.1-10.

History of Section. (P.L. 2017, ch. 233, § 1; P.L. 2017, ch. 325, § 1.)