290 Sex Offender Registrants & Residency Restrictions

IMPORTANT DEFINITIONS TO KNOW For people convicted of sex offenses:

“DISTANCE” is measured by a straight line between the main entrance of the residence and the boundary of the nearest park or school, not the driving or walking distance. 15 Cal. Code Regs. § 3571(e)(4). “RESIDENCE” is any place where:

    You spend 1 day or night at the same address every week for multiple consecutive weeks; You spend 2 or more days or nights in a row living at the same address; You have a key to the address “and there is a pattern of residency”; orThe parole agent finds evidence of your residency such your clothes or toiletries. 15 Cal. Code Regs. § 3590(a).

IMPORTANT: In the PAROLE & PROBATION CHAPTER of this guide, there is much more information about residency restrictions and other location-based restrictions for people required to register for sex offenses under California Penal Code section 290. Go to PG. 163 to learn more.

AS A BRIEF SUMMARY: In 2015, there were important changes in the law governing residency restriction for 290 registrants. Up until March 2015, as a result of Proposition 83 (“Jessica’s Law”), there were strict residency restrictions on people on parole who were required to register as sex offenders. If this law applied to you, you could not reside within 2,000 feet of any school or park where children regularly gather.[1206]

In March 2015, the California Supreme Court declared that the blanket residency restriction for all sex offenders required to register under California Penal Code section 290 is illegal. Now CDCR can place special restrictions on 290 registrants in the form of discretionary (decided specifically for you) parole conditions. These conditions can require more or less than Jessica’s law, but they must be based on facts surrounding each individual parolee’s case.[1207] The CDCR may also be able to impose other residency restrictions as special conditions of parole in individual cases based on specific case factors.[1208]

  1. 1206

    Cal. Penal Code § 3003.5(b). This rule applied to any sex offender released on parole on or after November 8, 2006, even if the most recent term was for a non-sex offense or the parolee was initially released before November 8, 2006, and later re-released after a parole revocation. In re E.J., 47 Cal.4th 1258 (2010). However, the residency restrictions could not be applied to people who were both convicted and released from custody prior to November 8, 2006. Doe v. Schwarzenegger, 476 F. Supp. 2d 1178 (E.D. Cal. 2007). ↑

  2. 1207

    In re Taylor, 60 Cal.4th 1019, 1042 (2015). ↑

  3. 1208

    For example, parolees convicted of violating Penal Code Sections 288 or 288.5 cannot live within one half-mile (2,640 feet) of a K-12 school if they are deemed “high risk” by CDCR. Cal. Penal Code § 3003(g). Also, a sex offender parolee cannot live in a single family house with another person who is also a sex offender, unless they are related by blood, marriage, or adoption. Cal. Penal Code § 3003.5(a). ↑