55. See, for example, Richard Perez-Pena, "Law to Rein in Hospital Errors Is Widely Abused, Audit Finds," New York Times, September 29, 2004.
56. http://www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov; http://www.qualitycheck.org (sites accessed May 12, 2006).
57. The federal Megan’s Law was preceded in 1994 by the Jacob Wetterling Crimes Against Children and Sexually Violent Offender Registration Act, which required states to establish registries for sex offenders and child molesters. The Wetterling Act also mandated more stringent registration requirements for the most dangerous offenders, designated as "sexually violent predators." States that fail to comply with the Wetterling Act risk losing 10 percent of federal anticrime funding. Jacob Wetterling Crimes Against Children and Sexually Violent Offender Registration Act, Pub. L. 103–322, Title XVII, Subtitle A, §170101, September 13, 1994, 108 Stat. 2038. See also Adkins, Huff, and Stageberg, 2000, p. 1.
58. See “Sex Offender Registration” (Westlaw 50 State Surveys: Surveys of Criminal Laws: Sex Offender Registration, 2006).
59. Logan, 2003.
60. In Alaska, the law had been ruled unconstitutional by the appellate courts because it punished ex post facto offenders who had been convicted before the state law was passed. Smith v. Doe, 538 U.S . 84 (2003). In the Connecticut case, one issue was whether disclosing offenders’ data without proving that they remained dangerous represented a violation of the guarantee of due process. Connecticut Dept. of Public Safety v. Doe, 538 U.S. 1 (2003).
61. 1990 Wash. Legis. Serv., ch. 3, §117 (codified at Wash. Rev. Code Ann. §4.24.550 (2005 & West. Supp. 2006)).
62. “The legislature ...finds that if the public is provided adequate notice and information, the community can develop constructive plans to prepare themselves and their children for the offender’s release. A sufficient time period allows comm unities to meet law enforcement to discuss and prepare for the release, to establish block watches, to obtain information about the rights and responsibilities of the community and the offender, and to provide education and counseling to their children.” 1994 Wash. Legis. Serv., ch. 129, §1 (codified at Wash. Rev. Code Ann. §4.24 .550 (2005 & West Supp. 2006)).
63. The Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs collects and maintains a statewide registry based on the information provided by individual county sheriff’s offices.
64. Wash. Rev. Code Ann. §9A.44.130.
65. Wash. Rev. Code Ann. §9A.44.130(10)(a),(b).
66. The Web site can be found at http://ml.waspc.org.
67. See http://ml.waspc.org/index.aspx.
68. The organization provides a range of services including a helpline for communities on using registry information; advocacy at the local, state, and federal level; and education, counseling, and policy research. The site maintained by the organization, http://www.parentsformeganslaw.com, also provides links to all fifty state registries as well as an evaluation of the accessibility of information. It gave Washington state a grade of “C” for its registry on the basis of a nationwide review of information accessibility in 2005.
