The registry was created as part of Sierah’s Law, named in
memory of Sierah Joughin, a 20-year-old Toledo resident.
Photo courtesy of Justice for Sierah
Ohio’s Violent Offender Registry has been “live” for a year and contains 804 records.
The total includes 374 people still incarcerated and 309 who have actively registered their home address and vehicle information after being released from prison.
The database identifies people convicted of aggravated murder, murder, voluntary manslaughter, kidnapping and/or abduction in the hope of preventing them from committing another violent crime. Anyone convicted of such offenses after March 20, 2019, is required by law to report to his or her local sheriff ’s office once a year for a decade and within three days of moving to a new address.
Maintained by the Ohio Attorney General’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation, the database is available to law enforcement officers.
The registry was created as part of Sierah’s Law, named in memory of Toledo resident Sierah Joughin, a 20-year-old college student abducted and killed in 2016 by a man who had been convicted of abducting another woman under very similar circumstances 25 years earlier.
Justice for Sierah, a nonprofit group founded by Joughin’s family, championed the law.
“It is my purpose to make sure that Sierah is remembered for the positive changes we’ve made and not for the tragic way she was taken from us,” said Tara Ice, Sierah’s aunt and president of Justice for Sierah.
“In those first crucial hours that Sierah went missing, law enforcement was able to access the sex offender registry, but we were shocked to find out that they did not have access to specific information on the people who have committed the most serious and violent crimes,” Ice said. “We knew at that moment that we had to make a change.”
Among other efforts, the group is advocating for registry laws in all other states and working with education leaders to incorporate its Sierah Strong program, which teaches children self-awareness and self-defense, into curriculums for grades K-8.
“Self-defense, empowerment and knowledge,” Ice said, “are the first steps towards protecting our youth.”