MCL 28.724 is an excerpt of the Sex Offenders Registration Act. The key word in said act is convicted. A person who is convicted in a court of law of an offense pursuant to the act is required to register with this central registry.
MCL 722.628d(4) states in relevant part: "If following a field
investigation the department determines that there is a preponderance
of evidence that an individual listed in subsection (3) was the
perpetrator of child abuse or neglect, the department shall list the
perpetrator of the child abuse or neglect on the central registry."
Simply put, a person is placed on the Central Registry of Abuse and Neglect of a child without due process of the courts. What may not be publicly known is that there are many individuals who were never notified that they are on the Central Registry and, even moreso, there are individuals who remain on this Central Registry when the case was dismissed.
As Michigan slowly departs from the institutionalized philosophy that poverty is abuse and neglect, the probability that many, many individuals have been listed on this eternal registry for being poor will be significant. Inasmuch as this legislation provides the opportunity for those on the Central Registry to participate in society through employment, it does nothing for those who were never convicted through the finding of fact and conclusion of law.
Beverly Tran