The Montana Department of Justice Sexual or Violent Offender Registry describes itself as a resource created by the department in 1989 for Montanans to protect their families against sexual or violent offenders, and its history panel explains how it grew: the April 1989 law created a central registry kept by the Department of Corrections, required only sexual offenders to register, for ten years, made no registration information public and punished a failure to register as a misdemeanor, and the April 1995 law, which became the Sexual or Violent Offender Registration Act, redefined the offenses and made Montana one of the few states that register violent offenders alongside sexual offenders. The site offers the search, an interactive statistics dashboard for the cities, counties and the state, reports on the number of registered offenders by county and city with subtotals for sexual, violent and sexual and violent offenders and on the number of convictions by offense, a bulk data request form, a list of non compliant offenders whose whereabouts local law enforcement has found to be unknown, with a request for help in locating them, and sign up for automatic daily email alerts when offenders move within chosen ZIP codes. The Offender Registration Unit answers at (406) 444-7068 for sexual offenders and (406) 444-9877 for violent offenders, takes written inquiries from offenders with the full name, address and date of birth, directs reports of current criminal activity to the local police, and takes corrections through its contact page; the site also carries the model community notification policy the 2007 legislature required the department to write for consistency in how agencies notify communities.
The act, Part 5 of chapter 23 of Title 46 of the Montana Code Annotated, protects the public by requiring sexual or violent offenders to register with the local law enforcement agency where they live and making the information available, and section 46-23-502 defines the registration agency as the police department of the municipality where the offender lives or the sheriff's office of the county otherwise, a residence as any location where a person regularly resides that can be found by a street address, a house, apartment, motel, hotel or vehicle but never a homeless shelter, and a transient as an offender with no residence. The police departments and sheriff's offices that register offenders in each county are on the Montana county pages.
- Search: the Department of Justice registry of sexual and violent offenders, with a statistics dashboard, county and offense reports, the non compliant list and daily email alerts by ZIP code.
- Registration: with the municipal police or county sheriff immediately after sentencing when not confined, at least ten days before release when confined, within three business days of entering a county to live or stay ten days or 30 days a year, and within three business days for a transient, with fingerprints, a photograph and DNA.
- Levels: a sexual offender is designated level 1, low risk, level 2, moderate, or level 3, high risk and a sexually violent predator, by the sentencing court on a licensed evaluator's psychosexual report; the level sets the verification mail, every 90 or 180 days or yearly, and what the public sees.
- Duration: life for a sexual offender, with a petition for relief after ten years at level 1 or 25 years at level 2 on a clean record; ten years for a violent offender, then automatic removal unless a new felony or a registration offense makes it life.
Written by SearchSystems.net from Montana's own systems: the Montana Department of Justice Sexual or Violent Offender Registry, the registry's email notification service questions, the registry's statistics and reports page, Montana Code Annotated section 46-23-502 on definitions, section 46-23-504 on persons required to register and the procedure, section 46-23-505 on notice of changes, section 46-23-506 on the duration of registration and relief, section 46-23-508 on dissemination of information, section 46-23-509 on psychosexual evaluations and designations, each read on October 14, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
Who registers: the sexual offenses and the violent offenses
Section 46-23-502 defines a sexual or violent offender as a person convicted of, or found in youth court to have committed or adjudicated for, a sexual or violent offense. A sexual offense is any violation, attempt, solicitation, conspiracy or flight after the attempt or commission of unlawful restraint, kidnapping or aggravated kidnapping of a victim under 18 by someone other than a parent, the listed subsections of sexual assault, sexual intercourse without consent, the listed subsections of indecent exposure, incest when the victim is under 18 and the offender three or more years older or the victim 12 or younger and the offender an adult, aggravated sexual intercourse without consent, the listed prostitution subsections, endangering the welfare of children under the listed subsection, sexual abuse of children, ritual abuse of a minor, patronizing a victim of sex trafficking, aggravated sex trafficking, child sex trafficking, sexual abuse of a vulnerable adult, deviate sexual conduct, grooming of a child for a sexual offense, and any reasonably equivalent violation of the law of another state, a tribe, the federal government, the military or a foreign entity, or any offense for which the person had to register elsewhere, with foreign offenses counted from Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and any country whose judiciary the State Department reported as generally enforcing the right to a fair trial that year.
A violent offense is deliberate or mitigated deliberate homicide, aggravated assault, a third or later partner or family member assault, the listed forms of assault on a peace or judicial officer, assault on a minor, assault with a weapon, strangulation of a partner or family member, kidnapping or aggravated kidnapping of an adult, abuse or sexual abuse of a vulnerable adult, robbery, arson, operation of an unlawful clandestine laboratory, and equivalents from other jurisdictions.
A sexually violent predator is a person convicted of a sexual offense who suffers from a mental abnormality or personality disorder making the person likely to engage in predatory sexual offenses, those against a stranger or a person befriended for victimization, or any adult convicted of a sexual offense against a victim of 12 or younger.
Registering: immediately, ten days before release, or three business days
Section 46-23-504 sets four clocks: a sexual or violent offender registers immediately on conclusion of the sentencing hearing when not sentenced to confinement, must be registered at least ten days before release when confined, registers within three business days of entering a county to reside or to set up a temporary residence for ten days or more or for more than 30 days in a calendar year, and, as a transient, registers within three business days of entering a county.
Registration is with the municipal police or the county sheriff, the police telling the sheriff of each registration, and the probation officer verifying the registration of an offender sentenced without confinement. The offender signs a written statement giving every name and alias, the Social Security number, the residence information, every employer's name and address, every school, the driver's license number, the description, registration and plate of every vehicle owned or operated, every email address, instant message identifier, internet moniker and social media designation, every passport, which the agency photocopies, every cellular, landline and internet telephone number and every professional license with its number and issuing agency; the agency fingerprints the offender unless prints are already on file, photographs the offender, takes a DNA sample for the state DNA index, sends the statement, prints and photographs to the Department of Justice within three days, and has a level 2 or level 3 offender return for a new photograph every year.
An offender who regularly lives in more than one county or municipality registers with each agency, and one with several locations in one jurisdiction lists them all and names a primary residence. A transient reports in person every month, on a day the agency sets, giving the full statement and, on request, where the person stayed in the past 30 days and will stay in the next 30. The offender bears the registration costs, if able to pay, at no more than the actual cost, and the clerk of the district court tells the sheriff of every sexual or violent conviction within ten days of the judgment.
The three levels and the sexually violent predator
Section 46-23-509 has a licensed sexual offender evaluator give the court, before sentencing, a psychosexual evaluation report recommending level 1, where the risk of a repeat sexual offense is low, level 2, where it is moderate, or level 3, where it is high, there is a threat to public safety and the evaluator believes the offender is a sexually violent predator; at sentencing the court reviews the report and any statement by the victim or the offender, designates the level, and designates a level 3 offender a sexually violent predator.
A level 2 offender, or one given a similar level elsewhere, may petition the sentencing court or the district court of residence to change the designation after completing the treatment phase of the prison's sexual offender treatment program or an approved equivalent, and the court changes it only on clear and convincing evidence that the risk has changed since sentencing. An offender sentenced before October 1, 1997 without a level receives one from the Department of Corrections at release, an offender arriving from another state or the federal system may keep the level assigned there, must otherwise hand over every prior risk assessment and psychosexual evaluation, and undergoes one at the offender's own expense when none exists, the lack of a fixed residence being a factor the court or the department may weigh, and when an offender turns out to have no level at all the offender, the attorney general or the county attorney may petition the district court to assign one after a hearing.
Verification every 90, 180 days or year, and the changes
The Department of Justice mails a registration verification form every 90 days to a level 3 offender, every 180 days to a level 2 offender and every year to a violent offender or a level 1 offender, sending a transient's form to the agency of last registration; the form requires the offender's notarized signature and goes back within ten days of receipt to the agency where the offender last registered, a sexual offender returning it in person so that the agency can take a photograph and collect DNA if none was taken, and the agency sends the form and the latest photograph to the department within three days.
Under section 46-23-505 an offender who changes a name or residence or a student, employment or transient status appears in person within three business days at the agency of last registration, or at the agency of the county being left for an offender first registered before release, a transient gives written notice to the same agency, and the agency forwards the change to the department within three business days for relay to the new county and municipality; an offender away from the county of residence for more than ten consecutive days registers on the eleventh day in the county where the person is, registers again in any later county after more than 24 hours until home again, and gives the agency notice in person at least three days before leaving the state for more than seven days, which the department passes to the destination jurisdiction.
The registry's own email service page explains that an address is recorded when the required verification letter arrives, when law enforcement or the Department of Corrections reports a change, or when an error is corrected, and that the subscriber's email goes out the next business day, Tuesday through Saturday, one per day for the subscribed ZIP codes.
Life for sexual offenders, ten years for violent offenders, and the petitions
Under section 46-23-506 a sexual offender registers for the rest of the offender's life, except while in prison and except through the petition below, and a violent offender registers for the ten years after release from confinement or after the sentencing hearing when not confined, is then automatically relieved and removed by the department, unless convicted during those ten years of failing to register or keep the registration current or of a felony, which makes the duty lifelong until a court grants relief after ten years on finding that the offender has remained law abiding and that continued registration is unnecessary for public protection and relief is in society's interest.
A level 1 sexual offender after ten years of registration and a level 2 sexual offender after 25 may petition the sentencing court or the district court of residence for relief, serving the county attorney, who sends the petition to the attorney general and to the victim of the last offense; the court weighs the victim's statements, may close the hearing while letting the victim and a support person attend, and may grant relief on finding a clean record and no public protection need, a clean record meaning no felony conviction, no sexual offense conviction, supervision completed without revocation and an appropriate treatment program completed.
No petition is open to an offender convicted of sexual intercourse without consent by force or against a victim under 12, of incest against a victim under 12 by an offender three or more years older, of a second or later sexual or violent offense requiring registration, or of a sexual offense with a sexually violent predator designation; a level 3 offender adjudicated as a juvenile may have the term reduced to 25 years after 25 consecutive clean years; every petition is filed in a Montana district court, and relief orders from other jurisdictions are not valid in Montana.
What the public sees by level
Section 46-23-508 makes everything in the registry confidential criminal justice information except the name and address of a registered sexual or violent offender, which are public, and except what the department or the registration agency releases on finding that a registrant is a risk to community safety and that disclosure may protect the public, with a floor for each class: for a violent offender the name and the offenses; for a level 1 sexual offender the address, name, photograph, physical description, date of birth, offenses, employer address and postsecondary school address; for a level 1 offender who committed an offense against a minor and for a level 2 offender those items plus the type of victim targeted, the plate and description of any vehicle and any safety conditions the court imposed; and for a level 3 offender a notification with all of that plus the date of release from confinement, or the sentencing date with a note that the offender was not confined, and the community where the offense occurred.
A registration agency may ask a district court to review its determination in camera before release, the victim's identity is never released without the victim's permission, dissemination may be by newspaper, flyer, internet or any other medium chosen with the offender's risk in mind, and the department's model policy guides the agencies.
Reading a Montana result
A listing on the department's registry carries the offender type, sexual, violent or both, and for a sexual offender the level, which tells the reader the verification cycle, every 90 days, 180 days or year, the yearly photograph for levels 2 and 3, how much the law lets the agency publish, and when a petition for relief can first be filed, after ten years at level 1, after 25 at level 2 and never at level 3; a violent offender's entry disappears by itself after ten years.
A name on the non compliant list means a registrant whose whereabouts the local police have lost. The police or sheriff of the place of residence hold the signed statement, the prints and the photographs, the department in Helena mails the verification forms and keeps the DNA index, and the sentencing court or the district court of residence holds the level and the petition.
Questions about the Montana sex offender registry
Related Montana records
Montana's other public records guides on this site are the Montana arrest records guide for what a booking makes public, the Montana inmate search guide for the Department of Corrections and the county detention centers, the Montana background check guide for the Department of Justice criminal history checks, and the Montana county pages for every sheriff and police department.