Tennessee

Tennessee Aquarium with a farmers market going on in front.

From the 50 State Visitor Guide :

Tenn. Code Ann. 2019  §§40-39-201 through 40-39-306

AWA Compliant

Registration Triggers and Deadlines:

48 hours for initial reg. and updates, but “within 48 hours” is defined to not include weekends and holidays.  §40-39-202(32). 

Visitors must register “within 48 hours” of entering state. Per Tenn. SOR office, the 48 hour clock starts upon crossing the state line but will be interrupted from midnight to midnight on weekends and holidays. Also, per SOR office there is no limit on number of repeat visits per week, month or year.

“Primary residence” established after 5 consecutive days. “Secondary residence” means any residence for 14 or more aggregate days in a calendar year, or 4 or more days in a month.  “Residence” means physical presence. §§40-39-202, 40-39-203.

Residency/Presence and Other Restrictions:

Residence & Employment Restriction:  1,000 ft. from school, day care center, child care facility, public park, playground, recreation center or athletic field, or the offender’s victim or victim’s family. §40-39-211.  In 2019 TN applied new restrictions to residence with any minor; these restrictions are under a Temporary

Restraining Order pending trial (see NARSOL Digest 8/19 p. 5).

Residence restriction:  Violent offenders and those with convictions against minors may not reside in on-campus housing of any institution of higher education.

Presence restriction: 1,000 ft. from school, day care center, child care facility, public park, playground, recreation center or athletic field, with exceptions. §40-39-211.  Tennessee libraries have authority to restrict access by Registrants.  §40-39-216.

Per Tenn. SOR office, these restrictions DO apply to visitors during the 48 hour grace period.

Duration & updates:

Life.  Petition to remove – 10 years from end of probation.  §163A.125.

Violent offenders update quarterly; all others annually.  §40-39-207

 

Tennessee Valley Railroad

Most recent visit: April 2022

Tennessee is a very tough state if you get caught up in their registry.  As noted above, they have a long list of residency, employment and presence restrictions.  If you do end up on their registry it’s lifetime, although you can petition to be removed starting ten years from the end of your probation.  I don’t know about you, but when they say you can petition, I hear they can turn you down.  I don’t like that.

According to the SOR office, a procedure is available for removal from registry after departure, but it’s cumbersome & time consuming.  Once you’ve returned to your home state, you write or email them providing documentation that you’re back home and why you shouldn’t be on their registry – and supposedly they’ll take you off.  But the nice lady at the SOR office pointed out that your request for removal has to go through their attorney - - which sounds to me like a place where your request can get indefinitely delayed or turned down.  Better to avoid getting on in the first place!

Forty-eight hours is a very short time period to be allowed in any state.  Per the Tennessee SOR office, the 48 hour clock starts upon crossing the state line but will be interrupted from midnight to midnight on weekends and holidays.  So pay attention to your time, keep receipts to prove your whereabouts if you get pulled over, and if you plan to linger long enough to visit the Smokies, Dollywood, Opryland or Graceland, my advice would be to arrive on a Friday and leave on a Monday – or Tuesday if your weekend includes a holiday.  Be careful of local sheriffs & police departments!

However, per the Tennessee SOR office there is no limit on number of repeat visits per week, month or year. Supposedly you could hop in & out of Tennessee, overnighting in surrounding states having much longer visitor periods, e.g. Kentucky, North Carolina or Georgia.  Of course in doing that you’d have to keep track of your days or partial days in those surrounding states too.  Then cross back into Tennessee and start the 48-hour clock all over again.  Supposedly.

Also, regarding all those onerous residency, employment and presence restrictions, I have called the SOR office twice and gotten two different answers.  In 2020 they told me these restrictions don’t apply to visitors during the 48 hour grace period.  Since that sounded a little too good to be true I called back again in 2021 and this time the man who I talked to said yeah, actually they DO apply.  No schools, state or local public parks, playgrounds, recreation centers or athletic fields for you, registered visitor!  And you’d better stay 1000 feet away from them too!

Therefore my advice is to be extra careful if your travel plans take you to Tennessee.

Having said all that, Tennessee is a state I frequently have to pass through on my way to somewhere else because it’s long from east to west and stands in my way between Florida and many other destinations including Iowa.  In fact my trip between my summer and winter homes is a long two day drive during which the midpoint where I have to spend a night is often in Tennessee, where I cannot stay over at a state park campground.  Because of this I am currently scoping out the major truck stops along interstate highways to find out which ones (if any) allow overnight parking.

With all those precautions in mind, my 2022 Deep South Tour included an opportunity not only to visit southeastern Tennessee but to take advantage of their rule which excludes weekend days from the 48 hour visitors’ time clock.  Entering the state from Alabama at mid-morning on a Sunday, I was able to visit some of Chattanooga’s sights that day and find a National Forest campground before the 48 hour clock started at 12:01 AM Monday.

As a retired city planner, I consider downtown Chattanooga to be one of America’s best small city downtown revitalization success stories.  There was a farmer’s market in full swing right outside the Tennessee Aquarium – one of the Southeast’s best.  However, be careful not to go near the riverfront park or the beautiful pedestrian bridge over the Tennessee River because – that’s right, they are public parks and you’re not invited.  Just outside the city are Rock City, Ruby Falls and Lookout Mountain, all of which private attractions.  I have been to all of them in the past and love them, but on this trip I wanted to try something new.

Of the downtown attractions, my least favorite is the Chattanooga Choo-Choo which is hokey tourist trap.  However, just a few miles east of the city is an actual historic train ride, the Tennessee Valley Railroad, where I managed to snag the last ride of the afternoon before proceeding to my campsite. 

The good news is that, like a lot of other states where registered visitors cannot go to public parks, Tennessee has numerous national forests and they by definition aren’t parks.  Plus they are under the jurisdiction of the National Parks Service, not the state, so they are a safe refuge.  My campground was in Cherokee National Forest and was well equipped with hot water showers.

As the 48 hour clock ticked away on my second day in Tennessee I drove the mountainous country roads of the national forest, stopping to see Tuckaleechee Caverns and the Great Smoky Mountains Heritage Center.  The Heritage Center was well worth the stop.  It includes a Heritage Village with like houses, barns, blacksmith shop, grocery store, church, etc. all of which are authentic in the sense that they aren’t reconstructions, but the original buildings which were moved from their former locations to become part of this village at the Heritage Center.

Afterwards I doubled back and stayed at the same national forest campground as the night before.  The next morning I slept in but, with the time clock still ticking, decided to take no chances and continue on my way into Georgia.