Great Smokey Mtns. Nat. Park:
A Special Report
From the 50 State Visitor Guide (North Carolina):
N.C. Gen. Stat. 2019 Art. 27A, §§14-208.5 through 14-208.45
Registration Triggers and Deadlines:
3 business days for initial reg. and updates. §§14-207, 14-208.9. New residents: w/in 3 business days of establishing residence, or whenever present in the state for 15 days, whichever comes first (“residence” not defined). §14-208.7. “Employed” means more than 14 days or more than 30 days in a calendar year. §14-208.6
Per Rolfe Survey, visiting registrants once placed on state’s registry ARE NOT REMOVED.
Residency/Presence and Other Restrictions:
Residence restriction: 1,000 ft. of school or child care center, with exceptions. §14-208.16. NC law includes a very expansive definition of “child care” that includes e.g. Boys & Girls Clubs. §110-86. However, “school” does not include “institutions of higher education” or “home schools” as defined in §115C-563.
Presence restrictions: For offenses involving a victim under 16 and other offenses, may not be present on “place intended primarily for the use, care, or supervision of minors,” or w/in 300 ft. of such a place if it is located on another property such as a mall. Also may not be present “where minors gather regularly for scheduled educational, recreational, or social programs.” Various exceptions for parents on school business, or in need of medical care. §14-208.18.
Duration & updates:
30 years to life. Petition to remove – 10 years. Tier III updates every 90 days; all others every six months. §§14-208.7A, 14-209A
From the 50 State Visitor Guide (Tennessee):
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
Most recent visit: June 2022
I’m writing this separate special report about Great Smoky Mountains National Park because it’s a very popular destination that’s located in two states with very different rules for visiting registrants. You need to be aware of these differences as you plan your visit.
I will begin by admitting that I myself had never considered this whole matter of how a U.S. National Park can be divided almost evenly between two states having very different laws applying to registered people, until I was standing at the Clingman’s Dome observation tower in June 2022 staring at a display board that showed how the NC-TN state line crossed that very spot.
I looked far off to the west and suddenly asked myself, what does this mean for me? My next stop was to be Cades Cove, which is in Tennessee. The Appalachian Trail follows the state line throughout the park and elsewhere in the region. Am I allowed to hike America’s most famous trail if it takes me more than 48 hours to get through Tennessee which it most certainly would?
It’s certainly true that North Carolina has a lot of onerous residence and presence restrictions which you should be concerned about. But as I approached Smoky Mountains National Park from the North Carolina side I traveled part of the Blue Ridge Parkway, which is administered by the National Parks Service which makes it a park too.
Neither the parkway nor the national park was a problem in North Carolina because they have no law against registered people visiting parks, whether local, state or national parks. You can also visit historic sites, museums and monuments of which the state has many. You get 14 days in-state without triggering an obligation to register. I had been there for less than a week.
Tennessee is a completely different story. 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. As I stood there at the Clingman’s Dome observation tower pondering my fate it was in fact about noon on Monday, June 20th which was Juneteenth (observed) so I knew I had about 12 hours of tourist time before the 48 hour clock started ticking. I was planning to be out of the park by evening anyway.
Tennessee has a long list of residency, employment and presence restrictions. I have called the SOR office twice about them 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!
Well, what about national parks? I had forgotten to ask! However I had asked a couple of other states’ SOR offices about this and been told that they are “out of our jurisdiction.” As I stood there staring into the Tennessee abyss I decided this rule must apply there too, it was a federal holiday, my 48 hour time clock would stand frozen anyway at 00:00 until long after I left the park, and the only law enforcement officers I was likely to see would be national park rangers.
Based on these assumptions I determined it would be perfectly safe to return to my car and proceed to Cades Cove. On the way I stopped at the Sugarlands Visitor Center to see the displays and buy a T-shirt. As always, Cades Cove was beautiful and lived up to its advance billing. By late afternoon I left the national park via the Townsend exit, resolving that when I update all my research later this summer, when I call the Tennessee SOR office I’ll ask specifically about national parks and historic sites. I sure hope they’re not a bunch of dickheads!