Indiana

The Old Washington St. Bridge at White River State Park.

From the 50 State Visitor Guide :

Indiana Code 2019  I. C. §11-8-2-12.4  I.C. §§11-8-8-1 thru 11-8-8-22  I.C. §11-13-3-4  I.C. §36-2-13-5.5 & 5.6

Registration Triggers and Deadlines:

3 days for Initial registration and updates. 

Visitors: SO must register if in state for period of 7 days “(including part of a day)” w/in 180-day period, or work in the state for 7 consecutive days or 14 aggregate days/yr. §11-8-8-7(a)(1)(A) & (g). SVP must register within 3 days. §11-8-8-7(h).

Transients or “temporary residents” in transitional housing must register every 7 days.  §11-8-8-12.

Per Rolfe Survey, Visiting Registrants once placed on state’s registry ARE NOT REMOVED.

Residency/Presence and Other Restrictions:

Paroled registrants face certain residence restrictions.  §11-13-3-4.

Otherwise no statewide restrictions, but local restrictions are permitted.

Duration & updates:

10 yrs to life. “Violent” offenders update every 90 days.  Others annually. §11-8-8-14.

RV & MH Hall of Fame Museum, Elkhart, IN

Most recent visit: May 2023

There is good news and bad news about Indiana.  You can visit for seven days in any 180 day period, which doesn’t sound too bad depending on what your business is there, but Indiana is also one of a handful of states for which state law explicitly says that partial days count for visiting registrants.  Therefore when I passed thru Indiana in June 2022 on the eastbound leg of my trip from Iowa to the 2022 NARSOL National Conference and staying overnight at a state park campground, that counted as two days.  This also started the clock on a 180 day time period that would end most of the way thru the following December.  

Here’s another thing to consider.  Suppose I need to pass through Indiana any time during the next six months.  Even without stopping, each pass through will count as a partial day.  In order to avoid overstaying my seven full or partial days per 180 days, I would in theory have to continually keep track of every possible 180 day window throughout every calendar year and the number of full or partial days I have been in Indiana during every one of those possible 180 day periods as I travel back and forth from the east coast where I have family to the Midwest and Rocky Mountain states.  I need to do that, in theory, because if I were to ever get caught exceeding those seven days I would have to register as an Indiana sex offender, and I don’t want that to happen because Indiana is one of about 15 US states which never remove you after you return to your home state (per the “Rolfe Survey”).  There is no procedure for removal.

I have said “in theory” several times, because as you think about this complicated calendar math it will inevitably occur to you that if you just occasionally pass thru Indiana, and leave little or no electronic or paper trail, and have no interaction with law enforcement while doing so, you will in reality never be confronted with having to add it all up for every conceivable 180 day period.  It’s only if you actually stay in-state for a few days (including partial days) that you’ll need to pay some attention to this math.

There is some other good news.  Indiana has no statewide residency or presence restrictions once you’re off probation, although local restrictions are permitted.  Therefore at least in theory you can go anywhere and visit any point of interest, including staying overnight at any motel as I did in May 2023 or at a state park as I did in June 2022.

To make something of my second partial day in Indiana in June 2022 I decided to make a brief stop in Indianapolis.  Long ago in my previous life I had visited Eitlejorg Museum, so this time I thought I’d go to the Arboretum nearby.  However it turned out to be (a) outrageously expensive and (b) closed for renovations, so I settled on the Riverwalk in White River State Park.  

Unlike in Chicago where I had been on the previous day of that trip, registered visitors in Indiana are allowed to take a walk in the park.  I found it to be one of the nicer riverwalks I have visited while traveling around the country.  The Old Washington Street Bridge is very picturesque.

My most recent trip through Indiana was in mid-May 2023 on my way back to Iowa from my 2023 Northeast tour.  Since this was 11 months after the last time I’d set foot in the state I was re-starting the seven-days-per-six-months clock at zero.  I was staying overnight, so that leaves me five days (including partial days) of potential Indiana travel through mid-November 2023 when these two days can be erased. I entered from Ohio on I-80.

Now I’m going to tell you a story about Indiana’s Amish Country.  If you have read my blog about Pennsylvania you already know just how much I dislike Pennsylvania Dutch Country because it’s so over-commercialized.  Years ago I visited a SW Indiana Amish Country in Daviess County that was as untouristy as you can get and I really liked it.  This time I happened to pick up a brochure about an Amish Country auto tour in NE Indiana so I gave it a try.

Uggh – This one was horrible!  Every little town I drove through (Bristol, Middlebury, Goshen, Nappanee …) was overrun with fake Amish quilt shops, furniture stores, smorgasbord restaurants with attached gift shops and even conference hotels.  And of course, not an authentic Amish person to be seen in any of these places. 

However, I soon noticed that once you get out of the towns, there really are a lot of Amish people in this part of Indiana, going about their business and hiding behind this caricature of themselves that has been put in place to attract tourists.  Maybe for their sake it’s better that way.

Amish buggies packing the parking lot of a Mexican restaurant outside Middlebury, IN

Late in the day, as I was driving through one of the less touristy rural areas, I saw ahead of me a sign for a Mexican restaurant.  My first reaction was, what’s a Mexican restaurant like you doing in a place like this?  But taking a second look I saw that the parking lot was packed with Amish buggies!  Wow!! What’s wrong with this picture?!

Turning around to get another look, I noticed that in addition to all the buggies, there were, well, also a few cars in the parking lot. My curiosity soon got the best of me and I decided I had to stop and see what was going on here.

Here’s what was going on – a whole lot of Amish people, “off the clock,” dressed in what I can only describe as “Amish casual” were having a great night out eating and socializing at a Mexican Restaurant (“Burritos our specialty”).  The women and girls all wore bonnets of course, and modestly-colored but casual dresses.  The men and boys were also dressed Amish casual, the hats and suspenders were gone but of course the men had their bushy beards and the boys their bowl haircuts.

It looked to me like everybody knew each other, including the few non-Amish families, and all these neighbors were coming and going, chatting across the tables and enjoying life.  When my server brought my food (the whole staff were, if not Mexican, some kind of Latino and looking the part), I asked as quietly as I could, “So … is this some kind of special event …? or just the usual Saturday night crowd …?”

“The usual Saturday night crowd,” he said.  “In fact it’s a little slow tonight.  We usually have a waiting line going right out the door!”  So I sat back, ate my “Mexican Haystack” (glorified nachos) and decided this was the most authentic Amish experience I’d ever had!