USE OF PENALTY MAIL IN THE LOCATION AND RECOVERY OF MISSING CHILDREN

24 C.F.R. Part 13
in effectEffective: 2024-07-01

24 C.F.R. § 13.1 Purpose.

To support the national effort to locate and recover missing children, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) joins other executive departments and independent establishments of the Government of the United States in using penalty mail to disseminate photographs and biographical information on hundreds of missing children.

24 C.F.R. § 13.2 Procedures for obtaining and disseminating data.

(a) HUD shall insert, manually and via automated inserts, pictures and biographical data related to missing children in domestic penalty mail directed to members of the public in the United States, its territories and possessions. These include: (1) Standard letter-size envelopes (4 1/2″ × 9 1/2″); (2) Document-size envelopes (9 1/2″ × 12″, 9 1/2″ × 11 1/2″, 10″ × 13″); and (3) Other envelopes (miscellaneous size). (b) Missing children information shall not be placed on the Penalty Indicia, OCR Read Area, Bar Code Read Area, and Return Address areas of letter-size envelopes. (c) Posters containing pictures and biographical data shall be placed on bulletin boards in Headquarters and Field offices. (d) HUD shall accept camera-ready and other photographic and biographical materials solely from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (National Center). Photographs that were reasonably current as of the time of the child's disappearance shall be the only acceptable form of visual media or pictorial likeness used in penalty mail or posters.

24 C.F.R. § 13.3 Withdrawal of data.

HUD shall remove all printed penalty mail envelopes and other materials from circulation or other use within a three month period from the date the National Center receives information or notice that a child, whose picture and biographical information have been made available to HUD, has been recovered or that the parent or guardian's permission to use the child's photograph and biographical information has been withdrawn. The HUD contact person shall be notified immediately and in writing by the National Center of the need to withdraw from circulation penalty mail envelopes and other materials related to a particular child.

24 C.F.R. § 13.4 Reports.

HUD shall compile and submit to Office of Juvenile Justice and Deliquency Prevention (OJJDP), by June 30, 1987, a consolidated report on its experience in implementing S. 1195 Official Mail Use in the Location and Recovery of Missing Children along with recommendations for future Departmental action.

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