Office Of Justice Programs Awards More Than $15 Million To Improve Sex Offender Registration, Increase Public Safety

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering and Tracking, which is part of the Office of Justice Programs, today announced more than $15 million in grant awards to implement and enhance sex offender registration and management throughout the 50 states and District of Columbia, as well as in tribal communities and U.S. territories.

A seamless and effective sex offender registration and notification system is essential to any community and a critical safeguard in protecting citizens,” said Dawn Doran, the SMART Office’s Acting Director. “These awards give states, tribes and territories resources to bolster their public safety infrastructure, assess risk and combat sexual violence in their jurisdictions.”

More than $12 million will be used to assist jurisdictions with meeting and maintaining the requirements of the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA), Title I of the Adam Walsh Act. Jurisdictions will use funds to develop and enhance their sex offender registration systems in order to better track and monitor sex offenders, and to reduce violent crime and improve public safety. The Adam Walsh Act, signed into law on July 27, 2006, is designed to protect children and adults from child exploitation and violent crime, prevent child abuse and child pornography, promote internet safety and honor the memory of Adam Walsh and other crime victims.

Another $1 million will be used to provide training and technical assistance to help tribal jurisdictions enhance their implementation of SORNA’s requirements, and develop best practices to improve public safety in Indian country. Another $1 million will fund the development or validation of an assessment tool for sex offenders in Indian country.

The SMART Office is also supporting the Applying Circles of Support and Accountability in Indian Country training and technical assistance program. This $500,000 award will help bolster criminal justice systems in tribal communities that have already substantially implemented SORNA. The grant will help tribes develop strategies for managing sex offenders by encouraging the entire tribal community to aid in the management of sex offenders. The program’s ultimate goal is to enhance the tribe’s infrastructure for monitoring sex offenders and to better protect communities from sexual violence.

An additional $853,266 in funding was awarded to support maintenance, operations and technological improvements for the Dru Sjodin National Sex Offender Public Website, which allows the public to search for registered sex offenders on a national scale by linking state, territorial and tribal public registry websites.