The Department of Justice has announced more than $7.3 million in grants for state and local governments to implement, train, maintain, and enhance their sex offender programs. From the press release:
These grants, administered by OJP's Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering and Tracking (SMART), break down into three areas of funding: Adam Walsh Act (Title I) implementation, Comprehensive Approaches to Sex Offender Management (CASOM) support, and Dru Sjodin National Sex Offender Public Website (NSOPW) operation.
More than $4.6 million will be used to develop or enhance sex offender registration programs; improve law enforcement and other justice agency information sharing as it relates to sex offender registration and notification; and implement other efforts aimed at furthering the objectives of Title I of the Adam Walsh Act, the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA).
The Adam Walsh Act was signed into law on July 27, 2006 and is designed to protect children and adults from sexual exploitation and violent crime. The Act also aims to prevent child abuse and child pornography, promote Internet safety, and honor the memory of Adam Walsh and other crime victims. SORNA was enacted to protect the public from convicted sex offenders and offenders against children by establishing a comprehensive national system for the registration and notification to the public of those offenders.
In addition to the $7.3 million, another $985,000 will help maintain, operate and enhance the Dru Sjodin National Sex Offender Public Website (NSOPW) and support the Tribe and Territory Sex Offender Registry System. NSOPW links to state, territory, and tribal sex offender public websites and allows the public to search for registered sex offenders on a national scale. With close to 20 million users and counting, NSOPW is an invaluable resource to the public.
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