SMART FY 10 Support for Adam Walsh Act Implementation Grant Program

The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006 (AWA) (Pub. L. 109-248, 42 U.S.C. § 16901, et seq) authorizes the Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking (SMART) to administer sex offender management grants. These grants assist state, local and tribal jurisdictions in developing and/or enhancing sex offender registration and notification programs that support substantial implementation of Title I of the AWA, known as the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA). SORNA was enacted to protect the public from convicted sex offenders and offenders against children by establishing a comprehensive national system for the registration of those offenders.

In order to comply with Section 121 (b) of SORNA, the state of Missouri requires funding to maintain their mainframe system known as the Missouri Law Enforcement System (MULES) which houses Missouri's sex offender database. Due to the cost of maintaining a MULES line and/or interfacing it with regional record management systems already in use, 41 of Missouri's 115 registration jurisdictions cannot electronically register offenders and Missouri Prosecuting Attorneys and courts are unable to receive notifications when information relating to an offender changes. Additionally, Missouri requires two SORNA kiosks to distribute to Jackson County and St. Louis City, local jurisdictions with two of the largest sex offender populations within the state.

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