CO Substantial Implementation of the AWA Grant Project

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.

The Colorado Division of Criminal Justice's objectives are to implement SORNA by providing the ability to immediately transfer registrants' information between Colorado local law enforcement jurisdictions, the State of Colorado as a SORNA jurisdiction, the U.S. Marshals Service, and the two tribes in Colorado (Southern Ute Indian Tribe and the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe); entering existing registrant records and documents into a digital format; improving the process to share documents across jurisdictions, both on a local and SORNA jurisdiction level; enhancing tracking and management of registrants; decreasing non-compliant registrants; increasing apprehension of absconders; and using registrants information for ongoing sex crime investigations; providing a mechanism for both Colorado Indian tribes to be a part of a statewide, integrated registry system, including a public internet website for tribal members; providing increased functionality to the state sex offender public internet website to meet SORNA requirements; and transferring of information via the SORNA Exchange Portal to other jurisdictions outside the state in a digital format.

ca/ncf