Yankton Sioux Tribal SORNA 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 Yankton Sioux Tribe is working towards developing and implementing the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA). The most pressing problem faced by the tribe is lack of funding to operate an office for sex offender registry that is staffed and equipped for full compliance of SORNA. The tribe plans to implement the following goals during this grant period: (1) registration form development from previously created forms with additional information as required; (2) registration and updates made available for information sharing with other agencies and tribes; (3) review of proposed code by the Tribal Attorney's Office to ensure all requirements of offenses that must be included in the registry are proposed; (4) review of proposed code by the Tribal Judge and Tribal Prosecutor for inclusion of tribal level offenses and sentencing; (5) identification and discussion of tiers and levels of offenses included in the Code; (6) finalization of registration forms with new hired staff; (7) notification of required registration information to offenders; (8) development of the website registry requirements; and (9) review of and comments on penalties for failure to register by the Tribal Court.

ca/ncf