SORNA: Collaborative and Technological Approaches in Ohio

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 State of Ohio is working towards expanding its sex offender monitoring capabilities. The State plans on using funding under the SMART FY 2012 AWA Implementation Grant Program for two strategies: (1) to implement technological solutions that allow Ohio sheriffs to better track registered sex offenders; and (2) partnering between Ohio Attorney General's Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation (BCI) and the U.S. Marshals Service to identify and pursue sex offenders who have failed to register. In order to fulfill the first strategy, the
State hopes that the 88 sheriffs will acquire 24-month access to Offender Watch Express that will allow convicted sex offenders to register online prior to in-person verifications, and that the sheriffs will acquire 24-month access to a SMART Phone Verification Application to search for offenders and update the State's sex offender data. By the end of the project period, the State hopes that the BCI and the U.S. Marshals Service will attempt to locate and arrest a minimum of ten percent of non-compliant sex offenders in a designated jurisdiction or region and will partner in at least eight warrant roundups of non-compliant sex offenders.

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