Adam Walsh Act SMART Grant FY 2013

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 Florida is planning to use grant funds to work toward the completion of two goals: (1) enhancing the Florida Registry's ability to receive, store, and manage employment/volunteer and school/university information for registered sexual predators and offenders; and (2) continuing to convert existing and incoming sexual offender and predator registration documents to digital format for improved information sharing capabilities. The major costs associated with these tasks include procuring contract programmers, testing and implementing system enhancements, hiring an analyst to assist with digitizing records and purchasing new scanning equipment. ca/ncf