New Jersey Department of Law and Public Safety FY13 SORNA/AWA Efforts

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 New Jersey, Department of Law and Public Safety is working toward implementing SORNA's requirements that involve jurisdictions maintaining electronic records of each sex offender's fingerprints and palm prints, as well as working towards a system that is more automated. To do this, they plan to (1) customize and enhance a web-based system that is not reliant on the mainframe; (2) leverage existing technologies and infrastructure, including Livescan equipment with palm print and photo capability, servers, network and application development technology; (3) eliminate manual intervention and processing to the greatest extent possible; and (4) minimize the burden on the registering agency to the greatest extent possible. ca/ncf