Law and Criminal Justice Committee Meets with SMART Director

Posted May 7, 2008

The April 25, 2008 meeting provided an update on sex offender registration and notification requirements of states.

Laura Rogers, director of the federal Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering and Tracking (SMART) Office of the Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice, met with NCSL's Law and Criminal Justice Committee on Friday, April 25, 2008, in Washington, D.C. The meeting was part of NCSL's Spring Forum of the Standing Committees.

The meeting with Rogers provided the committee with an update on regulations, compliance and funding under the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006. As director of the SMART Office which now has a staff of nine, Rogers is responsible for working with states, localities and tribes to implement the sex offender registration and notification (SORNA title) of the Walsh Act.

Final guidelines will soon be released by SMART, according to Rogers. Final guidelines will follow the proposed OJP Guidelines to Implement the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA), which is Title I of the Adam Walsh Act (P.L 109-248).

Rogers said that "substantial compliance" will be further defined in the forthcoming final guidelines. Meanwhile, states can continue to submit compliance requests to SMART. Rogers advised committee participants that a "compliance checklist" soon will be added to the SMART web site.

To date, Rogers said, there aren't any states in compliance as it will be defined in the final guidelines.

Addressing funding, Rogers said that FY07 grants provided $11 billion to state, local and tribal entities to assist with implementation efforts. Information on recipients of those grants is on the SMART web site. Another open grant solicitation is forthcoming, according to Rogers, and priority will be given to entities not covered in the previous grant awards.

Rogers also discussed tribal issues related to compliance with SORNA, indicating that a majority of tribes have indicated to the SMART office that they want to be jurisdictions under the compliance requirements (rather than deferring those responsibilities to the state). Technical assistance will be provided by SMART to assist tribes in meeting those requirements.

Other federal assistance to states, localities and tribes includes software called for under the Act, which now is being tested, Rogers said.

In addition to Laura Rogers' federal update, Sarah Hammond of the NCSL Criminal Justice Program in Denver, Colorado, gave an overview of state legislative actions that respond to aspects of SORNA.

For more information, contact NCSL's Criminal Justice Program at cj-info@ncsl.org or the SMART Office at GetSmart@usdoj.gov.