Award Information
Description of original award (Fiscal Year 2013, $109,152)
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 Wyoming has substantially implemented the provisions of SORNA and now plans to enhance public safety by expanding its DNA database, to which sex offenders already contribute samples. The Wyoming Office of the Attorney General, Division of Criminal Investigation, State Crime Laboratory, will provide DNA collection kits to the Department of Corrections and will hire a part-time Forensic Analyst to assist in entering those samples into state and national databases. Information from the databases will be compared to the list of the incarcerated once a month to ensure that DNA has been collected from all individuals who are required to provide samples. In addition, this will allow the State of Wyoming's Sex Offender Registration Program to maintain and provide a comprehensive sex offender registration system that includes current DNA information for use by all law enforcement agencies through the use of the State and national databases. The availability of current and complete DNA information combined with the data from the State's registration program will significantly enhance law enforcement's jurisdictional efforts to address victim and public safety. ca/ncf