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Message From the Director


Fiscal Year 2012 (October 1, 2011, through September 30, 2012) was an important transition year for the SMART Office. Following the July 2011 Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA) implementation deadline, the SMART Office expanded its attention to two new activities: (1) establishing a procedure to reallocate SORNA penalty funds to those jurisdictions in which these funds could be repurposed to continue to support SORNA-related investments and improvements; and (2) establishing a system for jurisdictions that had already implemented SORNA to assure the SMART Office that such implementation was continuing and on track. Aside from these new activities, the SMART Office continued to provide focused technical assistance and developed new tools for those jurisdictions that had not yet ???substantially implemented??? SORNA, with a particular focus on tribal jurisdictions. A number of articles in this edition of SMART Watch describe these SMART Office resources and activities.

The SMART Office also established a new grant program in FY 2012—Promoting Evidence Integration in Sex Offender Management—which solidified the office???s commitment to support the spread of innovative and promising sex offender management programs or practices. The office did this by coupling the funding for specific projects with simultaneous funding for technical assistance to, as well as research and evaluation of, funded programs or practices. With this new program, the SMART Office is responding to the field???s expressed need for new and more effective evidence-based sex offender management programs and practices. This issue includes articles that provide additional information regarding funding activities supporting these and other projects in FY 2012.

As FY 2013 begins, the SMART Office looks forward to being able to continue its progress on SORNA implementation and provide guidance and funding to agencies and professionals nationwide who work every day to keep our communities safe and protected from sexual assault and exploitation.

Linda M. Baldwin
Director