Award Information
Description of original award (Fiscal Year 2007, $249,665)
The Comprehensive Approaches to Sex Offender Management (CASOM) Grant Program is authorized under Title IV of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, Pub. L. No. 103-322, 42 U.S.C. 13941. The CASOM grants are awarded to state, local, and tribal jurisdictions to develop or enhance sex offender management practices for offenders under community supervision. The Office of Justice Programs awards implementation and enhancement grants. Implementation and enhancement grants are intended to assist jurisdictions either to implement strategic plans already developed or to enhance existing sex offender management strategies.
The Mobile Community Corrections Center (MCCC) plans to utilize the $249,665 in grant funds to unify and modernize the tracking of sex offenders in the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit (TJC). Law enforcement agencies within the TJC are responsible for monitoring and tracking over 700 sex offenders who must register with the Mobile County Sheriff's Office. If an offender lives or works within a municipality in Mobile County, the offender must also register with that municipality. Sex offenders must notify law enforcement 30 days prior to an anticipated change of residence or employment.
MCCC will develop an integrated sex offender tracking system (SOTS) within Mobile County. SOTS will provide a mobile countywide integrated sex offender information system that allows law enforcement to reduce man hours and increase registration compliance of sex offenders in the jurisdiction. SOTS's capabilities include: (1) tracking the sex offender's eligibility to live in a certain area through the utilization of geomapping, (2) maintaining a computerized history of sex offenders' addresses and places of employment, and (3) monitoring the sex offender's status within the criminal justice system.
Further, the grant will support a trained full time surveillance sex offender officer and a specialized judiciary available to hear all child sex offense cases in the target area.
CA/NCF