A couple of points: 1) How many grants will be given to Ohio in a year? see earlier story. 2) Note that the "ActiveCallback" system appears to be part of the "Offender Watch" vendor, who claims high recidivism which is not true according to the Dep't of Justice study.9-29-2010 Ohio:
Cordray’s office obtained the $155K federal grant
SPRINGFIELD, Ohio (WDTN) - Clark County Sheriff Gene Kelly and Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray announce Sept. 29 the implementation of two new programs designed to help county sheriffs pursue sex offenders who fail to register with the state’s electronic Sex Offender Registration and Notification (eSORN) system as required.
“Attorney General Cordray obtained a federal grant that will provide help to us in two ways,” said Sheriff Kelly. “First, we will be provided with a callback system that double-checks the phone numbers which offenders have listed on their registration. Second, we will be reimbursed when we have to travel out-of-state to arrest some of the worst offenders for registration issues. In a time of tight budgets, this is help we certainly can use to keep our communities safe.”
Cordray’s office obtained the $155,546 grant from the federal Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering and Tracking and the Adam Walsh Act Implementation Grant Program, which is part of the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs.
Cordray explained that the callback program, called Active Contact, is an automated system that calls eSORN registrants who are due to renew their registration. “The Active Contact system helps keep track of sex offenders in a couple ways,” Cordray said. “It calls offenders five days before they’re due to re-register, helping to assure the registry gets updated. But it’s important to note that in making those calls, the system is also double-checking the contact information each offender has submitted. If that number has been disconnected, that’s a good first clue that the offender may have tried to secretly relocate. Having this information allows our sheriffs to be more efficient in using their resources – in deploying their deputies to check up on offenders’ registration information in person.”
The second program will provide county sheriffs with up to $2,000 reimbursement when they must travel out of state to retrieve a wanted Tier III sex offender; Tier III is the most serious Ohio sex offender category.
Noncompliant offenders at times avoid prosecution simply because counties cannot afford the overtime and travel expenses needed to pick those offenders up.
The U.S. Marshals Service estimates that the cost to pick up an offender who is out of state can run between $1,800 and $2,100. The grant obtained by Attorney General Cordray will allow his office to reimburse county sheriffs for the extradition of 50 offenders wanted by Ohio sheriffs.
The grant period for both programs begins on October 1 and runs through March 2011. The extradition program will begin at the start of the grant period. The development of the Active Contact program is expected to take approximately one month, allowing calls to offenders in all 88 Ohio counties to begin in November. Once developed during the grant period, Active Contact will remain in use in Ohio after the grant period has concluded. The calls will be made every business day at various times of day.
Ohio joins Utah and Louisiana to become the third state in the U.S. to utilize the Active Contact callback program statewide. To listen to a sample recording of the automated calls being used in Utah, visit www.OhioAttorneyGeneral.gov/eSORNCalls. Please note that laws governing sex offender registration differ somewhat between states, therefore some information in the Utah recording may not apply in Ohio and the Ohio phone recordings will not identically match those used in Utah. ..Source.. by WDTN.com
