Message From the Director

Byrne JAG applications are being processed; BJA is "PARTing" Byrne to measure performance, and the first phase of Spring Call for BJA's 2007 budget request has been submitted for review.

Committed to demonstrating the value of criminal justice programs, BJA has recently embarked on a tremendous opportunity to offer citizens with critical and timely information on sex offenders nationwide: the National Sex Offender Public Registry (NSOPR). Just last week Attorney General Alberto Gonzales announced NSOPR in his "First 100 Days" speech at the National Press Club, and directed the Office of Justice Programs' BJA to have at least 20 state public sex offender registries connected and available for use in 60 days. Via web services and the U.S. Department of Justice's (DOJ) Global Justice XML which allows systems to "speak" to each other, this national web site will provide parents and concerned citizens with a free-of-charge, reliable national portal to access already existing public state and territory sex offender registries. NSOPR will not collect or retain any control over sex offender data, and there will be no cost to the state or territory to link to the national site. For details on this high value public safety initiative contact David Lewis, BJA Senior Policy Advisor for Information Sharing, at (202) 616-7829.

On a technology related note, many states have been contacted by a company called Altum regarding a new performance measures reporting tool for federal justice funding. While BJA met with Altum representatives to view a demonstration of this product, BJA has neither purchased the product nor is currently working with Altum on any project. Most importantly, there is no requirement on your grants or by BJA for you to utilize this company or its product. For any comments you may wish to share regarding the company, please contact Matthew Hanson directly at (202) 616-0649.

Finally, BJA's own Patrick McCreary, Associate Deputy Director for Policy, was named one of Federal Computer Week magazine's federal 100 award winners. Awarded to the top executives from government, industry, and academia who had the greatest impact on the government information systems community in 2004, Patrick was selected because of the difference he made in the way agencies and companies develop, acquire, manage, and use information technology in the justice arena. His efforts on the DOJ Global Justice Initiative have added great information sharing value to the field-and ultimately served to advance efforts for the new National Sex Offender Public Registry. This win-win represents the best in a return on investment: an outstanding employee receives well-deserved recognition while government builds on the success to design all new and exceptional resources for America's communities.

Domingo

Domingo S. Herraiz
Director
Bureau of Justice Assistance