The U.S. Marshals Service is working with Montana's tribes toensure they meet a quickly-approaching July 26 federal deadline toestablish their own sex offender tracking and registrationprograms.
The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act requiresconvicted sex offenders to register where they live, work andattend school at least once a year - or more depending on wherethey place within a three-tiered threat system - and within threedays of moving across state or tribal lines.
Tribal authorities on Montana's reservations were given thechoice of setting up their own registries or adopting those alreadyin place within the state, and they chose to implement theirown.
The Marshals Service has been helping the reservations get setup since 2007 with varying results and officials said they're onhand to help until the deadline.
"We're going to support them as best we can," said MarshalDarrell Bell, who has driven more than 8,000 miles in his pickupsince being sworn in this January. "We've done a lot of traveling,but it's all been very positive and we've gone beyond, 'Hey, we'rejust coming here to arrest one of your tribal members.'"
The basic needs to set up a sex offender registry include hiringa compliance officer to check on and track registered offenders anda computer system for data entry.
The Fort Peck and Northern Cheyenne reservations have alreadyset up their programs with the help of $59,022 and $91,454 federalgrants, respectively, received in 2008.
Chief Deputy Marshal Rod Ostermiller said the Fort Peck programis a good example of how it can work because tribal authoritieswork closely with county, state and federal agencies.
The Crow Reservation near Billings is in the process of settingits system up while the Rocky Boy and Fort Belknap reservationshave told marshals they'll have theirs ready for the deadline.
One reservation, the Blackfeet in northwestern Montana, hasalready said it will hand authority over to the Glacier CountySheriff's Office.
Ostermiller said a deputy has been assigned to each reservationto help facilitate the process and it's something his office istaking seriously.
There are 2,024 registered sex offenders in the state and 1,099living in counties that contain at least a small portion of areservation.
It should be noted, however, that 641 of those offenders live inYellowstone and Missoula counties, which contain small parts of theCrow and Flathead reservations as well as Billings and Missoula,the state's two most populous cities.
Bell said that, in the past, some offenders on the run have beenable to hide out on reservations because of the conflictingjurisdictions but that the Adam Walsh Act has given tribes andauthorities the tools to work together.
"One of the biggest things is that they have the resourcesavailable to help, so we're trying to build a better relationshipbetween our agency and theirs," Bell said.
He added that a strong victim advocate program also goes hand inhand with the registry because the help give victims a sense ofsecurity.
The Marshals Service will help if somebody goes on the run.
"If one person's out of compliance, it's one too many," Bellsaid. "It's frightening."
Much of the money over the last few years for the programs hascome from federal grants. While those funds can be tough to come bydue to money-saving measures at the federal level, officials sayit's an important program.
"We feel that the task of basically monitoring registered sexoffenders is too important to put a price tag on," Ostermillersaid.
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