The Justice Department announced today that it is awarding $4 billion to support public safety and community justice activities in the states and territories and in local and Tribal communities. The grants, from the Department’s Office of Justice Programs (OJP), will fund efforts across the country to reduce violence, expand services for crime victims and survivors, and improve outcomes for youth and adults involved in the criminal and juvenile justice systems.
“The Justice Department is working together with our law enforcement and community partners across the country to turn the tide in the fight against violent crime,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “This $4 billion investment across more than 3,800 different programs will advance our efforts to drive down violent crime, support victims, build trust between law enforcement and the communities we serve, and ensure that all Americans feel safe and are safe in their communities.”
The more than 3,800 fiscal year 2024 grants that OJP is awarding will support community-driven public safety efforts and evidence-informed interventions designed to curb violent crime, address victimization, reduce recidivism, and strengthen bonds of trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve. This funding continues the investments in community safety made by the Justice Department since the release of its Comprehensive Strategy for Reducing Violent Crime in 2021.
Last week, the White House and the Justice Department announced targeted investments to aid communities in reducing gun violence, a centerpiece of which is OJP’s Community Based Violence Intervention and Prevention Initiative. This initiative has now awarded more than $270 million to support community-led violence intervention programs and related training and technical assistance and research, funded in part through the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.
“The Department of Justice is committed to supporting violence prevention efforts, increasing safety and wellness for law enforcement and the communities they serve, expanding services for victims, and enhancing our research and data collection capacity to advance effective community safety strategies,” said Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General Benjamin C. Mizer. “The grants announced today further our longstanding efforts to work with our state, local, and Tribal partners to advance community-based approaches to promoting safety and justice for all communities.”
The funding announced today will expand partnerships between the justice system and community-based organizations, support collaboration between law enforcement officials and behavioral health professionals when responding to crises, help people involved in the criminal and juvenile justice systems successfully return to their communities, provide trauma-informed services to victims and survivors of crime, including those in underserved areas, make available a full range of support for children and youth, improve registration and management practices for people convicted of sex offenses, and support research and statistical activities to expand the base of knowledge and available data about the nation’s community safety challenges for years to come.
“Over the last three-and-a-half years, we have been working closely with our justice system and community partners, as co-producers of safety and justice, to advance comprehensive solutions to the most pressing public safety challenges facing America’s communities,” said OJP Acting Assistant Attorney General Brent J. Cohen. “Today, we are proud to deliver billions of dollars in additional resources to promote community safety and create a more equitable justice system for all. I look forward to the progress we will continue to make, together, to achieve safer and more just communities.”
Grants will support five major community safety and justice priorities:
- Promoting safety and strengthening trust through both long-standing programs like Project Safe Neighborhoods and the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grants programs and more recent innovative efforts like the groundbreaking Community Based Violence Intervention and Prevention Initiative and the Byrne State Crisis Intervention Program. Funding will also support the well-being and safety of law enforcement and public safety professionals, promote rehabilitation and reentry success through initiatives like OJP’s Second Chance Act programs and address the rise in hate crimes across the country.
- Accelerating justice system reforms designed to achieve justice and fair treatment for all. Through programs like Reimagining Justice, funding will support alternative solutions to low-level offenses in historically underserved and marginalized communities, and efforts like the Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program and the Connect and Protect initiative will increase opportunities for deflection and diversion and build pathways to treatment and other recovery support services for individuals with behavioral health conditions. Funding from the Comprehensive Opioid, Stimulant and Substance Use Program will improve prevention, harm reduction, treatment and recovery options to address the substance use and overdose challenges facing communities across America.
- Improving the fairness and effectiveness of the juvenile justice system by supporting developmentally appropriate and culturally responsive interventions for youth. Programs like the Building Local Continuums of Care to Support Youth Success initiative will help build an infrastructure of support for youth, from prevention and intervention to trauma-informed services and reentry. Funding will also support programs designed to protect children from violence and abuse, and support the new Children’s Justice Project to help identify children who have been found deceased but have not yet been identified.
- Expanding access to victim services by investing in programs that provide trauma-informed and culturally responsive services to victims and survivors. In addition to supporting thousands of local victim assistance and state victim compensation programs in every state and five territories, initiatives like the Trauma Recovery Center Demonstration Project and the Meeting the Basic Needs of Crime Victims in Underserved Communities Program will help bring services to survivors of violence in neighborhoods disproportionately impacted by violence and victimization. The Tribal Victim Services Set-Aside Program will fund healing and support services for victims and survivors in American Indian and Alaska Native communities.
- Advancing science and innovation to strengthen the base of knowledge that policymakers, practitioners and communities can use to design and deploy effective community safety strategies. Awards will support research and data collection on a wide range of public safety issues, from firearms violence and domestic radicalization to hate crimes and school safety. Funding will also help maintain timely and accurate criminal history records and improve the capacity of crime labs and forensic analysts to solve crimes, absolve the innocent and deliver justice to victims.
More information about the awards announced today can be found by visiting the OJP Grant Awards homepage.
This crime news article "Justice Department Awards $4B to Support Community Safety" was originally found on https://www.justice.gov/usao/pressreleases