State Strategic Planning Under the Drug Formula Grant Program

• NCJ Number: 136610
• Author(s): T Dunworth; A J Saiger
• Date Published: 1992
• Length: 151 pages
• Grant Number(s): 89-IX-CX-0043
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored
• Publication Type: Program/Project Evaluation

Annotation

This evaluation of phase I of the Federal Drug Control and System Improvement Formula Grant Program describes the strategic planning processes that States have established, evaluates the content of the strategies that have resulted, reports on States' reactions and responses to the program, and offers recommendations on ways to improve the strategic planning function.

Abstract

This evaluation incorporates the experiences of all 56 recipients of formula grant funds. The evaluation found that States have embraced strategic planning for drug control, but State strategies are not comprehensive in the sense implied by the legislation. Also, several Federal mandates that govern strategy development are sometimes not completely followed. Opposing trends in State organization of drug-control planning have emerged. On the one hand, many States are conducting drug-control planning at increasingly high levels of State government and incorporating not only criminal justice but drug treatment and prevention as well. On the other hand, 13 States have used the formula grant to decentralize drug-control planning by distributing formula funds to localities upon the submission of local drug-control strategies. Despite the variation in interstate planning procedures, however, States' planning decisions have several important commonalities. Principal recommendations are to maintain the program's strategy requirement, clarify the goals of the strategy requirement, modify some of the regulations that govern strategic planning, and improve the Bureau of Justice Assistance's information management and reporting capabilities. 94 references and appended supplementary evaluation forms and information