BJA PROVIDES $3.7 MILLION TO 37 JURISDICTIONS

TO TEST INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS TO LOCAL PROBLEMS

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) has awarded grants totaling $3.7 million to test approaches to reducing crime and encouraging collaboration in the criminal justice system. BJA made these grants to 37 local communities under its first-ever open solicitation for innovative concepts to respond to problems BJA identified in four key areas. BJA received over 1,700 proposals from virtually every state.

For example, the Maryland State's Attorney's Office in Baltimore will develop a witness security system program in response to hundreds of incidents of witness intimidation in recent years, which have interfered with the swift prosecution of chronic offenders. In San Francisco, the Judicial Council of the Courts will help truant and runaway children by linking courts, families and volunteers through a Family Assessment and Intervention Resource Center. The center will be a judicially supervised, non-adversarial program that will offer prompt, community-based prevention, intervention and treatment services in a neighborhood setting.

"We asked the field for new, innovative ideas and they responded in force," said BJA Director Nancy Gist. "We received concept papers from police, the courts, prosecutors, pre-trial services, defenders, and other criminal justice officials representing virtually every segment of the criminal justice system. While limited funding will permit BJA to fund only 37 of these proposed programs, the ideas received from those applicants that did not receive awards will also be valuable because we will use the information gathered from the proposals to help form our discretionary funding policies in Fiscal Year 1998, and to provide this information to other components of the criminal justice system."

Jurisdictions were invited to submit concept papers under four categories: issues in law enforcement, issues in the adjudication process, issues in rural communities, and issues in American Indian and Alaska Native communities. Each category included three or four topic areas the proposed initiatives could address. Each topic area addressed specific problems identified within the four categories.

BJA made 11 awards to American Indiana or Alaska Native communities Many of the programs combine tribal justice approaches with traditional law enforcement techniques to better serve the communities and make them safer.

"We're glad that we are able to work with American Indians and Alaska Native communities through this innovative program," added Gist. "These communities face very challenging law enforcement and criminal justice problems that sometimes require unique responses. This program provides us with an excellent opportunity to work closely with American Indian and Alaska Native grantees to develop creative initiatives that can be replicated in tribal jurisdictions nationwide."

To ensure objective evaluation of the proposals, BJA enlisted the help of almost 200 criminal justice practitioners from across the country, who reviewed the proposals and made recommendations to BJA officials regarding which proposals should receive funding.

For additional information about the Open Solicitation or BJA, visit its website at: https://ojp.gov/bja

For additional information about OJP or its other bureaus and programs, visit the OJP website at: https://ojp.gov

Individual project summaries are available for each grant award. To obtain a copy of a summary or summaries, please contact Doug Johnson or James Phillips at 202/307-0703.

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BJA 97-112

After hours page Doug Johnson at 1-888/582-6753

FY 1997 BUREAU OF JUSTICE ASSISTANCE OPEN SOLICITATION AWARDS

Total: $3,718,808