FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? VAWO

THURSDAY, APRIL 26, 2001?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? 202/307-0703

ATTORNEY GENERAL ASHCROFT ANNOUNCES JUSTICE DEPARTMENT

GRANTS TOTALING $55 MILLION

TO COMBAT VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

WASHINGTON, DC - Attorney General Ashcroft announced today that the Justice Department is awarding $55 million to twenty states as the first round of this year?s formula grants to prevent and respond to violence against women.? This program is funded under the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) which will seek a $102.52 million increase in the Administration?s budget for 2002.

??No American should feel outside the protection of the law, or beyond the reach of the law.?? With these grants, we will protect women and help develop coordinated responses to violence against women,? said Ashcroft.? ?The funds will give law enforcement and victim services the resources they need to do a better job of investigating, prosecuting and preventing crimes against women.? We must continue to provide our communities with the resources to hold offenders accountable and to meet the needs of victims.?

The STOP (Services, Training, Officers and Prosecutors) Violence Against Women Formula Grants Program funds are used to promote partnerships among law enforcement, prosecution, the courts and victim advocates to ensure victim safety and accountability for offenders.

The Justice Department has awarded over $681 million in STOP funds since 1995, and over $1 billion under the VAWA grant programs since the enactment of the VAWA legislation in 1994.? In the President?s FY 2002 budget request, the Justice Department seeks $390 million in overall VAWA funding, a $102.52 million increase over FY 2001.???????????

Through this funding, states and communities are urged to restructure and strengthen the criminal justice system response to domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking, utilizing the expertise of all participants working in the system, including victim advocates.?

?The STOP Program is authorized under the Violence Against Women Acts of 1994 and 2000.? The STOP grants are awarded by the Office of Justice Programs? (OJP) Violence Against Women Office (VAWO) to designated state agencies, which must award 25 percent of the funds they receive to law enforcement, 25 percent to prosecution, 30 percent to victim services,

5 percent to courts and 15 percent at the state?s discretion for other STOP program purposes.?? The remaining states will receive their FY 2001 STOP grants on a rolling basis throughout the rest of the fiscal year.? A list of the FY 2001 STOP state grant allocations is attached.?

More information about the STOP program and other initiatives involving violence against women issues is available on VAWO?s Website at www.ojp.usdoj.gov/vawo or OJP?s Website at www.ojp.usdoj.gov, or by calling the National Criminal Justice Reference Service toll-free at 800/851-3420.

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VAW01076

After hours contact: Angela Harless on 202/616-3266 or pager #888/763-8943

STATE	?ALLOCATIONS
ALABAMA???????????????	1,871,000
ALASKA	751,000
ARIZONA	1,918,000
ARKANSAS	1,340,000
CALIFORNIA	10,179,000
COLORADO	1,773,000
CONNECTICUT	1,555,000
DELAWARE	819,000
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA	751,000
FLORIDA	4,991,010
GEORGIA	2,867,000
HAWAII	944,000
IDAHO	960,000
ILLINOIS	4,131,000
INDIANA	2,330,000
IOWA	1,435,000
KANSAS	1,368,000
KENTUCKY	1,754,000
LOUISIANA	1,870,000
MAINE	964,000
MARYLAND	2,104,000
MASSACHUSETTS	2,397,000
MICHIGAN	3,461,000
MINNESOTA	1,976,000
MISSISSIPPI	1,405,000
MISSOURI	2,189,010
MONTANA	841,000
NEBRASKA	1,082,000
NEVADA	1,118,000
NEW HAMPSHIRE	950,000
NEW JERSEY	2,969,000
NEW MEXICO	1,059,000
NEW YORK	5,887,000
NORTH CAROLINA	2,803,000
NORTH DAKOTA	776,000
OHIO	3,878,000
OKLAHOMA	1,503,000
OREGON	1,554,000
PENNSYLVANIA	4,094,000
RHODE ISLAND	888,000
SOUTH CAROLINA	1,731,000
SOUTH DAKOTA	796,000
TENNESSEE	2,196,000
TEXAS	6,420,000
UTAH	1,213,000
VERMONT	773,000
VIRGINIA	2,600,000
WASHINGTON	2,249,000
WEST VIRGINIA	1,127,000
WISCONSIN	2,118,000
WYOMING	737,000
PUERTO RICO	1,735,000
VIRGIN? ISLANDS	635,000
GUAM	644,000
AMERICAN? SAMOA. MARIANA*	639,000
TOTAL	113,118,020

*American Samoa (67%) - $428, 130; and Northern Mariana Islands (33%) -$210,870.

State and Indian population figures are from the Bureau of Census 1999 report.

Except for the Virgin Islands, Indian population figures for the other territories

are not available.? Indian population figures for the Virgin Islands are from the 1990

Census.