TUESDAY, APRIL 22, 2003Office of Justice Programs
www.ojp.usdoj.gov
Linda Mansour 202-616-3534
Main Office: 202-307-0703
COPS Office
http://www.cops.usdoj.gov
Maria Carolina Rozas 202-616-1728
ALABAMA RECEIVED NEARLY $71 MILLION FROM JUSTICE DEPARTMENT LAST YEAR
WASHINGTON, D.C. ? The State of Alabama received more than $70.81 million from the Justice Department in Fiscal Year 2002 to assist with criminal justice activities, according to a report released by the Department today.For the second consecutive year, the Justice Department is providing an annual report detailing all funding the Department?s Office of Justice Programs (OJP) and Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Office have awarded to each state and territory.The report is available online at:www.ojp.usdoj.gov/fy2002grants and http://www.cops.usdoj.gov
?We are committed to making federal funding information available to federal, state, and local officials so they can make informed decisions about allocating resources to their programs,? said Attorney General John Ashcroft.?By partnering with Alabama?s state and local policymakers, we can invest our funds wisely to ensure public safety.?
Alabama?s funding was part of a total of more than $5.47 billion that the Justice Department awarded to every state and territory.The Justice Department awarded states and territories $249.77 million more in Fiscal Year 2002 than in Fiscal Year 2001.The majority of states received increased funding.Alabama received an additional $7.1 million in Fiscal Year 2002.
The majority of funds a state receives usually come from larger grants awarded to states based on population, so heavily populated states received more funding than less populated
states.The funding report also includes discretionary grants that are awarded competitively to
communities or nonprofit agencies including faith-based organizations.
Alabama?s largest funding category was law enforcement.Nearly $32 million of the total amount was awarded for initiatives such as hiring and training police officers, training emergency first responders and purchasing equipment.Funds awarded by the COPS (Community Oriented Policing Services) Office are included in this category as are the Bulletproof Vest Program grants, which are new to the report this year.The COPS Office provides grant funding to advance community policing in jurisdictions across the country.
The next largest category, at $10.46 million, was substance abuse.Funds were awarded for interdiction and enforcement efforts and prevention and drug treatment programs, includingdrug courts.Counterterrorism activities, a new functional area added to the report this year, received $8.59 million and $8.4 million went to juvenile justice.The counterterrorism category includes money for training emergency first responders and purchasing equipment, as well as research and development of counterterrorism technology.Juvenile justice funds include money for delinquency prevention programs such as mentoring and reducing gang violence.The majority of funding in the victims category ($7.65 million) goes directly to the state to provide compensation and assistance for crime victims and to combat domestic violence and sexual assault.
A large portion of the community-based category funding, $3.91 million last year, is provided through the Weed and Seed program.Weed and Seed is a strategy that aims to prevent, control and reduce violent crime, drug abuse and gang activity in targeted high-crime neighborhoods.
The Justice Department report lists specific grantees within the state alphabetically by city within six functional areas and summary information for each city.There is also a separate listing of all grants to the state alphabetically by city.
Alabama?s Fiscal Year 2002 funding report and the reports for other states are available only on the OJP and COPS Office Web sites at ojp.usdoj.gov/fy2002grants and http://www.cops.usdoj.gov, respectively.For more information about Alabama?s funding contact the Alabama State Administering Agencies located on OJP?s Website at www.ojp.usdoj.gov/state.htm Information about the COPS Office and its programs can be found at http://www.cops.usdoj.gov
The Office of Justice Programs provides federal leadership in developing the nation?s capacity to prevent and control crime, administer justice, and assist victims.OJP is headed by an Assistant Attorney General and comprises 5 component bureaus and 2 offices: the Bureau of
Justice Assistance; the Bureau of Justice Statistics; the National Institute of Justice; the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention; and the Office for Victims of Crime, as well as the
Executive Office for Weed and Seed, and the Office of the Police Corps and Law Enforcement Education.Information about OJP programs, publications, and conferences is available on the OJP Web site, www.ojp.usdoj.gov.
###
OJP03024