FY23 John R. Justice Program for the State of Arizona

The program goals are to incentivize prosecutors and public defenders to choose or remain in public service by lessening the burden of educational debt obligations, provide substantial and meaningful awards to successful applicants while maximizing the number of awards available, adhere to the statutory mandate by making awards based on the applicant’s ability to pay while balancing geographic and demographic diversity, and ensure equal amounts allocated to prosecutor and public defender groups and attempt to provide equal awards to prosecutors and public defenders individually.

The strategy is to partner with Arizona criminal justice associations and agencies to conduct a widespread outreach campaign ensuring eligible applicants are aware of the Grant and informed of the application process, utilize a fair and understandable method for calculating “ability to pay,” divide the state into geographic sectors representing various population densities, and collect data and conduct surveys to comply with reporting requirements.