FY 2007 Anti-Gang Initiative - Northern District

The Anti-Gang Initiative provides funds to support new or expanded anti-gang enforcement and prevention efforts under the existing Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) Initiative. These new funds may be used by the PSN task force to combat gangs by leveraging current strategies and partnerships developed under PSN initiatives or may be used to develop new anti-gang initiatives. The Anti-Gang initiative will be led by the United States Attorney in each of the 94 federal judicial districts across America. Grant funds will be awarded to a single fiscal agent in each of the 94 districts. The fiscal agent, in coordination with the PSN task force, will allocate the funds throughout the community to support the anti-gang initiative in that community.

The Mississippi Division of Public Safety Planning will serve as the fiscal agent for the Northern District's FY 2007 Anti-Gang Initiative program, which will focus on areas that have recently experienced a host of gang-related problems. The goals of the program are to: provide a one year planning and research grant for the Mid-Delta Community Restoration Center which will include funding for staff and equipment to help make it operational; provide continual or new funding for worthwhile prevention programs within the Northern District; and provide rural and small law enforcement agencies in areas experiencing high incidences of gun crime with overtime funding to allow for more aggressive investigation of gang-related crimes.

As an expansion of the Reentry Program, The Mid-Delta Restoration Center will work with the Department of Corrections to provide job training and placement to newly released inmates and probationers with the goal of providing dramatic changes in the crime and recidivism rates in Clarksdale and serving as a replicable model for other small cities and towns across the nation. The Center will also provide a prevention component focused within the area schools. This component, in collaboration with the GREAT Program, includes a curriculum that teaches ethics and morality in decision-making and provides a mentoring/role model program. Grant funds will also be used for personnel and other related program costs associated with the continuation and formation of prevention- based programs in areas identified as most in need. The fiscal agent will use up to 10 percent of the total allocation for administrative costs.

NCA/NCF