State of New Mexico 2008 Justice Assistance Grant Program

The Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program (JAG) allows states, tribes, and local governments to support a broad range of activities to prevent and control crime based on their own local needs and conditions. Grant funds can be used for state and local initiatives, technical assistance, training, personnel, equipment, supplies, contractual support, and information systems for criminal justice for any one or more of the following purpose areas: 1) law enforcement programs; 2) prosecution and court programs; 3) prevention and education programs; 4) corrections and community corrections programs; 5) drug treatment programs; 6) planning, evaluation, and technology improvement programs; and 7) crime victim and witness programs (other than compensation).

The New Mexico Department of Public Safety has elected to use its Fiscal Year (FY) 2008 JAG award to fund multi-jurisdictional task forces, and will continue to fund a professional program evaluation firm to evaluate the quality of the JAG funded programs.

New Mexico has seven multi-county regions that are geographic areas covered by the JAG-supported multi-jurisdictional task forces. In addition to these task forces, the State Police Narcotics Bureau operates a task force that shifts its geographic emphasis based on need throughout the state, while the New Mexico Gang and Terrorism Task Force provides statewide coverage with its activities. The multi-jurisdictional task forces have proven to be effective in arresting high numbers of offenders and seizing large amounts of narcotics.

The New Mexico Department of Public Safety will continue the funding of a professional program evaluation firm to evaluate the JAG Program. The evaluation is aimed at collecting and reporting required Federal indicators and improving the quality of JAG funded programs. This builds on the lessons learned and takes a bottom-up approach to identifying successful programs, ways in which they achieve those successes, and then increasing effectiveness of programs through the utilization of these best practices. All of these evaluation activities are parallel to and complement the goals and objectives of all federally funded programs with an emphasis on collaborative strategies and best practices in all activities.

NCA/NCF