Fiscal Year 2008 Edward Byrne Memorial 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 Guam Bureau of Planning (GBP) will use their Fiscal Year 2008 JAG funds to address the following five priorities: law enforcement, domestic violence, family violence and sexual assault, treatment and rehabilitation, technology improvement, and violent crime. The law enforcement priority will be addressed through the Narcotics Interdiction and Prosecution Program. In order to proactively interdict the narcotics distribution system and to seize assets gained through sales of narcotics, the GBP will fund interagency, multidisciplinary task forces; drug crime prosecutors; and drug detector canine teams.

The family violence and sexual assault priority will be addressed through the Forensic Medical Examination of Sexual Assault Victims Program. This program provides comprehensive forensic medical examinations to children and adults who are victims of sexual assault to collect forensic evidence, which is critical to the successful prosecution of sexual assault perpetrators. The treatment and rehabilitation priority will be addressed through the implementation of the Correctional Treatment and Rehabilitative Program and through the Juvenile and Adult Drug Court Programs. The Correctional Treatment and Rehabilitation Program will ensure that inmates receive substance abuse treatment, domestic and family violence treatment, sex offender treatment, and assault treatment in order to reduce the rates of recidivism. The Adult and Juvenile Drug Court Programs will supervise non-violent drug defendants who have been referred to a comprehensive and judicially monitored program of drug treatment and rehabilitation services.

The technology improvement priority will be addressed through the Criminal Justice Records Improvement Program and the Forensic Laboratory Management Improvement Program (FLIMP). The Criminal Justice Records Improvement Program will focus on populating the Police Records Management Information System, while interfacing the arrest records to the Central Repository and ensuring that criminal justice agencies have access to the Criminal Justice Information System. Major activities will also include implementing an Adult Correctional Management Information System and interfacing the correctional status information to the Central Repository, enhancing the Central Repository, and ensuring all systems are XML (Extensible Markup Language) compatible. To improve the timeliness and quality of the forensic services provided, the FLIMP will streamline the tracking of crime scene reports, document evidence submitted, and manage evidence pending analysis. Finally, the violent crime priority will be addressed through the Forensic Science Laboratory Improvement Program, which will upgrade Guam's only forensic science laboratory facility with state-of-the-art equipment to increase the quality and timeliness of forensic services, and to solve the backlog of violent crime cases.

NCA/NCF