FY 2009 Recovery Act Justice Assistance Grant Program

This grant program is authorized by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5) (the 'Recovery Act') and by 42 U.S.C. 3751(a). The stated purposes of the Recovery Act are: to preserve and create jobs and promote economic recovery; to assist those most impacted by the recession; to provide investments needed to increase economic efficiency by spurring technological advances in science and health; to invest in transportation, environmental protection, and other infrastructure that will provide long-term economic benefits; and to stabilize state and local government budgets, in order to minimize and avoid reductions in essential services and counterproductive state and local tax increases. The Recovery Act places great emphasis on accountability and transparency in the use of taxpayer dollars.

Among other things, it creates a new Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board and a new website ' Recovery.gov ' to provide information to the public, including access to detailed information on grants and contracts made with Recovery Act funds.

The Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) Program funded under the Recovery Act is the primary provider of federal criminal justice funding to state and local jurisdictions. Recovery JAG funds support all components of the criminal justice system, from multi-jurisdictional drug and gang task forces to crime prevention and domestic violence programs, courts, corrections, treatment, and justice information sharing initiatives. Recovery JAG funded projects may address crime through the provision of services directly to individuals and/or communities and by improving the effectiveness and efficiency of criminal justice systems, processes, and procedures.

The city and county of Honolulu, through the Honolulu Police Department and Department of Prosecuting Attorney, will use Recovery Act JAG funding in the amount of $3,450,742 to support projects aimed at improving the efficiency and effectiveness of law enforcement operations and prosecution. Through the grant, the police department will enhance its community policing efforts by hiring staff and training officers, expand access to and number of online law enforcement training courses available, support emergency psychological services and jail diversion programs, fund the salary of an evidence custodian to respond to forensic analysis requests and produce high quality results in a timely manner, improve traffic safety and the efficiency of officer deployment through the purchase of high visibility message boards, combat illegal gambling and associated crime through officer overtime, and improve the quality of audio-video evidence by upgrading to digital technology. The Prosecuting Attorney will use funds to support adult drug court and community prosecution programs. The city has made it a priority to expedite internal processes to accept and expend Recovery Act funding in an expeditious manner which will minimize and avoid reductions in essential services.

NCA/NCF