FY 2009 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 disparate jurisdictions consisting of the Santa Cruz County Sherriff's Department and Santa Cruz Police Department will use their Recovery Act JAG award in the amount of $356,906 to retain law enforcement positions. The Santa Cruz Police Department, serving as the fiscal agent, will use $219,183 to fully fund one full-time patrol officer and partially fund another. These two patrol officers will work to serve numerous functions within the department, including gang, narcotic, and other criminal enforcement. The Santa Cruz Sherriff's Department will use $137,723 to retain one domestic violence detective. The detective will be responsible for tracking all domestic violence cases from initial investigation, arrests, and prosecutions. This will ensure the investigations are completed and will reduce the amount of cases declined by the District Attorney's Office.

NCA/NCF