Award Information
Description of original award (Fiscal Year 2009, $491,226)
The Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) solicits applications for initiatives which assist law enforcement in rural states and rural areas. The program helps rural states and rural areas to prevent and combat crime, especially drug-related crime, and provides for national support efforts, including training and technical assistance programs strategically targeted to address rural needs.
The Assistance to Rural Law Enforcement to Combat Crime and Drugs Program, administered by BJA, helps rural states and rural areas prevent and combat crime, especially drug-related crime, and provides for national support efforts, including training and technical assistance programs strategically targeted to address rural needs. In addition, priority consideration will be given to local law enforcement agencies in rural areas where the unit of local government is not eligible to receive a direct allocation from the Recovery Act Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) Program or received a direct allocation that was $50,000 or less. Applicants were invited to submit a proposal under any one of the following categories to: (1) combat rural crime; (2) improve rural law enforcement investigations; (3) enhance rural detention and jail operations; (4) facilitate rural justice information sharing; or (5) develop a national training and technical assistance program.
Under Category 3, Santa Cruz County will hire six Detention Officers to assist in the transition from a county jail facility to a corections facility. The Detention Officers will be in place for an expected increase in the number of inmates, due to increased drug-related violence and other local crime. Through the hiring of the Detention Officers, the inmate-to-detention officer ratio will be lowered, allowing the officers to improve the management of the inmates to include providing greater security.
Transition Team members will also develop a policies and procedures manual for the operations of the new facility. The manual will be disseminated to rural law enforcement agencies, prosecution, probation, and the METRO (narcotics) Task Force. The county will send two staff to Department of Justice meetings.
Through these expenditures, Santa Cruz County will work to address the problem of narcotics and human smuggling and trafficking within the County. Santa Cruz County is located within the nation's biggest corridor for smuggling activities and is a transit point for the smuggling of narcotics, humans, guns, and money.
CA/CF