State of Alabama FY 2009 Recovery Act Justice Assistance Grant Progam

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 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 Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs (ADECA), Law Enforcement and Traffic Safety Division (LETS) will use their FY 2009 Recovery Act JAG funds to continue to provide guidance and assistance to subgrant programs. The JAG Program is the primary provider of drug and violent crime task forces in Alabama and is a principal provider for their local jurisdictions. This year, in consideration of the mission of the funds under the Recovery Act, ADECA will place greater emphasis on accountability and transparency in the use of the funds.

The ADECA LETS Division's goals for the program activities under the Recovery Act JAG grant funds are to: promote and encourage coordination and cooperation among law enforcement agencies operating within the state that are combating violent crime and illegal drug activities and promote and encourage their coordination and cooperation with other jurisdictional entities that are providing support and assistance to the overall effort; preserve and/or create jobs within the drug/violent crime task forces already established in Alabama; provide testing capabilities that will detect the use of illegal drugs and identify drug abusers and provide a drug/substance abuse treatment system that will assist individuals in addressing their drug addictions; provide systems for intelligence-gathering and data collection and analysis so as to assist in identifying problem areas, coordinating enforcement efforts, and developing methods to address information needs; and support state projects in an effort to stabilize the government budgets, in order to minimize and avoid reductions in essential services and counterproductive state and local tax increases.

NCA/NCF