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 Nebraska Crime Commission (NCC) will utilize its Fiscal Year 2009 Recovery Act Justice Assistance Grant award in the amount of $8,238,012 to support and continue operating local drug and violent crime task forces and the Nebraska State Patrol's Mid- and Upper-Level Enforcement (MULE) drug and violent crime task force. These task forces work cohesively to address continuing problems of illegal drugs (methamphetamine, marijuana, and cocaine) and violent crime. The local multi-jurisdictional and MULE task force coordination efforts have proved to be effective and efficient law enforcement tools. Enhancing the technology of the Nebraska Criminal Justice Information System (NCJIS) is also critical to Nebraska's criminal justice system and the criminal justice community. This justice information system provides law enforcement, health and human service providers, prosecutors, and parole officers with access to various databases. This includes databases with information on criminal history, driving records, domestic violence information, photos, court records and other data. Communicating and sharing investigative information has led to increases in drug and violent crime related arrests. The NCC will continue additional enhancement efforts in the areas of gang prevention, community prosecution, prisoner reentry, and justice information sharing. In addition, NCC will seek to enhance and provide specialized training for state and local law enforcement in detection, investigation, apprehension, and prosecution of drug and violent crime offenders.

NCA/NCF