Past Funding

The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006 established a penalty for jurisdictions that failed to substantially implement the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA) by July 27, 2011, and for any year thereafter. See 42 U.S.C. § 16925(a).The Attorney General has delegated the task of determining when a jurisdiction has substantially implemented SORNA’s requirements to the Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking (SMART Office).

The FY2015 Body Worn Camera (BWC) Policy and Implementation Program will support the implementation including the purchase, deployment, maintenance, data storage, and policy development of a body-worn camera program, and the necessary policies for law enforcement agencies. The program will play a critical role in the creation, implementation, and evaluation of problem solving approaches that incorporate BWCs into officer practice in selected jurisdictions.

Through this initiative the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), aims to target technical assistance to assist states and localities in creating the necessary policy, programmatic and business practice reforms to facilitate an improvement in health-related outcomes among the justice-involved population, reduce recidivism, and maximize the use of available Medicaid resources to better leverage existing state and local dollars currently being expended for reimbursable healthcare costs.

The Community-Based Reentry Program Utilizing Mentors will provide $1, 000, 0000 awards for a three year grant period to private non-profits to provide comprehensive, community-based reentry services to formerly incarcerated individuals with moderate to high risk of recidivating. These reentry programs will include a mentoring component.

Demonstration projects funded under this solicitation will support innovative and comprehensive approaches in state, local, and tribal correctional facilities for adults and juveniles to prevent, detect, and respond to incidences of sexual abuse and sexual harassment, and to come into compliance with the National Prison Rape Elimination Act Standards.

The Tribal Civil and Criminal Legal Assistance (TCCLA) Program provides grants, policy leadership, and training and technical assistance to support federally recognized Indian tribes enhance and improve access to tribal justice systems. The grants are available to tribal and non-tribal nonprofit organizations (with a 501(c)(3) tax status) that provide legal assistance services to federally recognized Indian tribes, tribal justice systems, tribal members, and individuals that qualify pursuant to federal poverty guidelines.

BJA and SAMHSA are accepting applications to enhance the court services, coordination, and evidence-based substance abuse treatment and recovery support services of adult drug courts. The purpose of this joint initiative is to allow applicants to submit a comprehensive strategy for enhancing drug court services and capacity. Applicants are competing for two grant awards (a grant from SAMHSA and a separate grant from BJA) for both criminal justice and substance abuse treatment funds with one application.

The HRPDMP grant program provides support to state prescription drug monitoring programs, tribal organizations seeking to engage with prescription monitoring activities, and state/county agencies seeking to address drug abuse and diversion challenges.

The Second Chance Act of 2007 (Pub. L. 110-199) provides a comprehensive response to the increasing number of incarcerated adults and juveniles who are released from prison, jail, and juvenile residential facilities and returning to communities. Section 115 of the Second Chance Act authorizes federal awards to states, units of local government, territories, and federally recognized Indian tribes to provide technology career training to persons confined in state prisons, local jails, and juvenile residential facilities.

Program will identify and address new crimes and trends in the area of high tech and cyber crimes, and to continue already established training for state, local, and Tribal law enforcement and prosecutors.

One pressing challenge facing our criminal justice system today is the recruitment and retention of qualified prosecutors and public defenders, who serve everyday to ensure that our communities are protected, the rule of law is upheld, and the rights of the citizenry are safeguarded. Both prosecutor and public defender offices consistently find it difficult to attract and retain talented attorneys. Driven by educational debt, attorneys interested in public interest law often forego opportunities to work in these offices in order to seek more lucrative private sector positions.

The purpose of this grant program is to provide funding to test untested sexual assault kits, prevent sexual assaults, and improve the criminal justice system's response to sexual assaults.

The purpose of the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI) National Training and Technical Assistance (TTA) Program will provide direct assistance to jurisdictions that receive funding through the SAKI program and to provide targeted TTA in support of their initiatives.

The Residential Substance Abuse Treatment (RSAT) for State Prisoners Program (42 U.S.C. § 3796ff et. seq.) assists states and local governments to develop and implement substance abuse treatment programs in state, local, and tribal correctional and detention facilities. Funds are also available to create and maintain community-based aftercare services for offenders. The goal of the RSAT Program is to break the cycle of drugs and violence by reducing the demand for, use, and trafficking of illegal drugs.

In neighborhoods across the country, BCJI projects work to reduce crime and improve community safety as part of a comprehensive strategy to advance neighborhood revitalization goals. Through a broad ross-sector partnership team, including residents, BCJI sites target neighborhoods with hot spots of violent and serious crime and employ data-driven, cross-sector strategies to reduce crime and violence.

The SCA Two-Phase Adult Reentry Demonstration Program: Planning and Implementation (Section 101) authorizes federal awards for demonstration projects to promote the safe and successful reintegration of individuals into the community who have been incarcerated or detained. This program furthers the Department's commitment to providing services and programs to help facilitate the successful reintegration of offenders returning to their communities.

This program creates a nationwide program that promotes safe firearms handling and storage practices among all firearm owners through the distribution of safety education messages and free firearm safety kits that include a firearm locking device and additional promotional and outreach activities to promote the program. The intent of this program is to prevent access to firearms by those who should not have access.

The FY 2015 Justice Reinvestment Initiative: State-Level Technical Assistance solicitation seeks technical assistance organizations to assist high-level state policy teams conduct data analysis to understand drivers of incarceration, to formulate policy responses to those drivers, and to design and implement the strategies to reduce incarceration costs and reinvest savings in evidence-based strategies to improve public safety.

BJA's Smart Defense Initiative is designed to promote effective data-driven, research-based approaches to public defenders, contract attorneys and assigned counsel representing indigent defendants, and defense-led justice systems innovations and reforms. The Smart Defense model builds off of the lessons learned from BJA's "Smart Suite" of crime fighting programs.