The JAIBG program represents the largest Federal allocation of juvenile justice funds since the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974. The program recognizes the need for a range of strategies and interventions, all tailored to the developmental trajectory of youth, to achieve accountability among juvenile offenders. JAIBG funding offers local juvenile justice systems an opportunity to shift their focus away from punishing young offenders and toward encouraging youth to accept responsibility for their actions and use their individual strengths to make amends to their victims. JAIBG funds make it possible for schools, diversion programs, probation agencies, group homes, and juvenile facilities to establish a context within which youth become accountable by facing their victims through mechanisms such as victim-offender mediation, family group conferencing, and neighborhood reparative boards.

The accountability programs described in the JAIBG Best Practices Series—and the staff, technology, and facilities needed to implement the programs—were made possible by Public Law 105–119, Making Appropriations for the Departments of Commerce, Justice and State, the Judiciary, and Related Agencies for the Fiscal Year Ending September 30, 1998, and for Other Purposes (Appropriations Act), November 26, 1997. This Act appropriated $250 million for the JAIBG program described in Title III of H.R. 3, as passed by the House of Representatives on May 8, 1997. Subsequent appropriations acts for FY 1999, FY 2000, and FY 2001 have continued funding at approximately the same level for the program. Administered by OJJDP, the JAIBG program is designed to promote greater accountability in the juvenile justice system and help communities become more effective in holding juvenile offenders accountable, reducing recidivism, and protecting students, school personnel, and the community from drug, gang, and youth violence.

The Juvenile Accountability Incentive Block Grants Program Guidance Manual, issued by OJJDP in 1998 and most recently updated in September 2000, delineates State and local eligibility and program purpose areas. The Guidance Manual states:

In order to be eligible for JAIBG funds, the Chief Executive Officer of each State certified to the OJJDP Administrator consideration [of legislative requirements regarding prosecution of juveniles as adults, graduated sanctions, juvenile record keeping, and parental supervision]. . . . “Consideration” means the deliberation or debate of policies that would result in a State’s compliance with the requirements of H.R. 3, as referenced in the Appropriations Act.⁵

The Guidance Manual notes that units of local government are eligible to receive allocations of JAIBG funds through subgrants by States and specifies:

Absent the submission of an application that qualifies the State to receive an award, no JAIBG program funds will be available for direct awards to units of local government in such State. . . .⁶

The Guidance Manual also notes the following Appropriations Act requirement for eligibility to receive a JAIBG grant or subgrant award:

[A State or unit of local government] must have implemented, or agree to implement . . . a policy of testing appropriate categories of juveniles within the juvenile justice system for use of controlled substances.⁷

Of the funds available for awards to States in FY 1998, individual allocations, based on population younger than 18, ranged from $1.2 million to $22.5 million per State. The range of allocations was $1.2 million to $21.3 million in FY 1999 and FY 2000 and $1.2 million to $22.1 million in FY 2001. Funds were available for the 12 program purpose areas. The Appropriations Act prescribed the percentages of funds that must be expended within specified program purpose areas, unless a State or subgrantee unit of local government certifies and documents that the interests of public safety or crime control require a different use.

Absent a waiver, a State is required to distribute not less than 75 percent of its allocation among units of local government, using a formula that combines law enforcement expenditures for each unit of local government and the average annual number of Uniform Crime Report (UCR) Part I violent crimes reported by each unit of local government for the three most recent calendar years for which data are available. Two-thirds of each allocation is based on the expenditure data and one-third on the UCR data, in a ratio based on aggregate data for all units of general local government in the State. A unit of local government must qualify for a minimum of $5,000 to be eligible to receive an award. The State retains funds allocated to nonqualified units and must use the funds to provide services for the benefit or use of these smaller jurisdictions. The State or local government recipient of a JAIBG award must contribute, in the form of a cash match, at least 10 percent of the total program cost (or 50 percent of the cost if JAIBG funds are used to construct a permanent juvenile correctional facility).

States and units of local government eligible to receive JAIBG funds are required to establish a Coordinated Enforcement Plan (CEP) for reducing juvenile crime, to be developed by a Juvenile Crime Enforcement Coalition (JCEC). To develop the CEP, a State may use members of its State Advisory Group established under the OJJDP Formula Grants program (if group membership is appropriate for CEP development purposes) or may use another planning group that constitutes a coalition of law enforcement and social services agencies.

Units of local government are required to include in their JCECs, unless impracticable, individuals representing the police department, sheriff’s office, prosecutor’s office, State or local probation services, juvenile court, schools, businesses, and religious, fraternal, nonprofit, and social services organizations involved in crime prevention. A unit of local government may use members of its Prevention Policy Board established under the OJJDP Title V Community Prevention Grants program (if board membership meets the JCEC representation requirement) and may also add other representatives from other groups as appropriate.