Title: Building a Better Criminal Justice System: Annual Report to Congress Fiscal Year 1999. Series: Report to Congress Author: Bureau of Justice Assistance Published: June 2000 Subject: Criminal Justice System, Statistical Reports 46 pages 110,592 bytes ---------------------------- Figures, charts, forms, and tables are not included in this ASCII plain-text file. To view this document in its entirety, download the Adobe Acrobat graphic file available from this Web site or order a print copy from BJA at 800-688-4252. ---------------------------- Building a Better Criminal Justice System ANNUAL REPORT TO CONGRESS FISCAL YEAR 1999 NCJ 182954 U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs 810 Seventh Street NW. Washington, DC 20531 Janet Reno Attorney General Daniel Marcus Acting Associate Attorney General Mary Lou Leary Acting Assistant Attorney General Nancy E. Gist Director, Bureau of Justice Assistance Office of Justice Programs World Wide Web Home Page www.ojp.usdoj.gov Bureau of Justice Assistance World Wide Web Home Page www.ojp.usdoj.gov/BJA For grant and funding information contact U.S. Department of Justice Response Center 1-800-421-6770 The Bureau of Justice Assistance is a component of the Office of Justice Programs, which also includes the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the National Institute of Justice, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, and the Office for Victims of Crime. ---------------------------- To the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President Pro Tempore of the Senate: Pursuant to the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 as amended by the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988 (Public Law 100-690), in accordance with Section 522, I am pleased to transmit the Bureau of Justice Assistance Annual Report for Fiscal Year 1999. Respectfully submitted, Nancy E. Gist Director Bureau of Justice Assistance Washington, D.C. June 2000 ---------------------------- Message From the Director The Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) was created to help America's state, local, and tribal governments reduce crime and violence and restore security to our neighborhoods, workplaces, and schools. BJA's mission is to support the critical work of criminal justice practitioners. This annual report describes the funding and technical assistance BJA provided to state and local criminal justice systems in fiscal year (FY) 1999. This past fiscal year, BJA administered $1.8 billion to state and local agencies to support and measure the effectiveness of programs in every area of the justice system: crime prevention, community justice, law enforcement, adjudication, correctional services, and technology. Every day these efforts have a significant impact on the lives of Americans. BJA's most important contribution to the safety of our nation is funding implementation, evaluation, and replication of these programs. The initiatives described in this document reflect BJA's strong belief that no single segment of our communities or justice system can address this nation's culture of violence. To build a more effective and responsive criminal justice system, BJA continued its commitment in FY 1999 to working in partnership with communities; state, local, and tribal governments; and other federal agencies. Programs based in partnerships open the justice system to new ways of thinking and break down barriers to cooperation between key system players. Prosecutors and public defenders, for example, are collaborating in new ways to make local justice systems more responsive to the needs of the communities they serve. It is through partnerships that public agencies and private organizations at the federal, state, and local levels use scarce resources most efficiently and with the greatest impact. It is our hope that the support we provide through funding training and technical assistance will continue to stimulate the extraordinary efforts of practitioners who are working to improve the administration of justice. We welcome your comments and suggestions on how we can better support your work. I encourage you to write, call, or e-mail our staff. Only by working together can we meet the challenge of ensuring peace and justice for all our citizens. Nancy E. Gist Director ---------------------------- Contents Section I An Overview of Fiscal Year 1999 Activities Reaching Out to Local Communities Building Partnerships for Community Justice Filling In the Gaps Creating a Comprehensive Justice System Evaluating the Results Communicating With the Field Section II Fiscal Year 1999 Support for State and Local Justice Systems Community-Based Initiatives Law Enforcement Adjudication Correctional Services Improving Justice Systems in American Indian and Alaska Native Communities Technology Evaluation: A Roadmap to What Works Appendixes BJA Legislative Purpose Area Descriptions BJA Awards to States and U.S. Territories Fiscal Year 1999 BJA Publications ---------------------------- Section I ---------------------------- Section I. An Overview of Fiscal Year 1999 Activities In fiscal year (FY) 1999, the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) supported an extraordinary range of efforts to make our streets and schools safer and our neighborhoods better places to work and live. BJA provided this support to all 50 states, 5 U.S. territories, and thousands of communities throughout the United States. BJA funding and technical assistance were a lifeline for the many communities in this country--some small and rural, others large and urban--that lack the resources to adequately fund crime prevention, law enforcement, prosecutors' offices, indigent defense, community courts, aftercare for released offenders, new technology, and other critical components of an effective criminal justice system. Reaching Out To Local Communities BJA's two largest grant programs--the Edward Byrne Memorial State and Local Law Enforcement Assistance Formula and Discretionary Grant Program and the Local Law Enforcement Block Grants (LLEBG) Program--are guided by the principle that federal dollars should support initiatives that work and that are backed by the communities they serve. Both programs emphasize local decisionmaking, and they have had a significant impact on the safety of millions of Americans by allowing states and local communities to craft their own responses to local crime and drug problems. In FY 1999, BJA administered $505 million in Byrne Formula grants and $47 million in Byrne Discretionary awards. Formula funds were awarded to states, which then made subawards to state and local units of government. Discretionary funds were awarded directly to public and private agencies and to private, nonprofit organizations. BJA administered $523 million in LLEBG moneys, the most since the program began in 1996. In the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and 5 U.S. territories, more than 3,300 jurisdictions--an unprecedented number--applied for and received LLEBG assistance. Two of BJA's most important efforts in FY 1999 used the Internet to revolutionize how BJA works with state and local grant recipients. The first, an electronic grant application and award system for the LLEBG Program, provides all of the information grant recipients need to apply for LLEBG funding online. In 1999, the system eliminated the 6 weeks typically needed to prepare and mail out LLEBG application kits; dramatically enhanced BJA's ability to collect, analyze, and disseminate information on how jurisdictions spend LLEBG funds; and improved BJA's outreach to potentially eligible jurisdictions. An important long-term benefit of this new technology is that it will allow BJA's grant managers to spend more of their time helping states and local communities identify pressing criminal justice issues and develop strategies to address those issues. A second Internet-based initiative, the Bulletproof Vest Partnership (BVP), is helping save the lives of our nation's police officers by allowing police departments to apply for funds to purchase protective vests through a special Web site. The program, which covers up to 50 percent of the cost of each vest, is administered entirely through the Internet by BJA and six federal partners: the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the U.S. Bureau of the Census, the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS), the Office of Justice Programs (OJP), the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), and the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS). In FY 1999, BVP provided $23 million to 3,500 state, local, and tribal jurisdictions to purchase more than 92,000 vests. Many of these jurisdictions were small, rural communities that lacked the resources to equip their officers with this important safety device. Building Partnerships for Community Justice An important reason our nation has had success reducing crime, violence, and illegal drug use is that citizens and criminal justice agencies at all levels of government are working together. The past decade has shown the power of partnership--among justice agencies and between justice agencies and the communities they serve--to revitalize communities weary of violence and drugs. Community-based partnerships funded by BJA in FY 1999 demonstrated that strategic community planning works because it coordinates federal and state resources and integrates a wide range of responses to complex problems. For the first time in many communities, the criminal justice system includes youth and gang initiatives, dispute resolution and community prosecution programs, drug courts, and diversion programs for first-time juvenile offenders and the mentally ill. BJA worked closely with local criminal justice practitioners in FY 1999 to put the concept of community justice into practice at every stage of the criminal justice process. Police-community partnerships have had a dramatic impact in neighborhoods throughout the country, and BJA continued its concentration on building community partnerships with courts, public defenders, and corrections agencies. To help these agencies, BJA supports long-term strategies to build community prosecution programs and community courts through which a community's police officers, prosecutors, public defenders, elected officials, and community leaders can work together to improve public safety. These initiatives are finding innovative ways to link local justice agencies working in crime prevention, prosecution, and adjudication to the community, combining treatment and sanctions that restore the community. Filling In the Gaps As the justice system has become more responsive to local crime problems, we have become more aware of the needs of tribal and rural communities, indigent and mentally disabled defendants, young victims and offenders, the elderly, victims of hate crimes, and the families of public safety officers killed in the line of duty. An important goal of BJA funding and technical assistance is ensuring that these needs are addressed in state and local criminal justice planning. Among the many national, state, and local initiatives BJA supported in FY 1999 to deliver more services and resources to these groups were a U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) effort to help American Indian and Alaska Native communities develop and operate tribal courts; a Technical Assistance and Resource Center to help Alaska Native villages analyze and solve local crime problems; Tribal Strategies Against Violence, a federal-tribal partnership to combat crime, violence, and substance abuse on reservations; a project of the Tulare, California, District Attorney's Office to coordinate information, technology, and training for the investigation and prosecution of agricultural crimes in rural areas; indigent defense programs in Arizona, Georgia, New York, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Texas; training and technical assistance to prosecutors and law enforcement personnel to stop telemarketing fraud and other victimization of the elderly; national programs such as the Boys & Girls Clubs of America (B&GCA) that give youth alternatives to drugs and life on the street; mass media public service announcements challenging viewers to invest in youth; and training for judges, defenders, prosecutors, and law enforcement officers on hate crimes. The Public Safety Officers' Benefits (PSOB) Program, administered by BJA's Benefits Office, provides financial assistance to families of federal, state, and local public safety officers killed or permanently disabled in the line of duty. In FY 1999, PSOB responded to nearly 300 claims. BJA also provides financial support for higher education to the spouses and children of federal law enforcement officers killed or permanently disabled in the line of duty through the Federal Law Enforcement Defendants Assistance (FLEDA) Program. ---------------------------- BJA FY 1999 Enacted Funding Levels Program/Funding State Criminal Alien Assistance Program/$585,000,000 Local Law Enforcement Block Grants/523,000,000 Byrne Formula Grants/505,000,000 Byrne Discretionary Grants/47,000,000 Public Safety Officers' Benefits/31,809,000 Bulletproof Vest Partnership/25,000,000 Regional Information Sharing Systems/25,000,000 State Identification Systems Program/8,000,000 National White Collar Crime Center/7,350,000 Community Prosecution/5,000,000 Tribal Courts/5,000,000 Telemarketing Fraud Prevention/2,000,000 Terrorism Training/2,000,000 Motor Vehicle Theft Prevention/1,300,000 Grants for Televised Testimony/1,000,000 Total $1,773,459,000 ---------------------------- Creating a Comprehensive Justice System Many of the initiatives BJA supports help the justice system operate more cohesively as offenders, victims, witnesses, and other participants pass through its various components. BJA funded more than 100 training and technical assistance projects in FY 1999. These projects provided vital support to practitioners working in the fields of adjudication, American Indian and Alaska Native justice systems, local communities, law enforcement, the courts, offender supervision, technology, and victims of crime. An often overlooked but critical responsibility of BJA's State and Local Assistance Division (SLAD) is funding training and technical assistance for state and local recipients of the Byrne and LLEBG programs. Through FY 1999, SLAD has awarded more than $24.5 million to technical assistance providers in three priority areas: development of grantees' overall grant administration capabilities, outreach to remote jurisdictions and Indian Country, and strategic use of information technology. These broad areas were chosen in response to training needs reported by LLEBG and Byrne grantees. A truly comprehensive justice system will exist only when every system component has the ability to share vital information. In FY 1999, BJA continued its substantial investment in technology initiatives that are helping state and local jurisdictions complete this important process and preventing the development of overlapping, incompatible information systems. Nearly one-fourth of all new BJA-funded technical assistance projects involved information systems integration or improvement. One of BJA's most important investments in technology-related assistance supported OJP's Information Technology Integration Initiative. Through this initiative, BJA provides funding to a consortium of technical assistance grantees to help state and local governments implement information technologies that operate both within and outside individual state, local, and federal information networks. The consortium's first priority was surveying the state of information system integration across the country, with an emphasis on best practices and lessons learned. Grantees are now undertaking a variety of projects to disseminate critical integration-related knowledge to the field. BJA funding for the Strategic Information Technology Center helped state and local criminal justice practitioners understand and apply information technology within the criminal justice system. In 1999, this program helped 425 law enforcement agencies access the Internet; created more than 2,000 individual e-mail accounts; provided technical assistance to 800 agencies; and conducted numerous site visits to local law enforcement agencies. BJA-funded projects related to investigative and surveillance technology helped detectives use innovative ways to organize and analyze crime scene data and other criminal intelligence gathered during investigations. In addition, BJA continued to fund states through the Byrne Formula Grant Program to improve communications and criminal history records systems within and among state and local criminal justice agencies. Each formula grantee must invest at least 5 percent of its annual Byrne grant in this systemwide technology improvement effort, which also supports the implementation of the National Instant Check System for firearms purchasers. Other important technology initiatives supported in FY 1999 included the Regional Information Sharing Systems (RISS) Program, a network of regional centers that share intelligence on criminal organizations operating across jurisdictional lines; the National White Collar Crime Center (NWCCC), which provides a national support system for agencies in their fight against economic crime; and the State Identification Systems (SIS) Program, which gives states resources to develop or improve their computerized offender identification systems and integrate those systems with those of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Evaluating the Results BJA's efforts to create a comprehensive justice system included giving state and local jurisdictions the evaluation tools and expertise necessary to ensure that their initiatives are producing genuine results. A key component in BJA's evaluation efforts is the Effective Programs Initiative, through which BJA disseminates information about innovative BJA-funded programs that have undergone extensive evaluation at the state or local level. The second report in the Effective Programs Monograph Series, Creating a New Criminal Justice System for the 21st Century, was published in FY 1999. BJA also supported states' efforts to evaluate the performance and outcomes of their programs through the State Evaluation Development Program, which provides technical assistance to states through workshops, conferences, and a practitioner exchange program, and the Byrne Evaluation Partnership Program, one of the nation's most important mechanisms for disseminating evaluation information in high-priority program areas. The Electronic Roadmap for Evaluation, an interactive site on the BJA Web page, provides practitioners step-by-step instruction for planning, designing, and conducting evaluations of state and local criminal justice programs. Extensive new material, including new guidelines and examples of effective evaluations, was added to the site in FY 1999. Communicating With the Field BJA's 1999 National Partnership Meeting, Working Together for Peace and Justice in the 21st Century, held in Washington, D.C., in April, brought together more than 1,100 criminal justice practitioners from across the United States and around the world to discuss how the justice system can empower communities to find the solutions to their crime problems. The meeting's 200 speakers led more than 50 discussions on how to build a more comprehensive and responsive justice system. BJA conducted two National Policy Briefings in FY 1999 for State Administrative Agency (SAA) directors, who are appointed by each state's Governor to establish priorities for the state's criminal justice policy agenda. A January 1999 briefing in Atlanta, The Science of Violence, discussed public health approaches to violence prevention. BJA's partner in leading the discussion was the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). A second briefing, Making the Case for Prevention, was conducted in Chicago in September 1999 in association with the International Centre for Prevention of Crime. BJA's information dissemination efforts encompass traditional publishing, electronic dissemination through the BJA and National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS) Web sites, and mass media public education campaigns. In FY 1999, BJA distributed more than 1.2 million monographs, special reports, bulletins, fact sheets, and application kits nationwide through mailings, constituent requests, conferences, training sessions, and the BJA Web site. Additionally, the award-winning public service ads of the BJA-funded National Citizens' Crime Prevention Campaign reached more than 155 million households and generated more than $94 million in donated broadcast and print media support. ---------------------------- Section II ---------------------------- Section II. Fiscal Year 1999 Support for State and Local Justice Systems Community-Based Initiatives BJA's mission to reduce crime and improve the criminal justice system begins in the community. We have learned that no one program or agency--federal, state, or local--can make our streets and schools safer. The most powerful weapon against crime and violence is collaboration among community residents, faith-based organizations, schools, businesses, and the criminal justice system focused on specific local problems. We have also learned, however, that simple collaboration is not enough to solve our most difficult crime problems. To be effective, community-based partnerships must develop and support comprehensive crime prevention strategies that give community members an opportunity to solve problems and participate in the justice system. In FY 2000, BJA supported a variety of community-focused initiatives that were comprehensive and that built trust between communities and justice system components. Although many law enforcement agencies have become proficient at responding to crime, few work together to systematically understand a community's crime problems and develop a strategic plan to reduce them. The Strategic Approaches to Community Safety Initiative (SACSI) helps U.S. Attorneys, collaborating with federal, state, and local criminal justice agencies, use information-driven problem solving to reduce crime. SACSI has been implemented in five pilot cities: Indianapolis, Indiana; Memphis, Tennessee; New Haven, Connecticut; Portland, Oregon; and Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The U.S. Department of Justice supports SACSI though the combined efforts of many of its components including BJA, NIJ, BJS, COPS, the Office of the Assistant Attorney General (OAAG), and the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys (EOUSA). One of BJA's most successful crime prevention partnerships is with the National Association of Town Watch to operate National Night Out (NNO). Created in 1984 with BJA funding, NNO provides information, educational materials, and technical assistance to communities to develop yearlong community-police partnerships that reduce crime, violence, and substance abuse. These partnerships have proved to be one of the nation's most effective vehicles for fighting crime, violence, and illegal drug use. Because of NNO and crime watch groups across the country, we know that where there is trust among neighbors combined with a willingness to get involved there is less crime. National Night Out creates awareness of crime prevention through a multitude of events, including block parties, cookouts, parades, and activities for youth. Participation in these events has increased dramatically from the 2.5 million people who celebrated in 400 communities during the first National Night Out in 1984. In 1999, for the 16th National Night Out, more than 32 million people in 9,530 communities gathered in parks, streets, and front yards, celebrating yearlong partnerships with police that have united their neighborhoods. In Boston, more than 25,000 people celebrated one of the largest and most successful crime prevention programs in the country. Crime watch programs like NNO have played a major role in overcoming barriers such as ethnicity, language, and religion that sometimes keep neighbors apart in this diverse city. "The common ingredient we have found across the city," said Chris Hayes, director of the Boston Police Department's neighborhood crime watch unit, "is that neighbors on streets don't know neighbors anymore." But when neighbors get together to protect their families, Hayes has found that cultural differences disappear very quickly. BJA funding of National Night Out also supports Project 365, a component of NNO that helps communities identify and resolve specific crime problems. Each project begins on the annual Nation Night Out celebration day in August and ends 365 days later. Among the crime prevention activities sponsored by Project 365 are cleaning up parks and neighborhood structures defaced by graffiti, creating domestic violence and homeless prevention initiatives, expanding neighborhood watch groups, and establishing crime prevention programming in multifamily housing areas. A second partnership, with the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, provides millions of children a safe haven from the negative influences of the street. Established in 1906, B&GCA has grown from 53 clubs to a national network of more than 2,300 clubs in public housing developments, schools, religious buildings, shopping malls, homeless shelters, orphanages, Native American reservations, and U.S. military bases around the world. Today, Boys & Girls Clubs serve more than 3 million youth; employ more than 9,500 trained, full-time professionals; and organize the efforts of more than 200,000 volunteers. Over the 7-year history of the partnership, B&GCA has used funds from BJA's Byrne Discretionary Grant Program and Local Law Enforcement Block Grants Program to reach more than 400,000 youth. BJA funds have directly assisted 458 clubs in rural communities, 219 clubs in public housing developments, and 120 clubs on Native American land. BJA has also funded nearly 800 special awards to help local clubs enhance their curricula and provide outreach in their communities. In 1999, BJA funds were used to establish new clubs and expand the outreach of existing clubs in severely distressed communities, Indian Country, and small, rural communities. The BJA-funded National Citizens' Crime Prevention Campaign is one of the catalysts stimulating citizens to fight crime and fear of crime in the United States. The nation's first and only nationally organized public education campaign on crime prevention, the Campaign was launched in 1979 to change the public attitude that crime is inevitable and preventing it the job of the police. ---------------------------- BJA Funding in Focus: The National Funding Collaborative on Violence Prevention The National Funding Collaborative on Violence Prevention (NFCVP) works with practitioners, policymakers, researchers, and evaluators who mobilize resources to build safe and healthy communities. NFCVP is a partnership of public and private funders, experts in violence prevention and related disciplines, and crime prevention collaborators in communities across the country. In Rockford, Illinois, the Violence Prevention Collaborative launched an initiative to engage faith-based communities in violence prevention. The program has become a catalyst in Rockford for exploring how the community's diverse congregations can work together to fight violence and drug use. Eleven religious groups have received grants, violence prevention training, and technical assistance for summer and afterschool youth programs that incorporate education on family, dating, and youth violence. In Flint, Michigan, the Neighborhood Violence Prevention Collaborative (NVPC) continued its efforts to build grassroots violence prevention capabilities. To create an environment in Flint that cultivates peace, NVPC sponsored or cosponsored more than 20 communitywide workshops and violence prevention events and established relationships with more than 100 local agencies and 260 neighborhood groups. In Oakland, California, the East Bay Public Safety Corridor Partnership influenced neighboring cities to change their approach to violence prevention through the success of its violence prevention strategies, particularly its truancy prevention program. A major local health provider, Kaiser Permanente, incorporated the Partnership's domestic violence screening program into its protocol, and the Partnership advocated for the passage of 49 local ordinances that ban junk guns, require trigger locks, impose gun taxes, and place restrictions on dealers selling guns out of their homes. In Santa Barbara, California, the Pro-Youth Coalition (PYC) has used an innovative gang-intervention program with strong community backing to cut incidents of gang violence in half since 1997. PYC's successful strategies include a youth collaborative, Mi Gente, with more than 150 youth and adult mentors; education in anger management, peer mediation, and conflict resolution for more than 700 students, parents, and school staff; and preemployment/life skills training that has placed more than 50 youth in jobs. In Newport, Tennessee, the CONTACT Council has become an influential voice in the community on a range of violence-related issues. When conflict arose between white residents and migrant workers over a proposed Head Start program, CONTACT forged an alliance between the groups. CONTACT's efforts helped to triple participation in the high school After Class program, and the Council was asked by the superintendent of schools to lead a local summit on youth and violence. In Spartanburg, South Carolina, the Stop the Violence Collaboration focused on building citizen engagement and community planning by leading community forums and assisting in neighborhood planning. The group's core strategies of housing code enforcement, neighborhood beautification, and tenant organizing have played a major role in significantly reducing violence and property crimes. ---------------------------- A cooperative effort of the National Crime Prevention Council (NCPC), BJA, the Crime Prevention Coalition of America, and the Ad Council, Inc., the Campaign's award-winning public service announcements challenge Americans to do something about violence, crime, and illegal drugs and to invest in youth. NCPC advertising appears on television, billboards, and posters; in newspapers and magazines; and now through Web site banners in cyberspace. In 1998, the Campaign reached more than 155 million households and raised more than $128 million in donated broadcast and print media support. To make sure this message generates action, the Campaign sponsors community-based crime, violence, and drug abuse prevention efforts and conducts training for national, state, and local crime and drug prevention leaders, community organizations and residents, youth groups, spiritual institutions, law enforcement officers, and others. The Campaign distributed 2,500 Community Leaders' Kits in 1999. BJA continued to support the national Triad initiative, which brings together, at the local level, law enforcement agencies and senior citizen volunteer, advocacy, and service groups to reduce crime against the elderly. Triad was conceived in 1988 when the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), and the National Sheriffs' Association (NSA) agreed to form a partnership. The first Triad agreement was signed the following year in St. Martin Parish, Louisiana. More than 600 counties in the United States have signed Triad agreements, and 33 states have formed statewide Triad networks in which representatives of local Triads meet to discuss ways to improve safety for seniors. At the county level, police chiefs, sheriffs, and senior groups survey the needs of seniors in local communities and implement programs to improve the delivery of law enforcement services to them. To do this, local Triads educate residents and community leaders about elder abuse and fraud and help law enforcement officers and senior citizen service providers identify and reach out to elderly victims of crime. Through its partnership with the National Training and Information Center (NTIC) in Project GRAND (Grassroots Residents Against Neighborhood Destruction), BJA is helping citizens in 30 communities organize and rehabilitate their neighborhoods. Nationwide, NTIC works with more than 350 community institutions, including neighborhood and faith-based groups, senior citizen and disabled rights groups, and farm organizations, to improve communities' quality of life by combating crime, drugs, and violence; renovating schools; replacing substandard housing; and establishing financial credibility with banking institutions. Project GRAND attracted groups to participate in the program by mobilizing residents to improve living conditions in their neighborhoods. By focusing on concrete, easily understood quality-of-life issues such as providing afterschool recreation for youth, residents sought to combat their communities' larger problems. A common strategy of Project GRAND communities is forming neighborhood-police partnerships that focus on drug and crime hotspots. Other groups have established daycare, general equivalency diploma (GED), and job training programs; pursued absentee landlords to improve housing conditions; and worked with banks to help community members obtain home and business loans. Law Enforcement Although overall crime rates have fallen in recent years, the level of violence, particularly violence committed by and against youth, remains high in many communities. This violence is fueled by illegal firearms trafficking and the easy availability of guns. In FY 1999, BJA continued its commitment to working with state and local law enforcement agencies, communities, and professional associations to protect every citizen's right to a safe and secure environment. Hate crimes continue to be a pervasive problem across the nation. To address this high-profile issue, BJA supported initiatives to prevent hate crimes before they occur and to respond more effectively when they do. An important multiyear effort, the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Tools for Tolerance Program, provides training to judges, defenders, prosecutors, and probation officers to help them better understand the nature of hate crimes and their impact on victims and communities. The training focuses on developing strategies to address hate crimes that link together the many components of the criminal justice system. ---------------------------- BJA Funding in Focus: Fighting Elderly Victimization in Chicago In Chicago, Illinois, Senior Service Officers in the city's 25 police districts work directly with senior and disabled citizens to help them avoid becoming victims of crime and fraud and to make them more aware of law enforcement, medical, and other services in their community. The Chicago Police Department's outreach to seniors is among the most effective police-senior efforts in the country because of its officers' willingness to get involved in community-based programs for the elderly. The following examples describe just a few of Chicago's senior-focused efforts: o Analyzing crime patterns involving senior and disabled citizens and getting that information out to neighborhood watch groups. o Conducting followup visits to senior and disabled crime victims to reassure them that police officers are working to both apprehend the offender and ensure their safety in the future. o Making an extra effort to identify personal needs of elderly crime victims during police visits and referring them to the appropriate service providers. o Participating in senior and disabled advocacy and outreach programs and discussing ways the elderly and disabled can make themselves less vulnerable to crime. o Visiting senior centers and nursing homes to inspect living conditions and check for abuse. o Reviewing hospitalization case reports and investigating patterns of abuse in nursing homes to stop elderly abuse. TRIAD News, Summer 1999 ---------------------------- A second effort, spearheaded by the American Prosecutors Research Institute (APRI), is helping prosecutors respond to and prosecute hate crimes. The project will produce a guidebook for prosecutors and sponsor training in FY 2000. In addition, BJA supported four other hate crime initiatives in FY 1999: o Technical assistance for a train-the-trainers program based on the DOJ National Hate Crimes Training Curriculum. In FY 1999, nearly 3,500 law enforcement officers were trained in 31 states. This training is provided in collaboration with the U.S. Attorney's Offices (USAOs) that have been mandated to coordinate local hate crimes task forces. o A collaborative effort with the Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) and the IACP to develop a booklet, Responding to Hate Crimes: A Police Officer's Guide to Investigation and Prevention, which will be distributed to 450,000 law enforcement agencies and victim services providers. o A collaborative effort with the IACP to develop a video and instructor's guide, Responding to Hate Crimes: A Roll Call Training Video for Police Officers, which will be disseminated to 17,000 police, sheriff, and state police agencies. o A hate crimes public awareness and education campaign for use by local jurisdictions. To reach out to rural and small jurisdictions, BJA supported the National Center for Rural Law Enforcement, which provides technical assistance to communities with populations of less than 25,000. In FY 1999, the Center worked to expand the delivery of Internet services to rural law enforcement agencies, conducted train-the-trainer sessions for rural law enforcement agencies, and continued to develop a Strategic Information Technology Plan. BJA also continued its support of IACP technical assistance to small police departments. The IACP provides onsite training, customizing policies and procedures for the unique needs of each agency, and teaches small police departments how to develop information- and resource-sharing networks with other departments and justice agencies. In addition, the IACP assists small police departments with a broad spectrum of priority needs, including recruiting minorities, acquiring and using technology, accessing federal grant money, creating task forces, developing better relations with city governments, and implementing community policing programs. Under a new initiative, BJA funded the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) to begin developing model protocols for law enforcement and medical agencies to encourage and facilitate partnerships in addressing issues such as violence prevention, homicide, and new trends in violence. These protocols will guide information sharing and interaction between the disciplines and set forth procedures for exchanging pattern and trend data. BJA continued its commitment to helping local and state law enforcement combat illegal activities involving drugs, clandestine laboratories, illegal firearms trafficking, domestic terrorism, and gangs. To address the marked increase in the demand for training on clandestine labs and methamphetamines, the Institute for Intergovernmental Research (IIR) provided training through the Organized Crime Narcotics Trafficking Enforcement Program and the Center for Task Force Training. Circle Solutions, Inc., worked to update training on clandestine lab enforcement and cleanup issues, with special emphasis on the needs of agencies in High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTAs). In addition, BJA provided funding to NSA to sponsor training for law enforcement agencies on the hazards officers face when they encounter clandestine drug laboratories. To combat the threat of terrorism, BJA supported the State and Local Anti-Terrorism Training (SLATT) program, the only ongoing training and technical assistance counterterrorism initiative specifically designed for state and local law enforcement and prosecution authorities. Working in close cooperation with the FBI and its National Security Division Training Unit, the SLATT program delivers specialized executive, investigative, intelligence, and officer safety training, with an emphasis on less populated jurisdictions. In FY 1999, SLATT addressed preincident issues relating to domestic antiterrorism, violent extremist criminal activity, detection and investigation, early interdiction and prevention, and readiness. The Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Area Drug Enforcement Task Force continued its efforts to combat the trafficking and distribution of illegal drugs and reduce drug-related violence. During FY 1999, the Task Force supported a regional gang-tracking system. A new law enforcement initiative is Operation Streetsweeper, a partnership between New Hampshire's state and local law enforcement agencies that jointly targets drug and gang activities. This program began on a smaller scale in the city of Manchester, New Hampshire, using Byrne Formula funding and has expanded statewide with the goal of increasing the use, effectiveness, and capability of the state police in combating these problems. In collaboration with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), BJA supported firearms programs implemented by PERF and the IACP. PERF's Guns-First Training Program, now available nationwide, educated state and local police officers about federal and state firearms statutes, provided strategies to improve investigations of firearms offenses, and informed police of the value of collecting and sharing information that can assist in the interdiction of illicit firearms. A PERF-authored monograph, Reducing Illegal Firearms Trafficking: Promising Practices and Lessons Learned, will be released in FY 2000. The IACP's illegal firearms-trafficking technical assistance program addressed many key elements of investigating and interrupting gun trafficking, including trafficking patterns, interdiction, ballistics and weapons tracing, and federal/local cooperation to reduce illegal weapons trafficking. ---------------------------- BJA Funding in Focus: Reno, Nevada Kid's Korner, a program of the Reno, Nevada, Police Department, was honored March 23, 2000, in Chicago, Illinois, as a recipient of the National Council on Crime and Delinquency's New American Community Award. This award recognizes independent individuals, citizen groups, and organizations across the country that are working to reduce crime in their communities, particularly programs that promise to protect children against involvement in crime. Funded in part by BJA's FY 1998 Open Solicitation Program, Kid's Korner is the product of a partnership of six local agencies in the Reno area dedicated to helping homeless and low-income children and families. The Knock-and-Talk program teams police officers and public health nurses to bring medical assistance and other resources to transient families living in poorly maintained motels and trailer parks throughout Reno. ---------------------------- BJA Funding in Focus: Racine, Wisconsin The city of Racine, Wisconsin, has created an innovative community crime prevention program with LLEBG funding that renovates homes in problem areas and turns them into police substations. The stations, staffed by police officers, detectives, and parole officers, are used by neighborhood residents as meeting places and safe havens in which their children can play. Street corner crimes in these areas have virtually been eliminated, and the stations allow officers and community residents to discuss crime and quality-of-life problems in a positive, nonconfrontational environment. ---------------------------- A new initiative in FY 1999 was the Community Law Enforcement and Recovery (CLEAR) Program, which brought together local criminal justice agencies to target, arrest, prosecute, and incarcerate gang members in specific neighborhoods in the city and county of Los Angeles. The program's goals are to reduce offenses within identified gang areas, work with landlords and tenants to abate or reduce gang nuisance activities, successfully prosecute gang members, increase homicide resolution rates in targeted areas, enforce truancy and curfew laws targeting gang members and at-risk youth, and establish the groundwork for self-sustaining community coalitions. BJA supported several initiatives that focus on law enforcement agencies' internal operations. The IACP National Law Enforcement Policy Center worked with law enforcement executives and public officials to develop model policies for guidance and decisionmaking. The IACP also continued its efforts to revise police facility guidelines to reflect advances in technology, community policing, and other new policing philosophies. The National Center for Women and Policing continued its work to develop a self-assessment guide that will help law enforcement agencies examine a range of employment issues related to women. The guide will offer solutions to these problems based on research findings, model programs, and best practices. To prevent motor vehicle theft, BJA continued funding the Watch Your Car Program. In FY 1999, BJA funded four new states, with additional grants to be awarded in FY 2000. This program uses decals to alert police that vehicles are not normally driven during early morning hours or near international borders so that police can check a vehicle before a stolen vehicle report has been filed. Adjudication Many of the adjudication-related initiatives funded by BJA in FY 1999 helped the justice system operate more seamlessly as offenders, victims, witnesses, and other participants passed through its various stages. These initiatives provided training and technical assistance to improve the operations of pretrial service agencies, prosecutors' and indigent defenders' offices, courts, and correctional services. BJA also funded a variety of innovative adjudication projects though competitive grant programs in the areas of community prosecution, community courts, and indigent defense management and technology. Local criminal justice systems are besieged with complex problems, including backlogged dockets, crowded jails, and recidivism of drug-addicted offenders, not easily resolved by a single agency. To mount an effective response to these problems, local justice agencies must work together. In FY 1999, BJA continued to support the formation of adjudication partnerships that include court officials, prosecutors, and defenders. To aid this effort, BJA funded APRI, the National Center for State Courts (NCSC), and the National Legal Aid and Defender Association (NLADA) to research and document the nation's most effective adjudication collaborations. The result is the BJA bulletin Key Elements of Successful Adjudication Partnerships, a guide for criminal justice practitioners in the field. BJA continued to provide funding to the National Judicial College to train state and local trial judges in issues related to community courts, tribal courts, and courtroom technology. Among the College's activities were developing phase two of the community courts training project, continuing its Essential Skills for Tribal Court Judges course, and developing an advanced tribal court course to deal with complex jurisdictional issues. During FY 1999, 240 judges were trained. In response to the trend of charging young juvenile offenders as adults, the College, with funding from both BJA and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), provided training for adult court judges on issues surrounding the processing of children in adult courts. ---------------------------- BJA Funding in Focus: Multijurisdictional Task Forces BJA supports the sharing of resources and decisionmaking when criminal justice agencies target large crime and narcotics enterprises operating across multiple jurisdictions. Multijurisdictional task forces are powerful tools because they combine the skills of different agencies and focus this enhanced investigation and prosecution capacity on a targeted criminal operation. The use of multijurisdictional task forces has produced a variety of benefits for law enforcement and adjudication communities. Among the most important of these benefits are unprecedented interagency coordination and pooling of resources, the establishment of new systems to facilitate information sharing and intelligence gathering, and improved access to specialized resources. States spent $194 million in FY 1999, or 38 percent of the total Byrne Formula funds awarded that year, on multijurisdictional task forces. One of the nation's most effective users of multijurisdictional task forces is the state of Wyoming. The state's Regional Enforcement Teams (RETs) were created in 1988 to give Wyoming a long-term statewide drug enforcement presence. These teams have enabled Wyoming to aggressively pursue drug-trafficking organizations by greatly improving communication and coordination between state and local law enforcement agencies. The six RETs are composed of municipal police officers, county sheriffs' deputies, and Division of Criminal Investigation special agents. Each RET is responsible for coordinating investigations on drug organizations, trafficking, and distribution in a three- to five-county area. RETs have made investigating and prosecuting the trafficking of methamphetamine a priority. As a result, the number of cases involving methamphetamine has increased 350 percent since 1990. In one case, two RETs worked with the Internal Revenue Service, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to shut down a cartel distributing methamphetamine worth more than $4 million in Carbon, Sweetwater, and Uinta Counties. This complex investigation, which involved gathering information on a kidnaping, an attempted murder, and multiple co-conspiracies, produced numerous convictions and sentences in federal and state courts. ---------------------------- BJA Funding in Focus: Kalamazoo, Michigan In Michigan, four local jurisdictions--the city of Kalamazoo, the county of Kalamazoo, the township of Kalamazoo, and the city of Portage--have pooled their federal LLEBG funds to become partners in a long-term, multifaceted criminal justice strategy. Among this partnership's many innovative projects is the Court Witness Coordinator Program, which won a National Association of Counties' National Achievement Award in 1999. The program, the first of its kind in Michigan, employs three coordinators to assist witnesses subpoenaed to testify in the state's seven district courts. The coordinators help an average of 1,100 witnesses each month by eliminating schedule conflicts the day of the trial, counseling witnesses to reduce their anxiety about testifying, making arrangements for transportation, and monitoring trials to make sure witnesses do not wait needlessly for hours outside the courtroom. ---------------------------- American University (AU) continued its partnership with NLADA, the Pretrial Resource Center, and the Justice Management Institute to provide technical assistance to state and local criminal courts and other adjudication system components. This consortium is providing onsite assistance, training, and followup to implementation. AU will also develop a generic training curriculum and a special training curriculum to increase court personnel's knowledge and skills in issues related to problem resolution. In the Justice Project, funded by BJA in collaboration with OJP's Violence Against Women Office (VAWO) and Drug Courts Program Office (DCPO), the Center for Court Innovation (CCI) brought together criminal justice practitioners and academicians in problem-solving forums on issues such as drug courts, domestic violence courts, and family treatment courts. The Justice Project will develop best practices and ethical standards for these forums to prevent abuses and promote accountability. A priority for BJA adjudication-related funding in FY 1999 was community prosecution. From the proposals received under the FY 1998 Strategies for Community Prosecution Discretionary Grant Program, BJA selected five demonstration sites--in Colorado, Hawaii, Indiana, New York, and Washington--to act as leaders in developing and implementing long-term practical community prosecution strategies involving a partnership among prosecutors' offices, law enforcement, the community, and public and private organizations. BJA also solicited proposals for planning, implementing, and enhancing community prosecution programs under the Community Prosecution Grant Program. Thirty-five sites have been selected, and grants will be awarded in FY 2000. In a separate project, APRI continued to deliver training and technical assistance to prosecutors interested in planning and implementing community prosecution programs. APRI visited three demonstration sites and will report its observations in a nationally distributed publication. BJA encourages communities to identify emerging or chronic criminal justice issues and to propose innovative strategies for addressing those issues through local community courts. In FY 1999, BJA selected sites in California, Connecticut, Florida, Maryland, Oregon, and Pennsylvania to receive funding for implementing community courts. These courts are linked directly to the community they serve, focus on problem solving, and respond to each case with appropriate measures. With the support of BJA, CCI established the Community Justice Resource Center, which addresses broad issues related to community justice. The Center has since been renamed the Community Justice Exchange, which better reflects its goal of providing a forum for practitioners to exchange ideas, find out the latest practices in community justice, receive assistance with initiatives, and interact with peers. During FY 1999, the Community Justice Exchange launched a Web site (www.communityjustice.org), responded to more than 600 requests for information and services, facilitated 56 site visits to the Midtown Community Court in New York City, worked closely with 30 jurisdictions planning and implementing community courts, and produced 6 community justice publications. Within the field of indigent defense, BJA seeks to bring more balance to the criminal justice system by providing more visibility, funding, and information tools. In FY 1998, BJA solicited proposals under the Emerging Issues in Indigent Defense Management and Technology Program. Six grants were awarded in FY 1999 to jurisdictions in Arizona, Georgia, New York, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Texas. This program represents the first grant opportunity in decades that specifically targets defenders. BJA also supported the work of several organizations that provide technical assistance to indigent defense practitioners. NLADA helped state and local indigent defense organizations improve the management of their drug and violent crime cases, and the Vera Institute of Justice provided training to defender managers to become more active participants in policy planning and development. Other BJA-funded indigent defense projects included the National Survey of Indigent Defense Systems, conducted in partnership with BJS, which is examining how states and localities provide legal services for indigent defendants; the National Symposium on Indigent Defense, which annually brings together more than 275 representatives of defender offices and the courts; and the Executive Sessions on Indigent Defense at Harvard University's JFK School of Government, a forum for judicial leaders to discuss indigent defense system reform. In addition, the first publication in BJA's Indigent Defense Series, Improving State and Local Criminal Justice Systems: A Report on How Public Defenders, Prosecutors, and Other Criminal Justice System Practitioners Are Collaborating Across the Country, was released in October 1998. Correctional Services BJA-supported corrections programs have four basic goals: reducing incarceration costs, relieving prison and jail crowding, reducing recidivism rates for youthful and other offenders, and advancing correctional practices. BJA coordinates this work with national professional associations, such as the American Correctional Association (ACA), the American Probation and Parole Association (APPA), and the National Institute of Corrections (NIC), and with other federal agencies including OJJDP and the Corrections Program Office (CPO) of the U.S. Department of Justice. Since 1992, BJA-funded technical assistance providers have worked with more than 40 jurisdictions to develop, enhance, and evaluate correctional options programs to reduce prison and jail crowding without jeopardizing public safety. Under this grant, the Institute on Crime, Justice and Corrections (ICJC) at The George Washington University helped state and local jurisdictions determine the feasibility of implementing such programs, review proposals for new projects, and design and conduct their own evaluations. In FY 1999, this strategy supported innovative correctional practices across the country, complementing the ongoing initiatives of CPO and NIC. The State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP), begun in FY 1995, provides financial assistance to state and local governments to help defer the costs of incarcerating undocumented criminal aliens. The program, administered by BJA with the assistance of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), is the first federal effort to provide this type of relief. In FY 1998 SCAAP compensated jurisdictions for the equivalent of nearly 70,000 individuals (based on an average stay of 124 days per individual). Including FY 1999 payments, $2.28 billion has been distributed to nearly 300 state agencies, sheriffs, and local jails through SCAAP. Without this federal assistance to state and local jurisdictions, the financial burden of housing illegal criminal aliens would consume a significant level of local justice system resources. This is especially true in California, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, and Texas, which together consume more than three-fourths of all SCAAP funding. Since its inception at the Tulane University School of Public Health in 1993, Project Return has given more than 1,000 men and women released from Louisiana prisons an alternative to crime, violence, and illegal drug use. The program gives former offenders in the crucial first year of readjustment to free society a safe, supportive environment in which they can develop respect for themselves and their communities. The program's specific goals for participants in FY 1999 included learning the essentials of community building, completing or working toward a GED, recognizing addictions and beginning the process of recovery, communicating more effectively with family members, and improving job skills. Evaluation results showed significantly reduced rates of recidivism for Project Return participants compared with recidivism rates for offenders leaving Louisiana prisons without aftercare services. The Alaska Department of Corrections used BJA funds to install an enhanced system to manage offenders under Department supervision. The system, which will be fully tested and operational by December 31, 2000, will create a comprehensive database of historical data, improve interagency access to information, and improve the Department's ability to track and manage offenders. A project of the Center for Community Corrections supported by BJA in FY 1999 worked to educate legislators and policymakers about the benefits of community corrections as an alternative sanction for nonviolent offenders. To accomplish this, the Center began developing a series of monographs specifically addressed to prosecutors, judges, court administrators, the defense bar, police, probation and parole officers, and administrators. The Correctional Industries Association continued to provide technical assistance and aid to BJA to certify state prison industry programs under the Prison Industries Enhancement (PIE) Certification Program. BJA certification exempts these programs from federal restrictions on product marketability. Prison industry programs create realistic working environments in which inmates produce goods and services and learn valuable employment skills. The programs help inmates reenter the community, reduce prison idleness, compensate crime victims, provide family support, and offset the price of incarceration. APPA conducted a series of 90-minute training teleconferences to help probation and parole agencies and practitioners better understand effective offender supervision practices and programming strategies. The teleconferences targeted rural jurisdictions that often lack the resources and find it logistically difficult to address staff inservice training and client programming needs. Future teleconferences will include but are not limited to topics such as effective versus ineffective offender supervision, programming strategies, cognitive behavioral programming for offenders, promising practices in restorative community justice, staff safety, and intermediate sanctions. BJA funded The Osborne Association to expand the prison-based Family Works Program at the Woodburne and Sing Sing Correctional Facilities in New York to include community-based services for released inmates and their family members. The goals of the program are to repair the harm suffered by the children of incarcerated fathers, strengthen the families of fathers in prison, and increase the capacity of incarcerated fathers to act as positive and loving parents to their children. A new Family Resource Center will serve as a clearinghouse of information on subjects relevant to families of prisoners in New York, as well as home to a hotline family members can call to get help contacting child welfare and income support agencies. In Broward County, Florida, the South Florida Corrections Options Program used BJA funds to expand the county's effort to divert mentally ill, female misdemeanor offenders from the justice system. In addition to providing screening and evaluation of offenders for the Broward County Mental Health Court, this grant will provide for the creation and operation of a forensic treatment center with the capacity to offer treatment and assistance services that complement the mental health court's diversion efforts. ---------------------------- BJA Funding in Focus: Shelby County, Tennessee Like offenders with substance abuse problems in prisons across the country, many in Tennessee's criminal justice system have not completed high school, have few marketable skills, and often return to a criminal lifestyle after they are released. In Shelby County, Tennessee, community corrections officials have used Byrne funds to help substance-abusing offenders through a unique program called the Roof Truss and Wall Paneling Project. Through an agreement with Habitat for Humanity, offenders enrolled in the program assist in the construction of homes for people with limited incomes. They also learn a valuable trade skill they can use to find stable employment. The nearly 300 offenders who have participated in the project have helped build 50 homes that are consistently praised in the community for their high level of craftsmanship. ---------------------------- BJA continued its support of the Haymarket Center, a full-scale detoxification and substance abuse treatment facility in Chicago, Illinois, that serves more than 13,000 new patients each year, to operate the Alternative to Incarceration Program. Each offender in the program receives a comprehensive assessment of substance abuse patterns and other problem areas and is then directed to Haymarket's educational and therapeutic groups, which address issues including substance abuse, effective communications, gambling, gender and cultural identities, empowerment, domestic violence, HIV and related health issues, criminal personality and behaviors, job readiness, housing, and education. All programming is offered in English, Spanish, Polish, and American Sign Language. Through the Federal Surplus Property Transfer Program, BJA facilitates the transfer or conveyance of surplus federal property to state and local governments and territories at no cost. This property is determined by the U.S. Attorney General to be needed by correctional and law enforcement agencies caring for or rehabilitating criminal offenders. In FY 1999, 27 properties were conveyed to state and local government entities for correctional purposes and 7 were conveyed for law enforcement purposes. These properties included 1,400 acres, 15 buildings, 4 parking lots, and a gymnasium. Improving Justice Systems in American Indian and Alaska Native Communities Among the most critical assistance BJA provides is that to American Indian and Alaska Native communities. BJA grants and technical assistance projects are a vital link to federal and state resources for these often geographically isolated and historically neglected justice systems. Major BJA-funded initiatives in FY 1999 were the Tribal Court Initiative, Crime Analysis and Planning Strategies (CAPS) for American Indian and Alaska Native Communities, the Alaska Native Technical Assistance and Resource Center, and Tribal Strategies Against Violence (TSAV) Training and Technical Assistance. As part of DOJ's Indian Country Law Enforcement Initiative, BJA received a $5 million congressional appropriation for FY 1999 to help American Indian and Alaska Native communities develop, enhance, and operate tribal courts. Awards under the first component of this initiative fund either new tribal courts or improvements to existing courts in areas such as case management, court personnel training, equipment acquisition, indigent defense services, and diversion programs. Of the 76 applications selected for awards through a peer review process, 46 will be used to develop new tribal courts, and 30 will be used to enhance existing courts. The second component of the initiative will provide training and technical assistance for tribal court grant recipients and develop a National Tribal Court Resource Center. In 1998, BJA began regional Crime Analysis and Planning Strategies trainings for tribal leadership and communities with large portions of diverse Native American populations. Spearheaded by Fox Valley Technical College in Appleton, Wisconsin, these 4-day executive-level trainings assist tribal jurisdictions as they develop a comprehensive model for identifying crime risk and assessing its impact. To date, 42 tribal teams have completed seven regional training programs. In FY 1999, the first CAPS training in an Alaska Native community took place in Kotzube, Alaska. Trainings were also conducted in Anchorage, Alaska; Scottsdale, Arizona; and Tulsa, Oklahoma. The Alaska Native Technical Assistance and Resource Center, coordinated by the Anchorage Justice Center at the University of Alaska, was created to help Alaska Native villages analyze and solve local crime problems. The Center trains staff from each participating village in program management while providing onsite technical support. As staff assist their villages, they will learn how to provide similar instruction and technical support to peers in future partnering villages. Over the course of 3 years, the project will enhance the community problem-solving skills of 52 rural Alaskan villages. In March 1999, Justice Center staff conducted a 5-day training for representatives from four rural Alaska Native villages. Topics included community problem identification, community analysis, program development, and grant writing. Four additional villages received the training in October 1999. BJA also funded the Anchorage Justice Center, which is working with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to study the feasibility of establishing a comprehensive mental health and substance abuse treatment program for children and families in Alaska. TSAV is a federally funded partnership to control and prevent crime, violence, criminal gang activities, and substance abuse in Native American communities. The project primarily focuses on forming centralized planning teams that represent tribal service providers (law enforcement, prosecution, education, social services, spiritual leaders, and businesses) as well as youth. NCPC provides training and technical assistance to the following seven TSAV demonstration sites: the Shoshone-Paiute Tribes of the Duck Valley Indian Reservation, the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, the Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes, the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, the Chickasaw Nation, the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, and the Puyallup Tribe of Indians. In FY 1999, NCPC conducted two cluster conferences in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and Washington, D.C. at which representatives of the seven sites discussed partnership building, community mobilization, and strategic planning. NCPC conducted 15 onsite technical assistance visits to those sites during the year. ---------------------------- BJA Funding in Focus: North Dakota In North Dakota, the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has innovatively used Byrne funds to hire a Native American Liaison. The Liaison pursues a variety of strategies to increase awareness issues within North Dakota's correctional system. Two of these strategies are to increase the number of Indian offenders in community-based alternatives to prison and to increase the number of Native American programs providing direct services to Indian offenders after they have been released from custody. The Liaison is working with the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Tribe, the Three Affiliated Tribes, and the Spirit Lake Sioux Tribe to create community service restitution programs and to establish advisory committees on reservations to seek out community resources. ---------------------------- Technology Too many local criminal justice systems in this country have separate computer systems serving each component, specifically law enforcement agencies, courts, prosecutors' and public defenders' offices, juvenile justice systems, corrections departments, and probation and parole offices. These information systems are funded by different sources and often are incapable of sharing information. To foster more cooperation and to prevent further development of overlapping, incompatible systems, BJA supports a wide range of technology-related funding. In FY 1999, one of BJA's most important investments in technology supported the OJP Information Technology Executive Council Integration Initiative. Through this initiative, BJA provides funding to a consortium of technical assistance grantees to help state and local governments implement information technologies that operate both within and outside individual state, local, and federal information networks. The consortium of grantees' first priority was surveying the state of information system integration across the country, with an emphasis on best practices and lessons learned. After the survey was conducted and the data analyzed, the grantees undertook a variety of projects to disseminate critical integration-related knowledge to the field. They developed a guidebook for local governments on the tools needed to develop successful governance and policy structures for integrating criminal justice information systems. They enhanced criminal justice leaders' and practitioners' ability to integrate and manage criminal justice information through focus groups and meetings. They identified how information moves within the justice system and developed best practices in information exchange. In addition, they created an inventory of legislation supporting integration initiatives to help jurisdictions draft similar provisions and amend outdated legislation. Since FY 1992, states receiving Byrne formula grants have been required to allocate at least 5 percent of their total award for the improvement of criminal justice records. This initiative, known as the Criminal Justice Records Improvement (CJRI) Program, has become an important means for states to improve the accuracy, completeness, and timeliness of their records systems. In FY 1999, at least $24 million was invested in technological systems improvements through the program. These improvements have upgraded individual criminal justice agency services as well as linked these agencies together and to other law enforcement entities at the local and federal levels. The state of Oklahoma, for example, has used its Byrne formula set-aside funds to automate its arrest reporting requirements. This new system, an automated version of the National Incident Based Reporting System, allows police and sheriff's departments to share vital information on offenders with local, state, and federal agencies. BJA continued its support of the RISS Program, which assists law enforcement agencies as they fight drug trafficking and organized criminal activity across jurisdictional lines. Six regional centers provide criminal information exchange and other operational support services to more than 4,700 municipal, county, state, and federal law enforcement agencies in all 50 states. In 1999, RISS provided member agencies with services including a criminal intelligence database. For example, the RISS intelligence research database assisted the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Office of Inspector General in Salt Lake City, Utah, in identifying a retail store involved in illegal electronic benefit transfer (EBT) card trafficking and food stamp fraud. To date, the investigation has resulted in the filing of a $2 million civil suit against the retailer and the seizure of the store's bank account. In Texas, the Internal Affairs Division of the state Department of Criminal Justice used the RISS intelligence database to locate 30 missing felony parole violators, who were captured and returned to jail. NWCCC, funded by BJA, provides support for federal, state, and local law enforcement and regulatory agencies in all aspects of the prevention, investigation, and prosecution of white-collar and economic crimes. These crimes include investment fraud, health-care fraud, telemarketing and securities fraud, financial crimes against the elderly, and computer crime. In FY 1999, BJA funding enabled NWCCC to serve as the operations center for the National Cybercrime Training Partnership (NCTP). As the state and local liaison and training arm of NCTP, NWCCC provided one-stop shopping for state and local law enforcement and prosecutorial agencies, providing information on all federal resources relating to cybercrime, including training available governmentwide. In 1999, the NWCCC delivered training to numerous state and local communities with courses such as Electronic Crime Scene Procedures, Basic Data Recovery and Analysis, and Advanced Data Recovery and Analysis. In 1999 BJA continued its support of the National Motor Vehicle Title Information System (NMVTIS), in cooperation with the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA). This 5-year project will establish a national electronic switching system linking a network of state department of motor vehicle computers. Among its many benefits, NMVTIS will enable states to verify existing titles prior to issuing new titles, obtain information on whether a vehicle has been stolen, prevent odometer tampering, obtain information from the manufacturer's certificate of origin to help re-create a vehicle's first title, and automatically notify other states of previous records when a new title is issued. In 1999, AAMVA worked with Florida, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, and Virginia to help the states interface their motor vehicle titling systems with NMVTIS. Two other important integration projects funded in FY 1999 studied innovative information technology efforts by states to create models for use nationwide. One project continued a multistate effort to compare innovative statewide criminal justice management information systems and identify the country's most effective strategies. These strategies will be used to create a prototype management information system. A second project studied problems in the integration of electronic devices linking mobile units and law enforcement agencies. The goal is to develop an integrated communications device that will deliver better information to officers in the field. The program established a publicly accessible Web site in 1999 that provides technical information, online tutorials, and product vendors; acquired components for a prototype in-dash mobile computing system; and initiated a centralized, computer-aided dispatch and records management system. ---------------------------- BJA Funding in Focus: Investigating Cybercrime Law enforcement agencies across the country have recognized the impact of NWCCC training on their ability to investigate and prosecute cybercrime and white-collar crime. In Colorado, the Department of Revenue, Criminal Tax Enforcement Section, credited NWCCC's Cybercop training program with giving its investigative team the expertise to investigate computer-related crimes. A police department in Aurora, Colorado, reported that several major organized crime and racketeering cases were solved as the direct result of NWCCC training in computer forensics skills. In California, the state Department of Corporations credits NWCCC for its success in bringing 10 civil actions against 126 defendants involving crimes related to technology. ---------------------------- A third integration project, the Statewide Magistrate Information System, worked to give magistrates in North Carolina the technology to immediately enter magistrate orders into North Carolina's statewide criminal justice information system. When completed, the system will allow magistrates to access defendant information on prior offenses, court supervision, and bond status. To date, it is operating in 20 counties, and the project has provided training for 167 magistrates and 330 law enforcement officers. BJA also supported several critical initiatives in FY 1999 to provide technology-related training and technical assistance. BJA funding for the Strategic Information Technology Center helped state and local criminal justice practitioners understand the emerging field of information technology and apply its strategies within the criminal justice system. In 1999, this program helped 425 law enforcement agencies access the Internet, created more than 2,000 e-mail accounts for criminal justice practitioners, provided technical assistance to 800 agencies, and conducted numerous site visits to local law enforcement agencies to provide technical assistance on information technology. The Criminal Intelligence Systems Training and Technical Assistance program provides assistance to state and local jurisdictions in the areas of criminal intelligence systems and compliance with federal regulations, particularly those ensuring individuals' rights to privacy. In 1999, the program trained 650 law enforcement and criminal intelligence personnel and conducted numerous onsite technical assistance visits to local and state law enforcement agencies. BJA-funded projects related to investigative and surveillance technology are helping detectives use innovative ways to organize and search crime scene data and other criminal intelligence gathered during investigations. In one project, an electronic template for organizing this information, called the Murder Book, is being created. After the Murder Book has been tested, pilot training classes will be offered to detectives throughout the country. A second initiative is empowering law enforcement officers by teaching them how to use new technology created to manage criminal intelligence information. In FY 1999, 1,015 participants were trained in 29 1-week training classes, and the program's toll-free hotline received more than 3,780 calls from practitioners requesting technical information on investigation and surveillance. Evaluation: A Roadmap to What Works The progress state and local criminal justice programs can achieve in reducing crime and violence is limited if we cannot document why they are successful. Knowing why effective programs work is at the heart of BJA's mission to build safer, healthier communities. In FY 1999, BJA supported a comprehensive strategy to enhance evaluation capabilities at state and local levels. A key component of that strategy, the Byrne Evaluation Partnership Program, provides a mechanism for enhancing the design, implementation, measurement, evaluation, and dissemination of information in high-priority program areas. In FY 1998, the first year of the program, BJA selected 15 grantees to evaluate 85 Byrne-funded programs in 17 states. The results of the evaluations, which are at different stages of implementation, will be reported in future publications. BJA made seven additional Partnership awards in FY 1999. Under a separate grant, the Crime Justice Research Institute (CJRI) began the Byrne Policy Review, an assessment of the impact of the Byrne Formula Grant Program over the past 10 years. The review is tracing the development and evolution of the Byrne Program; identifying themes and trends at federal, state, and local levels; and generating reports to help public officials make informed decisions about resource allocation and management of Byrne funds. The report is expected in FY 2000. Under the Effective Programs initiative, BJA publishes a series of reports featuring innovative BJA-funded programs that have undergone intensive evaluation at the state or local level. The initiative is a joint effort of BJA, state and local criminal justice program managers, and NIJ. Effective programs are documented under BJA's Guidelines and Criteria for the Nomination of Effective Criminal Justice Programs, and the results form the basis for BJA's Effective Programs Monograph Series. In FY 1999, BJA published the second monograph in the series, Creating a New Criminal Justice System for the 21st Century: Results and Findings From State and Local Evaluations. Communication and collaboration with all components of OJP concerning assessment and evaluation are critically important. In FY 1999, NIJ initiated several major evaluations of BJA-funded programs under the BJA-NIJ National Evaluation Partnership. These evaluations will provide new information on the effectiveness of multijurisdictional task forces and drug testing in the criminal justice system. For program evaluation to work, criminal justice practitioners must have direct and immediate access to resources and technical assistance during the evaluation process. In August 1998, BJA launched the Electronic Roadmap for Evaluation (www.bja.evaluationwebsite.org), a Web site that provides a detailed review of evaluation topics focused on criminal justice applications. The site, the first of its kind developed by a public agency for general use, features extensive new material, including an overview of evaluation guidelines and examples of effective evaluations. BJA published the first annual report on the site in FY 1999 and completed the first volume in the companion Desk Reference Manual on Evaluation series. For the ninth year, BJA and NIJ, along with other OJP offices, sponsored the Annual Conference on Criminal Justice Research and Evaluation. The conference featured more than 40 plenary sessions, panels, and training workshops, at which more than 100 leading criminal justice evaluators, researchers, practitioners, and policymakers presented. For the second year, BJA published its report, Summary of Featured and BJA-Sponsored Sessions and Workshops, for dissemination to those who could not attend. In May 1999, BJA joined NIJ and the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) in sponsoring a symposium on the Impact of Federal Funding for Drug Abuse and Crime and an accompanying report, Assessing the Impact of Federal Assistance on State and Local Criminal Justice Agencies. BJA continued its commitment to directly assist jurisdictions that need help building the capacity to evaluate their programs. Under a cooperative agreement with BJA, the Justice Research and Statistics Association continued the State Evaluation Development (SED) Program, which provided technical assistance to states through workshops, conferences, and individual site visits. The State-to-State Exchange Program, a component of the SED Program, sponsored visits by practitioners from one jurisdiction to another to provide technical assistance or bring an innovative concept or program home for replication. BJA maintains a strict requirement that each discretionary grantee incorporate assessment and outcome measures for BJA-supported projects. Since 1997, BJA has supported major discretionary programs such as the Open Solicitation and three targeted solicitations and provided intensive technical assistance to discretionary grant awardees in using assessment and measurement tools. This assistance is provided at no cost to the grantee by an independent researcher, who helps the grantee design outcome evaluations and reviews these measures prior to program implementation. In FY 1999, BJA awarded a grant to ICJC at The George Washington University to provide technical assistance to recipients of the FY 1998 Open Solicitation Program. ICJC worked directly with the grantees to refine project goals, objectives, performance measurements, and data collection methods necessary to conduct an accurate program evaluation. ICJC will conduct a general analysis of the planning and implementation of these programs and report its findings to BJA. ---------------------------- Appendixes ---------------------------- BJA Legislative Purpose Area Descriptions Byrne Grant Program Purpose Areas The Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968, 42 U.S.C. 3711 et seq., at section 501, provides a general statement of the overall purposes of the Byrne Grant Program and establishes 26 purpose areas that define the nature and scope of programs and projects that might be funded under it. Frequently, Congress also uses other legislation (e.g., appropriations bill) to provide additional authorizations for limited periods (usually the current year only). Together, these laws provide substantial authorization for programs addressing drug control, violent and serious crime, all aspects of criminal justice processing including incarceration and treatment of offenders, and general improvements in the justice system operations. There is, however, some degree of overlap within several of these purpose areas and the program examples following each. This listing is, in part, an attempt to distinguish among them. (1) Demand reduction education programs in which law enforcement officers participate o Demand Reduction Education (not D.A.R.E.) o Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) o Officer Training for D.A.R.E. Program (2) Multijurisdictional task force (MJTF) programs that integrate federal, state, and/or local drug law enforcement agencies and prosecutors for the purpose of enhancing interagency coordination and intelligence and facilitating multijurisdictional investigations o Multijurisdictional/Regional Drug Task Forces o Regional Violent Drug Trafficker Program o Organized Crime/Narcotics Program o Special Narcotics Prosecutor (in direct support of MJTF) o Statewide Confidential Funds Pool o Narcotics Surveillance Equipment and Training Program (if in support of multi-site enforcement programs) o Drug Offenders Intelligence System (in direct support of MJTF) (3) Programs designed to target the domestic sources of controlled and illegal substances, such as precursor chemicals, diverted pharmaceuticals, clandestine laboratories, and cannabis cultivations o Pharmaceutical Diversion o Clandestine Laboratories o Marijuana Eradication o Drug Identification (laboratory-based research studies) (4) Providing community and neighborhood programs that assist citizens in preventing and controlling crime, including special programs that address the problems of crimes committed against the elderly and special programs for rural jurisdictions o Community Crime Prevention o Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design o Neighborhood Watch o National Night Out Against Crime o Community Policing/Prosecution (see also purpose areas 10 and 16) o Drug-Impacted Rural Jurisdictions o Reaching High-Risk Youth Through Outdoor Activities o Senior Citizen Crime Prevention/Golden Alert Program o Triad (5) Disrupting illicit commerce in stolen goods and property o County Attorney's Office Property Crime Program o Motor Vehicle Theft Prevention (6) Improving the investigation and prosecution of white-collar crime (e.g., organized crime, public corruption crimes, and fraud against the government with priority attention to cases involving drug-related official corruption) o Reducing Drug Corruption in Police Departments o Targeting White Collar Crime (7A) Improving the operational effectiveness of law enforcement through the use of crime analysis techniques, street sales enforcement, school yard violator programs, and gang-related and low-income housing drug control programs o Drug Task Force (single jurisdiction effort) o Drug-Free School Zone Enforcement o Arson Prevention and Control o Preserving the Crime Scene o Drug Dog/Canine Acquisition and Training/K-9 Unit o Violent Fugitives Arrest Squad o Firearms Trafficking/Control/Licensing Enforcement (7B) Developing and implementing antiterrorism plans for deep draft ports, international airports, and other important facilities o Night Eyes' State Water Patrol o Airport Antiterrorism Task Force (8) Career criminal prosecution programs, including the development of model drug control legislation o Career Criminal/Major Offender/Career Drug Offender Prosecution o Narcotics Prosecution Unit (but use purpose area 2 if directly in support of MJTF) o Model Drug Control Legislation (directed at offenders) o Use of Civil Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) in Drug Enforcement (9) Financial investigative programs that target the identification of money laundering operations and assets obtained through illegal drug trafficking, including the development of proposed model legislation, financial investigative training, and financial information sharing systems o Financial Investigations o Asset Forfeiture Units o Model Drug Control Legislation (directed at assets) (10) Improving the operational effectiveness of the court process by expanding prosecutorial, defender, and judicial resources and implementing court delay reduction programs o Community Prosecution/Community Courts (see also purpose area 16) o Differentiated/Expedited Case Management o Indigent Defense System Improvement o Drug Courts (specialized narcotics courtrooms; contrast purpose area 20) o Pretrial Services Delivery (but use purpose area 15A if primary focus is on drug testing or purpose area 20 if focus is on reducing jail crowding) o Video Arraignment/Presentence Telecommunications Project (11) Programs designed to provide additional public correctional resources and improve the corrections system, including treatment in prisons and jails, intensive supervision programs, and long-range corrections and sentencing strategies o Intensive Supervision Probation and Parole o Boot Camps o Treatment in a Jail Setting o Substance Abuse Treatment for Female Inmates o Correctional Facilities Planning/Population Projections o Sentencing Strategies Development (12) Providing prison industry projects designed to place inmates in a realistic working and training environment which will enable them to acquire marketable skills and to make financial payments for restitution to their victims, for support of their own families, and for support of themselves in the institution o Prison/Jail Industries (13) Providing programs which identify and meet the treatment needs of adult and juvenile drug-dependent and alcohol-dependent offenders o Treatment for Drug Addicted Offenders o Day Treatment Center for Juvenile Offenders o Treatment Aftercare Unit o Driving Under the Influence/Driving While Intoxicated (DUI/DWI) Rehabilitation and Training (14) Developing and implementing programs which provide assistance to jurors and witnesses and assistance (other than compensation) to victims of crime o One Day-One Trial/Jury Management Improvement o Systems for Setting Juror Fees/Compensation o Victim/Witness Program o Offenders' Restitution for Victims o Victim Assistance (15A) Developing programs to improve drug control technology, such as pretrial drug testing programs, programs which provide for the identification, assessment, referral to treatment, case management and monitoring of drug-dependent offenders, and enhancement of state and local forensic laboratories o Pretrial/Probation/Parole Drug Testing o Statewide Urinalysis Testing o Treatment Alternatives to Street Crimes (TASC) o Forensic Laboratory Enhancement (but use purpose area 25 if DNA related) (15B) Criminal justice information systems to assist law enforcement, prosecution, courts, and corrections organizations (including automated fingerprint identification systems) o Criminal Justice Records Improvement (CJRI) o Criminal Justice Information Systems (CJIS) o Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) o Prosecution Management Support Systems o Management Information Systems (for administrative support) o Metropolitan Criminal Intelligence System (but use purpose area 2 if restricted solely to MJTF drug-related information) o DUI Data Collection System (16) Innovative programs which demonstrate new and different approaches to enforcement, prosecution, and adjudication of drug offenses and other serious crimes o Hot Spots Comprehensive Neighborhood Crime Program o Community Justice Centers (17) Addressing the problems of drug trafficking and the illegal manufacture of controlled substances in public housing o Enforcement in Public Housing Developments o Eliminating Crack Houses (in public housing) (18) Improving the criminal and juvenile justice system's response to domestic and family violence, including spouse abuse, child abuse, and abuse of the elderly o Domestic/Family Violence Intervention o Law Enforcement's Response to Domestic Violence o Child Abuse Prosecution o Responding to Sexual Abuse of Children o Crimes Against the Elderly (in domestic settings; see also purpose area 4) (19) Drug control evaluation programs which state and local units of government may utilize to evaluate programs and projects directed at state drug control activities o Evaluation of Drug Control Programs o Research and Evaluation (20) Providing alternatives to prevent detention, jail, and prison for persons who pose no danger to the community o Alternatives to Incarceration o House Arrest/Electronic Monitoring o Drug Courts (directed to diverting offenders into treatment; contrast purpose area 10) o Restitution by Juveniles o Community Service Labor Program o User Accountability Sanctioning (not involving incarceration) (21) Programs of which the primary goal is to strengthen urban enforcement and prosecution efforts targeted at street drug sales o Street Sales/Street-Level Narcotics Enforcement o Drug Enforcement Enhancement o Crack Houses/Nuisance Abatement Unit o Reverse Sting Demand Reduction Enforcement o Drug Recognition Training for Patrol Officers o Motor Vehicle Officers' Watch for Drugs (22) Prosecution of driving while intoxicated charges and the enforcement of other laws relating to alcohol use and the operation of motor vehicles o Enhanced Prosecution of DWI Cases o Diversion of DWI Offenders into Treatment (23) Addressing the need for effective bindover systems for the prosecution of violent 16- and 17-year-old juveniles in courts with jurisdiction over adults for (certain enumerated) violent crimes o Violent Juvenile Waiver to Adult Court Program o Prosecutor's Juvenile Bindover Unit (24) Law enforcement and prevention programs that relate to gangs or to youth who are involved in or are at risk of involvement in gangs o Gang Task Forces o Specialized Gang Prosecutors o Juvenile Gangs Involvement in Drug Trafficking o Gang Resistance Education and Training (GREAT) (25) Developing or improving forensic laboratory capabilities to analyze DNA for identification purposes o DNA Database Identification System o DNA Laboratory Enhancement and Training Program (26) Developing and implementing antiterrorism training programs and procuring equipment for use by local law enforcement authorities o Law Enforcement Officer Training in Antiterrorism o Enhancing Enforcement Capabilities for Responding to Terrorist Acts Note: Congress has authorized the use of Byrne funds to support programs that assist in the litigation of death penalty federal habeas corpus petitions and drug testing initiatives. This authorization applies to FY 1998, 1999, and 2000 awards and may or may not be available in future funding cycles. ---------------------------- Local Law Enforcement Block Grants Program Purpose Areas Through the Local Law Enforcement Block Grants (LLEBG) Program, BJA provides funds to units of local government to underwrite projects to reduce crime and improve public safety. LLEBG funds must be spent in the following nine purpose areas: (1)Hiring, training, and employing on a continuous basis new, additional law enforcement officers and necessary support personnel. (2)Paying overtime to employed law enforcement officers and necessary support personnel to increase the number of hours worked by such personnel. (3)Procuring equipment, technology, and other materials directly related to basic law enforcement functions. (4)Enhancing security measures in and around schools and other facilities or locations that the unit of local government considers to be at risk for incidents of crime. (5)Establishing or supporting drug courts. (6)Enhancing the adjudication of cases involving violent offenders, including cases involving violent juvenile offenders. (7)Establishing a multijurisdictional task force, particularly in rural areas, composed of law enforcement officials representing units of local government. These task forces must work with Federal law enforcement officials to prevent and control crime. (8)Establishing cooperative crime prevention programs between community residents and law enforcement personnel to control, detect, or investigate crime or to prosecute criminals. (9)Defraying the cost of indemnification insurance for law enforcement officers. LLEBG funds may not be used to purchase, lease, rent, or acquire tanks or armored vehicles, fixed-wing aircraft, limousines, real estate, yachts, or any vehicle not used primarily for law enforcement. Funds are not to be used to retain consultants. Construction of new facilities is also prohibited. In addition, federal funds may not be used to supplant state or local funds; they must be used to increase the amount of funds that would otherwise be available from state and local sources. ---------------------------- Fiscal Year 1999 BJA Publications Document- Date of Publication/Publication Number Bulletproof Vest Partnership (Flier)- 3/99/LT 000344 Bulletproof Vest Partnership (Fact Sheet)- 1/99/FS 000238 Competitive Grant Announcement: Awards for Developing and Enhancing Tribal Courts (Solicitation)- 6/99/SL 000366 Competitive Grant Announcement: Awards for Planning and Implementing Strategies in Community Prosecution (Solicitation)- 3/99/SL 000344 Competitive Grant Announcement: Awards for Providing Technical Assistance to Tribal Courts and Tribal Resource (Solicitation)- 6/99/SL 000367 Competitive Grant Announcement: Telemarketing Fraud Enforcement (Solicitation)- 10/98/NCJ 000310 Connecticut's Alternative Sanctions Program: $619 Million Saved in Estimated Capital and Operating Costs (Practitioner Perspectives Bulletin)- 10/98/NCJ 172870 Edward Byrne Memorial State and Local Law Enforcement Assistance Program (Fact Sheet)- 4/99/FS 000264 FY 1999 Closed Circuit Televising of Testimony of Children Who Are Victims of Abuse Grant Program (Program Guide and Application Kit)- 6/99/SL 000358 FY 1999 Motor Vehicle Theft Prevention (Program Guide and Application Kit)- 4/99 FY 1999 Program Plan- 3/99/SL 000343 FY 1999 State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (Program Guide and Application Kit)- 4/99 FY 1999 State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (Fact Sheet)- 4/99/FS 000152 FY 1999 State Identification Systems (Program Guide and Application Kit)- 6/99/SL 000352 FY 1999 State Identification Systems Grant Program (Fact Sheet)- 4/99/FS 000241 Improving State and Local Criminal Justice Systems: A Report on How Public Defenders, Prosecutors, and Other Criminal Justice System Practitioners Are Collaborating Across the Country (Monograph)- 10/98/NCJ 173391 Integrating Drug Testing Into a Pretrial Services System: 1999 Update (Monograph)- 7/99/NCJ 176340 Key Elements of Successful Adjudication Partnerships (Bulletin)- 5/99/NCJ 173949 Lessons Learned From the Organized Crime Narcotics (OCN) Trafficking Enforcement Program Model (Monograph)- 12/98/NCJ 172878 National Hate Crimes Training Curriculum for Detectives and Investigators (Volume 2, October 1998) (Training Guide)- 3/99/NCJ 176992 National Hate Crimes Training Curriculum for Patrol and Responding Officers (Volume 1, October 1998) (Training Guide)- 3/99/NCJ 176991 National Hate Crimes Training Core Curriculum for Patrol Officers, Detectives, and Command Officers (Volume 3, October 1998) (Training Guide)- 3/99/NCJ 176993 Overcoming Obstacles to Community Courts: A Summary of Workshop Proceedings (Monograph)- 11/98/NCJ 173400 Pretrial Drug Testing: An Overview of Issues and Practices (Bulletin)- 7/99/NCJ 176341 Public Safety Officers' Benefits Program (Fact Sheet)- 2/99/FS 000066 Public Safety Officers' Educational Assistance Program (Fact Sheet)- 8/99/FS 000246 Report of the National Task Force on Court Automation and Integration (Monograph)- 6/99/NCJ 177601 Robert Taylor Boys and Girls Club of Chicago (Practitioner Perspectives Bulletin)- 2/99/NCJ 174442 State and Local Law Enforcement Equipment Procurement Program (Fact Sheet)- 5/99/FS 000242 The 1999 Bureau of Justice Assistance National Partnership Meeting Summary of Proceedings: Working Together for Peace and Justice in the 21st Century (Monograph)- 7/99/NCJ 177623 ---------------------------- Bureau of Justice Assistance Information General Information Callers may contact the U.S. Department of Justice Response Center for general information or specific needs, such as assistance in submitting grants applications and information on training. To contact the Response Center, call 1-800-421-6770 or write to 1100 Vermont Avenue NW., Washington, DC 20005. Indepth Information For more indepth information about BJA, its programs, and its funding opportunities, requesters can call the BJA Clearinghouse. The BJA Clearinghouse, a component of the National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS), shares BJA program information with state and local agencies and community groups across the country. Information specialists are available to provide reference and referral services, publication distribution, participation and support for conferences, and other networking and outreach activities. The Clearinghouse can be reached by: o Mail P.O. Box 6000 Rockville, MD 20849-6000 o Visit 2277 Research Boulevard Rockville, MD 20850 o Telephone 1-800-688-4252 Monday through Friday 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. eastern time o Fax 301-519-5212 o Fax on Demand 1-800-688-4252 o BJA Home Page www.ojp.usdoj.gov/BJA o NCJRS World Wide Web www.ncjrs.org o E-mail askncjrs@ncjrs.org o JUSTINFO Newsletter E-mail to listproc@ncjrs.org Leave the subject line blank In the body of the message, type: subscribe justinfo [your name] BJA World Wide Web Address For a copy of this document online, as well as more information on BJA, check the BJA Home Page at www.ojp.usdoj.gov/BJA