Title: FY 2001 State Criminal Alien Assistance Program Series: Fact Sheet Author: Bureau of Justice Assistance Published: June 2001 Subject: criminal aliens, legal aid services, funding resources 5 pages 12,288 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. ---------------------------- U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs Bureau of Justice Assistance BJA Bureau of Justice Assistance Fact Sheet FY 2001 State Criminal Alien Assistance Program The Bureau of Justice Assistance announces the opening of and all critical deadlines for the Fiscal Year (FY) 2001 State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP). Legislative Authority If the chief executive officer (CEO) of a state (or, if appropriate, a political subdivision of the state) exercising authority with respect to the incarceration of an undocumented criminal alien submits a written request to the U.S. Attorney General, the Attorney General shall enter into a contractual arrangement that provides for compensation to the state or political subdivision of the state, as may be appropriate, with respect to the incarceration of the undocumented criminal alien. For FY 2001, $551 million is available for this program. SCAAP is authorized and governed by the provisions of the Omnibus Appropriations Act, Public Law 106-113, Division B, Section 1000(a); Immigration and Nationality Act, 8 U.S.C. 1252, Section 242 as amended; and Title II, Subtitle C, Section 20301, Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, Public Law 103-322. ---------------------------- Critical Deadlines for SCAAP Applicants Phases--Start Dates--End Dates Phase: Applicant Account Registration Start Date: Tuesday, June 5, 9 a.m. (e.t.) End Date: Monday, July 2, 5 p.m. (e.t.) To register, new applicants must create Grants Management System (GMS) user accounts and begin and save their SCAAP applications. Current GMS users need only begin and save their SCAAP applications by the July 2 deadline. Phase: Application Submissions Start Date: Tuesday, June 5, 9 a.m. (e.t.) End Date: Monday, July 16, 5 p.m. (e.t.) To successfully submit a SCAAP application, applicants must complete and submit their SCAAP applications via GMS. Phase: Application Resubmission Start Date: Monday, July 30, 9 a.m. (e.t.) End Date: Friday, August 10, 5 p.m. (e.t.) BJA will review and return any submitted applications with incomplete or inaccurate data to the applicants for corrections. BJA will notify both the CEO and program contact, via the e-mail addresses provided in the application, if their application needs to be corrected and resubmitted. Corrections must be made and the application resubmitted to BJA no later than 5 p.m. (e.t.) on Friday, August 10. Failure to resubmit the application by the August 10 deadline will result in BJA's inability to process the application for funding. ---------------------------- Eligible Applicants States and units of general government that have authority over correctional facilities that incarcerate or detain undocumented criminal aliens, for a minimum of 72 consecutive hours, are eligible to apply for SCAAP funds. The phrase "states and units of general government" encompasses the 50 states, the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and nearly 3,000 counties and cities with jail facilities. The CEOs of these jurisdictions must apply directly or delegate authority to another jurisdictional official to apply on behalf of the jurisdiction. User accounts for SCAAP may be established only by government officials within the applying jurisdictions; nongovernment officials may not establish user accounts on behalf of applying jurisdictions. When establishing a user account for the purpose of SCAAP, sheriffs or chiefs of police are not considered CEOs but may serve as the contact persons establishing the SCAAP user accounts on behalf of their CEOs. All applications must be filed in the name of the state or unit of general government and must include the jurisdiction's CEO's name and official title and reliable electronic mail (e-mail) addresses for the CEO and any designated program contact. Online Application and Payment Processes For the second consecutive year, the FY 2001 SCAAP application and payment processes will be managed through an innovative Web-based system that was premiered during the FY 2000 SCAAP funding cycle. Applicants will apply, transmit inmate data, and receive payment via this electronic system. Establishing a User Account/Application Period SCAAP applicants who received payments from the FY 2000 funding cycle must use the same account (UserID and Password) as in FY 2000. If you experience UserID and/or Password problems, please call 1-888-549-9901, Option 5. The FY 2001 SCAAP application process will include a 4-week applicant account registration period and a 6-week application period. The first 4 weeks will allow users to apply for their user accounts. All user accounts must be applied for within this 4-week period to allow sufficient time for BJA review/approval and for applicants to submit completed applications prior to the end of the 6-week application period. There will be no exceptions. While waiting for BJA approval of their user accounts, applicants can complete their applications. Applications may be submitted once the user account approval has been received. The posting of any final payments requires that all data be received and processed at one time because extending the application period for any applicant would delay the determination of payment amounts for all applicants. Required Data Submissions The reporting period for FY 2001 is July 1, 1999, to June 30, 2000. Jurisdictions applying for SCAAP funds must provide information for the prescribed reporting period on undocumented criminal alien inmates, the total reporting period salary information for all full- and part-time permanent and contracted correctional officers, and information regarding total inmate population. Applicants may not include in the correctional officer salary costs any costs for which payments were received from other jurisdictions or the Federal Government including, but not limited to, the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and the U.S. Marshals Service, to cover costs of housing inmates. Illegal criminal aliens whose incarceration was funded by other entities may not be submitted in inmate files. Applicants also should include information relating to costs for undocumented criminal aliens who are housed in other locations at a cost to the applicant. Consistent with FY 2000's SCAAP guidance, all inmate data must be submitted in the prescribed SCAAP format, regardless of whether the inmate data is typed into the on-screen data entry forms or uploaded from the applicant's data files. The prescribed format is available at the following Web site: https://grants.ojp.usdoj.gov/scaap/ScaapHelpInmateInformation.html. FY 2001 Data Review INS, BJA's partner in SCAAP, has primary responsibility for verifying alien inmate data to determine which inmates qualify for inclusion in the formula process. Information about inmates who are being claimed as possible qualifying aliens, including length of stay, must be provided by applicants in a specified format necessary for INS to conduct its verification. The SCAAP Web site and the SCAAP Internet application system include specific details about the required data format for uploaded files and also provide a data entry system for direct submission of inmate records. FY 2001 Funding Annual SCAAP payment amounts are determined using a sampling of actual inmate, cost, and facility data for a specified sampling or reporting period. Whereas the relationship between data gathered and the payment amounts may not have been clear in prior years, guidance in the new Internet-based system clarifies that SCAAP is not a traditional reimbursement program. Payment amounts are not partial reimbursements of the actual cost, facility, and inmate data collected. SCAAP uses prior data from a specified sampling period to determine applicants' annual relative percentages of available funding. All applicants' relative percentages must be determined at one time. To facilitate this process, BJA developed an electronically managed formula to determine relative percentages and implemented it during the FY 2000 SCAAP funding cycle. After the current year's percentages are determined, the system applies the percentage values to the available funding for that fiscal year to determine actual payment amounts. Payment calculations are based solely on the information provided by the jurisdiction through the electronic application system as verified by INS. The final inmate and facility factors for all applicants are considered in relation to the available appropriation to determine an applicant's percentage of the total SCAAP allocation for the current fiscal year. Actual payment amounts from prior fiscal years should not be taken as indicators of payment amounts for FY 2001 because the factors across applicants may vary as may the number of eligible applicants and the appropriated amount of funds. Payments will be made electronically. Jurisdictions may use SCAAP funds for any lawful purpose. SCAAP has no postpayment reporting requirements. For Further Information For more information about SCAAP, go to the BJA home page at www.ojp.usdoj.gov/BJA or call the State and Local Assistance Division's (SLAD) Strategic Response Center (SRC) Help Desk at 1-888-549- 9901, Option 4. For technical assistance with the OJP Grants Management System, contact the GMS Hotline at 1-888-549-9901, Option 3. For assistance with UserID and Passwords for GMS, call 1-888-549-9901, Option 5. SLAD SRC and OJP GMS Hotline staff are available Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. eastern time. Or contact the U.S. Department of Justice Response Center at 1-800-421- 6770 or 202-307-1480. DOJ Response Center staff are available Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. eastern time. For more information about BJA programs and funding, contact Bureau of Justice Assistance Clearinghouse P.O. Box 6000 Rockville, MD 20849-6000 1-800-688-4252 World Wide Web: www.ncjrs.org Clearinghouse staff are available Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. eastern time. FS 000300 June 2001