Title: Working Together for Peace and Justice.
Series: Annual Report to Congress
Author: BJA 
Published: Bureau of Justice Assistance, June 1999
Subject: Criminal justice system
40 pages
91,000 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
NCJRS at 800-851-3420 (877-712-9279 For TTY users). BJA at 800-688-
4252.

-------------------------------

U.S. Department of Justice
Office of Programs
Bureau of Justice Assistance

Fiscal Year 1998 
Working Together for Peace and Justice

Bureau of Justice Assistance
Annual Report to Congress

June 1999

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 1998.

Respectfully submitted,

Nancy E. Gist 
Director 
Bureau of Justice Assistance
Washington, D.C.
June 1999

Message from the Director

The Bureau of Justice Assistance was created to help America's
communities, states, and territories develop strategies to reduce
victimization and restore a sense of security to our neighborhoods,
workplaces, and schools. BJA's mission is to ensure that the innovative,
diligent, and often unsung work of criminal justice practitioners gets the
support it needs to make all of our lives safer.

This annual report describes the funding and technical assistance provided
to state and local criminal justice systems by BJA in FY 1998. This past
fiscal year, BJA administered $1.7 billion to state and local agencies to
support an extraordinary range of proven and promising programs in
crime prevention, community justice, law enforcement, adjudication,
supervision services, technology, and evaluation. 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 the implementation,
evaluation, and replication of these programs.

At the heart of every initiative in this report is the belief that no one part
of our communities and justice system can address our nation's culture of
violence. Every member of society and government has an important
contribution to make. BJA believes that those contributions become more
powerful through partnerships. Partnerships open the criminal justice
system at every level to innovative thinking and break down barriers
between community and police, prosecution and defense, and federal and
local levels. 

It is our hope that BJA-funded programs will continue to stimulate the
efforts of dedicated public servants who are looking at criminal justice in
new ways. It is only by working together that we can build a safer
America and restore peace and justice to all communities throughout our
nation.

Nancy E. Gist
Director

-------------------------------

Contents

Section I 

About the Bureau of Justice Assistance
Mission
Goals
BJA Funding Streams

--Byrne Formula Funds
--Byrne Discretionary Funds
--Local Law Enforcement Block Grants
--Earmarked Funds and Special Programs

Section II

An Overview of Fiscal Year 1998 Activities
Reorganizing BJA To Better Serve State and Local Constituents
Building State and Local Partnerships for Community Justice
Facilitating Innovation, Access to Justice, and System Balance
Building State and Local Capacity for Strategic Planning
Creating a Comprehensive and Effective Justice System
Communicating With the Field.

Section III 

FY 1998 Support to State and Local Justice Systems
Empowering Communities To Prevent Crime
Supporting Law Enforcement
Supporting Innovation in Adjudication
Managing Offenders Under Supervision
Making the Justice System More Responsive to Victims of Crime
Improving Justice Systems in American Indian and Alaska Native
Communities
Technology: Using 21st Century Tools
Evaluation: A Roadmap to What Works

Appendixes

BJA Legislative Purpose Area Descriptions
BJA Grant Awards to States and U.S. Territories
BJA Publications Printed Fiscal Year 1998

-------------------------------

SECTION I 

About the Bureau of Justice Assistance

Mission 

BJA's mission is to provide leadership, funding, training, and technical
assistance in support of local criminal justice strategies to achieve strong
neighborhoods and safe communities. 

Goals

o To coordinate with states, units of local government, and tribal
governments innovative approaches to crime control and prevention,
working closely with partners that have a direct stake in creating safer
communities.

o To transfer knowledge about successful crime control and prevention
strategies to states, cities, and communities across the country.

o To maintain collaborative crime control programs that use strategic
planning and public-private partnerships to improve criminal justice.

o To lead by example with a responsive and dynamic staff that serve the
needs of local practitioners.

BJA Funding Streams

The assistance that BJA provides to states and local communities flows
through distinct funding streams. These streams are the Edward Byrne
Memorial State and Local Law Enforcement Assistance Program (the
Byrne Program), the Local Law Enforcement Block Grants Program,
congressional earmarks, and special programs. The two main components
of the Byrne Program are Byrne formula funds and Byrne discretionary
funds.

Byrne Formula Funds

BJA is authorized by Congress under the Edward Byrne Memorial State
and Local Law Enforcement Assistance Program to make grants to states,
for use by states and local units of government, to improve the functioning
of the criminal justice system, with emphasis on violent crimes and
serious offenders, and to enforce state and local laws that establish
offenses similar to those in the Federal Controlled Substances Act. Under
the Byrne Formula Grant Program, BJA determines each state's annual
grant entitlement by applying a modified population-based formula to the
total amount of the appropriation. A base amount (0.25 percent of the total
appropriation or $500,000, whichever is greater) is guaranteed to each
state, with remaining funds distributed according to a state's relative share
of the total U.S. population. To receive Byrne funds, states must develop a
strategic, multiyear violence prevention and drug control strategy. In each
state, Byrne funds, Local Law Enforcement Block Grants, and other
statewide, BJA-funded programs are administered by a State
Administrative Agency, which must pass through a share of the Byrne
funds to local jurisdictions in proportion to local agencies' share of total
state criminal justice expenditures. Byrne formula funds may be applied to
26 legislative purpose areas, which were established by Congress (see
appendixes, page 35).

Byrne Discretionary Funds

BJA is authorized by Congress to award grants to public and private
agencies and organizations for national-scope demonstration, training, and
technical assistance programs in support of state and local criminal justice
systems. Each year Congress directs BJA to award a portion of the
appropriated Byrne program funds to specified programs and
organizations, such as the National Citizens' Crime Prevention Campaign
and the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) Program. In 1998,
earmarked funds represented approximately 80 percent of the total Byrne
discretionary funds appropriated to BJA. The remaining discretionary
funds were used to continue existing demonstration programs, establish
new programs, or establish or continue technical assistance programs that
address the needs of the states and local jurisdictions. 

Local Law Enforcement Block Grants

The Local Law Enforcement Block Grants (LLEBG) Program provides
units of local government with funds to underwrite projects designed to
reduce crime and improve public safety. Under the statutory provisions of
the LLEBG Program, BJA sets aside funds to be awarded directly to units
of local government within a state. The remaining funds in each state are
distributed to individual programs and agencies by the state agency
designated to administer the funds. The amounts awarded are
proportionate to a state's average annual number of Part I violent crimes
that have been reported to the Federal Bureau of Investigation compared
with the average for all other states for the three most recent calendar
years. However, each state receives a minimum award of 0.25 percent of
the total amount available for formula distribution. By law, projects under
this program must be funded in accordance with the following purpose
areas: supporting law enforcement, enhancing security measures in and
around schools, establishing or supporting drug courts, enhancing the
adjudication of violent offenders, establishing multijurisdictional law
enforcement task forces, enhancing crime prevention programs, and
defraying the costs of indemnification insurance.

Earmarked Funds and Special Programs

BJA administers several programs that are not funded through the funding
streams described above. Each fiscal year, Congress places line items in
BJA's appropriation for other special initiatives. These line items include
funding for the Regional Information Sharing Systems Program, the
National White Collar Crime Center, the State Criminal Alien Assistance
Program, the Watch Your Car Program, the Public Safety Officers'
Benefits Program, and the new Bulletproof Vest Partnership Program. In
addition, BJA partners with other federal agencies to administer grant
programs on their behalf. For example, BJA receives funds from the
Federal Bureau of Investigation to award grants under the State
Identification Systems Formula Grant Program.

Section II 

An Overview of Fiscal Year 1998 Activities

The Bureau of Justice Assistance supports a wide range of efforts to
strengthen the nation's criminal justice system. In fiscal year (FY) 1998,
BJA's work focused on assisting state and local criminal justice strategies
in the following critical areas: reorganizing BJA to better serve state and
local constituents; building state and local partnerships for community
justice; facilitating innovation, access to justice, and system balance;
building state and local capacity for strategic planning; creating a
comprehensive and effective justice system; and communicating with the
field.

-------------------------------

BJA's 1998 Themes

o Reorganizing BJA to better serve state and local constituents.

o Building state and local partnerships for community justice.

o Facilitating innovation, access to justice, and system balance.

o Building state and local capacity for strategic planning.

o Creating a comprehensive and effective justice system.

o Communicating with the field.

-------------------------------

Reorganizing BJA To Better Serve State and Local Constituents

An important BJA objective in 1998 was reorganizing its staff and
resources to give local administrators a single point of contact within the
Bureau to serve as a true planning partner.

A major part of this effort was merging the Byrne Formula Grant Program
Division with the Local Law Enforcement Block Grants Program Division
to form a single, expanded State and Local Assistance Division. The
reorganization has given the staff of this new division the ability to focus
more of their attention on the unique funding and technical assistance
needs of individual states and communities. Staff can more rapidly
identify and respond to emerging trends in the field and better manage
complex programs. Moreover, they can better nurture innovative efforts at
the local level and foster the sharing of these promising solutions across
jurisdictions.

A second new division, the Program Development Division, seeks out
emerging problems in the field and nurtures promising solutions as they
grow into feasible demonstration projects. A critical part of this division's
work is sponsoring pilot studies of initiatives to determine whether these
strategies can be replicated in other communities.

Building state and local Partnerships for Community Justice

Building partnerships between justice agencies and the communities they
serve is a cornerstone of BJA. Among BJA's important efforts in FY 1998
was supporting locally directed strategies to revitalize neighborhoods.
These initiatives emphasized using community mobilization not only to
reduce crime, violence, and drug abuse but also to improve residents'
quality of life. 

Community-based strategies funded by BJA, including the
Comprehensive Communities Program (CCP) and the Tribal Strategies
Against Violence initiative, have demonstrated that strategic community
planning works when it is comprehensive and coordinated with state and
federal resources. The 16 cities participating in CCP in 1998 focused on
crime prevention and control, but they integrated a wide range of
responses into their strategies, including youth and gang initiatives,
dispute resolution, community prosecution, drug courts, and alternatives
to prosecution.

BJA worked closely with local criminal justice practitioners in FY 1998 to
put the concept of community justice into practice at each stage of the
criminal justice process. Police-community partnerships have had a
dramatic impact in neighborhoods throughout the country, and BJA is
now focusing on building community partnerships with courts, public
defenders, and corrections agencies. To help these agencies, BJA
continued funding for long-term strategies to build community
prosecution programs and community courts through which 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 to the community.

Facilitating Innovation, Access to Justice, and System Balance

FY 1998 marked the second year of BJA's Open Solicitation Grant
Program. Through the program, BJA encourages state, local, and tribal
governments to identify emerging or chronic criminal justice problems in
their communities and propose innovative strategies to address those
problems. BJA solicits brief concept papers in broad discretionary funding
categories that reflect local priorities. Applicants are urged to reach out
within their communities and build partnerships with schools, social
service agencies, private organizations, and other institutions that have a
stake in creating safe and vibrant neighborhoods. BJA created the program
to open the grant-funding process to as many jurisdictions as possible,
particularly rural and tribal communities that historically have had
difficulty accessing federal and state criminal justice funds.

BJA received more than 1,300 concept papers in response to the 1998
Open Solicitation in the following topic areas: 

o Restoring community justice.

o Using law enforcement partnerships to address hate crimes.

o Addressing criminal justice challenges for rural and tribal communities.

o Improving criminal justice responses to senior citizens.

o Addressing the role of alcohol and crime.

o Improving indigent defense services.

o Breaking the cultural barriers to justice.

o Enhancing public safety with nontraditional uses of prosecution.

o Building public health and criminal justice partnerships.

o Meeting local priorities.

BJA selected 32 proposals for awards of up to $150,000. The majority of
grants will cover a period of 18 months. Applications came from each of
the 50 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia. Nearly 30 percent
had never sought help from the U.S. Department of Justice, 20 percent
had never sought federal support, and only 2 percent had participated in
last year's Open Solicitation. About half of the applicants submitted
concept papers proposing multiple-agency partnerships, and the majority
of the concept papers (95 percent) represented new ideas for federal
support in the justice arena.

-------------------------------

Highlights of FY 1998 Open Solicitation

o Solicitation announcements were mailed to more than 40,000 state,
local, and tribal government agencies.

o More than 1,300 concept papers were submitted to BJA.

o Nearly a quarter of the concept papers were submitted by agencies such
as municipal, family service, and public housing organizations that
historically have had difficulty accessing federal funds.

o Locally defined priorities and restoring community justice were the
most commonly chosen topic areas, followed by improving criminal
justice responses to senior citizens and building public health-criminal
justice collaborations.

o The most frequently proposed strategies for reducing crime were
preventing juvenile crime and gangs and establishing partnerships
between communities and police departments.

-------------------------------

In addition, BJA issued three targeted solicitations in FY 1998 that were
an outgrowth of BJA's regional partnership meetings, feedback from the
Open Solicitation, and direction from the Attorney General. The
solicitations addressed the pressing issues of improving indigent defense
management and technology, overcoming barriers to implementing
community courts, and bolstering community prosecution efforts. Built
into all of these grants is technical assistance for grantees on collecting
and analyzing data that show progress toward the project's goals. In this
way, successful new approaches can be sustained locally and shared with
other jurisdictions.

BJA also worked in FY 1998 to open the justice system to historically
underserved constituents. These constituents include rural and tribal
justice systems, senior citizens, young victims and offenders, and victims
of hate crimes. Among the many initiatives BJA supported to help these
special populations were TRIAD, a national program to reduce elderly
victimization; training and technical assistance to local prosecutors and
law enforcement to stop telemarketing fraud against the elderly; Tribal
Strategies Against Violence, a federal-tribal partnership to combat crime,
violence, and substance abuse on reservations; technical assistance to help
tribal courts address violent crime against children, domestic violence, and
youth gang violence in Indian communities; a summit for policymakers
and law enforcement officials on hate crimes; national programs, such as
the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, that provide alternatives to drugs
and life on the streets; a public education campaign to prevent teen-dating
violence that featured the powerful documentary, It Ain't Love; and public
service announcements that focused on investing in youth through
mentoring and volunteerism. 

Building state and local Capacity for Strategic Planning

An important part of the assistance BJA provides to states and local
communities is building capacity for strategic planning. Local strategic
planning works best when it is comprehensive and coordinated with state
and federal resources. Uncoordinated planning results in either
unnecessary duplication of, or gaps in, programs. 

To help states and localities understand and use planning processes more
effectively, BJA funded several comprehensive technical assistance
initiatives in FY 1998. Through planning partnerships with Byrne State
Administrative Agencies (SAAs), BJA promoted the integration of state
and local criminal justice strategies that emphasize collaboration, resource
sharing, and the balanced delivery of criminal justice services. This
initiative included an assessment of how states integrate local crime
prevention and control into their strategic plans and the degree to which
states take an active role in planning and implementing community-based
programs. BJA also worked with the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the
other offices of the Office of Justice Programs (OJP) in FY 1998 to help
states better coordinate the funding and technical assistance they receive
from federal initiatives, including the Byrne and LLEBG programs,
juvenile accountability initiatives, and other DOJ and OJP grant programs.

In another important planning partnership, BJA worked with the
Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys, the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration, and the National Crime Prevention Council to host
training sessions for teams of municipal and community leaders. The
training emphasized ways to link state and local strategic planning to
federal resources such as U.S. Attorneys. BJA also partnered in FY 1998
with the Executive Office for Weed and Seed and the Office for Victims
of Crime to help grantees meet the critical challenge of finding resources
to sustain their programs after federal funding ends.

-------------------------------

BJA FY 1998 Enacted Funding Levels

Program--------------------------------------Funding

Justice Assistance:

Regional Information Sharing Systems-----$20,000,000
National White Collar Crime Center-----5,350,000
Local Firefighter/Emergency Services Training-----5,000,000
Terrorism Training-----2,000,000

State and Local Law Enforcement:

Byrne Formula Grants-----505,000,000
Byrne Discretionary Grants-----46,500,000

Public Safety Officers' Benefits

Discretionary--Education Benefits-----2,000,000
Discretionary--Death Benefits-----31,003,000

Local Law Enforcement Block Grants-----523,000,000

State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP)-----420,000,000

Transfer From State Corrections Program to SCAAP-----165,000,000

Telemarketing Fraud Prevention-----2,500,000

Motor Vehicle Theft Prevention-----750,000

Grants for Televised Testimony-----1,000,000

Total-----$1,729,103,000

-------------------------------

Creating a Comprehensive and Effective Justice System

Many of the initiatives BJA supports are designed to help the justice
system operate more cohesively as offenders, victims, witnesses, and other
participants pass through its various components. These initiatives provide
training and technical assistance to law enforcement departments, pretrial
services agencies, prosecutor and indigent defense offices, courts, and
corrections and supervision services nationwide.

In FY 1998, BJA began several new efforts to assist small and mid-sized
jurisdictions, which comprise more than 90 percent of the criminal justice
agencies in the United States. The most far-reaching of these efforts is the
Bulletproof Vest Partnership, an unprecedented collaboration of BJA with
six federal agencies to give law enforcement agencies a powerful new tool
to save the lives of their officers. BJA and its partners established a Web
site for the program (opening in 1999) through which agencies around the
country can establish eligibility and order vests at 50 percent of their
normal cost. At least half of the program's funds will support governments
serving fewer than 100,000 residents. 

Creating a comprehensive justice system requires ensuring that the various
components of the system share vital information. In FY 1998, BJA
continued its substantial investment in technology and information
systems initiatives that are helping state and local jurisdictions complete
this process. A major project helped isolated rural law enforcement keep
pace with rapid technological change by providing Internet access,
guidance on Internet-based resources, and a wide range of support on
using new technologies. Other important initiatives in this area included
the Regional Information Sharing Systems, a network of regional centers
that shares intelligence on criminal organizations operating across
jurisdictional lines; the National White Collar Crime Center, which
provides a national support system for law enforcement agencies in their
fight against economic crime; and the State Identification Systems
Formula Grant Program, which gives states resources to develop or
improve their computerized offender identification systems and to
integrate those systems with the FBI's system.

Finally, BJA's work in FY 1998 to improve each facet of the nation's
justice system included giving state and local jurisdictions the tools and
expertise to ensure that these efforts are producing measurable results. In
FY 1998, BJA offered indepth evaluation assistance through the
Electronic Roadmap for Evaluation, an interactive site on the BJA Web 
page that provides step-by-step instructions for planning, designing, and
conducting evaluations of state and local criminal justice programs. BJA
also supported states' efforts to evaluate the performance and outcomes of
their programs through the State Evaluation Development Program and
the Byrne Evaluation Partnership Program. Additionally, BJA funded 16
national evaluation projects through the BJA-NIJ Evaluation Partnership.

-------------------------------

BJA Funding in Focus: The Bulletproof Vest Partnership

The Bulletproof Vest Partnership (BVP) was created in 1998 to save the
lives of law enforcement officers by equipping them with armored vests.
BJA, working closely with other federal agencies, administers the
program entirely through the Internet, giving state, local, and tribal
governments a powerful new tool to protect their officers. This
extraordinary new funding mechanism is unprecedented in its potential
reach and ease of use. Other members of BVP are the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration, the U.S. Bureau of the Census, the
Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, the Office of Justice
Programs, the National Institute of Justice, and the Bureau of Justice
Statistics.

-------------------------------

Communicating With the Field

BJA continued its emphasis on communicating vital information about
criminal justice with practitioners. Many initiatives focused on supporting
teams of community leaders to develop coordinated planning strategies.
BJA worked steadily to collect needs assessments from local and state
jurisdictions, and BJA's regional conferences brought the agency staff to
the field to listen to local administrators and grantees.

BJA's State and Local Partnership Meetings, facilitated by the National
Criminal Justice Association (NCJA), were conducted in Austin,
Honolulu, Louisville, Oakland, Providence, and Savannah. At these
landmark meetings, more than 400 criminal justice practitioners, including
state formula grant administrators, state and local grantees, BJA program
staff, and speakers on key topics, met to share their perspectives on how
federal assistance can best support their work.

BJA also sponsored a series of policy briefings in FY 1998 that used
peer-to-peer mentoring to help grant administrators set priorities and plan
for developments in grant programming. In September, BJA sponsored a
conference in New York City on the Future of the Criminal Courts. The
conference, attended by work groups from 28 states, explored how the
courts are being changed by emerging concepts such as community
justice, particularly in the areas of court administration, indigent defense,
and community participation. Another successful mentoring effort was
spearheaded by the Center for Court Innovation, which helped
communities around the country establish community courts similar to the
Midtown Community Court in Manhattan.

BJA's information dissemination efforts continued to grow in FY 1998
and involved traditional publishing, electronic dissemination through the
BJA and National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS) Web sites,
and mass media public education campaigns. In fiscal year 1998, BJA
published more than 50 documents, including monographs, special
reports, bulletins, fact sheets, and application kits, and distributed more
than 400,000 documents nationwide. (See appendixes, page 61, for the
full list of BJA publications released in FY 1998.) During that same
period, nearly 400,000 documents were viewed online through the BJA
World Wide Web home page.

Section III 

FY 1998 Support to State and Local Justice Systems

Empowering Communities To Prevent Crime

At the heart of BJA's mission to reduce crime and violence in America is
building safer, healthier communities. At the heart of building safer,
healthier communities is the simple act of bringing people together who
want secure neighborhoods, streets, and schools. Historically,
community-based programs have sought to improve economic
development, serve youth, and foster better social services and health care.
Not until the 1990s has comprehensive community planning targeted
crime. The widespread positive impact of community policing initiatives
in the past decade has demonstrated the strong connection between
community mobilization and crime prevention. And as police roles have
changed, so too have the roles of other government institutions as they
recognized that communities must take a greater leadership role in
combating crime.

In FY 1998, BJA funding for crime prevention emphasized building and
sustaining these critical community-based partnerships. In particular, BJA
used crime prevention grants to encourage coordination and resource
sharing among law enforcement, prosecutors, public defenders, the courts,
elected officials, and respected institutions in the community such as
churches, businesses, schools, and neighborhood associations. A valuable
lesson from the Comprehensive Communities Program (CCP) was that
communities use their resources more effectively when they have time and
a forum to diagnose and prioritize their crime and quality-of-life
problems.

BJA and the National Criminal Justice Association began integrating a
variety of community-based partnership initiatives in 1998 that have a
proven record of comprehensive planning and strategic implementation.
These efforts, begun under different auspices such as Weed and Seed,
CCP, Communities That Care, and Tribal Strategies Against Violence,
took shape independent of broader state planning, resulting in duplication
of or gaps in service delivery. BJA is addressing this lack of coordination
through the Statewide Communities Initiative (SCI), which promotes local
involvement in statewide criminal justice planning. SCI is based on
planning efforts under way in Colorado, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and
Virginia, and BJA plans to expand the initiative to four additional states. 

A second community-based project funded by BJA in FY 1998, the
Collaborative Rural Jurisdiction Program, is an extension of the CCP
concept to communities with populations of 50,000 or less. This initiative
brings stakeholders together to list their most significant crime problems
and fashion a strategy to target them. Planning grants were given to 10
sites in North Carolina and Virginia. Technical assistants, who were
formerly CCP site coordinators, served as advisers on the project and were
matched to sites according to their areas of expertise, such as use of
citizen councils.

BJA also continued its support of the National Night Out (NNO)
initiative. This year-long campaign builds community-police
relationships; strengthens comprehensive community partnerships; and
helps develop prevention initiatives against local crime, violence, and
drug problems. Since its inception in 1984, NNO has grown to involve
more than 30 million people in communities across the United States and
around the world. The National Association of Town Watch (NATW)
provides support for NNO by disseminating information and materials and
giving technical assistance to agencies, units of government, civic and
neighborhood organizations, and residents.

The Boys and Girls Clubs of America (B&GCA) has given millions of
boys and girls in urban, rural, and American Indian and Alaska Native
settings an opportunity to lead productive lives through its time-tested
outreach strategies. B&GCA provides safe havens from negative
influences on the street; guidance, discipline, and role models through
caring adult leaders; constructive youth development activities; access to
comprehensive, coordinated services that meet the complex needs of
at-risk youth; educational support and an awareness of career options; and
a vision of life beyond bleak circumstances. Formed in 1906, B&GCA has
grown from 53 clubs to more than 2,000 clubs in all 50 states as well as
the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. BJA's
support of this important national program in 1998 helped B&GCA
establish new clubs with an emphasis on violence prevention outreach in
distressed neighborhoods such as public housing developments and Indian
reservations. BJA also worked in 1998 to help clubs coordinate their
activities with communitywide violence and substance abuse prevention
campaigns. 

Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) is the nation's predominant
school-based drug abuse and violence prevention program. More than
8,600 law enforcement agencies now work in the school systems with the
D.A.R.E. curriculum. In FY 1998, BJA funding of D.A.R.E. supported
the updating of the D.A.R.E. curriculum and the operation of five regional
D.A.R.E. officer training centers. BJA funding also supported D.A.R.E.
mentor training for police officers, D.A.R.E. training for instructors who
work with parents, D.A.R.E. training for junior and senior high school
students, the accreditation of law enforcement agencies as D.A.R.E.
training centers, and the monitoring of technical assistance to agencies
that are replicating the program.

BJA also supports a variety of community-based crime prevention
projects through the National Citizens' Crime Prevention Campaign, a
nationwide effort sponsored by the National Crime Prevention Council
(NCPC). BJA's partnership with NCPC has broadened enormously since
the first McGruff public service media campaign in 1980. The partnership
now includes the production and dissemination of television, radio, and
print public service announcements, a full range of prevention support
materials, outreach and information sharing on the World Wide Web,
national and regional conferences for adults and youth, and technical
assistance and training workshops.

-------------------------------

BJA Funding in Focus: Multijurisdictional Task Forces

American Samoa: Joint task force on public corruption--Cooperative
investigations, case management procedures, staff training in financial
crimes, and recovery of government and financial institution assets.

Arizona: Sixteen multijurisdictional drug/violent crime/gang task forces--
1,850 drug trafficking arrests and seizure of 95,023 pounds of marijuana;
154 pounds of methamphetamine; 2,169 pounds of cocaine; 1,575 grams
of heroin; and 198,147 dosage units of other drugs such as LSD and PCP.

California: Anti-drug abuse task force active in 58 counties--9,602
drug-related convictions; 313 pounds of marijuana seized; 1,363 illegal
laboratories dismantled; and 4,451 weapons seized. 

Colorado: Multijurisdictional drug task force--Seizure of
methamphetamine labs increased by 42 percent, arrests for violent
offenses increased by 16 percent, arrests for cultivation of drugs increased
by 15 percent, and arrests for transportation of drugs decreased 70
percent.

Delaware: Videophone attorney task force--Detention and time until case
resolution reduced by 10 percent; transportation costs reduced.

District of Columbia: Information and system technology improvement
task force--Developed online sentencing resource program and connected
offender supervision agencies.

Florida: Task force to enhance evidence collection for domestic violence
prosecution--Enabled online processing of statements and photos.

-------------------------------

Through BJA grants to NCPC, approximately $1.5 million was spent
during FY 1998 to produce public service, television, radio, and print
messages directed at adults, teens, and preteens. According to the Ad
Council, this investment generated $128 million in donated media time
and space. This far exceeds the average Ad Council public service
campaign, which receives about $26 million in donated media time and
space.

NCPC's National Conference on Crime Prevention, held in Washington,
D.C., in 1998, was attended by more than 1,400 justice professionals,
community leaders, and youth. At the conference's 60 workshops,
representatives of law enforcement agencies, justice system agencies,
community organizations, schools, and citizens' associations built trust;
shared strategic information on crime prevention; and examined best
practices for preventing crime, violence, and drug use. 

Additionally, BJA worked with NCPC in 1998 to distribute free booklets
to youth on violence and substance abuse. Through this campaign, more
than 100,000 copies of the popular Adventures of McGruff & Scruff in
Indian Country were distributed at no cost to schools. Other titles included
Safer Schools: Strategies for Educators and Law Enforcement; More
Adventures With Scruff, in which McGruff's nephew deals with bullies,
weapons, and finding safe havens; and Lessons from Indian Country,
which uses authentic tribal stories to illustrate the dangers of alcohol, bad
companionship, and vandalism and shows children how to seek help when
they are being abused. Also in 1998, an extensive public service
advertising campaign, "Investing in Youth for a Safer Future," was
launched.

In 1998 BJA and NCPC, in cooperation with the Executive Office for
U.S. Attorneys and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's Demand
Reduction Section, initiated The Cutting Edge seminar series. Hosted by
U.S. Attorneys, these seminars identified and shared information on
successful comprehensive public safety initiatives; developed strategic
planning and communication within and between jurisdictions; and
interactively helped municipal and community leaders leverage the
support, tools, and human resources they needed to implement more
comprehensive justice initiatives. 

BJA also conducted the 10th Annual National Training Conference for
Criminal Justice and Community Leaders in partnership with NCPC, Fox
Valley Technical College, and the Green Bay, Wisconsin,
Multijurisdictional Law Enforcement Conference Committee. The
conference was attended by more than 500 elected officials; business and
community leaders; law enforcement practitioners; judges; and state,
local, and tribal planners, who used the forum to discuss how systemwide
strategic plans can help communities better prevent crime, violence, and
substance abuse.

Supporting Law Enforcement

BJA's FY 1998 funding and technical assistance for law enforcement
continued to support the vital work of police and other public safety
agencies in a wide range of prevention and enforcement efforts. Many of
these efforts were made possible through problem-solving collaborations
that have reached across jurisdictional boundaries and challenged
traditional notions of what law enforcement should entail. 

An important area of collaboration supported in FY 1998 was the creation
and training of multijurisdictional task forces. Training was conducted in
various regions of the country to enhance the operational and
administrative skills of multijurisdictional task force commanders and
administrators. The training sessions, which included a special focus on
methamphetamine trafficking, were sponsored by the Center for Task
Force Training (CenTF) and each region's U.S. Attorney or Regional
Information Sharing Systems (RISS) center. 

BJA also continued its successful training program for Model Clandestine
Laboratory Enforcement. Unlike programs that address law enforcement
operations, this training and technical assistance effort concentrates on
multiagency, multidisciplined strategic responses to clandestine
laboratories and related criminal activities. Because of the hazards
associated with clandestine laboratories, investigations of such labs often
require complex coordination of local health and emergency services
personnel working in concert with law enforcement agencies. Teamwork
and a strategic response plan are critical to the success of an investigation,
and BJA's technical assistance helps local law enforcement develop
successful partnerships. 

To prevent motor vehicle theft, which costs U.S. citizens more than $7.5
million each year, BJA continued funding the Watch Your Car Program.
This innovative program uses specially designed decals and other
deterrents to reduce car theft by alerting police to investigate a vehicle that
is not normally driven in late night and early morning hours or near
international land borders or ports. States participating in the program
make a rigorous study of their motor vehicle theft problem and develop a
detailed prevention plan, which they coordinate with private-sector
agencies. Information about vehicles' owners, authorized drivers, and
registration is stored in a state database accessible to law enforcement
officials. 

Early in FY 1998, BJA published a bulletin on the successes of the Illegal
Firearms Trafficking Program, a collaborative nationwide effort of the
Police Executive Research Forum and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco
and Firearms (ATF) to reduce weapons trafficking. The program,
developed initially as a response to firearms trafficking along the U.S.
Interstate 95 corridor, helps officers better understand and use federal,
state, and local firearms laws and ordinances to combat violent crime.

Working closely with this nationwide effort is the BJA-sponsored Illegal
Firearms Trafficking Technical Assistance Program. Provided by the
International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), this technical
assistance helps state and local law enforcement agencies establish
firearms trafficking and investigations units. Trainees in the program visit
the ATF firearms tracing center in West Virginia and learn how to use
ATF's Project LEAD, a computer-based system for gathering and
analyzing information on illegally trafficked firearms, recovered firearms,
and firearms used in crime. With this assistance, officers and
administrators can form a strategic picture of illegal firearms trafficking in
their own jurisdictions.

Another training program offered through IACP advises local and
regional law enforcement officials in methods of handling criminal aliens.
This partnership effort, conducted in cooperation with the Immigration
and Naturalization Service (INS), hosts symposiums on immigration and
deportation issues and other options available to law enforcement for
dealing with criminal aliens. A notable accomplishment of the program in
1998 was the Southwest Border Conference for law enforcement
administrators and prosecutors on new federal statutes regarding criminal
aliens.

Additionally, BJA began supporting security planning for the 2002 Winter
Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, Utah. Numerous federal agencies,
including the FBI and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, are
cooperating in the project, which will develop and implement a
comprehensive, master security plan. 

According to a recent survey of federal, state, and local law enforcement
and emergency management officials, the majority of jurisdictions in the
country need updated contingency plans and training programs for
responding to civil disorders. A national working group led by BJA was
formed in FY 1998 to guide this effort. This working group, which
comprises federal, state, and local emergency management officials and
fire and police training experts, is coordinating planning for a new model
response plan and training curriculum to be tested and completed in FY
1999.

Increasingly, the work of the nation's courts is being disrupted by violence
and threats of violence. Through the National Sheriffs' Association and in
partnership with the U.S. Marshals Service and the Federal Law
Enforcement Training Center, BJA established a national training program
in FY 1998 to introduce contemporary risk management procedures to
state and local criminal justice officials, court administrators, and court
officers.

To assess the needs of sheriffs and police chiefs in small, rural
communities, the National Center for Rural Law Enforcement at the
University of Arkansas in Little Rock, Arkansas, provided training and
technical assistance on best practices in investigative case management,
use of Internet resources, and coordination of complex prosecutions. In a
similar vein, the IACP Small Jurisdictions Technical Assistance Program,
sponsored by the National Law Enforcement Policy Center and facilitated
by IACP, continued its assistance to small rural and tribal jurisdictions.
Many small or middle-sized agencies do not have a formal policy arm for
monitoring and reacting to national legislation. This project establishes
model law enforcement policies that state and local agencies can adopt
and modify to meet their jurisdiction's needs.

Supporting Innovation in Adjudication

Problem-solving partnerships that reach out to the community have
transformed how we view policing and crime prevention. This approach is
driving a series of innovative efforts to involve the community in the
adjudication system. These initiatives thrive on bringing communities,
courts, prosecutors, public defenders, and service providers together to
improve the sense of safety and well-being in communities.

In FY 1998, BJA supported a variety of adjudication initiatives that
moved courts and prosecutors beyond simply processing cases. BJA
continued its work with the Center for Court Innovation to establish the
Midtown Community Court and the Community Justice Center in New
York and to help other communities plan and start their own community
courts. 

BJA also continued funding the American Prosecutors Research Institute
to support the planning and implementation of community prosecution
programs around the country. 

A critical goal for adjudication funding in FY 1998 was supporting the
formation of adjudication partnerships that include prosecution, defense,
and the court, as well as other agencies, such as law enforcement and
corrections, with important roles in the adjudication process. Adjudication
partnerships are valuable catalysts not only to solve specific problems (for
example, a need for pretrial diversion) but to overcome agency turf issues
to improve the justice system's overall effectiveness. 

In FY 1998, BJA-sponsored adjudication partnerships were formed in a
number of jurisdictions. Each partnership operates through a set of
specific administrative and budgetary agreements, reached outside the
courtroom and distinctive to each jurisdiction, concerning what is
necessary for the effective administration of justice.

In related projects, the National Judicial College continued its community
justice scholarship program to educate state, local, and tribal judges and
court administrators, and the National Center for State Courts in Reno,
Nevada, began an extensive study of how courts can communicate to the
public more effectively and build community-focused programs. For FY
1998, BJA asked the National Judicial College to develop a curricula on
the principles and methods supporting drug courts, community courts, and
tribal justice systems. The college also developed technical assistance and
training for judges who handle juveniles who have been transferred to
adult criminal courts. A significant accomplishment during the year was
the convening of an advisory group from diverse disciplines to explore
common concerns in the difficult issue of meeting juvenile needs in adult
settings. 

BJA's FY 1998 adjudication funding also included a substantial
investment in indigent defense. BJA and the Bureau of Justice Statistics
collected information for the National Survey of Indigent Defense
Systems--an exhaustive study of indigent defenders' caseload levels,
policies, practices, and procedures. In addition, BJA worked to strengthen
indigent defense systems by providing training to indigent defense
managers on developing a more active role in their jurisdiction's criminal
justice system. Technical assistance was also funded for prosecutors who
work with juveniles charged as adults and indigent offenders.

-------------------------------

BJA Funding in Focus: Adjudication Partnerships (Please see PDF file)

-------------------------------

Managing Offenders Under Supervision

BJA funding for supervision services in FY 1998 emphasized innovative
sanctioning for less dangerous offenders and better coordination and
matching of services for correctional populations both in prison and on
supervised release. All BJA-supported correctional options projects have
four basic goals: reducing incarceration costs, relieving prison and jail
crowding, reducing recidivism rates, and advancing innovative
correctional practices. BJA coordinates this work with national
professional associations, such as the American Correctional Association
(ACA), the American Probation and Parole Association, and the National
Institute of Corrections (NIC), and with other federal agencies including
the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention and the
Corrections Program Office (CPO) of the Department of Justice.

BJA's Correctional Options Demonstration Program has shown that
prudently managed, cost-conscious correctional interventions involve key
stakeholders from the outset, target services and supervision to a
well-defined group of offenders, create individual case management plans
that reflect risks and interventions, cultivate broad public support, and
carry out ongoing monitoring and evaluation. 

Since the mid-1970s, correctional practices at all levels have improved
significantly in response to professional standards. More than 1,100
correctional agencies and facilities are now working to implement the
ACA standards, which encompass all aspects of correctional services. The
ACA standards were first published 20 years ago with the support and
assistance of the Department of Justice. In FY 1998, a major BJA
initiative in this area was the development of performance-based standards
for community corrections. These standards will be disseminated to the
field to guide jurisdictions' evaluation efforts. This project is a cooperative
effort of ACA, CPO, NIC, and the National Committee on Community
Corrections. BJA is also an active participant on the Advisory Board for
NIC's collaboration on community corrections and release, which seeks to
examine difficult topics such as offender mental health issues. 

One conclusion from BJA's support of alternative sanctions programs is
that, while one approach does not fit every situation, successful
jurisdictions have used strategic planning to incorporate lessons learned
from federally funded demonstrations. Federal help in forming
partnerships at the local level, for example, has allowed local governments
to focus on best practices and benefit from BJA's investment in finding
new solutions for the corrections field. BJA published a summary of
recent innovations in the June 1998 monograph, Programs in Correctional
Settings: Innovative State and Local Programs.

Another major corrections effort in FY 1998 was BJA's assistance to the
Prison Industries Enhancement (PIE) Certification Program. PIE
certification allows states and local governments to establish employment
opportunities for prisoners that approximate work in the private sector.
Inmates must be paid the prevailing wage in that industry and can choose
to make deductions from their pay for purposes such as supporting family
members and paying victim restitution. In FY 1998, BJA coordinated the
revision of federal regulations for PIE certification to clarify statutory
changes that have taken place since the initial guidelines were developed
in 1985. This comprehensive document is planned for release in FY 1999.

A new 3-year coordination effort, sponsored by several DOJ offices
including BJA, CPO, and the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), seeks to
improve states' abilities to respond to the wide impact of
truth-in-sentencing and violent-offender-incarceration legislation at the
state level. 

In cooperation with the Office of Alternative Sanctions (OAS) in
Connecticut, BJA also supported a full array of sanctions for use by
judges that takes into account the seriousness of the offense and the record
of the offender. One component of this effort, Connecticut's Alternatives
to Incarceration Centers (AICs), allows quicker and more meaningful
sanctions for youthful offenders who present a low risk for violence. AICs
are one of eight options through which OAS has provided supervision to
more than 50,000 accused and sentenced offenders. The highly visible
community service component of OAS programs has improved
communities through projects such as building playgrounds on vacant lots,
picking up trash, and maintaining state park areas. Public support for this
effort was strengthened when voters were shown that this program saves
taxpayers $25,000 per year per offender.

-------------------------------

BJA Funding in Focus: Making Courts More Effective

o Criminal justice planning commissions in California, Georgia,
Kentucky, and Nebraska have reduced trial delays; developed
community-based alternatives to incarceration; increased funding for
public defenders; created bar association councils on indigent defense; and
promoted public defender-supported local advocacy for and community
responses to domestic violence.

o Cooperative funding (Byrne, Violence Against Women Act, and
Juvenile Justice Title V Prevention) to the Delaware Criminal Justice
Council supports a statewide videoconferencing system to expedite
warrant processing, bail hearings, arraignments, evidentiary hearings, and
inmate motions.

o Nebraska's 36-member task force on indigent defense has brought state
support to defense services in 93 counties. The task force collects data on
systems, arrest charges, case processing, and guidelines.

o The State Justice Institute project in Oregon and Washington brings
together representatives from legislative, judicial, and executive branches
and members of the defense counsel and the private bar to address
statewide growth in costs and caseloads for indigent defense.

o Joint prosecutor and public defender unions in California and Minnesota
are ensuring salary parity between the two groups of attorneys. In
California, district attorneys have threatened to strike to help public
defenders block pay cuts.

o Cooperative case tracking and criminal history systems, developed
cooperatively in Florida, have linked information systems for the circuit
court clerk, state attorney, and public defender.

o Delaware and Rhode Island are developing statewide criminal justice
data sharing to eliminate duplicate data entry and automate criminal court
calendars.

-------------------------------

Making the Justice System More Responsive to Victims of Crime

BJA funded a variety of efforts in FY 1998 to support and protect victims
of crime. These initiatives sought to raise awareness of the special needs
of victims of hate crime, family violence, and violence against the elderly.

A priority for FY 1998 was working with the White House and other DOJ
offices to help states and local jurisdictions aggressively respond to hate
crimes. Early in fiscal year 1998, BJA participated in the first White
House Conference on Hate Crimes, held in Washington, D.C. More than
350 leaders from law enforcement, civil rights, youth, education, and
religious organizations joined the President, Vice President, Attorney
General, and Members of the Cabinet to examine what communities and
local governments were doing to prevent hate crimes.

To help states stop hate-motivated church arson, BJA sponsored a series
of training conferences in 13 states that were awarded grants under the
Church Arson Prevention Grant Program. The conferences were
coordinated with each state's Governor and conducted in cooperation with
the National Sheriffs' Association (NSA), the Federal Emergency
Management Agency, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, and
the Community Relations Service. Additionally, BJA established a federal
source of training and technical assistance to help local communities as
they develop and implement church arson prevention programs. 

-------------------------------

BJA Funding in Focus: Fighting Hate in America's Communities

In 1998, the Attorney General wrote in a letter to the criminal justice
community that the primary responsibility for hate crime investigation
begins with dedicated state and local law enforcement officials. The
Department of Justice will provide a critical resource for these officials,
she wrote, by sponsoring training that will help them develop the
specialized skills they need to identify, report, investigate, and prosecute
hate crimes. As part of this comprehensive DOJ initiative to address hate
crime, BJA supported two major initiatives in FY 1998:

o The first-ever White House Conference on Hate Crimes, a day-long
event convened by the President on November 10, 1997, in Washington,
D.C. At the conference, state and local leaders examined the positive
actions that communities are taking to prevent hate crimes, and the
President announced significant law enforcement and prevention
initiatives to get tough on hate crimes. The President, Vice President,
Attorney General, and Secretary of Education were joined by Members of
Congress, state and local officials, and approximately 350 leaders from
law enforcement, civil rights, youth, education, and religious
communities. 

o A series of training conferences in the 13 states that were awarded
grants in FY 1996 under the Church Arson Prevention Grant Program.
The conferences were coordinated with each state's Governor and
conducted in cooperation with the National Sheriffs' Association, the
Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco and Firearms, and the Community Relations Service. 

-------------------------------

A key effort in BJA's work to assist senior citizens struggling with crime
problems is the TRIAD program, cosponsored by NSA, the International
Association of Chiefs of Police, and the American Association of Retired
Persons (AARP). At the county level, TRIAD is a three-way effort among
sheriffs, police chiefs, and seniors to exchange information, alleviate
unwarranted fears, and improve the delivery of law enforcement services
to seniors. Nationally administered by NSA, TRIAD sponsors regional
training conferences for law enforcement; strengthens community crime
prevention; educates residents and church, business, and community
leaders about elder abuse; helps law enforcement, advocates, and service
providers identify and assist elderly victims of crime; and implements
reassurance programs for home-bound and isolated elders. More than 436
TRIADs are now active in 46 states, Canada, and England.

To combat the estimated 14,000 illegal telemarketing operations that
yearly bilk U.S. citizens of some $40 billion, BJA continued its work with
the Telemarketing Fraud Training Task Force, a multi-agency committee
coordinated by the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG).
Other members of the task force include the National District Attorneys
Association, the American Prosecutors Research Institute, the National
White Collar Crime Center, and AARP. Among many prevention and
enforcement activities in FY 1998, the task force developed critically
needed telemarketing fraud curricula and training for state and local
investigators and prosecutors. BJA also offered, in coordination with
NAAG, technical assistance for state attorneys general to stop health care
fraud.

The Public Safety Officers' Benefits (PSOB) Program, administered
directly by BJA, provides financial benefits to families of federal, state,
and local law enforcement; public rescue and ambulance crew members;
firefighters; and public safety officers killed or permanently and totally
disabled in the line of duty. In FY 1998, PSOB staff streamlined and
automated the PSOB case-processing system. The office handles about
250 claims each year. The automated system has improved workflow,
dramatically reduced delays in the program's appeals process, and aided
the analysis of information used in public safety officer training to prevent
line-of-duty deaths and disabilities in the field.

Additionally, through the Federal Law Enforcement Defendants
Assistance (FLEDA) Program, BJA provided financial support for higher
education to the spouses and children of federal law enforcement officers
killed or permanently and totally disabled in the line of duty.

-------------------------------

BJA Funding in Focus: Stopping Telemarketing Fraud

Each year an estimated 14,000 illegal telemarketing operations bilk U.S.
citizens of at least $40 billion. These operations relentlessly target senior
citizens. Surveys by the American Association of Retired Persons have
found that more than half of telemarketing fraud victims are aged 50 or
older. BJA supports a two-pronged approach to telemarketing fraud that
emphasizes both prevention and enforcement. In FY 1998, BJA funded
the following telemarketing fraud initiatives:

o $1.5 million to the National Association of Attorneys General to support
the work of the Telemarketing Fraud Training Task Force, a multiagency
committee with responsibility for planning and providing criminal law
training to state attorneys general, district attorneys, and investigators.

o $900,000 to the American Prosecutors Research Institute to develop a
comprehensive telemarketing prevention and enforcement training
program for state and local law enforcement officials.

o $450,000 to the National White Collar Crime Center to facilitate
multistate investigations of economic crimes and to coordinate the
development of training curricula for state and local investigators.

o $184,000 to the American Association of Retired Persons to seek out
and develop partners and training participants from state and local law
enforcement agencies, aging services providers, and volunteer groups.
AARP will use these partners and participants to augment outreach and
assistance to older victims and potential victims through education and
training materials.

o $78,000 to the National Fraud Information Center to collaborate with
the National White Collar Crime Center on a project to expand the NFIC
database and to develop training curricula for law enforcement and
prosecution professionals. NFIC is operated by the National Consumers
League, a leader in preventing fraud against the elderly.

-------------------------------

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 1998 were the Tribal Strategies
Against Violence (TSAV) and the Community Analysis and Planning
Strategies technical assistance project.

TSAV is a federal-tribal partnership to control and prevent crime,
violence, criminal gang activities, and substance abuse in Native
American communities. A primary focus of the project is the formation of
centralized planning teams that represent tribal service providers (law
enforcement, prosecution, education, social services, spiritual leaders, and
businesses) as well as youth. Using community policing approaches,
prevention education, and interventions for domestic abuse and juvenile
delinquency, TSAV strengthens the tribes' abilities to address violent
crime and substance abuse in culturally appropriate and meaningful ways.

The regional Community Analysis and Planning Strategies trainings were
begun by BJA in 1998 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.

Despite their high crime rate and high criminal justice system involvement
compared with non-native youth, Alaska Native youth have few
prevention and early intervention services, particularly in rural
communities. To meet this need, BJA funded the Alaska Native Justice
Center (ANJC) to establish pilot youth courts in two rural communities.
The center will train and give technical assistance to other rural
communities based on the experience of the pilot programs and promote
the establishment of similar court programs for nonviolent first-time
juvenile offenders in other rural Alaskan communities. A second pilot
project in the Alaskan courts offered the guidance of cultural navigators to
individuals encountering the criminal justice system. These specially
trained service providers are fluent in native languages and knowledgeable
about native culture; legal services; court procedures; and employment,
educational, and social service opportunities.

In FY 1998, the Department of Justice invited five Alaska Native advisers
to brief DOJ staff on Alaska Native cultural history and contemporary
criminal justice problems. The event included a video teleconference
question-and-answer session with the Attorney General and tribal leaders.
In preparation for the meeting, BJA staff visited numerous isolated
villages in Alaska and reported to the Alaska State Attorney General and
Cabinet on the justice needs of those areas. A followup survey was
prepared and sent to localities to gather suggestions for next steps. 

In addition, plans were set in motion in FY 1998 to establish an Alaska
Native technical assistance center in partnership with the University of
Alaska at Anchorage. Through this center, rural villages will receive
assistance in identifying and assessing local crime problems.
Representatives of selected villages will receive training at the center and
then serve as technical assistance staff for other villages. By the end of 3
years, it is hoped that approximately 50 villages will have received
assistance from center-trained representatives. A database will be
assembled of grant funding and other resources in the state, and the
University of Alaska will provide assistance in program assessment and
other areas.

In Petaluma, California, BJA assisted the National Indian Justice Center in
increasing cooperation and coordination among tribal, state, and local
courts by examining jurisdictional issues. The Center also provides
training and technical assistance to tribal courts to establish systems of
justice administration and address family, gang, and youth violence. 

In New Mexico, the Serious and Violent Native American Youthful
Offender project assesses the effect of the current Children's Code and
federal statutes on accused and adjudicated Native American youth. The
project is drafting proposed amendments to the code and a template to
help tribes adjust their own codes to correspond with the full faith and
credit provisions between the state of New Mexico and tribes in the state.

Technology: Using 21st Century Tools

Recent technological breakthroughs have had a dramatic impact on the
criminal justice system. Professionals working in law enforcement,
prosecution and public defense, the courts, and the corrections system
have all benefited from technology's power to make the justice system
more efficient and responsive and to link agencies historically separated
by jurisdictional and geographical boundaries. BJA's substantial FY 1998
investment in technology sought to make these new tools and integrated
information systems accessible to more criminal justice practitioners,
particularly in rural communities. 

From 1986 to 1997, the Regional Information Sharing Systems helped law
enforcement officials make more than 76,000 arrests, seize illegal
narcotics worth more than $10 billion, and take possession of property
controlled by Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO)
valued at $21 million. The six RISS centers focus on multijurisdictional
narcotics trafficking, violent crime, criminal gang activities, and
organized crime. RISS members cover the full spectrum of federal, state,
and local law enforcement agencies. During FY 1998, these agencies
received a major technological boost with the secure electronic
networking of all six RISS centers. RISS information management
systems now connect seamlessly to one another on a secure intranet. This
has established RISS as a true national criminal intelligence network and
marks a new level of intergovernmental cooperation. In 1998 BJA also
began work on securing direct access to the RISS network for all member
agencies. 

The RISS centers continued their pioneering collaboration with the FBI to
share information critical to multijurisdictional criminal investigations.
The RISS-FBI Memorandum of Understanding represents the first time a
federal investigative agency at the national level has taken a policy
position on RISS participation and partnership. The FBI, as a matter of
policy, now regularly participates in the activities of each RISS center and
has made the FBI's criminal indices and databases available to RISS
member agencies. Similar partnerships are being discussed between the
RISS program and other federal agencies. FY 1998 also brought the
initiation of RISSGANG, a national gang information database system
available to RISS members and nonmember agencies.

BJA also continued its collaboration with the FBI to administer the State
Identification Systems Formula Grant Fund. Through this fund, BJA
supports the process of developing, upgrading, and updating state
computerized information systems that are compatible with the FBI's
National Crime Information Center. SIS grants are also used to develop
states' capacity to analyze DNA in ways compatible with the FBI's
Combined DNA Index System and to automate state fingerprint
identification systems and make them capable of integration into the 
FBI's Automated Fingerprint Identification System.

Another major information management project funded by BJA in FY
1998 was the National Training and Technical Assistance Program
administered by the SEARCH Group. This nationwide initiative provides
free assistance to state and local criminal justice agencies seeking to
develop, operate, improve, or integrate their information systems. For
nonautomated justice agencies, the program helped build state-of-the-art
information systems that could improve these agencies' operations and
link them for the first time to state and national information networks. For
agencies already using computerized information systems, the project
focused on integrating their systems and developing a systemwide tool for
sharing information. 

Moreover, BJA funded a series of information management symposiums,
conducted by SEARCH, for three groups of criminal justice professionals
in FY 1998: executive decisionmakers, middle managers, and technology
specialists. The symposiums covered a variety of issues related to sharing
information through information systems, with a special emphasis on
training multidisciplinary teams representing, for example, the judiciary,
State Administrative Agencies, law enforcement, probation, and parole. In
some cases, such teams received immediate technical assistance that
helped their jurisdiction create a management strategy, plans for
information sharing, and performance measures by which to guide their
project's implementation.

SEARCH also worked with the Conference of State Court Administrators,
the National Association for Court Management, and the National Center
for State Courts to offer court-specific technical expertise on information
system management for courts and related justice agencies. BJA
cosponsored the formation of SEARCH's National Consortium for Justice
Information and Statistics to foster improved and integrated court
technology nationwide, under the aegis of the National Task Force on
Court Automation and Integration.

Since January 1998, SEARCH has received more than 65 inquiries
regarding court systems technical assistance and distributed hundreds of
copies of the bulletin Court Automation and Integration to courts
nationwide. The Eighth Judicial District in Gainesville, Florida, for
example, requested help to integrate six county judicial information
systems and to ensure that local facilities could support the project's
technological requirements. BJA has also helped integrate court
information systems in Harris County, Texas, connecting the court and
judges to local law enforcement agencies and prosecutors. Courts there
now have the ability to provide all docket information on a given case to a
judge within an hour.

BJA initiated and supported other programs in 1998 involving new
technologies. In partnership with NIJ, BJA funded a geomapping and
crime-fighting program in the Atlanta area, as well as a project to achieve
systemswide integration and design for law enforcement communications
and information analysis.

Through the Institute of Investigative Technology (IIT), BJA trains law
enforcement administrators, investigators, and officers in the use of
specialized equipment, particularly for surveillance operations, and
provides technical support through a national hotline. In FY 1998, this
equipment training program was provided in two phases. First,
administrators of local law enforcement agencies were introduced to the
broader issues of surveillance technology, including applicable laws,
public reactions, and privacy concerns. Second, investigators and other
potential users were invited to try out a wide range of surveillance
equipment. Because half of Byrne formula funding is used to purchase
law enforcement equipment, this training program is an important,
hands-on opportunity for law enforcement personnel to examine
equipment before making unnecessary or ill-advised purchases. Since
early 1998, more than 525 criminal justice administrators and 835
investigators have received this training, and demand continues to exceed
the program's capacity.

BJA also offered broad technology assistance in 1998 through the Center
for Society, Law and Justice at the University of New Orleans. Criminal
justice administrators and operations staff were given a chance to rehearse
the planning, acquisition, and implementation of technological systems
that would meet their jurisdiction's information needs. In the first phase,
administrative decisionmakers (wardens, prosecutors, and police chiefs)
were trained to develop strategic plans for technology systems, overcome
typical roadblocks to implementation, secure executive buy-in from local
officials, and use partnerships to enhance planning. In the second phase, a
networked computer system demonstration for agency information
systems personnel showed a variety of real-life scenarios such as tracking
offender supervision or coordinating hostage negotiation. The project has
reached more than 200 people in nearly 30 jurisdictions.

BJA assists the National White Collar Crime Center (NWCCC) in
providing a national support system for the prevention, investigation, and
prosecution of multijurisdictional economic crimes. These white collar
crimes include investment fraud, telemarketing fraud, boiler room
operations, securities fraud, commodities fraud, and advanced-fee loan
schemes. NWCCC's mission includes providing investigative support
services to assist in the fight against economic crime, operating a national
training and research institute focusing on economic crime issues, and
developing the center as a national resource in combating economic crime.
In FY 1998, the center continued to develop and maintain a state and local
law enforcement response capability for computer and other high-tech
crimes. NWCCC also cohosted with BJA a major conference on economic
crime, Exploring Solutions for the 21st Century. In addition, NWCCC
continued to support the work of the Infotech Working Group, a planning
group chaired by the DOJ Criminal Division, in the development and
implementation of training on the use of computers in criminal activity.

In January 1998, the Alaska Department of Corrections invited BJA to
help develop information systems to support the state's youth corrections 
operations. The department had a history of trouble with information
systems support and wanted to undertake a careful planning effort before
revising the system. BJA sponsored an intensive 2-day training for
representatives from probation and parole, youth services, schools,
technical information organizations, and similar agencies. The training
helped the project's core oversight team clarify the department's needs,
resources, and expectations for the new system.

BJA also partnered with the Criminal Justice Institute at the University of
Arkansas at Little Rock in 1998 to implement a Strategic Information
Technology Center. The program provides Internet access to remote law
enforcement agencies and is planning a full range of technological support
for rural jurisdictions, including guidance on information technology
issues and a full-spectrum help desk.

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 measure and
document why they work. Knowing why effective programs work is in
fact at the heart of BJA's mission to build safer, healthier communities. 

BJA supports numerous state, local, and tribal programs that are working
to measure the effectiveness of their programs. Police departments, court
officials, corrections agencies, and other criminal justice professionals
increasingly demand good information about the improvement of justice
in communities. All Byrne formula grants include the means for collecting
and measuring the indicators of what is successful and what is ineffective.

One of BJA's long-term goals, to enhance evaluation capacities at state
and local levels, was realized in FY 1998. Under the Byrne Evaluation
Partnership Program, BJA selected 15 grantees to evaluate 85 individual
Byrne-funded programs. The nomination of programs for evaluation was a
joint effort among BJA, state and local criminal justice program managers,
and NIJ. Those programs found to be effective were documented in BJA's
Guidelines and Criteria for the Nomination of Effective Criminal Justice
Programs. The results form the basis for BJA's new Effective Programs
Monograph Series. The first publication in the series, Improving the
Nation's Criminal Justice System: Results and Findings From State and
Local Evaluations, was distributed to criminal justice practitioners in early
1998.

BJA provides evaluation assistance to grantees from a grant's outset. New
grantees are partnered with professional researchers to help them focus
and refocus on important goals and performance standards. With this
process in place, they can approach local authorities with real data and
say, "This approach works; supporting this program is to your advantage."

The BJA-NIJ National Evaluation Partnership funded 20 national
evaluation projects in FY 1998, including four new initiatives that have
potential national impact: 

o Boston Safe Neighborhood Initiative.

o State and Local Drug Testing Initiatives.

o Statewide Implementation of Multijurisdictional Task Forces.

o National Study of Delinquency Prevention in Schools--Second Phase.

The results of the evaluations will be published and disseminated
nationally.

In FY 1998, BJA brought Byrne grant administrators from around the
country to Washington, D.C., to a briefing on evaluation issues, methods,
and advantages. In addition, BJA supported two major conferences on
evaluating task forces: a best-practices conference in Denver, Colorado,
and a conference in California on documenting the accomplishments of
multijurisdictional task forces. BJA sponsored a conference on evaluation
and strategic planning for the U.S. territories and Pacific Rim states in
early FY 1998 as well.

During the Office of Justice Programs 1998 Annual Conference on
Criminal Justice Research and Evaluation, BJA sponsored 18 events and
cosponsored several others. BJA-sponsored plenary sessions, panels, and
workshops at the conference featured topics such as evaluating treatment
programs, crime in Indian Country, safer streets for juveniles, evaluation
frameworks and measures, Byrne Evaluation Partnerships, and
partnerships among State Administrative Agencies (SAAs) and state
Statistical Analysis Centers (SACs). 

BJA also fostered significant evaluation work on issues relating to
domestic violence. This effort worked to broaden current measures of
evaluation beyond recidivism rates or police calls answered and include
measures of quality of life for communities and victims. 

-------------------------------

APPENDIXES

BJA Legislative Purpose Area Descriptions

The Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988 established 26 purpose areas that
define the nature and scope of programs and projects that might be funded
under the Byrne Formula Grant Program. These areas, in toto, provide
substantial authorization for programs that address drug control, violent
and serious crimes, all aspects of criminal justice processing (including
incarceration and treatment of offenders), and general improvements in
justice system operations.

1. Demand-reduction education programs in which law enforcement
officers participate.

2. Multijurisdictional task force programs that integrate federal, state, and
local drug law enforcement agencies and prosecutors for the purpose of
enhancing interagency coordination and intelligence and facilitating
multijurisdictional investigations.

3. Programs that target the domestic sources of controlled and illegal
substances, such as precursor chemicals, diverted pharmaceuticals,
clandestine laboratories, and cannabis cultivations.

4. Community and neighborhood programs that assist citizens in
preventing and controlling crime, including special programs that address
the problem of crimes against the elderly and special programs for rural
jurisdictions.

5. Programs that disrupt illicit commerce in stolen goods and property.

6. Programs to improve the investigation and prosecution of white collar
crime, organized crime, public corruption crime, and fraud against the
Federal Government, with priority to cases involving drug-related official
corruption.

7. a. Programs to improve the operational effectiveness of law
enforcement through the use of crime analysis techniques, street sales
enforcement, schoolyard violator programs, and gang-related and
low-income housing drug-control programs.

b. Programs to develop and implement antiterrorism plans for
deep-draft ports, international airports, and other important facilities.

8. Career criminal prosecution programs, including the development of
model drug-control legislation.

9. Financial investigative programs that target the identification of money
laundering operations and assets obtained through illegal drug trafficking,
including the development of model legislation, financial investigative
training, and financial information-sharing systems.

10. Programs to improve the operational effectiveness of courts by
expanding prosecutorial, defender, and judicial resources and
implementing court delay-reduction programs.

11. Programs 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.

12. Prison industry projects to place inmates in a realistic working and
training environment that will enable them to acquire marketable skills
and make financial payments for restitution to their victims, support their
families, and support themselves in the institution.

13. Programs that identify and meet the treatment needs of adult and
juvenile drug- and alcohol-dependent offenders.

14. Programs that provide assistance to jurors and witnesses and assistance
(other than compensation) to victims of crime.

15. a. Programs to improve drug-control technology, such as pretrial
drug-testing programs; to provide for the identification, assessment,
referral to treatment, case management, and monitoring of drug-dependent
offenders; and to enhance state and local forensics laboratories.

b. Criminal justice information systems to assist law enforcement,
prosecutorial, court, and corrections organizations (including automated
fingerprint identification systems).

16. Innovative programs that demonstrate new and different approaches to
enforcement, prosecution, and adjudication of drug offenses and other
serious crimes.

17. Programs that address the problems of drug trafficking and illegal
manufacture of controlled substances in public housing.

18. Programs that improve the criminal and juvenile justice system
response to domestic and family violence, including spousal abuse, child
abuse, and elder abuse.

19. Drug-control evaluation programs that state and local units of
government may use to evaluate programs and projects directed at state
drug-control activities.

20. Programs that provide alternatives to detention, jail, and prison for
persons who pose no danger to the community.

21. Programs to strengthen urban enforcement and prosecution efforts
targeting street drug sales.

22. Programs for the prosecution of driving-while-intoxicated charges and
the enforcement of other laws relating to alcohol use and the operation of
motor vehicles.

23. Programs that address the need for effective bindover systems for the
prosecution of violent 16- and 17-year-old juveniles in courts with
jurisdiction over adults. (Certain violent crimes, including murder and
felonies committed with firearms, are specified.)

24. Law enforcement and prevention programs for gangs or youth who are
involved in or at risk for involvement in gangs.

25. Programs to develop or improve the capabilities of forensic
laboratories to analyze DNA for identification purposes. (Funding in this
area requires adherence to, or the promise to adhere to, regulations
developed and disseminated by the Attorney General with the assistance
of the FBI and the National Institute of Justice.)

26. Programs to develop and implement antiterrorism training and procure
equipment for local law enforcement authorities.

Note: Congress has authorized the use of Byrne funds to support programs
that assist in the litigation of death penalty federal habeas corpus petitions.
This authorization applies only to FY 1998 and 1999 awards and may or
may not be available in future funding cycles.

-------------------------------

Please see PDF file for Tables 1 through 6

-------------------------------

BJA PUBLICATIONS PRINTED FISCAL YEAR 1998: OCTOBER 1,
1997, TO SEPTEMBER 30, 1998

Document--Date of Publication--Publication Number

1996 National Survey of State Sentencing Structures (Monograph)--9/98--
NCJ 169270

Addressing Community Gang Problems: A Practical Guide (Monograph)-
-5/98--NCJ 164273

A Policymaker's Guide to Hate Crimes (Revised Monograph)--12/97--
NCJ 162304

BJA Annual Report Fiscal Year 1997 (Monograph)--9/98--NCJ 171697

BJA Annual Report Fiscal Year 1996 (Monograph)--10/97--NCJ 168621

Center for Task Force Training (CenTF) Program (Fact Sheet)--9/98--FS
000232

Closed-Circuit Televising of Children Who Are Victims of Abuse Grant
Program Fiscal Year 1998 (Solicitation)--6/98--SL 000287 

Critical Elements in the Planning, Development, and Implementation of
Successful Correctional Options (Monograph)--2/98--NCJ 168966

Denial of Federal Benefits Program and Clearinghouse (Fact Sheet)--
11/97--FS 000102

Developing a Strategy for Multiagency Response to Clandestine Drug
Laboratories (Monograph)--7/98--NCJ 142643

Edward Byrne Memorial State and Local Law Enforcement Assistance
Program (Fact Sheet)--3/98--FS 000184

FY 1998 Byrne Evaluation Partnership Program (Fact Sheet)--3/98--FS
000200

FY 1998 Local Law Enforcement Block Grants Program (Fact Sheet)--
5/98--FS 000216

FY 1998 Local Law Enforcement Block Grants Program: Public Safety
Officers' Health Benefits Provision (Fact Sheet)--6/98--FS 000188

FY 1998 Motor Vehicle Theft Prevention Program--1/98--SL 000339

FY 1998 Open Solicitation Announcement: Call for Concept Papers (Fact
Sheet)--5/98--FS 000220

FY 1998 Open Solicitation Announcement (Solicitation)--4/98--SL
000281

FY 1998 Program Plan--3/98--SL 000272

FY 1998 State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (Fact Sheet)--4/98--FS
000152

FY 1998 State Criminal Alien Assistance Program Postcard With Reply
(Solicitation)--5/98 --Not assigned

FY 1998 State Identification Systems Grant Program (Fact Sheet)--5/98--
FS 000175

FY 1997 Discretionary Grant Program Awards Report (Monograph)--
4/98--NCJ 169272

Improving the Nation's Criminal Justice System: Findings and Results
from State and Local Program Evaluations (Monograph)--12/97--NCJ
166822

La Bodega de la Familia: Reaching Out to the Forgotten Victims of
Substance Abuse (Bulletin)--4/98--NCJ 170595

Local Law Enforcement Block Grants Local Application Kit
(Solicitation)--5/98 --SL 000293

Local Law Enforcement Block Grants Postcard (Solicitation)--10/97--Not
assigned

Local Law Enforcement Block Grants Program-Program Progress
Reports: State Administrative Agencies (Solicitation)--12/97--LT 000282

Local Law Enforcement Block Grants Program 1998 State Application
Kit (Solicitation)--5/98--SL 000290

Local Law Enforcement Equipment Procurement Program (Fact Sheet)--
6/98--FS 000221

Open Solicitation 1997: The Results (Monograph)--12/97--NCJ 168096

Programs in Correctional Settings: Innovative State and Local Programs
(Monograph)--6/98--NCJ 170088

Public Safety Officers' Benefits Program (Fact Sheet)--11/97--FS 000066

Regional Information Sharing Systems (RISS) Funding and
Administration Guidelines (Solicitation)--1/98--SL 000239

Regional Information Sharing Systems (RISS) Funding Guidelines (Fact
Sheet)--7/98--FS 000037

Responding to the Community: Principles for Planning and Creating a
Community Court (Bulletin)--11/97--NCJ 166821

Strategies for Reducing Homicide: The Comprehensive Homicide
Initiative in Richmond, California (Monograph)--12/97--NCJ 168100

The BJA Firearms to Trafficking Program: Demonstrating Effective
Strategies To Control Violent Crime (Bulletin)--11/97 --NCJ 166818

The Watch Your Car Program (Fact Sheet)--2/98--FS 000151

-------------------------------