11956 Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 49 / Thursday, March 13, 1997 / Notices

DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

Office of Juvenile Justice and

Delinquency Prevention

[OJP(OJJDP)–1115]

RIN 1121–ZA62

Proposed Comprehensive Plan for

Fiscal Year 1997

AGENCY: Office of Justice Programs,

Office of Juvenile Justice and

Delinquency Prevention, Justice.

ACTION: Notice of Proposed Program

Plan for fiscal year 1997.

SUMMARY: The Office of Juvenile Justice

and Delinquency Prevention is

publishing this notice of its Proposed

Comprehensive Plan for fiscal year

1997.

DATES: Comments must be received on

or before April 28, 1997.

ADDRESSES: Comments may be mailed to

Shay Bilchik, Administrator, Office of

Juvenile Justice and Delinquency

Prevention, Room 742, 633 Indiana

Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20531.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Eileen M. Garry, Special Assistant to the

Administrator, at 202–307–5911. [This

is not a toll-free number.]

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Office

of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency

Prevention (OJJDP) is a component of

the Office of Justice Programs in the

U.S. Department of Justice. Pursuant to

the provisions of Section 204 (b)(5)(A)

of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency

Prevention Act of 1974, as amended, 42

U.S.C. § 5601 et seq. (JJDP Act), the

Administrator of OJJDP is publishing for

public comment a Proposed

Comprehensive Plan describing the

program activities that OJJDP proposes

to carry out during fiscal year 1997. The

Proposed Comprehensive Plan includes

activities authorized in Parts C and D of

Title II of the JJDP Act, codified at 42

U.S.C. § 5651–5665a, 5667, 5667a.

Taking into consideration comments

received on this Proposed

Comprehensive Plan, the Administrator

will develop and publish a Final

Comprehensive Plan describing the

particular program activities that OJJDP

intends to fund during fiscal year 1997,

using in whole or in part funds

appropriated under Parts C and D of

Title II of the JJDP Act.

Notice of the official solicitation of

grant or cooperative agreement

applications under the Final

Comprehensive Plan will be published

at a later date in the Federal Register.

No proposals, concept papers, or other

forms of application should be

submitted at this time.

Overview

This is a critical time for juvenile

justice, a time of both opportunity and

challenge. Earlier this year, the

Department of Justice announced a

reduction in overall juvenile violent

crime (3 percent) and a significant drop

in juvenile homicide arrests (14 percent)

between 1994 and 1995, the first

downturns we have seen in 9 years. A

National Center for Juvenile Justice

analysis of the 1995 Uniform Crime

Report data reveals that this decrease in

overall juvenile crime arrests was driven

by decreased arrests of juveniles 14 and

under, an encouraging sign. While these

younger juveniles were responsible for

30 percent of juvenile violent crime

arrests in 1995, they accounted for more

than half of the reported decline in

juvenile violent crime arrests. All of the

2 percent decline in property arrests is

attributable to these younger juveniles.

In order to ensure that these positive

trends continue, we must continue to

focus our efforts on establishing a

continuum of prevention, early

intervention, and graduated sanctions

programs; strengthening the juvenile

justice system; and building stronger,

safer communities. These efforts are

needed because we are still confronted

with unacceptably high rates of juvenile

crime. Juveniles still account for 18

percent of all arrests, some 2.7 million

in 1995. Even with the 1995 decline in

juvenile violent crime arrests noted

above, the number is still 12 percent

greater than the 1991 level and 67

percent above the 1986 level. Juveniles

were involved in 32 percent of all

robbery arrests, 23 percent of weapon

arrests, and 15 percent of murder and

aggravated assault arrests in 1995.

In the troubling area of drug use,

juveniles were involved in 13 percent of

all drug arrests in 1995, and the number

of juvenile drug arrests has increased

138 percent since 1991. According to

the 22d national survey in the

Monitoring the Future study, illicit drug

use among schoolchildren rose again in

1996. Since 1991, the proportion of

students using any illicit drug in the 12

months prior to the survey has

increased steadily. For 8th graders

alone, the proportion has more than

doubled (from 11 percent to 24 percent)

since 1991. Since 1992, the proportion

among 10th graders has nearly doubled

(from 20 percent to 38 percent), and

among 12th graders, it has risen by

about half (from 27 percent to 40

percent).

Federal leadership in responding to

the problems confronting juvenile

justice is vested in OJJDP. Established in

1974 by the JJDP Act, OJJDP is the

Federal agency responsible for

providing a comprehensive, coordinated

approach to preventing and controlling

juvenile crime and improving the

juvenile justice system. OJJDP

administers State Formula Grants and

State Challenge Grants Programs in

States and territories, funds more than

100 projects through its Special

Emphasis Discretionary Grant Program

and its National Institute for Juvenile

Justice and Delinquency Prevention,

and coordinates Federal activities

related to juvenile justice and

delinquency prevention.

OJJDP serves as the staff agency for

the Coordinating Council on Juvenile

Justice and Delinquency Prevention;

coordinates the Concentration of

Federal Efforts Program; and

administers the Title IV Missing and

Exploited Children’s Program, the Title

V Community Prevention Grants

Program, and programs under the

Victims of Child Abuse Act of 1990, as

amended, 42 U.S.C. § 13001 et seq.

Fiscal Year 1997 Program Planning

Activities

The OJJDP program planning process

for fiscal year 1997 is coordinated with

the Assistant Attorney General, Office of

Justice Programs (OJP), and the four

other OJP program bureaus: the Bureau

of Justice Assistance (BJA), the Bureau

of Justice Statistics (BJS), the National

Institute of Justice (NIJ), and the Office

for Victims of Crime (OVC). The

program planning process involves the

following steps:

• Internal review of existing programs

by OJJDP staff.

• Internal review of proposed

programs by OJP bureaus and

Department of Justice components.

• Review of information and data

from OJJDP grantees and contractors.

• Review of information contained in

State comprehensive plans.

• Review of comments made by youth

service providers, juvenile justice

practitioners, and researchers, to receive

input in proposed new program areas.

• Consideration of suggestions made

by juvenile justice policymakers

concerning State and local needs.

• Consideration of all comments

received during the period of public

comment on the Proposed

Comprehensive Plan.

Discretionary Program Activities

Discretionary Grant Continuation Policy

OJJDP has listed on the following

pages continuation projects currently

funded in whole or in part with Part C

and Part D funds and eligible for

continuation funding in fiscal year
Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 49 / Thursday, March 13, 1997 / Notices 11957

1997, either within an existing project

period or through an extension for an

additional project period. A grantee’s

eligibility for continued funding for an

additional budget period within an

existing project period depends on the

grantee’s compliance with funding

eligibility requirements and

achievement of the prior year’s

objectives. The amount of award is

based on prior projections,

demonstrated need, and fund

availability.

The only projects described in this

Proposed Program Plan are those that

are eligible to receive fiscal year 1997

continuation funding and programs

OJJDP is considering for new awards in

fiscal year 1997.

Consideration for continuation

funding for an additional budget or

project period for previously funded

discretionary grant programs will be

based upon several factors, including

the following:

• The extent to which the project

responds to the applicable requirements

of the JJDP Act.

• Responsiveness to OJJDP and

Department of Justice fiscal year 1997

program priorities.

• Compliance with performance

requirements of prior grant years.

• Compliance with fiscal and

regulatory requirements.

• Compliance with any special

conditions of the award.

• Availability of funds (based on

program priority determinations).

In accordance with Section 262

(d)(1)(B) of the JJDP Act, as amended, 42

U.S.C. § 5665a, the competitive process

for the award of Part C funds shall not

be required if the Administrator makes

a written determination waiving the

competitive process:

1. With respect to programs to be

carried out in areas in which the

President declares under the Robert T.

Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency

Assistance Act codified at 42 U.S.C.

§ 5121 et seq. that a major disaster or

emergency exists, or

2. With respect to a particular

program described in Part C that is

uniquely qualified.

OJJDP Funding Policy

OJJDP seeks to focus its assistance on

the development and implementation of

programs with the greatest potential for

reducing juvenile delinquency and

improving the juvenile justice system by

establishing partnerships with State,

Native American, Native Alaskan, and

local governments and public and

private organizations. To that end,

OJJDP has set three goals that constitute

the major elements of a sound policy

that assures public safety and security

while establishing effective juvenile

justice and delinquency prevention

programs:

• To promote delinquency prevention

and early intervention efforts that

reduce the flow of juvenile offenders

into the juvenile justice system, the

numbers of serious and violent

offenders, and the development of

chronic delinquent careers. While

removing serious and violent juvenile

offenders from the street serves to

protect the public, long-term solutions

lie primarily in taking aggressive steps

to stop delinquency before it starts or

becomes a pattern of behavior.

• To improve the juvenile justice

system and the response of the system

to juvenile delinquents, status offenders,

and dependent, neglected, and abused

children.

• To preserve the public safety in a

manner that serves the appropriate

development and best use of secure

detention and corrections options, while

at the same time fostering the use of

community-based programs for juvenile

offenders.

Underlying each of the three goals is

the overarching premise that

achievement of these goals is vital to

protecting the long-term safety of the

public from increased juvenile

delinquency and violence. The

following discussion addresses these

three broad goals.

Delinquency Prevention and Early

Intervention

A primary goal of OJJDP is to identify

and promote programs that prevent or

reduce the occurrence of juvenile

offenses, both criminal and

noncriminal, and to intervene

immediately and effectively when

delinquent or status offense conduct

first occurs. A sound policy for juvenile

delinquency prevention seeks to

strengthen the most powerful

contributing factor to socially acceptable

behavior’a productive place for young

people in a law-abiding society.

Delinquency prevention programs can

operate on a broad scale, providing for

positive youth development, or can

target juveniles identified as being at

high risk for delinquency with programs

designed to reduce future juvenile

offending. OJJDP prevention programs

take a risk and protective factor-focused

delinquency prevention approach based

on public health and social

development models.

Early interventions are designed to

provide services to juveniles whose

noncriminal misbehavior indicates that

they are on a delinquent pathway or to

first-time nonviolent delinquent

offenders or nonserious repeat offenders

who do not respond to initial system

intervention. These interventions are

generally nonpunitive but serve to hold

a juvenile accountable while providing

services tailored to the individual needs

of the juvenile and the juvenile’s family.

They are designed to both deter future

misconduct and reduce the negative or

enhance the positive factors present in

a child’s life

Improvement of the Juvenile Justice

System

A second goal of OJJDP is to promote

improvements in the juvenile justice

system and facilitate the most effective

allocation of system resources. This goal

is necessary for holding juveniles who

commit crimes accountable for their

conduct, particularly serious and

violent offenders who sometimes slip

through the cracks of the system or are

inappropriately diverted. This includes

assisting law enforcement officers in

their efforts to prevent and control

delinquency and the victimization of

children through community policing

programs and coordination and

collaboration with other system

components and with child caring

systems. Meeting this goal involves

helping juvenile and family courts, and

the prosecutors and public defenders

who practice in those courts, to provide

a system of justice that maintains due

process protections. It requires trying

innovative programs and carefully

evaluating those programs to determine

what works and what does not work. It

includes a commitment to involving

crime victims in the juvenile justice

system and ensuring that their rights are

considered.

In this regard, OJJDP will continue to

work closely with the Office for Victims

of Crime to further cooperative

programming, including the provision

of services to juveniles who are crime

victims or the provision of victims

services that improve the operation of

the juvenile justice system. Improving

the juvenile justice system also calls for

building an appropriate juvenile

detention and corrections capacity and

for intensified efforts to use juvenile

detention and correctional facilities

when necessary and under conditions

that maximize public safety, while

providing effective rehabilitation

services. It requires encouraging States

to carefully consider the use of

expanded transfer authority that sends

the most serious, violent, and

intractable juvenile offenders to the

criminal justice system, while

preserving individualized justice. It

necessitates conducting research and

gathering statistical information in order
11958 Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 49 / Thursday, March 13, 1997 / Notices

to understand how the juvenile justice

system works in serving children and

families. And finally, the system can

only be improved if information and

knowledge are communicated,

understood, and applied for the purpose

of juvenile justice system improvement.

Corrections, Detention, and CommunityBased Alternatives

A third OJJDP goal is to maintain the

public safety through a balanced use of

secure detention and corrections and

community-based alternatives. This

involves identifying and promoting

effective community-based programs

and services for juveniles who have

formal contact with the juvenile justice

system and emphasizing options that

maintain the safety of the public, are

appropriately restrictive, and promote

and preserve positive ties with the

child’s family, school, and community.

Communities cannot afford to place

responsibility for juvenile delinquency

entirely on publicly operated juvenile

justice system programs. A sound policy

for combating juvenile delinquency and

reducing the threat of youth violence

makes maximum use of a full range of

public and private programs and

services, most of which operate in the

juvenile’s home community, including

those provided by the health and mental

health, child welfare, social service, and

educational systems.

Coordination of the development of

community-based programs and

services with the development and use

of a secure detention and correctional

system capability for those juveniles

who require a secure option is cost

effective, will protect the public, reduce

facility crowding, and result in better

services for both institutionalized

juveniles and those who can be served

while remaining in their community

environment.

In pursuing these broad goals, OJJDP

divides its programs into six key

categories: public safety and law

enforcement; strengthening the juvenile

justice system; delinquency prevention

and intervention; child abuse, neglect,

and dependency courts; and missing

and exploited children. A six category,

overarching programs, contains

programs that have significant elements

common to more than one category.

Introduction to Fiscal Year 1997

Program Plan

In 1996, the U.S. Department of

Justice announced new national

statistics showing a 3-percent decline in

the 1995 overall juvenile violent crime

(murder, forcible rape, robbery, and

aggravated assault) arrest rate, reversing

an upward trend that had lasted for a

decade. An even greater decline (14

percent) occurred in the juvenile

murder arrest rate, which had also fallen

significantly in the previous year. These

declines are in sharp contrast to the 10-

year climb between 1985–1994 when

arrests of juveniles for all violent crimes

rose by 75 percent and arrests of

juveniles for murder rose 150 percent.

Based on those trends and population

projections, demographers were

predicting that juvenile arrests for

violent crimes would more than double

by the year 2010.

The positive news released in 1996

must not lead to a relaxation of efforts

to lower unacceptably high rates of

juvenile violence and crime. Instead,

this partial success should lead the

Nation to intensify its commitment to

reducing juvenile crime and to sustain

the 1995 decline in arrest rates. This

commitment must focus on

strengthening the ability of communities

to provide for their immediate safety

through law enforcement and

correctional strategies, to develop and

implement both prevention and

intervention programs, and to provide

those services that will enable children

to grow up as healthy and productive

citizens in nurturing homes, safe

schools, and peaceful, caring

communities. To be effective, however,

this commitment must be rooted in a

comprehensive approach to the

problems of juvenile delinquency,

violence, and victimization.

Over the past 4 years, OJJDP has

developed a framework for an

improved, more effective juvenile

justice system. The foundation was laid

in 1993 with the publication of OJJDP’s

Comprehensive Strategy for Serious,

Violent, and Chronic Juvenile Offenders.

The Comprehensive Strategy uses

statistics, research, and program

evaluations as the basis for a set of

sound principles for establishing a

continuum of care for the Nation’s

children. The Comprehensive Strategy

emphasizes the importance of local

planning teams that assess the

influences or factors putting youth at

risk for delinquency, determine

available resources, and put prevention

programs in place to either reduce those

risk factors or provide protective factors

that buffer juveniles from the impact of

risk factors. The Comprehensive

Strategy also stresses the importance of

early intervention for juveniles whose

behavior puts them on one or more

pathways to delinquency and a system

of graduated sanctions that can ensure

immediate and appropriate

accountability and treatment for

juvenile offenders.

In 1995, OJJDP published its Guide for

Implementing the Comprehensive

Strategy for Serious, Violent, and

Chronic Juvenile Offenders, a resource

to help States, cities, and communities

implement the Comprehensive Strategy.

Early in 1996, the Coordinating Council

on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency

Prevention, of which OJJDP is a

member, published Combating Violence

and Delinquency: The National Juvenile

Justice Action Plan. The Action Plan

prioritizes Federal activities and

resources under eight critical objectives

that must be addressed to effectively

combat delinquency and violence.

Research and the findings of numerous

commissions support the choice of these

objectives as central to reducing and

preventing juvenile violence,

delinquency, and victimization. The

objectives are to (1) provide immediate

intervention and appropriate sanctions

and treatment for delinquent juveniles;

(2) prosecute certain serious, violent,

and chronic juvenile offenders in

criminal court; (3) reduce youth

involvement with guns, drugs, and

gangs; (4) provide opportunities for

children and youth; (5) break the cycle

of violence by addressing youth

victimization, abuse, and neglect; (6)

strengthen and mobilize communities;

(7) support the development of

innovative approaches to research and

evaluation; and (8) implement an

aggressive public outreach campaign on

effective strategies to combat juvenile

violence.

The OJJDP 1997 Proposed Program

Plan is rooted in the principles of the

Comprehensive Strategy and the

objectives of the Action Plan. Just as in

1996, the Proposed Program Plan

supports a balanced approach to

aggressively addressing juvenile

delinquency and violence through

establishing graduated sanctions,

improving the juvenile justice system’s

ability to respond, and preventing the

onset of delinquency. The Proposed

Program Plan also recognizes the need

to ensure public safety and support

children’s development into healthy,

productive citizens through a range of

prevention, early intervention, and

graduated sanctions programs.

Four program areas were identified

through a process of engaging OJJDP

staff, other Federal agencies, and

juvenile justice practitioners in an

examination of existing programs,

research findings, and the needs of the

field. OJJDP’s national conference,

‘‘Juvenile Justice at the Crossroads,’’

held in December 1996 was particularly

helpful in developing program priorities

for fiscal year 1997. The new program

areas are school-based gang intervention
Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 49 / Thursday, March 13, 1997 / Notices 11959

and prevention, juvenile sex offenders,

mental health, and cost-benefit analyses.

In addition, OJJDP has identified for

fiscal year 1997 funding a range of

research and evaluation projects that

will expand knowledge about juvenile

offenders; the effectiveness of

prevention, intervention, and treatment

programs; and the operation of the

juvenile justice system. Specific

evaluation initiatives will be undertaken

related to Boys and Girls Clubs of

America’s gang outreach efforts, teen

courts, the President’s Crime Prevention

Council’s drug and alcohol use

prevention program, and gun violence

reduction. Combined with OJJDP

programs being continued in fiscal year

1997, these new demonstration and

support programs form a continuum of

programming that supports the

objectives of the Action Plan and

mirrors the foundation and framework

of the Comprehensive Strategy.

These continuation activities and

programs and the new fiscal year 1997

programs are at the heart of OJJDP’s

categorical funding efforts. For example,

while focusing on the development of

assessment centers as a new area of

programming, continuing to offer

training seminars in the Comprehensive

Strategy, and looking to the SafeFutures

program to implement the

Comprehensive Strategy model, OJJDP

will be exploring how to better address

juvenile sex offenders and the mental

health needs of juvenile offenders.

Combined, these activities provide a

more holistic approach to prevention

and early intervention programs while

enhancing the juvenile justice system’s

capacity to provide immediate and

appropriate accountability and

treatment for juvenile offenders,

including those with special treatment

needs.

OJJDP’s Part D Gang Program will

continue to support a range of

comprehensive prevention,

intervention, and suppression activities

at the local level, evaluate those

activities, and inform communities

about the nature and extent of gang

activities and effective and innovative

programs through OJJDP’s National

Youth Gang Center. Similarly, our new

activities related to school-based gang

programs and the evaluation of the Boys

and Girls Clubs gang outreach effort,

along with an evaluation of selected

youth gun violence reduction programs,

will complement existing law

enforcement and prosecutorial training

programs by supporting and informing

grassroots community organizations’

efforts to address juvenile gangs and

juvenile access to, and carriage and use

of, guns. This programming will build

upon OJJDP’s youth-focused community

policing, mentoring, and conflict

resolution initiatives and programming

in the area of drug abuse prevention,

such as funding to the Race Against

Drug program, the Congress of National

Black Churches, and the National Center

for Neighborhood Enterprise for schools,

local church, and neighborhood-based

drug abuse prevention programs.

In support of the need to break the

cycle of violence, OJJDP’s SafeKids/Safe

Streets demonstration program, being

implemented in partnership with other

OJP offices and bureaus, will improve

linkages between the dependency and

criminal court systems, child welfare

and social service providers, and family

strengthening programs and will

complement ongoing support of Court

Appointed Special Advocates, Child

Advocacy Centers, and prosecutor and

judicial training in the dependency

field, funded under the Victims of Child

Abuse Act of 1990, as amended.

The Plan’s research and evaluation

programming will support many of the

above activities by filling in critical gaps

in knowledge about the level and

seriousness of juvenile crime and

victimization, its causes and correlates,

and effective programs in preventing

delinquency and violence. At the same

time, OJJDP’s research efforts will also

be geared toward efforts that monitor

and evaluate the ways juveniles are

treated by the juvenile and criminal

justice systems and any trends in this

response, particularly as they relate to

juvenile violence and its impact.

OJJDP is also utilizing its national

perspective to disseminate information

to those at the grassroots level—

practitioners, policymakers, community

leaders, and service providers who are

directly responsible for planning and

implementing policies and programs

that have an impact on juvenile crime

and violence.

OJJDP will continue to fund

longitudinal research on the causes and

correlates of delinquency, the findings

of which are shared regularly with the

field through OJJDP publications; utilize

state-of-the-art technology to provide

the field with an interactive CD-ROM on

promising and effective programs

designed to prevent delinquency and

reduce recidivism; air national satellite

teleconferences on key topics of

relevance to practitioners; and publish

new reports and documents on timely

topics such as truants and dropouts,

mentoring, home visitation and parent

training, youth-related community

policing strategies, youth gang

homicides and drug trafficking, conflict

resolution, collaborative partnerships,

sharing of information pursuant to the

Federal Educational Rights and Privacy

Act, confidentiality of juvenile court

records, innovative sentencing options,

and strategies to reduce youth gun

violence.

The various contracts, grants,

cooperative agreements, and interagency

fund transfers described in the Program

Plan form a continuum of activity

designed to address youth violence,

delinquency, and victimization. In

isolation, this programming can do

little. However, the emphasis of OJJDP’s

programming is on collaboration. It is

through collaboration that Federal,

State, and local agencies; Native

American tribes; national organizations;

private philanthropies; the corporate

and business sector; health, mental

health, and social service agencies;

schools; youth; families; and clergy can

come together to form partnerships and

leverage additional resources, identify

needs and priorities, and implement

innovative strategies. Together, as the

promising statistics published last year

demonstrate, we have made—and we

can continue to make—a difference.

Fiscal Year 1997 Programs

The following are brief summaries of

each of the new and continuation

programs scheduled to receive funding

in fiscal year 1997. As indicated above,

the program categories are public safety

and law enforcement; strengthening the

juvenile justice system; delinquency

prevention and intervention; child

abuse, neglect, and dependency courts;

and missing and exploited children.

However, because many programs have

significant elements of more than one of

these program categories, or generally

support all of OJJDP’s programs, they

are listed in an initial program category

called Overarching Programs. The

specific program priorities within each

category are subject to change with

regard to their priority status, sites for

implementation, and other descriptive

data and information based on the

review and comment process, grantee

performance, application quality, fund

availability, and other factors.

A number of programs contained in

this document have been identified for

funding by Congress with regard to the

grantee(s), the amount of funds, or both.

Such programs are indicated by an

asterisk (*). The 1997 Appropriations

Act Conference Report for the

Departments of Commerce, Justice, and

State, the Judiciary, and Related

Agencies Programs identified 12

programs for OJJDP to examine and fund

if warranted. Four of these programs

(Coalition for Juvenile Justice,

KidsPeace—The National Center for

Kids in Crisis, North America, Law-
11960 Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 49 / Thursday, March 13, 1997 / Notices

Related Education, and Parents

Anonymous, Inc.) are included in the

Plan for continuation funding. The

remaining eight are receiving careful

consideration for funding in fiscal year

1997. They are:

Parents Resource Institute for Drug Education

Restorative Justice Challenge Grants

Institute on Violence and Destructive

Behavior

Consortium on Children, Families, and the

Law

Kansas Juvenile Intake and Assessment

Center

Project O.A.S.I.S.

Savannah Youth Foundation

Teen Night Out

Fiscal Year 1997 Program Listing

Overarching

SafeFutures: Partnerships to Reduce Youth

Violence and Delinquency

Evaluation of SafeFutures

Program of Research on the Causes and

Correlates of Delinquency

Study Group on the Serious, Violent, and

Chronic Juvenile Offender

National Academy of Sciences Study of

Juvenile Justice

The Hamilton Fish National Institute on

School/Community Violence*

OJJDP Management Evaluation Contract

Juvenile Justice Statistics and Systems

Development

Census of Juveniles in Residential Placement

Cost-Benefit Analyses of Juvenile Justice

Programs

Juvenile Justice Data Resources

National Juvenile Court Data Archive*

National Juvenile Justice and Delinquency

Prevention Training and Technical

Assistance Center

Technical Assistance for State Legislatures

OJJDP Technical Assistance Support

Contract—Juvenile Justice Resource Center

Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse

Telecommunications Assistance

Coalition for Juvenile Justice*

Insular Area Support*

Public Safety and Law Enforcement

Comprehensive Community-Wide Approach

to Gang Prevention, Intervention, and

Suppression Program

Evaluation of the Comprehensive

Community-Wide Approach to Gang

Prevention, Intervention, and Suppression

Program

Targeted Outreach With a Gang Prevention

and Intervention Component (Boys and

Girls Clubs)

The Developmental Dynamics of Gang

Membership and Delinquency

National Youth Gang Center

Evaluation of Youth Gun Violence Reduction

Programs

The Chicago Project for Violence Reduction

Child-Centered Community-Oriented

Policing

Law Enforcement Training and Technical

Assistance Program

Violence Studies

Strengthening the Juvenile Justice System

Development of OJJDP’s Comprehensive

Strategy for Serious, Violent, and Chronic

Juvenile Offenders

Serious, Violent, and Chronic Juvenile

Offender Treatment Program

Juvenile Restitution: A Balanced Approach

Training and Technical Assistance Program

to Promote Gender-Specific Programming

for Female Juvenile Offenders

Cook County Juvenile Female Offenders

Project

Juvenile Transfers to Criminal Court Studies

Replication and Expansion of Fagan Transfer

Study

Technical Assistance to Juvenile Courts*

Juvenile Court Judges Training*

The Juvenile Justice Prosecution Unit

Due Process Advocacy Program Development

Quantum Opportunities Program (QOP)

Evaluation

Intensive Community-Based Aftercare

Demonstration and Technical Assistance

Program

Evaluation of Intensive Community-Based

Aftercare Demonstration and Technical

Assistance Program

Interventions To Reduce Disproportionate

Minority Confinement in Secure Detention

and Correctional Facilities (The Deborah

Ann Wysinger Memorial Program)

State Justice Statistics Program for Statistical

Analysis Centers

Juvenile Probation Survey Research

Performance-Based Standards for Juvenile

Detention and Correctional Facilities

Technical Assistance to Juvenile Corrections

and Detention (The James E. Gould

Memorial Program)

Training for Juvenile Corrections and

Detention Management Staff

Training for Line Staff in Juvenile Detention

and Corrections

Training and Technical Support for State and

Local Jurisdictional Teams To Focus on

Juvenile Corrections and Detention

Overcrowding

National Program Directory

A Comprehensive Juvenile Sex Offender

Typology

KidsPeace—The National Centers for Kids in

Crisis, North America*

The Bethesda Day Treatment Program

Interagency Programs on Mental Health and

Juvenile Justice

Delinquency Prevention and Intervention

Training In Risk-Focused Prevention

Strategies

Youth Substance Use Prevention Programs

(The President’s Crime Prevention Council)

Survey of School-Based Gang Prevention and

Intervention Programs

Youth-Centered Conflict Resolution

Teens, Crime, and the Community: Teens in

Action in the 90s*

Law-Related Education*

Communities in Schools—Federal

Interagency Partnership

The Congress of National Black Churches:

National Anti-Drug Abuse/Violence

Campaign (NADVC)

Risk Reduction Via Promotion of Youth

Development

Community Anti-Drug Abuse Technical

Assistance Voucher Project

Training and Technical Assistance for Family

Strengthening Programs

Training and Technical Assistance To

Promote Teen Court Programs

Evaluation of Teen Courts

Henry Ford Health System

Angel Gate Academy*

Suffolk County PAL (Police Athletic

League)*

Do the Write Thing

Child Abuse and Neglect and Dependency

Courts

Permanent Families for Abused and

Neglected Children*

Parents Anonymous, Inc.*

Missing and Exploited Children

Jimmy Ryce Law Enforcement Training

Center*

Overarching

SafeFutures: Partnerships To Reduce

Youth Violence and Delinquency

The Office of Juvenile Justice and

Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) will

award grants of up to $1.4 million to

each of six communities, initially

funded with fiscal year 1995 funds, to

assist with comprehensive community

programs designed to reduce youth

violence and delinquency. Boston,

Massachusetts; Seattle, Washington; St.

Louis, Missouri; Contra Costa County,

California; Imperial County, California;

and Fort Belknap, Montana (Native

American site) were selected

competitively to receive 5-year awards

under the SafeFutures project on the

basis of their substantial planning and

progress in community assessment and

strategic planning to address

delinquency.

SafeFutures seeks to prevent and

control youth crime and victimization

through the creation of a continuum of

care in communities. This continuum

enables communities to be responsive to

the needs of youth at critical stages of

their development through providing an

appropriate range of prevention,

intervention, treatment, and sanctions

programs.

The goals of SafeFutures are (1) to

prevent and control juvenile violence

and delinquency in targeted

communities by reducing risk factors

and increasing protective factors for

delinquency; providing a continuum of

services for juveniles at risk of

delinquency, with appropriate

immediate interventions for juvenile

offenders; and developing a full range of

graduated sanctions designed to hold

delinquent youth accountable to the

victim and the community, ensure

community safety, and provide

appropriate treatment and rehabilitation

services; (2) to develop a more efficient,

effective, and timely service delivery
Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 49 / Thursday, March 13, 1997 / Notices 11961

system for at-risk and delinquent

juveniles and their families that is

capable of responding to their needs at

any point of entry into the juvenile

justice system; (3) to build the

community’s capacity to institutionalize

and sustain the continuum by

expanding and diversifying sources of

funding; and (4) to determine the

success of program implementation and

the outcomes achieved, including

whether a comprehensive strategy

involving community-based efforts and

program resources concentrated on

providing a continuum of care has

succeeded in preventing or reducing

juvenile violence and delinquency.

Each of the six sites will continue to

provide a set of services that builds on

community strengths and existing

services and fills in gaps within their

existing continuum. These services

include family strengthening,

afterschool activities, mentoring,

treatment alternatives for juvenile

female offenders, mental health

services, day treatment, graduated

sanctions for violent and chronic

offenders, and gang prevention,

intervention, and suppression.

A national evaluation is being

conducted by The Urban Institute to

determine the success of the initiative

and track lessons learned throughout

SafeFutures efforts at each of the six

sites. OJJDP has also committed a cadre

of training and technical assistance

(TTA) resources to SafeFutures through

OJJDP’s National Training and

Technical Assistance Center, which has

brought together more than 40 TTA

providers and dedicated a full-time TTA

coordinator for SafeFutures. The Center

also assists the communities in

brokering and leveraging additional

TTA resources. In addition, the U.S.

Department of Housing and Urban

Development has provided interagency

support of $100,000 for training and

technical assistance targeted to violence

and delinquency prevention for public

housing areas in SafeFutures sites.

Thus, operations, evaluation, and TTA

have been organized together to form a

joint team at the national level to

support local site efforts.

SafeFutures activities will be carried

out by the six current SafeFutures

grantees. No additional applications

will be solicited in fiscal year 1997.

Evaluation of SafeFutures

With fiscal year 1995 funds, OJJDP

funded six communities under the

SafeFutures: Partnerships to Reduce

Youth Violence and Delinquency

Program. The program sites are: Contra

Costa County, California; Fort Belknap

Indian Community, Harlem, Montana;

Boston, Massachusetts; St. Louis,

Missouri; Seattle, Washington; and

Imperial County, California. The

SafeFutures Program provides support

for a comprehensive prevention,

intervention, and treatment program to

meet the needs of at-risk juveniles and

their families.

Up to approximately $8.2 million will

be made available for annual awards

over a 5-year project period to support

the efforts of these jurisdictions to

enhance existing partnerships, integrate

juvenile justice and social services, and

provide a continuum of care that is

designed to reduce the number of

serious, violent, and chronic juvenile

offenders.

The Urban Institute received a

competitive 3-year cooperative

agreement award with fiscal year 1995

funds to conduct a national evaluation

of the SafeFutures program. The

evaluation will consist of both process

and impact components for each funded

site. The evaluation process includes an

examination of planning procedures and

the extent to which each site’s

implementation plan is consistent with

the principles of a continuum of care

model. The evaluation will identify the

obstacles and key factors contributing to

the successful implementation of the

SafeFutures program. The evaluator is

responsible for developing a cross-site

monograph documenting the process of

program implementation for use by

other communities that want to develop

and implement a comprehensive

community-based strategy to address

serious, violent, and chronic

delinquency.

In fiscal year 1996, The Urban

Institute developed a logic model, held

a cross-site cluster meeting, and visited

each of the six SafeFutures sites. The

Urban Institute is working closely with

local evaluators to develop individual

project logic models. In fiscal year 1997,

the grantee will submit an evaluation

plan and design and begin

implementation.

A fiscal year 1997 supplemental

award will be made to the current

grantee, The Urban Institute, to

complete second year funding. No

additional applications will be solicited

in fiscal year 1997.

Program of Research on the Causes and

Correlates of Delinquency

Three project sites participate in the

Program of Research on the Causes and

Correlates of Delinquency: The

University of Colorado at Boulder, the

University of Pittsburgh, and the State

University of New York at Albany.

Results from this program have been

used extensively in the field of juvenile

justice and have contributed to the

development of OJJDP’s Comprehensive

Strategy for Serious, Violent, and

Chronic Juvenile Offenders and other

program initiatives.

OJJDP began funding this program in

1986 and has invested approximately

$10.3 million to date. The program has

addressed many issues of juvenile

violence and delinquency. These

include developing and testing causal

models for chronic violent offending

and examining interrelationships among

gang involvement, drug selling, and gun

ownership/use. To date, the Program

has produced a massive amount of

information on the causes and correlates

of delinquent behavior.

Although there is great commonality

across the project sites, each has unique

design features. Additionally, each

project has disseminated the results of

its research through a variety of

publications, reports, and presentations.

With fiscal year 1996 funding, each

site of the Causes and Correlates

Program was provided additional funds

to further analyze the longitudinal data.

New publications were developed, and

both the role of mental health in

delinquency and pathways to

delinquency were the subject of further

analyses.

In fiscal year 1997, the sites will

continue their collaborative research

efforts. Site-specific research will also

continue. Additionally, the grantees will

work on developing a cross-site data

access capability to provide quick

access to data from all three sites.

This program will be implemented by

the current grantees—Institute of

Behavioral Science, University of

Colorado at Boulder; Western

Psychiatric Institute and Clinic,

University of Pittsburgh; and Hindelang

Criminal Justice Research Center, State

University of New York at Albany. No

additional applications will be solicited

in fiscal year 1997.

Study Group on the Serious, Violent,

and Chronic Juvenile Offender

In fiscal year 1995, OJJDP funded the

Study Group on the Serious, Violent,

and Chronic Juvenile Offender to

answer questions about these offenders.

The objective of the Study Group is to

develop a report that will include

critical areas of interest including

prevention, intervention, gangs, and

other topics. The report will include

programs that appear to be effective in

responding to the violent juvenile

offender. The report is expected to be

completed in the Spring of 1997. Fiscal

year 1997 funding would be provided

for the Study Group to develop research

papers on cost-benefit analysis and
11962 Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 49 / Thursday, March 13, 1997 / Notices

other topics that support the research on

serious and violent juvenile offenders.

The Study Group, as an adjunct to their

report, will also undertake the

development of a 5-year research plan

for OJJDP’s Research and Program

Development Division. The plan would

include short and long term research

goals and objectives.

The project would be implemented by

the current grantee, the University of

Pittsburgh. No additional applications

would be solicited in fiscal year 1997.

National Academy of Sciences Study of

Juvenile Justice

The unprecedented increase in the

rates of violent crime arrests of youth

between the ages of 12 and 17 through

the mid 1990’s, combined with the

projected growth of this population over

the next decade, portends an

unwelcome increase in future violence

by adolescents. Public anxiety over the

growing seriousness of juvenile violence

has led many States away from

rehabilitation and toward deterrence

and punishment as the primary thrust of

their juvenile justice efforts.

In fiscal year 1997, OJJDP would

support a 24-month study by the

National Academy of Sciences to

examine research on the functioning of

the juvenile justice system over the past

10 years in the area of delinquency

prevention and control. The purpose of

this extensive review would be to

provide a scientifically sound basis for

planning a multidisciplinary,

multiagency agenda for research that

can not only inform policymakers and

practitioners about the nature and

extent of juvenile delinquency and

violence but also identify the most

effective strategies for preventing and

reducing youth crime and violence.

Issues of interest to the study include

(1) an assessment of the status of

research into youth violence,

methodological approaches to evaluate

the effectiveness of youth violence

prevention efforts and the efficacy of

Federal, State, and local efforts to

control youth violence; (2) a review of

research literature and data on juvenile

court practices during this period,

including the experience with Federal

requirements regarding status offenders,

detention practices, and the impact of

diversion strategies and waivers to

criminal court for certain offenders and

offenses; (3) a review of research

literature and data on clients in the

juvenile justice system including

concerns regarding disproportionate

minority representation and gender bias;

(4) an assessment of available evaluation

literature on system programs and

prevention strategies and programs,

gaps in the research and

recommendations to strengthen it; and

(5) the relationship between the

research on the causes and correlates of

juvenile delinquency and normal

adolescent growth and development.

A project report, synthesizing

materials gathered from discussions and

papers presented at workshops and

panel meetings, would provide an

overview of the critical issues

confronting the juvenile justice field,

gaps in current knowledge base, and

future directions for research and

program development.

The program would be implemented

by the National Academy of Sciences.

No additional applications would be

solicited in fiscal year 1997.

The Hamilton Fish National Institute on

School/Community Violence*

This consortium of eight universities

will study violence in schools and the

relationship of violence in schools to

violence in the community. The

consortium includes the George

Washington University, Morehouse

School of Medicine, the University of

Oregon, the University of Kentucky,

Florida State University, the University

of Wisconsin, Syracuse University, and

the University of Kansas. The Institute

will be a research, development, and

service organization committed to

assisting State and local policymakers,

criminal justice officials, school

administrators, teachers, parents, and

students to reduce the present levels of

violence in and around schools.

Each of the universities will establish

a local community/schools/university

partnership committed to a long-term

reduction in violence. Each school,

surrounding community, and a partner

university will work to diagnose

specific problems of violence that occur

in and around the selected schools.

After problem identification, the

consortium and the local community

and schools will design and implement

interventions for the violence problems.

This program will be implemented by

the George Washington University. No

additional applications will be solicited

in fiscal year 1997.

OJJDP Management Evaluation Contract

The purpose of this contract,

competitively awarded in fiscal year

1995 to Caliber Associates, is to provide

an expert resource capable of

performing independent, managementoriented evaluations of selected juvenile

delinquency programs. These

evaluations are designed to determine

the effectiveness and efficiency of either

individual projects or groups of projects.

The contractor also assists OJJDP in

determining how to make the best use

of limited evaluation resources and how

best to design and implement

evaluations.

In fiscal year 1996, contract activities

included: continued evaluation of three

OJJDP-funded boot camps; continued

support for the evaluation of Title V

delinquency prevention programs at the

local level; assistance in preparing

OJJDP’s 1995 Title V Program Report to

Congress; assistance to OJJDP program

development working groups; assistance

in the creation of an ‘‘evaluation

partnership for juvenile justice’’

designed to improve the number and

quality of evaluations conducted by

Formula Grants Program grantees, other

Federal agencies, private foundations

that fund evaluations, and State and

local governments; and conducting

other short- or long-term evaluations as

required.

Evaluation activities under

consideration for fiscal year 1997

include: (1) OJJDP’s Pathways to

Success program; (2) two law

enforcement training seminars,

Managing Juvenile Operations and

SAFE POLICY; (3) continued impact

evaluations of three OJJDP-funded

bootcamps; (4) continued evaluation of

Title V programs; (5) assistance to the

OJJDP evaluation working group; (6)

support to OJJDP Formula Grants

Program grantees; and (7) evaluating

OJJDP’s implementation of the

Comprehensive Strategy for Serious,

Violent, and Chronic Juvenile

Offenders. The contract will be

implemented by the current contractor,

Caliber Associates. No additional

applications will be solicited in fiscal

year 1997.

Juvenile Justice Statistics and Systems

Development

The Juvenile Justice Statistics and

Systems Development (SSD) program

was competitively awarded to the

National Center for Juvenile Justice

(NCJJ) to improve national, State, and

local statistics on juveniles as victims

and offenders. The project has focused

on three major functions: (1) assessing

of how current information needs are

being met with existing data collection

efforts and recommending options for

improving national level statistics; (2)

analyzing data and disseminating

information gathered from existing

Federal statistical series and national

studies. (Based on this work, OJJDP

released the first Juvenile Offenders and

Victims: A National Report in

September 1995 and released Juvenile

Offenders and Victims: 1996 Update on

Violence in March 1996); and (3)

providing of training and technical
Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 49 / Thursday, March 13, 1997 / Notices 11963

assistance for local agencies in

developing or enhancing management

information systems. A training

curriculum, Improving Information for

Rational Decision Making in Juvenile

Justice, was drafted for pilot testing.

In this final phase of the SSD project,

NCJJ would complete a long-term plan

for improving national statistics on

juveniles as victims and offenders,

including constructing core data

elements for a national reporting

program for juveniles waived or

transferred to criminal court; an

implementation plan for integrating data

collection on juveniles by juvenile

justice, mental health, and child welfare

agencies; and a report on standardized

measures and instruments for selfreported delinquency surveys. The

project would also make

recommendations to fill information

gaps in the areas of juvenile probation,

juvenile court and law enforcement

responses to juvenile delinquency,

violent delinquency, and child abuse

and neglect. In addition, the SSD Project

would provide an update of Juvenile

Offenders and Victims: A National

Report, and work with the Office of

Justice Programs’’ Crime Statistics

Working Group and other Federal

interagency working groups on

statistics. The project would be

implemented by the current grantee,

NCJJ. No additional applications would

be solicited in fiscal year 1997.

Census of Juveniles in Residential

Placement

This census of juveniles in residential

placement would replace the biennial

Census of Public and Private Juvenile

Detention, Correctional, and Shelter

Facilities, known as the Children in

Custody census. This newly designed

census would collect detailed

information on the population of

juveniles who are in juvenile residential

placement facilities as a result of contact

with the juvenile justice system. Over

the past 3 years, OJJDP and the Bureau

of the Census, with the assistance of a

Technical Advisory Board, have

developed a census that will more

accurately represent the numbers of

juveniles in residential placement and

describe the reasons for their placement.

The new method of data collection,

tested in fiscal year 1996, involved

gathering data in a roster-type booklet

format or by electronic means. The new

methods are expected to result in more

accurate and useful data on the juvenile

population, with less reporting burden

for facility respondents.

In fiscal year 1997, OJJDP would fund

the initial implementation of this

census, including form preparation,

mailout, and processing of the census

forms. Some follow-up would also be

done under this agreement. This

program would be implemented through

an interagency agreement with the

Bureau of the Census. No additional

applications would be solicited in fiscal

year 1997.

Cost-Benefit Analyses of Juvenile Justice

Programs

Finite resources require that hard

choices be made among competing

programs. Juvenile justice practitioners

are increasingly being asked to justify

their activities in terms of cost and

effectiveness. Should programs be

continued, expanded, or discontinued?

Cost-benefit analyses are an important

tool for policymakers and juvenile

justice program administrators. They

can provide useful, quantifiable, and

integrated information. Accordingly,

OJJDP proposes to support studies

designed to determine monetary

program benefits of multiple but similar

kinds of programs, of single programs,

and across different programs.

Submissions by juvenile justice agencies

would be encouraged.

A competitive solicitation for up to

two studies would be issued in fiscal

year 1997 to support cost-benefit

analyses.

Juvenile Justice Data Resources

OJJDP has entered into an agreement

with the Inter-University Consortium for

Political and Social Research (ICPSR) at

the University of Michigan to make

OJJDP data sets routinely available to

researchers. Under this agreement,

ICPSR assures the technical integrity of

data and develops a universal data

format. The codebooks, along with the

data, provide clear guidance for

additional analyses. Once prepared,

ICPSR provides access to these data sets

to member institutions and the public.

Among the data sets previously

processed and available through ICPSR

are the Children in Custody series;

various data sets from the Juvenile Court

Statistics series; the Conditions of

Confinement Study; the National

Incidence Studies of Missing, Abducted,

Runaway, and Thrownaway Children

(NISMART); and data from the

Delinquency in a Birth Cohort II study.

This program would be implemented

under an interagency agreement with

ICPSR. No additional applications

would be solicited in fiscal year 1997.

National Juvenile Court Data Archive*

The National Juvenile Court Data

Archive collects, processes, analyzes,

and disseminates automated data and

published reports from the Nation’s

juvenile courts. The Archive’s reports

examine referrals, offenses, intake, and

dispositions in addition to providing

information on specialized topics such

as minorities in juvenile courts and

specific offense categories. The Archive

also provides assistance to jurisdictions

in analyzing their juvenile court data.

In fiscal year 1996, the Archive

enhanced the collection, reporting, and

analysis of detailed data on detention,

dispositions, risk factors, and treatment

data using offender-based data sets from

a sample of juvenile courts. In support

of OJJDP’s National Forum on Female

Offenders, the Archive prepared a

special statistics summary, Female

Offenders in the Juvenile Justice System.

In addition to preparing traditional

reports, NCJJ prepared a software

package, Easy Access to Juvenile Court

Statistics 1990–1994, that allows users

to quickly answer questions regarding a

wide range of case characteristics

supported with national estimates. The

software is distributed free on diskette

and is also available through OJJDP’s

homepage on the World Wide Web.

The project will be implemented by

the current grantee, NCJJ. No additional

applications will be solicited in fiscal

year 1997.

National Juvenile Justice and

Delinquency Prevention Training and

Technical Assistance Center

The National Juvenile Justice and

Delinquency Prevention Training and

Technical Assistance Center (NTTAC)

was competitively funded in fiscal year

1995 for a 3-year project period to

develop a national training and

technical assistance clearinghouse,

inventory and coordinate integrated

delivery of juvenile justice training/

technical assistance (TA) resources, and

establish a data base of these resources.

In fiscal year 1995, initial work

involved organization and staffing of the

Center, orientation for OJJDP training/

TA providers regarding their role in the

Center’s activities, and initial data base

development. In fiscal year 1996,

NTTAC provided coordinated TA

support for the OJJDP SafeFutures and

gang program initiatives, continued to

promote collaboration among OJJDP

training/TA providers, developed

training/TA materials, and completed

the OJJDP Training and Technical

Assistance Resource Catalog. In

addition, NTTAC assisted State and

local jurisdictions and other OJJDP

grantees with specialized training,

including the development of trainingof-trainers programs. NTTAC continued

to evolve as a central source for

information pertaining to the
11964 Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 49 / Thursday, March 13, 1997 / Notices

availability of OJJDP-supported training/

TA programs and resources.

In fiscal year 1997, in cooperation

with OJJDP training/TA grantees and

contractors, NTTAC will complete

jurisdictional team training/TA

packages for gender-specific services

and juvenile correctional services, field

test the packages, and coordinate

delivery upon request. NTTAC will also

update the Training and Technical

Assistance Resource Catalog, the

repository of training/TA materials, and

the electronically maintained data base

of training/TA materials. Another task

for 1997 will be to develop an

additional jurisdictional team training/

TA package.

This project will be implemented by

the current grantee, Community

Research Associates. No additional

applications will be solicited in fiscal

year 1997.

Technical Assistance for State

Legislatures

State legislatures are being pressed to

respond to public fear of juvenile crime

and a loss of confidence in the capacity

of the juvenile justice system to respond

effectively. Nearly every State has

already implemented, or is considering,

statutory changes affecting the juvenile

justice system. For the most part, State

legislatures have lacked the information

needed to properly address juvenile

justice issues. In fiscal year 1995, OJJDP

awarded a 2-year grant to the National

Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL)

to provide relevant, timely information

on comprehensive approaches in

juvenile justice that are geared to the

legislative environment. In fiscal year

1995 and fiscal year 1996, NCSL

convened Leadership Forums for

selected legislators, organized focus

groups, and established an information

clearinghouse function. In fiscal year

1997, OJJDP proposes to award

continuation funding to the NCSL to

further identify, analyze, and

disseminate information to assist State

legislatures to make more informed

decisions about legislation affecting the

juvenile justice system. A

complementary task would involve

supporting increased communication

between State legislators and State and

local leaders who influence

decisionmaking regarding juvenile

justice issues. NCSL would provide

intensive technical assistance to four

States, continue outreach activities, and

maintain its clearinghouse function.

The project would be implemented by

the current grantee, NCSL. No

additional applications would be

solicited in fiscal year 1997.

OJJDP Technical Assistance Support

Contract: Juvenile Justice Resource

Center

This 3-year contract, competitively

awarded in fiscal year 1994, provides

technical assistance and support to

OJJDP, its grantees, and the

Coordinating Council on Juvenile

Justice and Delinquency Prevention in

the areas of program development,

evaluation, training, and research. This

program support contract will be

extended in fiscal year 1997. The

contract will be implemented by the

current contractor, Aspen Systems

Corporation. A new competitive

contract solicitation will be issued

during fiscal year 1997, and a new

contract awarded in fiscal year 1998.

Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse

A component of the National Criminal

Justice Reference Service (NCJRS), the

Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse (JJC) is

OJJDP’s central resource for collecting,

maintaining, producing, and sharing

information on all aspects of juvenile

justice. Types of information managed

by JJC include research and evaluation

findings, State and local juvenile

delinquency prevention and treatment

programs and plans, availability of

resources, training and educational

programs, and statistics. JJC reaches the

entire juvenile justice community and

other interested persons, serving

researchers, law enforcement officials,

judges, prosecutors, probation and

corrections staff, youth-service

personnel, legislators, the media, and

the public.

Among its support services, JJC offers

toll-free telephone and online access to

information; prepares specialized

responses to information requests;

produces, warehouses, and distributes

OJJDP publications; exhibits at national

conferences; and maintains a

comprehensive juvenile justice library

and data base. Because of the critical

need to inform juvenile justice

practitioners and policymakers of

promising program approaches, JJC

continually develops and recommends

new products and strategies to

communicate more effectively the

research findings and program activities

of OJJDP and the field. The entire

NCJRS, of which the OJJDP-funded JJC

is a part, is administered by the National

Institute of Justice under a

competitively-awarded contract.

The contract will be implemented by

the current contractor, Aspen Systems

Corporation. No additional applications

will be solicited in fiscal year 1997.

Telecommunications Assistance

Developments in information

technology and distance training have

expanded and enhanced OJJDP’s

capacity to disseminate information and

provide training and technical

assistance. These technologies have the

advantages of increased access to

information and training for

professionals in the juvenile justice

system, reduced travel costs to

conferences, and reduced time attending

meetings requiring one or more nights

away from one’s home or office.

Additionally, the successful use of live

satellite teleconferences by OJJDP

during the past 2 years has generated an

enthusiastic response from the field.

During 1996, OJJDP’s grantee, Eastern

Kentucky University (EKU) produced

five live satellite teleconferences on the

following topics: juvenile boot camps,

conflict resolution for youth, reducing

youth gun violence, youth out of the

education mainstream, and the viability

of the juvenile court.

In fiscal year 1997, OJJDP proposes to

continue the competitively awarded

cooperative agreement to EKU in order

to provide program support and

technical assistance for a variety of

information technologies, including

audiographics, fiber optics, and satellite

teleconferences, producing five

additional live national satellite

teleconferences. The grantee would also

continue to provide technical assistance

to other grantees interested in using this

technology and explore linkages with

key constituent groups to advance

mutual information goals and

objectives.

This project would be implemented

by the current grantee, EKU. No

additional applications would be

solicited in fiscal year 1997.

Coalition for Juvenile Justice*

The Coalition for Juvenile Justice

supports and facilitates the purposes

and functions of each State’s Juvenile

Justice State Advisory Group (SAG).

Coalition members, acting as a

statutorily authorized, duly chartered

Federal advisory committee, review

Federal policies and practices regarding

juvenile justice and delinquency

prevention and prepare and submit an

annual report and recommendations to

the President, Congress, and the

Administrator of OJJDP. The Coalition

also serves as an information center for

the SAG’s and conducts an annual

conference to provide training for SAG

members.

The program will be implemented by

the current grantee, the Coalition for

Juvenile Justice. No additional
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applications will be solicited in fiscal

year 1997.

Insular Area Support*

The purpose of this program is to

provide supplemental financial support

to the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam,

American Samoa, the Trust Territory of

the Pacific Islands (Palau), and the

Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana

Islands. Funds are available to address

the special needs and problems of

juvenile delinquency in these insular

areas, as specified by Section 261(e) of

the JJDP Act, as amended, 42 U.S.C.

§ 5665(e).

Public Safety and Law Enforcement

Comprehensive Community-Wide

Approach to Gang Prevention,

Intervention, and Suppression Program

This program supports the

implementation of a comprehensive

gang program model in five

jurisdictions. The program was

competitively awarded with fiscal year

1994 funds under a 3-year project

period. The demonstration sites

implementing the model, which was

developed by the University of Chicago

with OJJDP funding support, are

Bloomington, Illinois; Mesa, Arizona;

Riverside, California; San Antonio,

Texas; and Tucson, Arizona.

Implementation of the comprehensive

gang program model requires the

mobilization of the community to

address gang-related violence by making

available and coordinating social

interventions, providing social/

academic/vocational and other

opportunities, and supporting gang

suppression through law enforcement,

probation, and other community control

mechanisms.

During the past year, the

demonstration sites completed initial

gang violence problem assessments to

identify the full nature and extent of the

gang problem in the community and its

causes. The assessment process has

helped communities to understand

causes of gang violence in their

community; identify key points for

prevention, intervention, and

suppression; and identify benchmarks

by which program success may be

measured. The demonstration sites also

participated in training and technical

assistance activities, including cluster

conferences sponsored by OJJDP and

visits to a program in Chicago where the

model has been implemented and

demonstrated positive initial results

through a 4-year evaluation. In addition,

the demonstration sites began strategy

implementation and service provision

and made progress in community

mobilization, either through existing

planning structures or by creating new

structures.

In fiscal year 1997, demonstration

sites will receive third-year funding to

continue implementation of the model

program and build upon the sustained

mobilization, planning, and assessment

processes. Additionally, the

demonstration sites will continue to

target youth prone to gang violence

through continuing implementation of

the program model and work with the

independent evaluator of this

demonstration program. No additional

applications will be solicited in fiscal

year 1997.

Evaluation of the Comprehensive

Community-Wide Approach to Gang

Prevention, Intervention and

Suppression Program

The University of Chicago, School of

Social Services Administration,

received a competitive cooperative

agreement award in fiscal year 1994.

This 4-year project period award

supports the evaluation of OJJDP’s

Comprehensive Community-Wide

Approach to Gang Prevention,

Intervention, and Suppression Program.

The evaluation grantee assisted the five

program sites (Bloomington, Illinois;

Mesa, Arizona; Tucson, Arizona;

Riverside, California; and San Antonio,

Texas) in establishing realistic and

measurable objectives, documenting

program implementation, and

measuring the impact of a variety of

gang program strategies. It has also

provided interim feedback to the

program implementors.

In fiscal year 1996, the grantee

designed and implemented

organizational surveys and youth

interviews; developed and implemented

program tracking and worker

questionnaires and interviews; gathered

and tracked aggregate level offense/

offender client data from police,

prosecutor, probation, school, and social

service program sources; developed and

implemented uniform individual level

criminal justice data collection efforts;

consulted with local evaluators on

development and implementation of

local site parent/community resident

surveys; and coordinated ongoing efforts

with local researchers conducting

special surveys of gang youth in the

program.

In fiscal year 1997, the grantee will

continue to gather data required to

evaluate the program and provide

ongoing feedback to project sites.

This project will be implemented by

the current grantee, the University of

Chicago, School of Social Services

Administration. No additional

applications will be solicited in fiscal

year 1997.

Targeted Outreach With a Gang

Prevention and Intervention Component

(Boys and Girls Clubs)

This program is designed to enable

local Boys and Girls Clubs to prevent

youth from entering gangs, intervene

with gang members in the early stages

of gang involvement, and divert youth

from gang activities into constructive

activities and programs. In fiscal year

1996, Boys and Girls Clubs of America

provided ongoing training and technical

assistance to 30 existing gang

prevention and 4 intervention sites and

expanded the gang prevention and

intervention program to 23 additional

Boys and Girls Clubs, including clubs

located in OJJDP’s SafeFutures program

sites.

In fiscal year 1997, Boys and Girls

Clubs of America proposes to provide

training and technical assistance to 20

new gang prevention sites, 3 new

intervention sites, and the 6 SafeFutures

sites and initiate a national evaluation

of the Targeted Outreach: Gang

Prevention and Intervention Program.

This program would be implemented

by the current grantee, the Boys and

Girls Clubs of America. No additional

applications would be solicited in fiscal

year 1997.

The Developmental Dynamics of Gang

Membership and Delinquency

The Seattle Social Development

Project (SSDP) is a longitudinal gang

prevention study conducted in

collaboration with Seattle Public

Schools. Initially funded under a

competitive field-initiated research

program, the analysis of gangs in the

SSDP data set has examined juveniles

ages 10–18 to identify risk and

protective factors for gang membership.

Analysis details predictors of gang

membership, age of initiation, length,

desistance from gang membership, and

consequences, measured at age 18, of

gang membership during early and midadolescence.

In fiscal year 1996, the research study

revealed the extent of gang membership

in the SSDP sample, the types and

proportion of crime committed in the

sample that are committed by gang

members, the extent of gang crime

increases, when youth join gangs or

already delinquent youth join gangs, the

length of time youth stay active

members, the childhood predictors of

joining a gang in adolescence, and the

developmental risk factors that best

predict joining a gang.

In fiscal year 1997, the SSDP would

obtain official criminal records for a
11966 Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 49 / Thursday, March 13, 1997 / Notices

sample group, ages 18–21 years, and

integrate them into the longitudinal data

set from the SSDP. Additional data

analysis would examine (1) the

individual, peer, family, school, and

neighborhood predictors of early

initiation into gangs; (2) the predictors

of sustained gang involvement; and (3)

the effects of criminal justice system

involvement on gang membership.

This project would be implemented

by the current grantee, the University of

Washington. No additional applications

would be solicited in fiscal year 1997.

National Youth Gang Center

The proliferation of gang problems in

large inner cities, smaller cities,

suburbs, and even rural areas over the

past two decades led to the

development by OJJDP of a

comprehensive, coordinated response to

America’s gang problem. This response

involved five program components, one

of which was the implementation and

operation of the National Youth Gang

Center (NYGC). The NYGC was

competitively funded with fiscal year

1994 funds for a 3-year project period.

NYGC was created to expand and

maintain the body of critical knowledge

about youth gangs and effective

responses to them. NYGC assisted State

and local jurisdictions in the collection,

analysis, and exchange of information

on gang-related demographics,

legislation, research, and promising

program strategies.

The Center also coordinated activities

of the OJJDP Gang Consortium—a group

of Federal agencies, gang program

representatives, and service providers.

Under the sponsorship of OJJDP, the

National Institute of Justice, the Bureau

of Justice Assistance, and members of

the Regional Information Sharing

Systems Program, the NYGC

coordinated a National Youth Gang

Symposium in June 1996, with over 700

participants in attendance. Results of

the first NYGC National Youth Gang

Survey were compiled and analyzed in

fiscal year 1996.

Other major NYGC tasks in fiscal year

1996 included analysis of gang

legislation and coordination of the

OJJDP Youth Gang Consortium. The

Consortium is developing information

that will provide an overview of Federal

agencies, including the development of

a matrix to include information on

planning cycles, contacts, and gangrelated programs.

In fiscal year 1997, NYGC will

prepare the matrix of the program

planning cycle, information resources,

contacts, and programs of the

Consortium members and promote

collaboration so State and local youthserving agencies will be able to

coordinate resources available from

Federal agencies. Also, NYGC would

hold additional focus group meetings to

review the results of the first National

Youth Gang Survey and to plan the

format of followup surveys.

Fiscal year 1997 funds will support

third-year funding of the NYGC

cooperative agreement to the current

grantee, the Institute for

Intergovernmental Research. No

additional applications will be solicited

in fiscal year 1997.

Evaluation of Youth Gun Violence

Reduction Programs

In response to the problem of juvenile

gun violence, OJJDP and the

International Association of Chiefs of

Police (IACP) have identified promising

programs designed to reduce gun

violence by youth. Currently, numerous

communities have implemented or are

in the process of implementing youth

gun violence reduction programs.

However, not enough is known about

the effectiveness of such programs.

In fiscal year 1997, OJJDP proposes to

evaluate a select number of promising

youth gun violence reduction programs

currently under way in communities

across the country, as identified by

IACP. OJJDP would work with the

grantee to select which of these

programs have a sound theoretical

foundation and are structured to

support a rigorous evaluation. This

program would encourage a

collaborative research approach

between practitioners and researchers. If

these youth gun violence reduction

programs prove to be effective in

reducing gun violence committed by

juveniles, the program models could be

replicated in other jurisdictions or

technical assistance developed and

offered to jurisdictions to implement

programs that have been proven

effective in communities.

The Chicago Project for Violence

Prevention

The Chicago Project for Violence

Prevention’s primary goal is the

development of a citywide, accelerated,

long-term effort to reduce violence in

Chicago. Secondly, the Chicago Project

demonstrates a comprehensive,

citywide violence prevention model.

Overall project objectives include

reductions in homicide, physical injury,

disability and emotional harm from

assault, domestic abuse, sexual abuse

and rape, and child abuse and neglect.

The Chicago Project is a partnership

among the Chicago Department of

Public Health, the Illinois Council for

the Prevention of Violence, the

University of Illinois, and Chicago

communities. It began in January 1995

as a public health initiative with OJJDP

funding. The project currently provides

technical assistance to a variety of

community-based and citywide

organizations involved in violence

prevention planning. The majority of

technical assistance supports

community level work and agencies

working to directly support the

community plan.

In fiscal year 1996, technical

assistance was provided to the central

planning group for the Austin

community-based coalition, leadership

and staff of the Westside Health

Authority in the Austin community, and

to other selected groups involved in the

Austin plan for the development of their

components (e.g., to Northwest Austin

Council for the development of the

afterschool and drug treatment

components of the Austin plan). These

groups are members of the violence

consortium in Austin.

In fiscal year 1997, the Chicago

Project would further refine the violence

prevention strategy developed in the

Austin community and begin

implementation of the strategy and

continue to provide technical assistance

to the Logan Square and Grand

Boulevard communities as they develop

their violence prevention strategy.

The Chicago Project for Violence

Prevention would be implemented by

the current grantee, the University of

Illinois, School of Public Health. No

additional applications would be

solicited in fiscal year 1997.

Child-Centered, Community-Oriented

Policing

In fiscal year 1993, OJJDP provided

support to the New Haven, Connecticut,

Police Department and the Yale

University Child Development Center to

document a child-centered, communityoriented policing model being

implemented in New Haven,

Connecticut. The basic elements of the

model are a 10-week training course in

child development for all new police

officers and child development

fellowships for all community-based

district commanders who direct

neighborhood police teams. The

fellowships provide 4 to 6 hours of

training each week over a 3-month

period at Yale’s Child Study Center. The

program also includes (1) a 24-hour

consultation from a clinical professional

and a police supervisor to patrol officers

who assist children who have been

exposed to violence; (2) weekly case

conferences with police officers,

educators, and child study center staff;

and (3) open police stations located in
Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 49 / Thursday, March 13, 1997 / Notices 11967

neighborhoods and accessible to

residents for police and related services,

community liaison, and neighborhood

foot patrols.

In fiscal year 1994, Bureau of Justice

Assistance (BJA) community policing

funds helped support the first year of a

3-year training and technical assistance

grant to replicate the program

nationwide. These funds supported the

development of criteria for a request for

proposals, protocols for consultation,

training-for-trainers sessions for New

Haven police and clinical faculty, and

the development of a multimodel

strategy for data collection and program

evaluation. Fiscal year 1995 OJJDP

funds supported initiation of program

replication efforts in Buffalo, New York;

Charlotte, North Carolina; Nashville,

Tennessee; and Portland, Oregon. Fiscal

year 1996 funds supported the

implementation of the five-phase

replication protocol in the four selected

sites. Fiscal year 1997 continuation

funding from OJJDP would further

support replication, site data collection

and analysis activities, and

development of a detailed casebook

about the model and program.

This project would be implemented

by the current grantee, the Yale

University School of Medicine, in

collaboration with the New Haven

Department of Police Services. No

additional applications would be

solicited in fiscal year 1997.

Law Enforcement Training and

Technical Assistance Program

Juvenile crime and victimization

present some major challenges to

practitioners who are responsible for

prevention, intervention, and

enforcement efforts. Increasing rates of

violent crime committed by juveniles,

rising juvenile involvement in gangs

and drugs, and decreasing fiscal

resources are just some of the challenges

facing juvenile justice practitioners

today.

OJJDP is committed to helping State

and local agencies, organizations, and

individuals face these challenges

through a comprehensive program of

training and technical assistance that is

designed to enhance the juvenile justice

system’s ability to respond to juvenile

crime and delinquency. This assistance

targets many audiences, including law

enforcement representatives, social

service workers, school staff and

administrators, prosecutors, judges,

corrections and probation personnel,

and key community and agency leaders.

Beginning in fiscal year 1997, the Law

Enforcement Training and Technical

Assistance Program will be

implemented by a national training

contractor under a 3-year contract with

OJJDP.

Upon the completion of the ongoing

competitive selection process, fiscal

year 1997 funds will support the

continuation of OJJDP’s Chief Executive

Officer Youth Violence Forum; the

Managing Juvenile Operations (MJO)

workshop; the Gang, Gun, and Drug

POLICY workshop; the School

Administrators for Effective Police,

Prosecution, Probation Operations

Leading to Improved Children and

Youth Services (SAFE POLICY)

workshop; the Serious Habitual

Offender Comprehensive Action

Program (SHOCAP); the Youth

Oriented-Community Policing

workshop; and the Tribal Law

Enforcement Training and Technical

Assistance workshop. No additional

applications will be solicited in fiscal

year 1997.

Violence Studies

The 1992 Amendments to the JJDP

Act directed OJJDP to fund 2-year

studies on violence in three urban and

one rural jurisdiction. Building on the

results of OJJDP’s Program of Research

on the Causes and Correlates of

Delinquency, these studies were to

examine the incidence of violence

committed by or against juveniles in

urban and rural areas of the United

States. In fiscal year 1994, OJJDP

initiated a University of Wisconsin

study of homicides by and of youth in

Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In that same

year, under a grant to the University of

South Carolina, OJJDP funded a crosssite study in rural areas in South

Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. In fiscal

year 1995, in Los Angeles, California,

and Washington, D.C., the University of

Southern California and the Institute for

Law and Justice initiated additional

violence studies.

These four studies are providing

valuable information regarding

community violence patterns, with a

particular focus on homicide and

firearm use involving juveniles. Their

results will assist the juvenile justice

system by identifying strategic law

enforcement responses to juvenile

violence and by identifying diversion,

prevention, and control programs that

ameliorate juvenile violence.

In fiscal year 1996, the University of

Wisconsin and the University of South

Carolina analyzed their data and made

their project findings. The Institute for

Law and Justice collected and analyzed

aggregate data from various juvenile

justice providers and from a series of

interviews with agency staff serving

adjudicated juveniles. The University of

Southern California received funds to

identify violence prevention programs,

conduct a household survey, and

interview adolescents and their

caregivers in Los Angeles County.

In fiscal year 1997, OJJDP proposes to

provide limited funding to the

University of Southern California to

complete its study. The program would

be implemented by the current grantee,

the University of Southern California.

No additional applications would be

solicited in fiscal year 1997.

Strengthening the Juvenile Justice

System

Development of OJJDP’s Comprehensive

Strategy for Serious, Violent, and

Chronic Juvenile Offenders

The National Council on Crime and

Delinquency and Developmental

Research and Programs, Inc., have

completed Phases I and II of a

collaborative effort to support

development and implementation of

OJJDP’s Comprehensive Strategy for

Serious, Violent, and Chronic Juvenile

Offenders. Phase I involved assessing

existing and previously researched

programs in order to identify effective

and promising programs that can be

used in implementing the

Comprehensive Strategy. In Phase II, a

series of reports were combined into a

Guide for Implementing the

Comprehensive Strategy for Serious,

Violent, and Chronic Juvenile Offenders.

Phase II also included convening a

forum, ‘‘Guaranteeing Safe Passage: A

National Forum on Youth Violence,’’

and holding two regional training

seminars for key leaders on

implementing the Comprehensive

Strategy.

In fiscal year 1996, Phase III of the

project was funded to provide: targeted

dissemination of information on the

Comprehensive Strategy at national

conferences; intensive training for

selected States to implement the

Comprehensive Strategy in up to six

local jurisdictions; the six SafeFutures

sites; technical assistance to a limited

number of individual jurisdictions

interested in implementing the

Comprehensive Strategy; and continued

development of Comprehensive Strategy

implementation materials.

In fiscal year 1997, the grantees will

continue to target dissemination of the

Comprehensive Strategy for Serious,

Violent, and Chronic Juvenile Offenders

and hold regional training seminars in

the Southeast and Midwest; provide

training and technical assistance to

additional state and local jurisdictions

interested in implementing the

Comprehensive Strategy; and provide

intensive training and technical
11968 Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 49 / Thursday, March 13, 1997 / Notices

assistance in 5 competitively-selected

Comprehensive Strategy States—

Florida, Iowa, Maryland, Rhode Island,

and Texas.

The program will be implemented by

the current grantees, the National

Council on Crime and Delinquency and

Developmental Research and Programs,

Inc. No additional applications will be

solicited in fiscal year 1997.

Serious, Violent, and Chronic Juvenile

Offender Treatment Program

The Serious, Violent, and Chronic

Juvenile Offender Treatment Program is

designed to assist local jurisdictions in

the development and implementation of

a comprehensive strategy for the

intervention, treatment, and

rehabilitation of juvenile offenders. The

program was initially funded in 1993

under the Accountability-Based

Community (ABC) Intervention

program. Under the ABC initiative,

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and

Washington, DC, were competitively

funded to plan and implement a

comprehensive graduated sanctions

strategy.

In fiscal year 1994, under a second

competitive announcement, OJJDP

awarded funds under the Serious,

Violent, and Chronic Offender

Treatment Program to three additional

jurisdictions (Boston, Massachusetts;

Jefferson Parish, Louisiana; and

Richmond, Virginia) to develop and

implement a comprehensive graduated

sanctions plan. The plan’s basic

elements included the following: (1)

assess the existing continuum of secure

and nonsecure intervention, treatment,

and rehabilitation services in each

jurisdiction; (2) define the juvenile

offender population; (3) develop and

implement a program strategy; (4)

develop and implement an evaluation;

(5) integrate private nonprofit,

community-based organizations into the

provision of offender services; (6)

incorporate an aftercare program as an

integral component of all residential

placements; (7) develop a resource plan

to enlist the financial and technical

support of other Federal, State, and

local agencies, private foundations, or

other funding sources; and (8) develop

a victim assistance component using

local organizations.

In fiscal year 1996, each of the three

fiscal year 1994 grantees received

awards to continue implementation

activities. Boston and Richmond will

complete operations during fiscal year

1997. Jefferson Parish will receive a

final 6-month award in fiscal year 1997.

No additional applications will be

solicited in fiscal year 1997.

Juvenile Restitution: A Balanced

Approach

OJJDP proposes to continue support of

the juvenile restitution training and

technical assistance program in fiscal

year 1997. The project design is based

on practitioner recommendations

regarding juvenile justice program needs

and the best methods for integrating and

institutionalizing restitution and

community service as key components

of juvenile justice system dispositions.

In fiscal year 1992, a practitioner

working group helped map out a plan

for optimum development of the

components of restitution programs.

Plan components included community

service, victim reparation, victimoffender mediation, offender

employment and supervision,

employment development, and other

program elements designed to establish

restitution as a key element in

improving the juvenile justice system.

This project is guided by balanced and

restorative justice (BARJ) principles,

which include the need to provide a

balance of (1) community protection, (2)

offender competency development, and

(3) offender accountability to individual

victims and communities. The project

helps juvenile justice agencies to

introduce these elements in programs

for sanctioning and controlling juvenile

offenders.

In fiscal year 1995, the project

assisted three local jurisdictions

(Allegheny County, Pennsylvania;

Dakota County, Minnesota; and West

Palm Beach County, Florida) to

implement the ‘‘balanced approach,’’

participated in presenting a series of

regional roundtables for States

interested in adopting the BARJ model,

and provided ad hoc technical

assistance. In fiscal year 1996, the

project continued training, technical

assistance, and development of

guideline materials, including a

Balanced and Restorative Justice Project

Resource Guide and a Curriculum Guide

on the BARJ model.

In fiscal year 1997, the project would

provide training-of-trainers programs on

the BARJ model based on the

Curriculum Guide and the Resource

Guide. The grantee would also continue

to offer technical assistance to the

increasing number of State and local

jurisdictions interested in pursuing

balanced and restorative justice.

This project would be implemented

by the current grantee, Florida Atlantic

University. No additional applications

would be solicited in fiscal year 1997.

Training and Technical Assistance

Program To Promote Gender-Specific

Programming for Female Juvenile

Offenders

The 1992 Amendments to the JJDP

Act addressed, for the first time, the

issue of gender-specific services. The

Amendments require States

participating in OJJDP’s State Formula

Grants Program to conduct an analysis

of gender-specific services for the

prevention and treatment of juvenile

delinquency, including the types of

services available, the need for such

services, and a plan for providing

needed gender-specific services for the

prevention and treatment of juvenile

delinquency.

In fiscal year 1995, the OJJDP GenderSpecific Services Program focused on

providing training and technical

assistance directly to States and on

providing and promoting the

establishment of gender-specific

programs at the State level. Training and

technical assistance were provided to a

broad spectrum of policymakers and

service providers regarding services for

juvenile female offenders through direct

grants, sponsorship of national

conferences, and inclusion of a genderspecific service component in OJJDP’s

SafeFutures program.

In fiscal year 1996, building upon

these past efforts, OJJDP awarded a 3-

year competitive grant to Greene, Peters

and Associates (GPA) to provide a

comprehensive framework for assisting

policymakers, service providers,

educators, parents, and the general

public in addressing the complex needs

of female adolescents who are at risk for

delinquent behavior. The project’s

objectives are to develop and test a

training curriculum for policymakers,

advocacy organizations, and

community-based youth-serving

organizations that conveys the need for

effective gender-specific programming

for juvenile females and the elements of

such programs; to develop, test, and

deliver a technical assistance package

on the development of gender-specific

programs; to inventory female-specific

programs, identifying those program

models designed to build upon the

gender-specific needs of girls, and

prepare a monograph suitable for

national dissemination; to design and

test a curriculum for line staff delivering

services to juvenile females; to design

and implement a public education

initiative on the need for gender-specific

programming for girls; and to design

and conduct training for trainers.

Because the grant was awarded at the

end of fiscal year 1996, work on the

project is in its initial stages.
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The program will be implemented by

the current grantee, GPA. No additional

applications will be solicited in fiscal

year 1997.

Cook County Juvenile Female Offenders

Project

In fiscal year 1995, OJJDP awarded a

competitive grant to enable Cook

County to plan programs for juvenile

female offenders in the Cook County

Juvenile Temporary Detention Center. A

Steering Committee formed to oversee

the project included community and

government agency representatives

working together to effectuate change in

the way juvenile female offenders are

handled. To coordinate efforts, the

committee organized a task force of 30

government and community-based

agencies to promote gender equity and

fairness.

The Steering Committee, with the

assistance of task force members,

accomplished several key objectives

during their planning effort. They (1)

developed a gender-specific needs and

strengths assessment instrument and a

risk assessment instrument for juvenile

female offenders through a consulting

contract with the National Council on

Crime and Delinquency; (2) provided

training in implementing genderappropriate programming to more than

300 management and line staff

representing more than 100 local public

and private agencies; (3) compiled a

directory of gender-specific services

available in Cook County; (4) assessed

the strengths and interactions, and the

areas for improvement of interaction,

among the five custodial agencies

involved in legal responsibilities for

juvenile female offenders in Cook

County (the Chicago Police Department,

Cook County Juvenile Temporary

Detention Center, Illinois Department of

Children and Family Services, Illinois

Department of Corrections-Juvenile

Division, and Cook County Juvenile

Probation); and (5) designed a pilot

program that includes a communitybased continuum of care with a unique

case management system.

In fiscal year 1997, the project

proposes to join Federal, State, and local

resources to implement the pilot

program. Under the program, each

juvenile female offender would have a

case manager who will follow her

throughout her involvement in the

juvenile justice system. The case

manager would advocate for services to

meet the juvenile’s needs in a timely

and consistent manner.

This program would be implemented

by the current grantee, the Cook County

Board of Commissioners. No additional

applications would be solicited in fiscal

year 1997.

Juvenile Transfers to Criminal Court

Studies

States are increasingly enacting

juvenile code revisions broadening

judicial waiver authority, providing

prosecutor direct file authority, and

mandating transfer of older, more

violent juveniles to criminal court.

Many States are also developing

innovative procedures, such as blending

traditional features of juvenile and

criminal justice sentencing practices,

through statutes that categorize juvenile

offenders into different classes

according to the seriousness of the

offense, designating juvenile or criminal

court for each class, or providing judges

with discretion to make these judgments

at sentencing. Studies of the impact of

criminal court prosecution of juveniles

have yielded mixed conclusions. Solid

research on the intended and

unintended consequences of transfer of

juveniles to criminal court will enable

policymakers and legislatures to

develop statutory provisions and

policies and improve judicial and

prosecutorial waiver and transfer

decisions.

To address the shortage of recent

research results, OJJDP competitively

funded two juvenile waiver and transfer

research projects in fiscal year 1995.

The first, awarded to the National

Center for Juvenile Justice, compares

juvenile and criminal court handling of

juveniles in four States that authorize

judicial waiver of serious and violent

juvenile offenders and mandate criminal

court handling for specified categories

of juvenile offenders. The second study,

awarded to the Florida Juvenile Justice

Advisory Board, evaluates Florida’s

system of blending the option of

criminal and juvenile justice system

sentencing for serious and violent

juvenile offenders. Additional funding

was provided in fiscal year 1996 to

enable the projects to collect case

specific information on sentence

completion and recidivism data in order

to provide a more definitive assessment

of the impact of criminal versus juvenile

justice system handling of serious and

violent offender cases.

In fiscal year 1997, OJJDP proposes to

provide limited continuation funding in

jurisdictions that were part of one or

both of these studies and provide

promising opportunities for longitudinal

study. The projects would be

implemented by the current grantees,

the National Center for Juvenile Justice

and the Florida Juvenile Justice

Advisory Board. No additional

applications would be solicited in fiscal

year 1997.

Replication and Extension of Fagan

Transfer Study

OJJDP proposes to award a grant to

Columbia University to conduct a study,

‘‘The Comparative Impact of Juvenile

Versus Criminal Court Sanctions on

Recidivism Among Adolescent Felony

Offenders: A Replication and

Extension.’’ This study would be a

replication and expansion of an original

study and would be conducted by the

Principal Investigator, Dr. Jeffrey Fagan.

His 1986 New York/New Jersey study

was the first transfer study comparing

four contiguous counties matched on

social, economic, and criminogenic

factors and offender cohorts with

essentially identical offense profiles. It

was also the first such study to go

beyond comparing sentences to

studying the deterrent effects of the

sanction and court jurisdiction on

recidivism rates in juvenile versus

criminal court.

The proposed replication and

extension is the only research project

that can answer questions about how

case processing decisions have changed

in the last decade. The new study would

compare case dispositional outcomes in

1981–82 with those cases processed in

1993–94, a time period following

sustained growth in the rates of youth

violence. In addition, a study

component under the direction of Dr.

Barry Feld would explore whether there

are factors being considered by

prosecutors, judges and defense

attorneys that explain the variation in

sentences/dispositions and recidivism

between groups of offenders handled in

different systems. This component

would provide an analysis of the

organizational, contextual, or systemic

factors involved in the decision

processes affecting both jurisdiction and

punishment. The study will also

conduct interviews with selected

offenders processed in different systems

to gain a perspective on the impact of

criminal versus juvenile system

handling of such cases on further

experiences with the justice system. The

project would also collaborate with the

other OJJDP Juvenile Transfers to

Criminal Court Studies in sharing data

collection instruments and in planning

joint analyses where appropriate.

This program would be implemented

by Columbia University. No additional

applications would be solicited in fiscal

year 1997.
11970 Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 49 / Thursday, March 13, 1997 / Notices

Technical Assistance to Juvenile

Courts*

The National Center for Juvenile

Justice (NCJJ), the research arm of the

National Council of Juvenile and Family

Court Judges, provides technical

assistance under this grant for juvenile

court practitioners. The focus of the

technical assistance is on court

administration and management,

program development, and special legal

issues. During fiscal year 1996, NCJJ

responded to more than 850 requests for

technical assistance. In addition, NCJJ

staff completed the Research Report

State Responses to Serious and Violent

Juvenile Crime.

In fiscal year 1997, NCJJ will develop

an online technical assistance capability

to improve program monitoring and

evaluation. In addition, a desktop guide

for juvenile probation administrators

will be completed.

The program will be implemented by

the current grantee, NCJJ. No additional

applications will be solicited in fiscal

year 1997.

Juvenile Court Judges Training*

The primary focus of this project in

fiscal year 1997 will be to continue and

refine the training and technical

assistance program offered by the

National Council of Juvenile and Family

Court Judges (NCJFCJ). The objectives of

the training are to supplement law

school curriculums by providing basic

training to new juvenile court judges

and to provide experienced judges with

state-of-the-art training on

developments in juvenile and family

case law and effective dispositional

options. Emphasis is also placed on

alcohol and substance abuse, child

abuse and neglect, gangs and violence,

disproportionate incarceration of

minority youth, and intermediate

sanctions. Training is also provided to

other court personnel, including

juvenile probation officers, aftercare

workers, and child protection and

community treatment providers. In

fiscal year 1996, some 12,775 judges and

court personnel received training

through 74 different programs. In

addition, more than 800 training-related

technical assistance requests were

completed.

The project will be implemented by

the current grantee, NCJFCJ. No

additional applications will be solicited

in fiscal year 1997.

The Juvenile Justice Prosecution Unit

OJJDP has historically supported

prosecutor training activities through

the National District Attorneys

Association (NDAA). To continue that

work, OJJDP awarded a 3-year project

period grant in fiscal year 1995 to the

American Prosecutors Research Institute

(APRI), the research and technical

affiliate of NDAA, to establish a Juvenile

Justice Prosecution Unit (JJPU). JJPU

holds workshops on juvenile justicerelated policy, leadership, and

management for chief prosecutors and

unit chiefs. JJPU also provides

prosecutors with background

information on juvenile justice issues

and programs, training, and technical

assistance.

The project is based on planning and

input by prosecutors familiar with

juvenile justice needs. It draws on the

expertise of working groups of elected

or appointed prosecutors and juvenile

unit chiefs to support project staff in

providing technical assistance, juvenile

justice-related research, program

information, and training to

practitioners nationwide. In 1995, APRI

collected information from prosecutors

and sponsored a National Invitational

Symposium on Juvenile Justice. The

Symposium provided a forum for

prosecutors to exchange ideas on

programs, issues, legislation, and

practices in juvenile justice. In 1996,

APRI conducted three workshops for

elected and appointed prosecutors and

juvenile unit chiefs to help improve

prosecutor involvement in the

prosecution and prevention of juvenile

delinquency. In 1997, APRI would

conduct a second National Symposium,

present additional workshops, and

develop new reference materials for

prosecutors.

The project would be implemented by

the current grantee, APRI. No additional

applications would be solicited in fiscal

year 1997.

Due Process Advocacy Program

Development

In fiscal year 1993, OJJDP funded the

American Bar Association (ABA), in

partnership with the Juvenile Law

Center (JLC) of Philadelphia,

Pennsylvania, and the Youth Law

Center (YLC) of San Francisco,

California, to develop strategies to

improve due process and the quality of

legal representation in the juvenile

justice system. The goals of the program

are to increase juvenile offenders’ access

to legal services and to improve the

quality of preadjudication, adjudication,

and dispositional advocacy for juvenile

offenders. The strategies that have been

developed are being made available to

State and local defender organizations,

State and local bar associations, and

other relevant organizations so that they

can develop approaches to increase the

availability and quality of counsel for

juveniles.

In fiscal years 1994 and 1995, the

ABA, JLC, and YLC conducted an

assessment of the current state of the art

with regard to legal services, training,

and education. This survey included a

review of literature, case law, and State

statutes and a survey of public

defenders, court-appointed lawyers, law

school clinical programs, and judges. As

a result of this survey work, the ABA

developed and published a report

entitled A Call for Justice: An

Assessment of Access to Counsel and

Quality of Representation in

Delinquency Proceedings. The report

has been widely distributed to State and

local bar associations, Chairs of State

Juvenile Justice Advisory Groups,

participants in the ABA survey, the

National Association of Child

Advocates, and others.

In fiscal year 1996, training was

initiated, beginning with the States of

Maryland, Tennessee, and Virginia. The

structure and scope of the training are

tailored to fit the needs of each State.

In fiscal year 1997, a training manual

would be completed, covering key

issues such as detention, transfer or

waiver, and dispositional advocacy. The

curriculum in the manual would build

on existing quality training curriculums

and inform defender organizations and

others about the best training

curriculums available. The training

manual would be designed to fill gaps

in existing training programs. The ABA

and its partners would also continue to

develop networks with public defenders

offices, children’s law centers, and

others through the HANDSNET system

and mailings that provide program

updates. In addition, the ABA and its

partners would provide or arrange for

onsite technical assistance to additional

jurisdictions that are actively pursuing

the goals of this initiative.

This program would be implemented

by the current grantee, ABA. No

additional applications would be

solicited in fiscal year 1997.

Quantum Opportunities Program (QOP)

Evaluation

OJJDP proposes to fund an impact

evaluation of the Quantum

Opportunities Program, which the U.S.

Department of Labor, in partnership

with the Ford Foundation, is currently

replicating in seven sites across the

United States. The purpose of the

funding would be to determine whether

QOP reduces the likelihood that innercity youth at educational risk will enter

the criminal justice system, including

the juvenile justice system. The QOP

impact evaluation is designed to
Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 49 / Thursday, March 13, 1997 / Notices 11971

measure the impact of QOP

participation on such outcomes as high

school graduation and enrollment in

postsecondary education and training.

Other student outcomes to be examined

include academic achievement in high

school, misbehavior in school, selfesteem and sense of control over one’s

life, educational and career goals, and

personal decisions such as teenage

parenthood, substance abuse, and

criminal activity. Data on criminal

activity is being collected from

individual student interviews.

This proposed evaluation

enhancement to the Department of

Labor-funded evaluation would provide

for the collection of analogous data from

the juvenile justice system, thus

allowing estimates of the impact of the

QOP program on the likelihood of

program youth becoming involved in

the criminal justice system. Initial

attention would be focused on

identifying the appropriate

governmental agencies responsible for

the data, dealing with confidentiality

requirements, determining the

feasibility of collecting such

information, preparing data collection

protocols for each site, and preparing a

report outlining the data collection

design for implementation.

This program would be implemented

through an interagency agreement with

the U.S. Department of Labor. No

additional applications would be

solicited in fiscal year 1997.

Intensive Community-Based Aftercare

Demonstration and Technical

Assistance Program

This initiative is designed to support

implementation, training and technical

assistance, and evaluation of an

intensive community-based aftercare

model in four jurisdictions that were

competitively selected to participate in

this demonstration program. The overall

goal of the intensive aftercare model is

to identify and assist high-risk juvenile

offenders to make a gradual transition

from secure confinement back into the

community. The Intensive Aftercare

Program (IAP) model can be viewed as

having three distinct, yet overlapping

segments: (1) prerelease and preparatory

planning activities during incarceration;

(2) structured transitioning involving

the participation of institutional and

aftercare staffs both prior to and

following community reentry; and (3)

long-term reintegrative activities to

insure adequate service delivery and the

required level of social control.

In fiscal year 1994, The Johns

Hopkins University received a multiyear

grant to test their intensive communitybased aftercare model in four

demonstration sites: Denver (Metro),

Colorado; Clark County (Las Vegas),

Nevada; Camden and Newark, New

Jersey; and Norfolk, Virginia. Each of

the four sites received funding in fiscal

year 1996 to support program

implementation. The Johns Hopkins

University contracts with California

State University at Sacramento to assist

in the implementation process by

providing training and technical

assistance and by making OJJDP

demonstration funds available through

contracts to each of the four

demonstration sites. Each of the sites

has developed risk assessment

instruments for use in selecting highrisk youth who need this type of

intensive aftercare, hired and trained

staff in the intensive aftercare model,

identified existing and needed

community support (intervention)

services, and identified and collected

data necessary for the independent

evaluation of the intensive communitybased aftercare program. In accordance

with a strong experimental research

design, each of the sites uses a system

of random assignment of clients to the

program. The Johns Hopkins University

and California State University at

Sacramento have provided continuing

training and technical assistance to both

administrators/managers and line staff

at the intensive community-based

aftercare sites. Staff have been fully

trained in the theoretical underpinnings

of the IAP model and in its practical

applications, such as techniques for

identifying juveniles appropriate for the

program. Training and technical

assistance in this model have also been

available to other States and OJJDP

grantees on a limited basis.

In fiscal year 1997, the sites will

continue to implement and test the

aftercare model. An independent

contractor is performing an evaluation

under a separate grant. The Johns

Hopkins University will provide

ongoing training and technical

assistance to the four selected sites and

also provide aftercare technical

assistance services to jurisdictions

participating in the OJJDP/Department

of the Interior Youth Environmental

Service (YES) initiative, OJJDP’s six

SafeFutures program sites, and other

programs, including the New York State

Division for Youth’s Youth Leadership

Academy in Albany, New York.

The IAP project will be implemented

by the current grantee, The Johns

Hopkins University. No additional

applications will be solicited in fiscal

year 1997.

Evaluation of Intensive CommunityBased Aftercare Demonstration and

Technical Assistance Program

The National Council on Crime and

Delinquency (NCCD) received a 3-year

competitive fiscal year 1994 grant to

conduct a process evaluation and design

an impact evaluation of the Intensive

Community-Based Aftercare

Demonstration and Technical

Assistance Program at sites in Colorado,

New Jersey, Nevada, and Virginia.

NCCD’s initial award funded the design

and implementation of the process

evaluation, the design of an impact

evaluation, and start-up data collection.

A report on the process evaluation was

submitted in the spring of 1996. Fiscal

year 1996 funding enabled NCCD to

begin the impact evaluation. Because of

the excellent progress made during the

first two years on the process

evaluation, OJJDP extended this

program for three additional years to

allow sufficient time for completion of

the impact evaluation.

NCCD will use a true experimental

design to answer the following research

questions: (1) is the nature of

supervision and services provided to

Intensive Community-Based Aftercare

(IAP) youth different from that given to

‘‘regular’’ parolees?; (2) does IAP have

an impact on the subsequent delinquent

or criminal involvement of program

participants?; (3) does IAP have an

impact on the specific intermediate

outcomes such as reduction of

substance abuse, improved peer

relationships, improved self-concept,

and reduced delinquent or criminal

behavior?; and (4) is IAP cost-effective?

The project will be implemented by

the current grantee, NCCD. No

additional applications will be solicited

in fiscal year 1997.

Interventions To Reduce

Disproportionate Minority Confinement

in Secure Detention and Correctional

Facilities (The Deborah Ann Wysinger

Memorial Program)

In fiscal year 1995, under a national

discretionary grant initiative, OJJDP

funded eight programs designed to

enable States to identify strategies to

eliminate the overrepresentation of

minority juveniles in secure detention

or correctional facilities, adult jails and

lockups, and other secure institutional

facilities. One of the eight awards was

made to The Academy, Inc., in

Columbus, Ohio, which conducted an

evaluation of the Franklin County

(Ohio) Juvenile Court’s efforts to reduce

minority overrepresentation.

The evaluation focuses on three areas:

(1) staff issues such as working
11972 Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 49 / Thursday, March 13, 1997 / Notices

conditions, morale, and attitudes toward

peers, supervisors, administrative staff,

and jurists; (2) treatment issues related

to reducing minority overrepresentation;

and (3) broader implications for

research, particularly studies supported

by Federal agencies.

This proposed project is an outgrowth

of the research begun in the Franklin

County Juvenile Court. The Academy is

concluding the evaluation of a broad

range of policy modifications

undertaken by this court to address

minority overrepresentation at intake

and in its confinement facilities. In this

project, the proposed research would

shift the focus from juvenile court to a

study of similar circumstances

surrounding police policies and

decisions to refer some juveniles to the

courts, release others to their parents,

and/or divert still others to communitybased programs.

This program would be implemented

by The Academy, Inc. No additional

applications would be solicited in fiscal

year 1997.

State Justice Statistics Program for

Statistical Analysis Centers

Through an interagency agreement

with the Bureau of Justice Statistics

(BJS), OJJDP proposes to contribute

funds to the BJS State Justice Statistics

Program for Statistical Analysis Centers

(SAC). The supplemental funding

would be offered to State SAC’s to

encourage them to undertake studies of

juvenile transfers to criminal court for

prosecution and youth gang

involvement in criminal activity.

Studies of juvenile transfers to

criminal court for prosecution include

those studies that monitor the flow of

cases involving juveniles (by reason of

age and/or offense and prior history)

into the criminal court and may focus

on statewide or high-volume local

processes, outcomes, and impact of the

decision to try the case in criminal

court. Preference would be given to

those studies that provide appropriate

comparative samples with juveniles

retained in the juvenile justice system

(or which have the capability to

generate trends) and those studies that

can and are willing to collect data

currently being captured by OJJDP’s

studies of Juvenile Transfers to Criminal

Court.

The second topic area proposed to be

supported is youth gang involvement in

violence, drug sales, and weapons use

and system response. This area would

support studies that monitor trends in

such behavior (violent crime, drug

markets, and weapons use and sales) by

youth gangs; its concentration and

migration among different

neighborhoods; and the law

enforcement, criminal, and juvenile

justice system response to such

behavior. Of particular interest would

be studies that demonstrate the utility of

Geographic-Based Information Systems

(GIS) to monitor trends in behavior and

system response spatially.

No applications would be solicited by

OJJDP in fiscal year 1997. To acquire a

copy of the BJS solicitation, contact Paul

White, State Justice Statistics (SJS)

Program Manager, at 202–307–0771.

The deadline for the first cycle of

applications to BJS is June 30, 1997.

Juvenile Probation Survey Research

Juvenile probation is one of the most

critical areas of the juvenile justice

system. However, there is currently very

little information available on juveniles

on probation. We do not know how

many juveniles are on probation, their

demographic characteristics, their

offenses, or the conditions of their

probation, including length, residential

confinement, electronic monitoring,

restitution, etc. In fiscal year 1996, this

project conducted survey research and

developed a questionnaire to collect this

important information. Because States

operate their juvenile probation systems

in very different manners, the project

also examined how these differences

affected the information collected.

Also in fiscal year 1996, OJJDP held

a national meeting to assess the needs

and scope of the future survey work to

be undertaken. The meeting included

probation officers, national experts in

juvenile probation, and experts in the

field of survey development.

In fiscal year 1997, the project will

develop an interview protocol for

exploratory interviews, conduct

interviews in 20 probation offices

around the country, develop an initial

data collection instrument, and provide

a plan for testing.

OJJDP will provide second-year

funding to complete this research

through an interagency agreement with

the Bureau of the Census. No additional

applications will be solicited in fiscal

year 1997.

Performance-Based Standards for

Juvenile Detention and Correctional

Facilities

There is a need to increase the

accountability of detention and

correctional agencies, facilities, and staff

in performing their basic functions. The

development of performance-based

standards has emerged as a primary

strategy for improving conditions of

confinement. This program supports the

development and implementation of

performance-based standards for

juvenile detention and corrections. The

performance measures and standards

being developed will address both

services and the quality of life for

confined juveniles. They will reflect the

consensus of a broadly representative

group of national organizations on the

mission, goals, and objectives of

juvenile detention and corrections.

OJJDP plans to promote nationwide

adoption and implementation of the

measures and standards through a

future training and technical assistance

program.

In fiscal year 1995, OJJDP awarded a

competitive 18-month cooperative

agreement to the Council of Juvenile

Corrections Administrators (CJCA) to

develop national performance-based

standards for juvenile detention and

correctional facilities. A National

Consortium of major professional and

advocacy organizations provided

technical advice and support in all

aspects of the development and

implementation of the standards. The

project focused on standards in the

areas of: safety; security; order;

programming, treatment, and education;

health; and justice.

During fiscal year 1996, project

working groups completed the drafting

of performance criteria and measures

and assessment tools for monitoring

performance in all substantive areas. In

addition, all materials were field tested

and revised as needed. A plan for

implementation was also completed.

In fiscal year 1997, a complete set of

performance-based standards and a

measurement system will be completed,

along with plans for an 18-month period

of intensive demonstration and testing

of the performance-based standards and

their impact on juvenile corrections and

detention programming.

The program would be implemented

in fiscal year 1997 by the current

grantee, CJCA. No additional

applications would be solicited in fiscal

year 1997.

Technical Assistance to Juvenile

Corrections and Detention (The James E.

Gould Memorial Program)

The primary purpose of the Technical

Assistance to Juvenile Corrections and

Detention project is to provide

specialized technical assistance to

juvenile corrections, detention, and

community residential service

providers. The grantee, the American

Correctional Association (ACA), also

plans and convenes an annual Juvenile

Corrections and Detention Forum. The

Forum provides an opportunity for

juvenile corrections and detention

leaders to meet and discuss issues,

problems, and solutions to emerging
Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 49 / Thursday, March 13, 1997 / Notices 11973

corrections and detention problems. The

ACA also provides workshops and

conferences on current and emerging

national issues in the field of juvenile

corrections and detention, writes and

solicits articles for professional

publications, conducts surveys, and

offers technical assistance through

document dissemination. OJJDP

awarded a fiscal year 1995 competitive

grant to the ACA to provide these

services over a 3-year project period.

The project will be implemented by

the current grantee, ACA. No additional

applications will be solicited in fiscal

year 1997.

Training for Juvenile Corrections and

Detention Management Staff

In fiscal year 1997, OJJDP proposes to

continue its support for the

development and implementation of a

comprehensive training program for

juvenile corrections and detention

management staff through a new

interagency agreement with the National

Institute of Corrections (NIC). Initiated

in 1991, the program is designed to offer

a core curriculum for juvenile

corrections and detention

administrators and midlevel

management personnel in such areas as

leadership development, management,

training of trainers, legal issues, cultural

diversity, the role of the victim in

juvenile corrections, juvenile

programming for special needs

offenders, and management of the

violent or disruptive offender. In fiscal

year 1996, NIC conducted 8 training

seminars, 5 workshops, and 1 video

conference and made 10 technical

assistance awards, reaching 3,302

participants.

In fiscal year 1997, it is anticipated

that the project would provide 8

seminars, 2 workshops at national

conferences, and 1 national video

conference to reach a total of 6,000

practitioners. The training would be

conducted at the NIC Academy and

regionally. No additional applications

would be solicited in fiscal year 1997.

Training for Line Staff in Juvenile

Detention and Corrections

In fiscal year 1994, the National

Juvenile Detention Association (NJDA)

was awarded a competitive 3-year

project period grant to establish a

training program to meet the needs of

the more than 38,000 line staff of

juvenile detention and corrections

facilities. In fiscal year 1996, NJDA

developed and pilot tested the 40-hour

Corrections Careworker Curriculum,

developed the 24-hour Train-the-Trainer

for the Corrections Careworker

Curriculum, conducted 42 separate

trainings for 2,700 participants,

developed 2 new lesson plans in safety

and conflict resolution, and provided

technical assistance to 37 agencies.

In fiscal year 1997, the third year of

funding, NJDA will continue to offer

training to practitioners, including the

new Corrections Careworker Curriculum

for juvenile corrections line staff.

Additionally, NJDA will deliver selected

training programs for juvenile detention

and corrections line staff on current

issues.

This project will be implemented by

the current grantee, NJDA. No

additional applications will be solicited

in fiscal year 1997.

Training and Technical Support for

State and Local Jurisdictional Teams To

Focus on Juvenile Corrections and

Detention Overcrowding

The Conditions of Confinement:

Juvenile Detention and Correctional

Facilities Research Report (1994),

completed by Abt Associates under an

OJJDP grant, identified overcrowding as

the most urgent problem facing juvenile

corrections and detention facilities.

Overcrowding in juvenile facilities is a

function of decisions and policies made

at the State and local levels. The trend

toward increased use of detention and

commitment to State facilities, which

has been seen in many jurisdictions, has

been reversed when key

decisionmakers, such as the chief judge,

chief of police, director of the local

detention facility, head of the State

juvenile correctional agency, and others

who affect the flow of juveniles through

the system, agree to make decisions

collaboratively and modify existing

practices and policies. In some

instances, modification has occurred in

response to court orders. Compliance

with court orders can be improved with

the support of enhanced interagency

communication and planning among

those agencies affecting the flow of

juveniles through the system.

In addressing the problem of

overcrowded facilities, OJJDP

considered the recommendations of the

Conditions of Confinement study

regarding overcrowding, the data on

overrepresentation of minority youth in

confinement, and other information that

suggests crowding in juvenile facilities

is a national problem. Policymakers can

address this issue by increasing

capacity, where necessary, or by taking

other steps to control crowding.

This project, competitively awarded

to the National Juvenile Detention

Association (NJDA) (in partnership with

the San Francisco Youth Law Center) in

fiscal year 1994 for a 3-year project

period, provides training and technical

assistance materials for use by State and

local jurisdictional teams. In fiscal year

1995, the project collected information

on strategies to control crowding and

prepared training and technical

assistance materials. Based on the

demonstrated need for assistance and

related criteria, NJDA selected three

jurisdictions in fiscal year 1996

(Camden, New Jersey; Oklahoma City,

Oklahoma; and the Rhode Island

Juvenile Corrections System) for onsite

development, implementation, and

testing of procedures to reduce

crowding. In fiscal year 1997, the third

year of funding, the project will

continue to provide training and

technical assistance to these sites,

complete the development of technical

assistance materials, and assess the

procedures used to control

overcrowding.

This project will be implemented by

the current grantee, NJDA. No

additional applications will be solicited

in fiscal year 1997.

National Program Directory

In fiscal year 1995, OJJDP initiated the

development of a National Program

Directory, a national list of all juvenile

justice offices, facilities, and programs

in the United States, through the Bureau

of the Census. The Census Bureau

developed a directory format for

juvenile detention and correctional

facilities, which contains the addresses

and phone numbers of localities, names

and titles of directors, and important

classification information, classifies

facilities by the agency or firm that

operates them, and lists the functions of

the facility. This structure was

developed specifically to provide OJJDP

with the ability to conduct surveys and

censuses of juvenile custody facilities.

The effort placed into developing this

structure also translated to other areas,

such as a list of juvenile probation

offices.

Beyond developing the computer

structure, this project developed, in

fiscal year 1996, the actual sampling

frame or address list. The development

of complete frames for any segment of

the juvenile justice system required

many different approaches. The Census

Bureau used contacts with professional

organizations to compile a preliminary

list of juvenile facilities, courts,

probation offices, and programs. The

Census Bureau will seek contacts in

each State for further clarification of the

lists, following up until a complete list

of all programs of interest has been

compiled.

This program will be continued in

fiscal year 1997 through an existing

interagency agreement with the Census
11974 Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 49 / Thursday, March 13, 1997 / Notices

Bureau. No additional applications will

be solicited in fiscal year 1997.

A Comprehensive Juvenile Sex Offender

Typology

The criminal justice system has

struggled to address issues related to

juvenile sex offenders’ dangerousness,

the most appropriate level of placement

restrictiveness, the potential for

rehabilitation, assessment requirements,

and intervention needs. Efforts to

address these issues effectively have

been hampered by the lack of an

empirically-based system for classifying

this heterogeneous population into

meaningful subgroups. OJJDP, in

collaboration with other Federal

agencies, proposes to support a

competitive research project to generate

an empirically validated typology of the

juvenile sex offender that would

provide both the scientific basis for

understanding differences between

groups of juvenile sex offenders and

direction to guide judicial

decisionmaking.

KidsPeace—The National Centers for

Kids in Crisis, North America*

The purpose of this program is to

provide children in crisis, specifically

seriously disturbed children and

adolescents, with Individual Foster Care

(IFC) in a therapeutic family setting.

Fiscal year 1996 accomplishments

include opening up the family training

sessions to New Jersey foster parents

and implementing outreach efforts that

resulted in several hundred calls from

individuals interested in working as

foster parents. At present, five families

are licensed and approved. Another 10

families are in various stages of the 10-

week training and approval process. In

the near future, a local television station

will broadcast a show featuring the

services being offered through this

newly established program in Union,

New Jersey.

KidsPeace will expand the program in

fiscal year 1997 to additional sites

providing social, emotional, and

educational growth and development in

the children served; initial out-of-home

placement, community reintegration

from more restrictive residential

programs, or an alternative to failed

foster family placements; and intensive

family treatment with professional

training, supervision, and ongoing

support to enhance families’ abilities to

meet the needs of their IFC children.

The program also involves and

challenges the family of origin to

become active participants in their

child’s treatment program (whenever

deemed appropriate by the courts). In

fiscal year 1997, KidsPeace will develop

an outcome-based research component

to better define the types of children

who are best served in the IFC program,

improve the services being offered, and

track the progress of children following

discharge from care.

The program will be implemented by

the current grantee, KidsPeace—The

National Centers for Kids in Crisis,

North America. No additional

applications will be solicited in fiscal

year 1997.

The Bethesda Day Treatment Program

Bethesda Day Treatment is a program

of the Bethesda Family Services

Foundation. OJJDP began funding the

program in fiscal year 1993 to establish

a program in Philadelphia for serious

juvenile offenders. The program was

expanded in fiscal year 1995 to replicate

the Bethesda model in 10 national

jurisdictions. Since the original grant

was made, the Foundation has

established programs in 17 localities.

There are programs currently operating

in Arizona, Florida, Maryland, New

Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, and

Pennsylvania.

The Bethesda Day Treatment Program

consists of comprehensive communitybased activities designed to safely

reduce overcrowding in secure facilities,

provide treatment prior to adjudication,

continue treatment after adjudication or

after release from secure treatment, and

provide a continuum of care.

Replication sites receive technical

assistance in the development of six

distinct units of program service: day

treatment services, a prep-school, drug

and alcohol abuse treatment, foster care,

family systems counseling, and

parenting. Accepting juveniles between

ages 10 and 17, the program uses 18

different treatment modalities,

intensively penetrating the home, the

school, the job site, and the peer group

in order to interrupt antisocial behavior

patterns.

The site replication aspect of this

program would be continued in fiscal

year 1997 with a continuation award to

enable the Bethesda Family Services

Foundation to complete technical

assistance delivery to selected sites. No

additional applications would be

solicited in fiscal year 1997.

Interagency Programs on Mental Health

and Juvenile Justice

In October 1996, OJJDP convened a

Mental Health/Juvenile Justice Working

Group to discuss the mental health

needs of juveniles and to suggest

funding priorities for OJJDP. The Mental

Health/Juvenile Justice Initiative

addresses four of the eight ideas

generated by the working group. These

areas include: (1) assessing screening

instruments and screening procedures

to identify multi-needs children,

adjudicative competency, and other

mental health issues; (2) examining the

effectiveness of organizational structure

and how organizations deal with

providing mental health services on

both a short-term and long-term basis;

(3) examining the relationship between

mental health and violence and cooccurring disorders; and (4) looking at

best practices such as the use of

common funding streams.

OJJDP is interested in providing

support in one or more of these areas in

fiscal year 1997 and requests input from

the field on suggested priorities,

activities, and program support.

Delinquency Prevention and

Intervention

Training in Risk-Focused Prevention

Strategies

OJJDP will provide additional training

in fiscal year 1997 to communities

interested in developing a risk and

protective factor-focused delinquency

prevention strategy. This training

supports OJJDP’s Title V Community

Prevention Grants Program and the

Comprehensive Strategy for Serious,

Violent, and Chronic Juvenile Offenders

by providing the knowledge and skills

necessary for State, local, and private

agency officials and citizens to identify

and address risk factors that lead to

violent and delinquent behavior in

children. In fiscal years 1994–1996, this

training was offered to all States,

territories, and the District of Columbia

that received discretionary grants from

OJJDP to implement the Title V

program.

After initiating this training program

in fiscal year 1994, OJJDP awarded a

competitive contract with fiscal year

1995 funds and continued the contract

in 1996 to perform ongoing tasks and

provide prevention training in the

following areas: (1) orientation on riskand resiliency-focused prevention

theories and strategies for local

community leaders; (2) identification,

assessment, and addressing of risk

factors; (3) development and provision

of training of trainers in selected States

to provide a statewide capacity to train

communities in risk-focused prevention;

and (4) provision of technical assistance

to States and localities for needs

identified through implementation of

the Title V program.

These services will be provided in

fiscal year 1997 through third-year

funding of the contract awarded to

Developmental Research and Programs,

Inc. A new competitive solicitation may
Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 49 / Thursday, March 13, 1997 / Notices 11975

be issued late in fiscal year 1997 for

award in fiscal year 1998.

Youth Substance Use Prevention

Program (President’s Crime Prevention

Council)

Due to the urgency of the problem of

drug use among juveniles and the

importance of having Federal agencies

undertake collaborative efforts to make

the most efficient and effective use of

resources, OJJDP has joined with the

President’s Crime Prevention Council

(PCPC) in issuing a Notice of Funding

Availability (NOFA) for the Youth

Substance Use Prevention Program and

the evaluation of that program. The

program will assist community-based,

youth-led, and grassroots organizations

that sponsor activities designed to

combat youth drug and alcohol use and

provide an evaluation of the funded

programs. Up to $1 million will be made

available from PCPC funds. OJJDP will

administer the program under an

interagency agreement with PCPC.

Interested applicants for this program

should obtain a copy of the NOFA from

the Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse at

800/638–8736 or the OJJDP homepage at

http://www/ncjrs.org/ojjhome.htm.

OJJDP will also issue a separate,

competitive solicitation to evaluate the

Youth Substance Use Prevention

Program. The substance use prevention

evaluation strategy used by the grantee

must be theory driven and based on

sound research principles. Both a

process and an outcome evaluation will

be performed. The outcome evaluation

would determine whether youth-led

prevention programs are effective. The

process evaluation would define the

critical elements of implementing a

successful youth-led prevention

program.

Survey of School-Based Gang

Prevention and Intervention Programs

This program would assess schoolbased gang prevention and intervention

programs to identify promising or

successful models for national

demonstration and evaluation or

replication and dissemination. For

example, one type of program of interest

is a youth gang unit in the school. The

school youth gang unit serves as the first

line of defense against the problem of

gangs. Some units address gang crimes

and school rule violations citywide.

Another program of interest would be

entrepreneurial skills programs for

youth to prevent them from staying in

gangs. Examples of this type of program

are found in schools that develop stores

or gardens and train young people in

marketable skills, giving them high

school or college credit for successfully

participating in the training.

OJJDP proposes to issue a competitive

solicitation for this initiative in fiscal

year 1997.

Youth-Centered Conflict Resolution

Increasing levels of juvenile violence

have become a national concern.

Violence in and around school

campuses and conflict among juveniles

in both schools and neighborhoods are

problems for school administrators,

teachers, parents, community leaders,

and the public. Although experts may

debate the merits and impact of the

varied contributing factors, they would

agree that most school curriculums do

not provide for the systematic teaching

of problem-and conflict-resolving skills.

To address this issue, OJJDP awarded

a competitive cooperative agreement in

fiscal year 1995 for a 3-year project

period to the Illinois Institute for

Dispute Resolution (IIDR) to develop, in

concert with other established conflict

resolution (CR) organizations, a national

strategy for broad-based education and

training in the use of conflict resolution

skills. In support of this task, IIDR

conducted three regional conferences

based on a joint publication developed

by the Departments of Justice and

Education. IIDR also provided technical

assistance and disseminated

information about CR programs to

individuals, organizations, and

communities.

In fiscal year 1997, the project will

conduct additional training sessions as

part of, or in conjunction with,

established meetings or conferences of

national educational, justice, and youthserving organizations. IIDR will also

develop a training manual and provide

training in CR education to

administrators; school staff; and youth,

parents, and staff associated with artsbased programs for at-risk youth. The

arts component is funded by the

National Endowment for the Arts.

The project will be implemented by

the current grantee, IIDR. No additional

applications will be solicited in fiscal

year 1997.

Teens, Crime, and the Community:

Teens in Action in the 90s*

This continuation program is

conducted by the National Crime

Prevention Council (NCPC) in

partnership with the National Institute

for Citizen Education in the Law

(NICEL). Teens in Action in the 90s is

a special application of the Teens,

Crime, and Community (TCC) program

that operates on the premise that teens,

who are disproportionately the victims

of crimes, can contribute to improving

their schools and communities through

a broad array of activities.

During fiscal year 1996, the TCC

Program expanded through five regional

expansion centers located in New

England, the Mid-Atlantic States, the

Mid-South, the Deep South, and the

Pacific Northwest Coast. These TCC

projects utilized Boys and Girls Clubs of

America and their affiliates to become

partners in TCC efforts in these regions.

More than 5,000 teachers, social

service providers, juvenile justice

professionals, law enforcement officers,

and other community leaders

participated in intensive training to help

sites implement the TCC curriculum in

their communities. More than 1,000

individuals benefited from technical

assistance, materials, and consultation

regarding TCC in areas of program

implementation, fund development, and

networking opportunities. In addition,

NCPC and NICEL initiated the

implementation of the National Teens,

Crime, and the Community Program in

the six SafeFutures sites. In fiscal year

1997, TCC will be implemented in

additional sites throughout the country.

The program will be implemented by

the current grantee, NCPC. No

additional applications will be solicited

in fiscal year 1997.

Law-Related Education (LRE)*

The national Law-Related Education

(LRE) Program, Youth for Justice,

includes 5 coordinated LRE projects and

programs operating in 48 States and 4

non-State jurisdictions. Youth for

Justice provides training and technical

assistance to State and local school

jurisdictions that are designed to

achieve the institutionalization of

quality LRE programs for at-risk

juveniles. The major components of the

program are coordination and

management, training and technical

assistance, assistance to local program

sites, public information, and program

development and assessment. In 1996,

the Youth for Justice program continued

to provide materials, training, and

technical assistance to its national

network of statewide LRE centers and

sponsored youth summits in more than

40 States. The focus of the program

during fiscal year 1997 will be to

continue linking LRE to violence

reduction efforts and to involve program

participants in finding solutions to

juvenile violence. Planned activities for

fiscal year 1997 include a national

teleconference and dissemination of

information about special applications

of LRE developed for high-risk segments

of the population (middle school

students and teen parents). Youth for

Justice will also produce and
11976 Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 49 / Thursday, March 13, 1997 / Notices

disseminate a technical assistance

compendium of LRE research and best

practices.

This program will be implemented by

the current grantees, the American Bar

Association, the Center for Civic

Education, the Constitutional Rights

Foundation, the National Institute for

Citizen Education in the Law, and Phi

Alpha Delta. No additional applications

will be solicited in fiscal year 1997.

Communities In Schools—Federal

Interagency Partnership

This program is a continuation of a

national school dropout prevention

model developed and implemented by

Communities In Schools, Inc. (CIS). CIS,

Inc., provides training and technical

assistance to CIS programs in States and

local communities, enabling them to

adapt and implement the CIS model.

The model brings social, employment,

mental health, drug prevention,

entrepreneurship, and other resources to

high-risk youth and their families in the

school setting. Where CIS State

organizations are established, they

assume primary responsibility for local

program replication during the Federal

Interagency Partnership.

The Federal Interagency Partnership

program is based on the following

strategies: (1) to enhance CIS, Inc.,

training and technical assistance

capabilities; (2) to enhance the

organization’s capability to introduce

selected initiatives to CIS youth at the

local level; (3) to enhance the CIS, Inc.,

information dissemination network

capability; and (4) to enhance the CIS,

Inc., capability to network with Federal

agencies on behalf of State and local CIS

programs.

Fiscal year 1996 accomplishments

under the Federal Interagency

Partnership include the following: (1)

continued support and expansion of the

CIS Youth Entrepreneurial Project,

including 16 student-run

entrepreneurship programs; (2)

expansion of a consulting program

consisting of a pool of CIS State and

local program directors and other

experts to support programs that

include community collaboration,

strategic planning, and working with atrisk youth; (3) production and

distribution of two issues of Facts You

Can Use: Seeds of Help, a technical

publication concentrating on functional

areas of importance to local CIS

programs and the sponsors of the

Federal Interagency Partnership; and (4)

a 3-day training session featuring

presentations from Federal agencies on

the financial and programmatic

resources available through their

Departments.

Fiscal year 1997 proposals include:

(1) provide continuing training and

technical assistance on family

strengthening and parent participation

initiatives that will expand and enhance

CIS family service activities; (2) offer

and provide training and technical

assistance, as requested, to the six

SafeFutures sites; (3) work with groups

identified by the U.S. Department of

Commerce to continue to support the

development of a CIS program serving a

Native American community in Rapid

City, South Dakota; (4) support the

continued expansion of the CIS Youth

Entrepreneurship initiative; (5) update

and produce the publication CIS: A

History of Partnership and produce and

distribute the CIS Facts You Can Use

technical bulletin quarterly; (6) continue

to identify violence prevention and gang

prevention programs appropriate for use

by the CIS network; and (7) continue to

incorporate evaluated family

strengthening programs in the Facts You

Can Use technical bulletin and the

Federal Products Showcase.

The Federal Interagency Partnership

program is jointly funded by OJJDP and

the Department of Commerce under an

OJJDP grant. The program would be

implemented by the current grantee,

Communities In Schools, Inc. No

additional applications would be

solicited in fiscal year 1997.

The Congress of National Black

Churches: National Anti-Drug Abuse/

Violence Campaign (NADVC)

OJJDP proposes to continue to fund

the Congress of National Black

Churches’ (CNBC) national public

awareness and mobilization strategy to

address the problem of juvenile drug

abuse and violence in targeted

communities. The goal of the CNBC

national strategy is to summon, focus,

and coordinate the leadership of the

black religious community, in

cooperation with the Department of

Justice and other Federal agencies and

organizations, to mobilize groups of

community residents to combat juvenile

drug abuse and drug-related violence.

The campaign now operates in 37 city

alliances, having grown from 5 original

target cities. The smallest of these

alliances consists of 6 churches and the

largest has 135 churches. The NADVC

program involves approximately 2,220

clergy and affects 1.5 million youth and

the adults who influence their lives.

NADVC also provides technical support

to four statewide religious coalitions.

As a result of NADVC’s technical

assistance and training workshops,

project sites have been able to leverage

more than $2 million in private and

government funding.

NADVC has contributed to the

planning and presentation of numerous

technical assistance and training

conferences on violence and substance

abuse prevention and produced a

National Training and Site Development

Guide and a video to assist sites in

implementing the NADVC model.

In addition, in fiscal year 1996,

NADVC became a partner in the

Education Development Center’s (EDC)

Juvenile Hate Crime Initiative. NADVC

used EDC’s hate crime curriculum to

focus on prevention through the

networks and resources in the faith

community to address the impact and

roles of juveniles and youth in engaging

in and preventing hate crimes. NADVC

is currently providing training and

technical assistance in South Carolina,

the location of the majority of the recent

church burnings in the United States.

The proposed expansion of activities

in fiscal year 1997 would be

accomplished through NADVC’s

Regional Hate Crime Prevention

Initiative, the Campaign’s model for

anti-drug/violence strategies, and

NADVC’s faith community network.

The program, which would continue

to expand to new sites in fiscal year

1997 and enhance efforts to address hate

crime and family violence intervention

issues, would be implemented by the

current grantee, CNBC. No additional

applications would be solicited in fiscal

year 1997.

Risk Reduction Via Promotion of Youth

Development

Risk Reduction Via Promotion of

Youth Development, located in South

Carolina, is a large-scale prevention trial

involving hundreds of children and

several elementary schools located in

lower socioeconomic neighborhoods of

Columbia, South Carolina. This program

is the result of an interagency agreement

with the National Institute of Mental

Health (NIMH). The Centers for Disease

Control and Prevention and the National

Institute on Drug Abuse have also

provided funding for the program.

The trial involves a large-scale project

designed to promote coping-competence

and reduce risk for conduct problems,

substance use, and school failure

beginning in early elementary school.

Interventions include a classroom

program, a schoolwide conflict

management program, peer social skills

training, and home-based family

programming. The sample includes

African American and Caucasian

children attending schools located in

lower income neighborhoods. There is a

sample of high-risk children (showing

early aggressive behavior at school

entry) and a second sample of lower risk
Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 49 / Thursday, March 13, 1997 / Notices 11977

children (residing in socioeconomically

disadvantaged neighborhoods). The

interventions begin in first grade, and

children are followed longitudinally

throughout the 5 years of the project. A

major goal is to reduce the development

of conduct problems, aggression, and

subsequent delinquency and violence.

The project also seeks to alter home and

school climates in order to reduce risk

for adverse outcomes and to promote

positive youth development.

This program would be implemented

through a fund transfer to NIMH under

an interagency agreement. No additional

applications would be solicited in fiscal

year 1997.

Community Anti-Drug Abuse Technical

Assistance Voucher Project

Through the Community Anti-Drug

Abuse Technical Assistance Voucher

Project, the National Center for

Neighborhood Enterprise (NCNE)

awards vouchers to grassroots

organizations to purchase technical

assistance and training to effectively

address the problem of juvenile drug

abuse.

As a result of a large number of

incoming applications, NCNE has

established a clearinghouse featuring

1,224 promising and proven anti-drug

programs. They are part of the NCNE

National Clearinghouse of Youth AntiDrug Abuse Programs. Twenty-nine

organizations received voucher awards

totaling $62,000 in fiscal year 1996.

Awards ranged from $1,000 to $10,000

per site.

The impact of technical assistance

vouchers includes enhanced

organizational visibility, larger grant

awards for indigenous groups, and

expanded and increased services

resulting from technical assistance in

program development and staff training.

In addition to awarding vouchers for

technical assistance, NCNE provides

technical assistance to applicants

regarding the development of their

mission, goals, and objectives.

The Community Anti-Drug Abuse

Technical Assistance Voucher Project

would be implemented by the current

grantee, NCNE. No additional

applications would be solicited in fiscal

year 1997.

Training and Technical Assistance for

Family Strengthening Programs

Prevention, early intervention, and

effective crisis intervention are critical

elements in a community’s family

support system. In many communities,

one or more of these elements may be

missing or programs may not be

coordinated. In addition, technical

assistance and training are often not

available to community organizations

and agencies providing family

strengthening services. In response,

OJJDP awarded a 3-year competitive

cooperative agreement in fiscal year

1995 to the University of Utah’s

Department of Health and Education to

provide training and technical

assistance to communities interested in

establishing or enhancing a continuum

of family strengthening efforts. In the

first program year, the grantee drafted a

literature review and summaries of

exemplary programs; conducted a

national search for, rated, and selected

family strengthening models; planned 2

regional training conferences to

showcase the selected exemplary and

promising family strengthening

programs; convened the first conference

for 250 attendees in Salt Lake City,

Utah; and developed an application

process for sites to receive followup

training on specific program models. In

fiscal year 1997, the grantee will

complete the literature review and

model program summaries; convene the

second regional conference in

Washington, D.C.; conduct programspecific workshops; produce user and

training-of-trainers guides; and

distribute videos of several family

strengthening workshops.

This program will continue to be

implemented by the current grantee, the

University of Utah’s Department of

Health and Education. No additional

applications will be solicited in fiscal

year 1997.

Training and Technical Assistance To

Promote Teen Court Programs

OJJDP considers teen courts, also

called peer courts, to be a promising

mechanism for holding juvenile

offenders accountable for their actions

while promoting avenues for positive

youth development. Teen courts are

included as a promising early

intervention program in OJJDP’s

Comprehensive Strategy for Serious,

Violent, and Chronic Juvenile Offenders.

To encourage the use of teen court

programs to address problems

associated with delinquency, substance

abuse, and traffic safety, OJJDP provided

funding in fiscal year 1996 to

supplement the existing Teen Court

Programs Project of the National

Highway Traffic Safety Administration

(NHTSA) of the U.S. Department of

Transportation. The NHTSA grant was

awarded in fiscal year 1994 for a 3-year

project period to the American

Probation and Parole Association

(APPA) to develop a teen court guide

and provide training and technical

assistance to develop or enhance teen

court programs. This existing NHTSA

grant and OJJDP’s fiscal year 1996 funds

supported the development of the joint

publication Peer Justice and Youth

Empowerment: An Implementation

Guide for Teen Court Programs and

additional technical assistance to three

selected sites. Technical assistance to

develop or enhance teen courts was

provided to Lane and Deschuttes

Counties in Oregon; Minnesota

Planning, Inc., in St. Paul, Minnesota;

and the Orange County Teen Court

Program in Orlando, Florida. The

additional funds from OJJDP enabled

APPA to provide more onsite assistance

to each of the three agencies in the areas

of identifying problems and overcoming

barriers.

The national response to the training

and technical assistance and to the

Guide has been enthusiastic. NHTSA

and OJJDP have received numerous

requests to provide additional training

seminars and technical assistance based

on the Guide. In fiscal year 1997, OJJDP

proposes to provide funding to NHTSA

through an interagency agreement to

supplement the existing grant with

APPA. This would enable APPA to

provide six intensive training seminars

and site-specific technical assistance to

three additional sites in fiscal year 1997.

The seminars would each cover 21⁄2

days of intensive training that is

accredited by APPA for 11⁄2 continuing

education units to help maintain

certification or for employment or

school requirements. Technical

assistance would be provided to three

selected jurisdictions with site-specific

strategic planning for the program

organizers on developing,

implementing, or enhancing teen court

programs. To be eligible for technical

assistance, recipients need to have

completed an APPA teen court training

seminar. A request for proposals would

be sent to the six training seminar

participants and to participants who

completed earlier teen court training

seminars held by APPA. Site selection

for the training and technical assistance

would be determined by APPA project

staff with input and approval from

OJJDP and NHTSA.

This project would be implemented

by the current NHTSA grantee, APPA.

No additional applications would be

solicited in fiscal year 1997.

Evaluation of Teen Courts

Teen courts constitute one approach

to reducing underage drinking, impaired

driving, and other problem behaviors of

youth such as shoplifting and

vandalism. Teen courts emphasize

concepts such as accountability,

positive peer influence, competency

development, and youth empowerment
11978 Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 49 / Thursday, March 13, 1997 / Notices

and involvement. Teen court programs

offer jurisdictions a potential means for

holding youthful offenders accountable

for problem behaviors, including those

for which they previously may have

received little or no intervention.

In fiscal year 1997, OJJDP proposes to

begin an evaluation of teen court

programs currently underway in

communities across the country. During

this initial phase, OJJDP would award a

competitive grant to develop a strategy

for selecting programs that have a sound

theoretical foundation and are

structured to support a rigorous

evaluation that would help to refine that

program model. This program would

encourage a collaborative research

approach between practitioners and

researchers. Upon determination of the

evaluation potential of the identified

sites, OJJDP would support a full

process and impact evaluation of these

programs in subsequent fiscal years.

Henry Ford Health System

The Henry Ford Health System

(HFHS) Center has developed and

initiated a program in Detroit with fiscal

year 1995 and 1996 OJJDP funds that

serves the Northern High School

attendance area, including seven

elementary schools and two middle

schools that serve as feeder schools for

Northern High School. Michigan

Formula Grants Program funds assisted

in this effort. The underlying objective

of the program is the reduction of gang

and community violence among

children attending these Detroit schools.

The program is designed to identify

individuals at moderate to high risk of

violence, assess the needs of the target

population of youth and the resources

available in the community to deal with

those needs, coordinate community

resources to create comprehensive

violence reduction programs, and

evaluate the efficacy of component

programs and the initiative as a whole.

Evaluation would be based on the

project’s effect on reducing the

incidence of specific violent acts, in

both school and community settings.

Five health centers were opened in

1996. The staff include a physician

assistant, nurse practitioners, social

workers, medical assistants, and

receptionists. Along with analysis of

crime and health data from the past 2

years in the target area, surveys were

conducted in six of the school’s areas.

The health education programs were

created in direct response to needs

identified by community surveys and an

overall evaluation of community

resources. In fiscal year 1997, this

program would implement centers in

the remaining school sites and

strengthen the multiple component

activities in each school such as

community patrols, tutoring, drama,

peer education, and substance abuse

prevention.

This program would be implemented

by the current grantee, HFHS. No new

applications would be solicited in fiscal

year 1997.

Angel Gate Academy*

In fiscal year 1997, OJJDP will fund

the Angel Gate Academy, a 4-week

residential program jointly developed

by the California National Guard (CNG),

which runs the program, and the Los

Angeles Unified School District

(LAUSD), which recruits and refers

high-risk youth and provides both

teachers for the camp and reintegration

support when the youth return to their

respective schools.

Targeted youth are between 11 and 14

years of age and are referred to the

program by the LAUSD because they are

exhibiting various high-risk behaviors.

Their participation is voluntary, and

parents are actively involved in the

referral decision and in participating

with staff during the reintegration

program. All of the children are part of

the IMPACT counseling program that is

supported by Drug-Free Schools and

Communities funding from the U.S.

Department of Education.

The camp is located on a National

Guard facility near San Luis Obispo,

California. At the camp, the youth learn

discipline and leadership skills and

participate in an educational program at

nearby Cuesta College. The youth spend

most of the day in the education

program, where they participate in a

curriculum that teaches critical thinking

skills, science, and math. Additional

educational experiences in writing and

literacy are provided by the assigned

LAUSD teachers. Other modules

provided under the curriculum jointly

developed by the CNG and LAUSD

include physical fitness training,

leadership training through drill and

ceremony, self-discipline, team

building, IMPACT counseling, and

enrichment activities.

It is anticipated that up to 460 youth

will participate in the 7 camps during

this 9- to 10-month program. When they

return to their schools, they will again

engage in the intensive IMPACT

counseling program and their parents

will be provided the opportunity to

participate in parenting classes by the

LAUSD.

No additional applications will be

solicited in fiscal year 1997.

Suffolk County PAL (Police Athletic

League)*

The Suffolk County Police Athletic

League Program provides recreational

and athletic programs to hundreds of

children in Suffolk County, New York.

The youth are coached by police

volunteers from the surrounding area.

With this OJJDP grant, the Suffolk

County PAL will expand its program

over a 2-year period to increase the

number of youth who participate; add a

mentoring/tutoring component that will

recruit law enforcement, business, and

community leaders to mentor the youth;

and fund an impact evaluation of the

program. This 2-year effort will result in

serving at least 400 new children each

year.

This program will be implemented by

Suffolk County PAL. No additional

applications will be solicited in fiscal

year 1997.

Do The Write Thing

A program of the National Campaign

to Stop Violence, the Do The Write

Thing program was founded in 1994.

The program approach is to encourage

at-risk youth to write about the violence

and drugs in their neighborhoods and

lives, to identify solutions, and commit

to a personal course of action to reduce

violence. The program focuses on youth

ages 12–14, offering them a therapeutic

way to deal with the violence that

surrounds them.

Do The Write Thing began as a local

project in Washington, D.C. In 1996, the

program expanded to 10 cities, with 300

middle schools and 5,000 children

participating. Participating cities are

Washington, D.C.; Atlanta, Georgia;

Chicago, Illinois; Detroit, Michigan;

Houston, Texas; Los Angeles, California;

Las Vegas, Nevada; Miami, Florida; New

York, New York; and Philadelphia,

Pennsylvania. The program received

solid support from mayors, police

chiefs, judges, prosecutors, school

superintendents, and other community

leaders. With corporate and government

support, including OJJDP, Do The Write

Thing was able to compile and

distribute a publication of winning

essays and sponsor a national

recognition ceremony in Washington,

D.C.

In fiscal year 1997 OJJDP proposes to

assist the program to expand the project

within the ten existing sites and begin

the process of expanding to new sites

for the 1997–98 school year. The Do The

Write Thing program would be

implemented by the National Campaign

to Stop Violence. No additional

applications would be solicited in fiscal

year 1997.
Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 49 / Thursday, March 13, 1997 / Notices 11979

Child Abuse and Neglect and

Dependency Courts

Permanent Families for Abused and

Neglected Children*

This is a national project to prevent

unnecessary foster care placement of

abused and neglected children, reunify

the families of children in care, and

provide permanent adoptive homes

when reunification is impossible. The

purpose is to ensure that foster care is

used only as a last resort and as a

temporary solution. Accordingly, the

project is designed to make certain that

government’s responsibility to children

in foster care is acknowledged by

appropriate disciplines. Project

activities include national training

programs for judges, social service

personnel, citizen volunteers, and

others under the ‘‘reasonable efforts’’

provision of the Social Security Act, as

amended, 42 U.S.C. § 671(a)(15);

training in selected States; and

implementation of a model guide for

risk assessment.

The project is implemented by the

National Council of Juvenile and Family

Court Judges (NCJFCJ). Under this

project, NCJFCJ also provides technical

assistance to help communities improve

handling of child abuse and neglect

cases and supports replication of the

model court improvement programs in

selected jurisdictions.

During the past project year, 31 State

and national training programs were

held. NCJFCJ also implemented a new

program to divert families from the

court system through arbitration under

court supervision in a number of courts,

using private funding sources. The court

diversion project and efforts to improve

dependency court administration,

documented in the publication Resource

Guidelines: Improving Court Practice in

Abuse and Neglect Cases, were

incorporated into training under this

project. NCJFCJ also worked closely

with allied national organizations,

including the National Association of

Public Child Welfare Administrators,

the Association of Interstate Compact

Administrators, and the National Court

Appointed Special Advocate

Association, to coordinate and leverage

efforts to improve permanency planning

for children. A key activity was the

development of a curriculum to train

judges and compact administrators on

the new regulations regarding interstate

placement.

With fiscal year 1997 funds, NCJFCJ

will continue and expand its training

and technical assistance efforts, update

the permanency planning curriculum,

and strengthen and establish new

linkages with allied organizations. The

project’s purpose remains focused on

improving the ability of the dependency

courts and related systems to make

timely and informed decisions on

placement for children and adolescents.

The Permanent Families for Abused

and Neglected Children program will be

implemented by the current grantee,

NCJFCJ. No additional applications will

be solicited in fiscal year 1997.

Parents Anonymous, Inc.*

Parents Anonymous, Inc. (PA)

establishes groups and adjunct programs

that respond to the needs of families

through a mutual support model of

parents and professionals sharing their

expertise and their belief in each

individual’s ability to grow and change

in ways that create caring and safe

environments for themselves and their

children. In fiscal year 1994, OJJDP

supported PA to enhance its mission to

prevent child abuse and neglect by

developing a new capability within the

PA network to address the needs of

high-risk, inner-city, and Native

American populations.

As a result of OJJDP funding, PA has

developed and maintained 40 new

groups serving families of color in highrisk neighborhoods and on reservations

in 12 States. In fiscal year 1996, PA

produced extensive technical assistance

materials through two national

teleconferences for several hundred

participants on Successful Parents

Anonymous Groups in Prisons and

Promoting Effective Parent Leadership

and conducted two regional conferences

in Phoenix and Atlanta providing

training to develop and maintain PA

programs. PA also published and

distributed nationwide 16,000 copies of

Innovations, the PA, Inc., newsletter,

with focused articles on the needs of

Latino families and cultural

responsiveness, and 30,000 copies of

The Parent Networker, the PA, Inc.,

newsletter by and for parents. PA

produced two program bulletins, Parent

Leadership Is a Powerful Tool for

Outreach, Public Awareness and

Advocacy and Parents Anonymous as

Parent Education: A Model for Success

Based on Adult Learning Styles, and

developed a manual for the PA National

Network providing concrete methods for

implementing PA programs in high-risk

communities. PA also produced a

targeted brochure for judges, probation

officers, and other professionals serving

youth with delinquency problems and

began information sharing to plan

technical assistance, as requested, for

SafeFutures sites.

During fiscal year 1997, PA, Inc.,

plans to (1) expand program sites for

families of color with a specific focus on

Minnesota, New Jersey, Oregon, and

Texas; (2) provide technical assistance

and training to PA groups with a focus

on targeted populations and/or groups

held in specialized settings such as local

jails, State prisons, and Federal

penitentiaries for incarcerated mothers

and fathers; (3) develop a special

national fathers’’ initiative in sites

across the United States; (4) develop

new program materials to address the

needs of families of color; (5) expand

PA’s emphasis on parent leadership;

and (6) create media opportunities for

outreach, public awareness, and

education on PA for professionals and

families.

The project will be implemented by

the current grantee, PA, Inc. No

additional applications will be solicited

in fiscal year 1997.

Missing and Exploited Children

Jimmy Ryce Law Enforcement Training

Center*

This program establishes the Jimmy

Ryce Law Enforcement Training Center

(JRLETC) at the National Center for

Missing and Exploited Children

(NCMEC). The purpose of JRLETC is to

enhance the overall response to

nonparental abductions by providing

training and technical assistance to

Federal, State, and local law

enforcement personnel. Fiscal year 1997

funds will be expended as follows:

NCMEC will expand its national Chief

Executive Officer (CEO) training

seminar into a 3-day course. The

seminar will highlight the most current

research and practices and provide

information pertaining to

comprehensive response protocols and

NCMEC and Federal resources to assist

State and local law enforcement.

Fox Valley Technical College (FVTC),

OJJDP’s missing children training

contractor, will accelerate delivery of

the Response to Missing and Exploited

Children training course. This course

targets State and local law enforcement

and contains modules providing

investigative information on all aspects

of missing children cases.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s

(FBI) Criminal Justice Information

Services Division will provide training

for National Crime Information Center

(NCIC) Control Terminal Officers in the

new NCIC flagging system, Federal

resources to assist State and local law

enforcement investigating missing

children cases, and NCIC Missing

Person File definitions.

The FBI Child Abduction Serial Killer

Unit (CASKU) will provide training and

technical assistance to State and local

law enforcement investigating difficult
11980 Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 49 / Thursday, March 13, 1997 / Notices

missing children cases. CASKU and the

Hardiman Task Force will assess

incident response for the purposes of

curriculum development and will assist

in the CEO training at JRLETC.

Fiscal year 1997 funds will be

awarded or transferred via interagency

agreement to the organizations carrying

out the activities outlined above. No

additional applications will be solicited

in fiscal year 1997.

Dated: March 4, 1997.

Shay Bilchik,

Administrator, Office of Juvenile Justice and

Delinquency Prevention.

[FR Doc. 97–5780 Filed 3–12– 97; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 4410–18–P