33126 Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 116 /Wednesday, June 17, 1998 / Notices

DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

Office of Juvenile Justice and

Delinquency Prevention

[OJP(OJJDP)–1184]

RIN 1121–ZB21

Comprehensive Program Plan for

Fiscal Year 1998 and Availability of

Discretionary Program

Announcements and Application Kit

AGENCY: Office of Justice Programs,

Office of Juvenile Justice and

Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP),

Justice.

ACTION: Notice of final program plan for

fiscal year 1998 and availability of the

FY 1998 OJJDP Discretionary Program

Announcements and the FY 1998 OJJDP

application kit.

SUMMARY: The Office of Juvenile Justice

and Delinquency Prevention is

publishing its Final Program Plan for

fiscal year (FY) 1998 and announces the

availability of the FY 1998 OJJDP

Discretionary Program Announcements

and the FY 1998 OJJDP Application Kit.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Eileen M. Garry, Director, Information

Dissemination Unit, 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 published for

public comment a Proposed

Comprehensive Plan describing the

program activities that OJJDP proposed

to carry out during FY 1998. The

Proposed Comprehensive Plan included

activities authorized in Parts C and D of

Title II of the JJDP Act, codified at 42

U.S.C. 5651–5665a, 5667, 5667a. The

public was invited to comment on the

Proposed Plan by March 23, 1998. The

Administrator analyzed the public

comments received, and that analysis is

provided below. Taking these comments

into consideration, the Administrator

developed this Final Comprehensive

Plan describing the particular program

activities that OJJDP intends to fund

during FY 1998, using in whole or in

part funds appropriated under Parts C

and D of Title II of the JJDP Act.

The FY 1998 OJJDP Discretionary

Program Announcements and the FY

1998 OJJDP Application Kit are now

available. They can be obtained from the

Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse by

calling 800–638–8736 or by sending an

e-mail request to askncjrs@ncjrs.org. The

publications are also available online at

OJJDP’s home page, Grants and Funding

section, at www.ncjrs.org/ojjhome.htm.

Overview

After a decade of steady increases in

juvenile crime and violence, the trend is

being reversed. The United States has

experienced a downturn in juvenile

violent crime arrests for 2 straight years

(3 years for murder arrests). Figures

released in 1997 show that juvenile

arrests for murder declined 14 percent

2 years in a row—and 3 percent the year

before that. From 1995 to 1996, juvenile

arrests for robbery declined 8 percent;

for the previous year, they decreased 1

percent. The overall Violent Crime

Index arrests of juveniles declined 6

percent in 1996, following a 3-percent

drop in 1995.

The decreases in juvenile Violent

Crime Index arrests must be kept in

perspective, however. Even with the 2-

year decline, the 1996 number was 60

percent above the 1987 level. In

comparison, adult Violent Crime Index

offense arrests rose 24 percent over the

same period.

In the area of drug use violations,

juveniles were involved in 14 percent of

all drug arrests in 1996 (compared with

13 percent in 1995). However, arrests of

juveniles for drug abuse violations

increased 6 percent from 1995 to 1996,

a smaller increase than the previous

year’s 18 percent. In addition, between

1992 and 1996, juvenile arrests for drug

abuse violations increased 120 percent,

compared with a 138-percent increase

between 1991 and 1995.

Thus, in the second half of the 1990’s,

juvenile violent crime and drug use are

still significantly higher than in the late

1980’s but beginning to show signs of

trending downward. The juvenile

justice system needs to build on the

positive momentum of these recent

decreases by continuing to focus on

programs and strategies that work. This

requires a concerted effort on the part of

Federal, State, and local government, in

partnership with private organizations

and community agencies, to ensure that

available resources are used in a way

that maximizes their impact; decreases

juvenile crime, violence, and

victimization; and increases community

safety.

Federal leadership in responding to

the problems confronting the Nation’s

juvenile justice system 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, State Challenge Grants,

and the Title V Community Prevention

Grants programs in States and

territories; funds gang and mentoring

programs under Parts D and G of the

JJDP Act; funds numerous 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 also serves as the staff agency

for the Coordinating Council on Juvenile

Justice and Delinquency Prevention,

coordinates the Concentration of

Federal Efforts Program, and

administers both the Title IV Missing

and Exploited Children’s Program and

programs under the Victims of Child

Abuse Act of 1990, as amended, 42

U.S.C. 13001 et seq.

In the FY 1998 Appropriations Act,

Congress provided funding for two new

OJJDP programs. These are not funded

under Parts C and D of Title II of the

JJDP Act, which are the focus of this

Proposed Program Plan. However,

mention of these new programs here,

along with an additional program that

OJJDP will administer, may help to alert

those who work in the juvenile justice

field to the existence of these new

programs. Recognizing that, ‘‘while

crime is on the decline in certain parts

of America, a dangerous precursor to

crime, teenage drug use, is on the rise

and may soon reach a 20-year high,’’

Congress provided $5 million in funds

for the development, demonstration,

and testing of programs designed ‘‘to

reduce drug use among juveniles’’ and

‘‘to increase the perception among

children and youth that drug use is

risky, harmful, and unattractive.’’

Funding for the drug prevention

program is discretionary, and the

Appropriations Act directs OJJDP to

submit a program plan for the drug

prevention program by February 1,

1998. This plan has been submitted.

Twenty-five million dollars in funds

were also provided for an underage

drinking program. Much of the funding

for the underage drinking program will

be made available to the States and the

District of Columbia through formula

grants of $360,000 each (total $18.36

million), with $5 million in

discretionary funding, and $1.64 million

for training and technical assistance to

support the program. OJJDP will also

administer the Juvenile Accountability

Incentive Block Grants program

authorized in the FY 1998

Appropriations Act. Of the $250 million
Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 116 /Wednesday, June 17, 1998 / Notices 33127

available under this new block grant

program, 3 percent is available for

research, evaluation, and demonstration

activities related to the program and 2

percent is available for related training

and technical assistance activities.

Program Announcements have been

issued for the Juvenile Accountability

Incentive Block Grants Program and for

the Combating Underage Drinking

Program. The Program Announcements

are available from the Juvenile Justice

Clearinghouse and online. See the

information provided above on how to

obtain copies of the FY 1998 OJJDP

Discretionary Program Announcements

and the FY 1998 OJJDP Application Kit.

Further information on the Drug

Prevention Program will be provided to

the field in the near future. Solicitations

for OJJDP’s Mentoring program (Part G

of the JJDP Act) and the Missing and

Exploited Children’s Program (Title IV

of the JJDP Act, the Missing Children’s

Assistance Act, 42 U.S.C. 5771 et seq.)

were published separately.

Cognizant of the trends in juvenile

crime and violence and of its

responsibilities and mission, OJJDP has

developed a Program Plan for FY 1998

for activities authorized under Parts C

and D of Title II of the JJDP Act, as

described below.

Fiscal Year 1998 Program Planning

Activities

The OJJDP program planning process

for FY 1998 was 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 involved 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 provide

OJJDP with 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 FY 1998, 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 the

Proposed Program Plan were those that

are receiving Part C or Part D FY 1998

continuation funding and programs that

OJJDP was considering for new awards

in FY 1998.

Consideration for continuation

funding for an additional project period

for previously funded discretionary

grant programs was 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 FY 1998 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

appropriations and 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 is not

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.

Program Goals

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 and

local governments, American Indian

and Alaska Native jurisdictions, and

public and private agencies and

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 their

achievement is vital to protecting the

long-term safety of the public from

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-based

delinquency prevention approach based
33128 Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 116 /Wednesday, June 17, 1998 / Notices

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. Activities to

support this goal include 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 strengthening its juvenile

detention and corrections capacity and

intensifying efforts to use juvenile

detention and correctional facilities in

appropriate circumstances and under

conditions that maximize public safety,

while at the same time 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

to understand how the juvenile justice

system works in serving children and

families. 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

Community-Based 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 and 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 three broad goals,

OJJDP divides its programs into four

broad categories: public safety and law

enforcement; strengthening the juvenile

justice system; delinquency prevention

and intervention; and child abuse,

neglect, and dependency courts. A fifth

category, overarching programs,

contains programs that have significant

elements common to more than one

category. Following the introductory

section below, the programs that OJJDP

proposes to fund in FY 1998 are listed

and summarized within these five

categories.

Summary of Public Comments on the

Proposed Comprehensive Plan for

Fiscal Year 1998

OJJDP published its Proposed

Comprehensive Plan for FY 1998 in the

Federal Register (Vol. 63, No. 25) on

February 6, 1998, for a 45-day public

comment period. OJJDP received 78

letters from 84 individuals commenting

on the Proposed Plan. (Four of the

letters were signed by two individuals,

and one was signed by three persons.)

All comments have been considered in

the development of OJJDP’s Final

Comprehensive Plan for Fiscal Year

1998.

The majority of the letters provided

positive comments about the overall

plan or specific programs. A few letters

criticized proposed programs or

expressed concern about the failure of

the plan to address certain program

areas. The following is a summary of the

substantive comments received and

OJJDP’s responses to the comments.

Unless otherwise indicated, each

comment was made by a single

respondent. The total number of

comments reported here is greater than

the number of letters received because

several letters included comments on

two or more issues.

Many writers not only commented on

the proposed program plan but also

indicated interest in receiving funding

for programs with which they were

associated or ones which they plan to

develop. In addition to responding to

their comments on the Proposed Plan in

individual letters to all commenters,

OJJDP informed those interested in

funding that program announcements

requesting proposals for new programs

would be published shortly after

publication of the Final Comprehensive

Plan and that copies of the program

announcements could be obtained by

calling OJJDP’s Juvenile Justice

Clearinghouse at 800–638–8736 or

sending an e-mail request to

askncjrs@ncjrs.org. Program

announcements will also be available

online at www.ncjrs.org/ojjhome.htm.

Commenters interested in funding were

also told that most of OJJDP’s funding is

not provided under Parts C and D but

is distributed to the States and

territories through OJJDP’s Formula

Grants, Challenge, and Title V

(Community Prevention) programs.

These writers were provided with

contact information for the Juvenile

Justice Specialists in their States, who

can help them explore possible sources

of funding. Writers expressing interest

in arts-related programs were also given
Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 116 /Wednesday, June 17, 1998 / Notices 33129

contact information for the appropriate

arts agency in their States.

Comment: Thirty-two letters were

received in support of arts

programming. Of these, 13 letters

supported the Arts Programs in Juvenile

Detention Centers, 9 supported the Arts

and At-Risk Youth Program, and 10

supported both of the proposed

programs.

Response: Solicitations for these two

art-related programs will be issued. The

title and focus of the Arts Programs in

Juvenile Detention Centers will be

expanded to Arts Programs in Juvenile

Detention and Corrections. It came to

the attention of OJJDP during the public

comment period that the longer stays

common in correctional settings

maximize the opportunity for arts

programs to make a difference in the

lives of young people.

The solicitations are available in the

1998 OJJDP Discretionary Program

Announcement: Discretionary Grant

Program: Parts C and D. Information on

how to obtain a copy of the Program

Announcement is provided above under

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION.

Comment: Five of the arts-related

letters mentioned above (one that

supported both arts programs and four

that supported the Arts and At-Risk

Youth Program) also indicated approval

of the Youth-Centered Conflict

Resolution Program. Another letter

suggested that a social skills component

should be included in the Conflict

Resolution Program.

Response: OJJDP will continue to

fund the Youth-Centered Conflict

Resolution (YCCR) Program in FY 1998.

As the Proposed Plan stated, the

program will be carried out by the

current grantee, the Illinois Institute for

Dispute Resolution, and no additional

applications will be solicited this year.

OJJDP recognizes the importance of

social (interpersonal) skills training as

part of an effective conflict resolution

education (CRE) program. The goal of

OJJDP’s YCCR Program is to help

schools, juvenile facilities, and other

youth-serving organizations select and

implement quality CRE programming.

As such, YCCR recommends that a

social skills component should be one

of the features to look for in considering

which conflict resolution program to

implement.

Comment: Thirteen letters favored the

proposal for the National Juvenile

Defender Training, Technical

Assistance, and Resource Center. One of

the 13 letters had 2 signatures and

another one had 3.

Response: A solicitation for the

National Juvenile Defender Training,

Technical Assistance, and Resource

Center will be issued as part of the FY

1998 OJJDP Discretionary Program

Announcement: Discretionary Grant

Program: Parts C and D. Information on

how to obtain a copy of the Program

Announcement is provided above under

Supplementary Information.

Comment: Eight letters expressed

support for the truancy reduction

program.

Response: A solicitation will be

issued for this program, which will be

jointly funded by OJJDP and the

Executive Office of Weed and Seed with

the Office of Justice Programs at the U.S.

Department of Justice and the Safe and

Drug-Free Schools Program at the U.S.

Department of Education. Information

on how to obtain a copy of the Program

Announcement containing this

solicitation is provided above under

Supplementary Information.

Comment: One letter, signed by two

individuals, called on OJJDP to take

more of a leadership role in addressing

the mental health needs of juveniles in

the juvenile justice system.

Response: OJJDP shares the concern

about the needs of a large percentage of

youth in the juvenile justice system who

have mental health problems. To

address these problems, OJJDP has

undertaken several efforts. In 1995,

OJJDP organized a Mental Health Task

Group, consisting of several experts in

the field, to assist in defining the

problems and developing

recommendations for action.

Recommendations of this group to form

partnerships to study mental health

issues for at-risk and juvenile justice

system youth have been addressed by

OJJDP. These recommendations are part

of the background that led to the joint

programs outlined below.

To help to better understand the

problems of youth, OJJDP has

transferred funds to support two studies

that are being conducted by the National

Institute of Mental Health.

The first one, Risk Reduction Via

Promotion of Youth Development, is a

large-scale prevention study involving

hundreds of children and several

elementary schools located in lower

socioeconomic neighborhoods of

Columbia, South Carolina. The Centers

for Disease Control and Prevention and

the National Institute on Drug Abuse

have also provided funding for the

program. The grantee is the University

of South Carolina. This large-scale

project is designed to promote copingcompetence and reduce risk for conduct

problems, aggression, substance use,

delinquency and violence, and school

failure beginning in early elementary

school. The project also seeks to alter

home and school climates to reduce risk

for adverse outcomes and to promote

positive youth development.

The second study is of various

treatment modalities for attention

deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

in children. Expanded followup will

assess substance abuse and use and

related factors necessary for evaluating

changes in ADHD children’s risk for

subsequent substance use and abuse

attributable to their randomly assigned

treatment conditions. In addition, the

multimodal treatment study of children

with ADHD affords the opportunity to

assess the experience of study

participants with the legal system, e.g.,

contacts with the juvenile justice

system, acts of delinquency, court

referrals, and other criminal and/or

precriminal activities.

OJJDP staff have participated in the

Federal National Partnership on

Children’s Mental Health, which was

organized by the Center for Mental

Health Services (CMHS), and the

subgroups on early intervention and

American Indian programs. As an

outgrowth of this work, OJJDP has

transferred money to CMHS to support

technical assistance to the

Comprehensive Children’s Mental

Health sites funded by CMHS. This

technical assistance is designed to

enhance the involvement of the sites

with the juvenile justice systeminvolved youth who have mental health

problems. Also, OJJDP has entered into

a partnership with the National Institute

of Corrections and the Substance Abuse

and Mental Health Services

Administration to support technical

assistance on co-occurring disorders for

juveniles in the juvenile justice system.

OJJDP will transfer funds to CMHS to

support the newly announced Circles of

Care program that CMHS will fund this

fiscal year. OJJDP support will permit

the funding of an additional site.

In addition, OJJDP is funding a

demonstration effort to test the efficacy

of Community Assessment Centers to

determine if this approach will lead to

more thorough and complete

assessments and better service and more

effective case management for at-risk

and juvenile justice system-involved

youth, including those with mental

health and substance abuse disorders.

OJJDP is working with the National

Mental Health Association to support

the survey of mental health needs of

juveniles in 17 States. This survey will

be conducted by the GAINS Center.

On the issue of family involvement in

developing policy and programs for

their children with mental health needs

in the juvenile justice system, OJJDP has

been a strong advocate for this since the

early 1980’s when the Office developed
33130 Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 116 /Wednesday, June 17, 1998 / Notices

the first research and demonstration

program to address juvenile violence.

OJJDP recognizes that no program effort

can be truly successful at turning

troubled youth around unless it

involves family, broadly defined, in the

development of policy and programs.

To support the development of a

system of care for at-risk children and

delinquents and to test the efficacy of its

Comprehensive Strategy, OJJDP has

funded the SafeFutures program in six

sites. This funding, $1.4 million per site,

includes $200,000 for the enhancement

of mental health services for at-risk and

delinquent youth.

All of these programs represent

OJJDP’s commitment to addressing the

mental health issues of at-risk and

delinquent youth. OJJDP shares the

concerns about this issue, as expressed

in the letter. OJJDP recognizes that these

programs will not take the development

of policy and programs to the scale that

will address the needs of all at-risk and

delinquent youth. OJJDP anticipates,

however, that the programs and studies

that have been funded will help define

policy and best practices. At the

appropriate time, OJJDP will

disseminate the results of these efforts

and encourage States and localities to

adopt progressive, family-inclusive

mental health policies and programs.

Comment: Another letter related to

mental health programs discussed the

‘‘lack of validity of any of the disruptive

behavior disorders (ADHD, conduct

disorder, oppositional defiant disorder)

and any of the learning disabilities,

dyslexia included, as organic/biologic;

as diseases/medical syndromes.’’

Response: OJJDP has a strong interest

in understanding all risk factors for

delinquent behavior. Among these risk

factors are mental disorders, both

emotional and behavioral. These

disorders pose a complex and unsolved

challenge to the juvenile justice and

mental health systems. In an effort to

understand how to prevent youth with

these disorders from ending up in the

justice system and how to treat more

effectively those who do, OJJDP has

supported in the past and will continue

to encourage research on mental health

issues. A key issue is identification and

treatment of mental health illnesses.

OJJDP believes that its cosponsorship

with the National Institute of Mental

Health of research on ADHD and

conduct disorders will greatly expand

knowledge of the impact of these

conditions and of appropriate treatment

options. The Multisite, Multimodal

Treatment Study of children with

ADHD will be funded this fiscal year.

Comment: Four individuals urged

OJJDP to include the Community

Volunteer Coordinator Program in the

Comprehensive Plan.

Response: The Community Volunteer

Coordinator Program will be supported.

The program will not provide funds for

new programs, but will support the

coordination of existing program

activities. This program will be funded

noncompetitively, and sites selected for

the program will have underway

ongoing publicly and/or privately

funded community-based initiatives.

The sites chosen also will have

demonstrated a commitment to

volunteerism and programming in

nonschool hours, previous collaborative

experience, organizational capacity, and

an ability and willingness to collect

relevant data.

Comment: One letter from two

individuals asked that OJJDP give

funding priority to home visitation

programs this year and in the

foreseeable future as a cost-effective way

of preventing child abuse and neglect

and future criminal behavior.

Response: OJJDP appreciates the

writers’ interest in home visitation

programs as a means to help prevent

child abuse and neglect and thus

prevent future delinquency and crime.

As can be seen in the Proposed Plan,

OJJDP considers research in the area of

nurse home visitation as being critically

important. Currently, OJJDP is funding

Dr. David Olds of the Center for

Prevention Research, University of

Colorado, to continue his

groundbreaking nurse home visitation

programming and research, which has

shown positive effects on maternal and

child health, teen pregnancy, welfare

dependency and workforce

participation, and crime and

delinquency. OJJDP has partnered with

the Executive Office of Weed and Seed

to implement Dr. Olds’ nurse home

visitation program nationwide, at six

Weed and Seed sites. OJJDP is also

working with the U.S. Department of

Health and Human Services to evaluate

the outcomes at these sites.

OJJDP also funds the University of

Utah’s Strengthening America’s

Families project. This project provides

national training and technical

assistance to identify and disseminate

information about model family

strengthening programs for the

prevention of delinquency and other

problems associated with youth. Of the

25 model programs identified, Dr. Olds’

nurse home visitation program was

deemed exemplary.

Comment: Two individuals wrote one

letter expressing concern about ‘‘three

important limitations’’ in the proposed

Blueprints for Violence Prevention:

Training and Technical Assistance

program. Their concerns are

summarized as follows: (1) communities

need to assess their risk and protective

factors and then select the appropriate

effective program; (2) the Blueprint

program models as designated by the

University of Colorado are too limited;

and (3) the program should only be

made available in communities that

have taken a comprehensive approach

to preventing juvenile violence.

Response: OJJDP’s responses are

presented in order below.

1. Communities applying for

Blueprints funding will have to provide

an assessment demonstrating that the

proposed program is needed. The

proposed application includes a

feasibility component that will ensure,

among other factors, that the Blueprint

program selection and the target

population have been matched. The

feasibility component will help assess

the need for developing a Blueprint

model program and the capacity of the

community or agency to implement the

selected program with integrity. Several

screening methods will be employed to

ensure that communities and providers

are sufficiently informed, prepared, and

equipped to undertake a specific

program implementation. A

prescreening application adapted to

each Blueprint program will determine

local commitment and support for

implementing the program. A

conference call between community

representatives will be used to provide

evidence of community and/or

institutional support. Finally, a site visit

will be made to determine whether or

not an appropriate match has been made

between the community and the specific

Blueprint program. The feasibility

phases will look at (1) the need of the

community for that specific Blueprint

program, (2) the financial resources that

have already been designated for

conducting the program and the

potential for additional funding in the

long term, and (3) the human resources

available for conducting the program,

including qualified personnel to direct

the program and to manage daily

operations.

2. Blueprint programs are ‘‘gold

standard’’ programs that meet rigorous

effectiveness criteria. They are the first

10 of many potential programs to be

identified. OJJDP is not saying that they

are the only effective programs and

acknowledges there may be many more

that have shown promising results.

OJJDP has made a conscious decision

to support these replications because of

the high standards set for inclusion in

the program. More than 400

delinquency, drug, and violence

prevention programs were reviewed,
Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 116 /Wednesday, June 17, 1998 / Notices 33131

and an advisory board narrowed the

selection to 10 programs chosen for

Blueprint status. These programs came

the closest to meeting all four individual

criteria: strong research design,

evidence of significant prevention or

deterrent effects, sustained effects, and

multiple site replication.

3. OJJDP will give this suggestion

serious consideration. Limiting the

program to a select group of

communities, however, could severely

limit the potential for helping troubled

children, youth, and families on a larger

scale. OJJDP believes that these model

programs are so effective that offering

them to all communities is the wisest

path to follow.

Comment: One writer praised the

overall plan and suggested ‘‘an area

which is directly related to many, if not

all, of the initiatives outlined’’: unified

family court initiatives.

Response: OJJDP appreciates the

writer’s thoughtful discussion of the

work being done by the American Bar

Association’s (ABA’s) Standing

Committee on Substance Abuse in

developing and implementing unified

family courts. The Office is also

enthusiastic about the potential of the

unified court initiative to bring together

diverse segments of the court and the

community to collaborate on effective

approaches to families in crisis.

The Office of Justice Programs

through the Violence Against Women

Grants Office and the Director of

OJJDP’s Concentration of Federal Efforts

Program provided support and served as

faculty at the ABA Summit on Unified

Family Courts: Exploring Solutions for

Families, Women and Children in Crisis

recently held in Philadelphia. OJJDP is

looking forward to hearing about the

outcomes of the Summit and learning

how to possibly collaborate on

providing training and technical

assistance to the ABA’s most promising

sites.

OJJDP and the State Justice Institute

(SJI) are planning to implement a

training and technical assistance project

that will help communities involve the

courts in effective teambuilding

strategies. This may be of interest to the

ABA and its work with the unified

family court projects. SJI will be

administering the program, and OJJDP

will make sure that the ABA sites are

aware of this opportunity.

OJJDP also encourages the unified

family court projects to access

information through OJJDP’s Juvenile

Justice Clearinghouse on potential

funding opportunities. The writer

mentioned two specific programs that

would be of interest to the ABA

projects, the Drug Prevention Program

and the Drug-Free Communities

Support Program. Both programs will

provide an opportunity for communities

to enhance their efforts in reducing

substance abuse among youth by

addressing specific risk factors for

substance abuse.

OJJDP is also working with the

National Institute of Justice to convene

a 1-day meeting of leading experts in

juvenile and criminal justice, including

judges, lawyers, social service

providers, academics, and others to

discuss the issues addressed above and

consider a plan for further improving

the juvenile court. The goals of this

meeting will be (1) to map out the

numerous trends, philosophies, and

directions apparent in the juvenile and

criminal justice field, (2) to begin

identifying common ground among

various efforts in the field, and (3) to

forge new partnerships among

organizations interested in collaborating

on juvenile justice programs and

projects.

This is a major opportunity for OJJDP

to fulfill its role of shaping national

policy regarding juvenile justice. OJJDP

expects to have an opportunity to

launch new initiatives as a result of this

meeting and as part of the celebration of

the 100th anniversary of the juvenile

court. The ABA Standing Committee on

Substance Abuse has been instrumental

in many of these efforts, and OJJDP will

continue to work with them in planning

the national meeting and further explore

opportunities to work with the Standing

Committee on Substance Abuse.

Comment: Five letters expressed

support for or interest in funding for

gender-specific programming for female

juvenile offenders.

Response: OJJDP will continue to

provide funding for the Training and

Technical Assistance Program To

Promote Gender-Specific Programming

for Female Juvenile Offenders, which

will be implemented by the current

grantee, Greene, Peters and Associates.

In addition, we are exploring ways to

build on the work being done in Cook

County, Illinois. This work has involved

developing a gender-specific needs and

strengths assessment instrument and a

risk assessment instrument for female

juvenile offenders, providing training in

implementing gender-appropriate

programming, and designing a pilot

program that includes a communitybased continuum of care with a unique

case management system. Addressing

gender-specific needs is also a focus of

OJJDP’s SafeFutures sites, which are

developing comprehensive community

partnerships to provide extensive

prevention, intervention, and treatment

services to at-risk and delinquent

juveniles and their families.

Comment: One writer asked for

information about a central repository of

information, if one exists, and suggested

creating one, if such an entity does not

exist.

Response: OJJDP recognizes that the

work of juvenile justice practitioners,

policymakers, and the general public

can be enhanced by a central repository

of information. OJJDP supports such a

resource in the form of the Juvenile

Justice Clearinghouse (JJC). A

component of the National Criminal

Justice Reference Service, JJC is OJJDP’s

central source for the collection,

synthesis, and dissemination of

information on all aspects of juvenile

justice. Among its many support

services, JJC offers toll-free telephone

access to information, prepares

specialized responses to information

requests, maintains a comprehensive

juvenile justice library—which includes

videotapes, and administers several

electronic information resources,

including OJJDP’s listserv, JUVJUST,

and home page. A brochure describing

the Clearinghouse and its functions in

more detail was sent to the writer.

Comment: One letter requested that

OJJDP ‘‘review the critical situation

regarding information on juveniles in

Federal custody and supervision.’’

Response: Two efforts are underway

to address the increasing number of

juveniles in Federal custody:

1. The U.S. Department of Justice

(DOJ) has convened a working group to

address the lack of facilities available

for juveniles in Federal custody and is

also revising current program and

educational standards for those facilities

with juveniles under Federal

jurisdiction.

2. The majority of juveniles in Federal

custody are from Indian tribes. Through

the DOJ’s Office of Tribal Justice (OTJ)

and the Office of Justice Program’s

American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/

AN) Affairs Office, OJJDP is developing

a series of responses to juveniles in

Federal custody. For example, OJJDP is

working with OTJ, AI/AN Affairs Office,

and the National Institute of Justice to

develop an initiative in Indian country

that could potentially address the

critical issues raised in the report on

juveniles in Federal custody. Also, the

DOJ Tribal Court Project assists Indian

tribes in the improvement of their tribal

justice systems and has secured limited

training and funding for 45 Tribal CourtDOJ Partnership Projects.

In addition to these efforts, OJJDP is

enhancing the current training and

technical assistance being provided to

law enforcement to also include Federal
33132 Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 116 /Wednesday, June 17, 1998 / Notices

law enforcement officers or agents. The

focus will be to increase consistency

and understanding of Federal policies

regarding juveniles in Federal custody.

Another area of activity within DOJ is

working to provide access to accurate

information, which is a main focus of

concern in the letter. The Bureau of

Justice Statistics is working with several

other Federal agencies to revise the

Federal agency data collection systems.

This effort includes consideration of the

lack of information available on

juveniles in Federal custody.

OJJDP’s proposed field-initiated

research program provides an

opportunity for researchers to consider

the critical issues raised in the letter. In

formulating its research priorities,

OJJDP will consider the specific areas

the writer identified as possible research

topics.

Comment: One letter commented on

the Proposed Plan’s ‘‘impressive array of

programs to assist at-risk youth, as well

as those already involved in the

criminal justice system.’’ The writer also

described a prevention initiative being

spearheaded by the New York/New

Jersey High Intensity Drug Trafficking

Area and provided information on the

recently opened 168th Street Armory

Youth Center.

Response: OJJDP thanked the writer

for his positive comments, asked to be

put on the mailing list to receive a copy

of the Center’s evaluation when it is

available, and referred him to the

Juvenile Justice Specialists for New

York and New Jersey for information

about possible sources of funding.

Comment: One writer noted that only

a ‘‘small number of our teens can be

construed as violent teens’’ and that the

children and youth in low-income

families in her area ‘‘need opportunities

to develop into good citizens.’’ She

added that she ‘‘would encourage that

we not spend a lot of money researching

methods—we know what works.’’ The

writer would like most funds to be spent

on youth development and intervention

programming.

Response: It is important to recognize,

as the writer did in writing about her

community, that ‘‘the majority of our

youth are productive, hard working and

a credit to the community.’’ A 1995

survey conducted for OJJDP’s Teens,

Crime, and the Community program

found that 86 percent of the young

people in this survey were willing to

participate in helping to create solutions

to problems that affect their lives. They

expressed interest in a variety of

volunteer programs to help reduce

crime and violence in their

communities, including communication

programs (ads, posters, newsletters);

youth leadership programs, such as

tutoring or being a mentor to a younger

student; antiviolence and antidrug

programs; programs to avoid fights, such

as conflict resolution; and local cleanup

projects, neighborhood watches, or

citizen patrols.

OJJDP agreed that an exclusive focus

on studying problems will never solve

them, but OJJDP’s focus is a

comprehensive one. Those who work in

juvenile justice and youth-serving

agencies know what works in certain

communities, but replication of

programs that work has been a great

challenge. Quality research and data are

critical to ensuring the success of

OJJDP’s efforts. OJJDP’s support for

community prevention and juvenile

justice intervention activities is well

balanced. Funded programs range from

research on the causes and correlates of

delinquency, to demonstrations that

pilot solutions, to evaluation of those

pilots to check their efficacy, to training

and technical assistance, and to formula

funds that seed programs nationwide.

Comment: Two writers wrote to

support the Learning Disabilities Among

Juveniles At-Risk of Delinquency or in

the Juvenile Justice System. One of

these letters provided information about

a program, Partnership for Learning,

that ‘‘screens first time juvenile

offenders with learning disabilities’’ in

Baltimore, Maryland.

Response: OJJDP is committed to

addressing the increasing number of

juveniles identified with learning

disabilities in juvenile facilities. More

important, OJJDP is supporting effective

programs that divert these juveniles

from entering the system for minor

offenses that would best be addressed in

the community. OJJDP will not fund a

demonstration program this year.

However, OJJDP’s activities this year

will include a focus on developing a

program designed to (1) prevent

delinquency and incarceration of youth

at risk of learning disabilities through

early assessment and intervention

coordinated across school, police, court,

probationary, and other communitybased services, and (2) prevent

recidivism by ensuring that students

with learning disabilities in correctional

settings receive appropriate, specially

designed instructional services that

address their individual needs.

OJJDP will be working with the U.S.

Department of Education’s (ED’s) Office

of Special Education and Rehabilitation

Services and Office of Vocational and

Adult Education to initiate a variety of

activities, including plans to develop

the model demonstration program. The

Office of Special Education and

Rehabilitation Services, in conjunction

with ED’s Safe and Drug-Free Schools

Program, recently combined site visits

and focus group meetings to identify

promising practices for safe, drug-free,

and effective schools for all students.

OJJDP will coordinate with ED to

disseminate the information developed

in these meetings.

Comment: One writer enclosed a

report on ‘‘vertical’’ prosecution of most

juvenile firearm offenses in Seattle,

Washington, which the writer indicated

OJJDP ‘‘might find interesting

considering the content of the plan,

especially the Juvenile Justice

Prosecution Unit program.’’

Response: The OJJDP Administrator

was impressed with the project’s

vertical prosecution approach, the

comprehensiveness and utility of the

juvenile gun incident data, and the

outcomes. Copies of the report were

shared with several individuals and

groups that might be able to include this

approach in their ongoing work:

• OJJDP staff who work on gang- and

prosecution-related projects.

• Program Manager, OJJDP’s

Partnerships To Reduce Juvenile Gun

Violence Initiative.

• COSMOS Corporation, the

evaluator of OJJDP’s Gun Violence

Initiative, for possible inclusion in a

report COSMOS is producing for the

U.S. Department of Justice on promising

approaches to this critical issue.

• David Kennedy, Kennedy School of

Government, a researcher deeply

engaged in the issue of reducing youth

gun violence.

• The American Prosecutors Research

Institute (APRI), the grantee

implementing the Juvenile Justice

Prosecution Unit. APRI’s work in 1998

will include the presentation of

workshops and seminars and

development of new reference materials

for prosecutors. The material in the

report should be helpful to this group.

OJJDP will follow up with the writer

and the author of the report to learn

more about the Seattle project and to

explore ways in which this approach

might be included in OJJDP’s Gun

Violence Initiative sites.

Comment: One letter suggested that

the Program Plan ‘‘should include

efforts to prevent lead poisoning

because excess lead exposure has been

found to be associated with increased

risk for antisocial and delinquent

behavior.’’

Response: OJJDP recognizes the

significance of lead poisoning as one of

the myriad risk factors linked to

antisocial behavior and delinquency—

an association discussed in the article

that the writer enclosed with his letter.

Moreover OJJDP agrees that more
Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 116 /Wednesday, June 17, 1998 / Notices 33133

research needs to be conducted to

further unravel causality; that is, does

lead exposure cause a child to become

a delinquent and/or a criminal?

Accordingly, OJJDP is keeping abreast of

research in this area and notes that

agencies with larger medical research

budgets (e.g., the National Institutes of

Health) are best equipped to take on

such significantly complex research.

Similarly, agencies such as the U.S.

Department of Housing and Urban

Development have initiatives to prevent

lead exposure and by association the

negative effects associated with lead

poisoning. Nevertheless, OJJDP’s FieldInitiated Research program could

conceivably include research that might,

for example, evaluate the effectiveness

of a crime prevention program that

integrates lead exposure prevention.

Comment: The governor of an

American Indian pueblo expressed

concern about two specific points: (1)

the Proposed Plan notes the coordinated

effort but fails to mention ‘‘involvement

of the American Indian & Alaska Native

Affairs office’’ and (2) a discussion of

improving the juvenile justice system

does not mention ‘‘the training of judges

to issues specific to juvenile justice.’’

Response: OJJDP’s responses are

presented in order below.

1. The reference to coordination with

the Assistant Attorney General, Office of

Justice Programs (OJP), was meant to

include all of the various OJP

components; only the four other

program bureaus were mentioned by

name. OJJDP works closely with the

American Indian and Alaska Native

(AI&AN) Affairs Office on all of its

programs and particularly on those

programs that have the greatest interest

to American Indians and Alaska

Natives. A representative from OJJDP

serves on a U.S. Department of Justice

American Indian Task Group, and the

Director of the AI&AN Affairs Office

reviews and comments on OJJDP

programs. OJJDP staff have also

consulted with the Director of the

AI&AN Affairs Office on such programs

as the Combating Underage Drinking

Program to assure that the solicitation

for funding is sensitive to the needs of

American Indians and Alaska Natives.

2. OJJDP is committed to providing

the necessary resources for training

judges in issues specific to juvenile

justice. Since 1974, OJJDP, at the

direction of Congress, has funded the

National Council of Juvenile and Family

Court Judges (NCJFCJ) to provide

comprehensive skill-based training and

technical assistance to juvenile court

judges throughout the country. The

name of this program was listed on page

6342 of the Proposed Plan as one of a

number of programs identified for

funding consideration by Congress.

Program descriptions were not included

for these programs.

NCJFCJ, now in its 62d year, is

dedicated to improving the Nation’s

juvenile justice system. NCJFCJ does

this through an extensive effort toward

improving the operation and

effectiveness of juvenile and family

courts through highly developed,

practical, and applicable training.

NCJFCJ conducts more than 100 training

sessions a year with support from OJJDP

and from State, local, and foundation

funds. These trainings are provided at

locations throughout the United States

to make them accessible and cost

effective for the participants. Like all

OJJDP grantees and contractors, NCJFCJ

gives careful consideration to requests

for assistance outside the specific

mandates of the award.

Comment: One letter expressed

support for several programs, including

the Arts and At-Risk Youth Program, the

Youth-Centered Conflict Resolution

Program, and programming for female

offenders. This support was counted

with other letters of support for these

programs, which were addressed

previously. The writer also supported

the program to combat underage

drinking, the Communities In Schools—

Federal Interagency Partnership

program, and OJJDP’s gang prevention/

intervention activities.

Response: OJJDP’s Proposed Plan

included five programs that address the

gang problem: the 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;

Comprehensive Community-Wide

Approach to Gang Prevention,

Intervention, and Suppression

Technical Assistance and Training;

Targeted Outreach With a Gang

Prevention and Intervention Component

(Boys & Girls Clubs); and Rural Youth

Gang Problems—Adapting OJJDP’s

Comprehensive Approach. Of these,

only the last one was proposed as a new

program for this fiscal year. The

programs mentioned by this writer will

all be funded. A solicitation for the

Rural Youth Gang Problems program

will be issued as part of the FY 1998

OJJDP Discretionary Program

Announcement: Discretionary Grant

Program: Parts C and D. Information on

how to obtain a copy of the Program

Announcement is provided above under

Supplementary Information.

Comment: One writer made four

general points about the Proposed Plan,

which are summarized and responded

to below.

Comment 1: Use of percentage of

change conveys nothing ‘‘without

knowing numbers of juveniles convicted

of offenses and the categories of offense

in which they occur.’’

Response: OJJDP assumes that the

writer is referring to some of the

comparisons made in the Overview

section. Although this point is valid in

a general sense, OJJDP believes that in

the context of an overview, the

comparisons offered serve the intended

purpose, that is, to give a sense of the

relative progress being made in the

effort to reduce juvenile crime and

delinquency. OJJDP makes more

detailed statistics available in a variety

of publications, including the following:

• Juvenile Offenders and Victims:

1997 Update on Violence (Statistics

Summary)

• Juvenile Arrests 1996 (Bulletin)

• The Youngest Delinquents:

Offenders Under Age 15 (Bulletin)

• Offenders in Juvenile Court, 1995

(Bulletin)

• Person Offenses in Juvenile Court,

1986–1995 (Fact Sheet).

These and other publications related

to juvenile justice can be obtained from

the Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse by

calling 800–638–8736. Most of the

recent publications are also available

online at OJJDP’s Web site at http://

www.ncjrs.org/ojjhome.htm.

Another source of data is the National

Juvenile Court Data Archive, which

collects, stores, and analyzes data about

young people referred to U.S. courts for

delinquency and status offenses. The

national delinquency estimates

produced with the Archive’s data files

are made available in an easy-to-use

software package, Easy Access to

Juvenile Court Statistics. With the

support of OJJDP, the Archive

distributes this package to facilitate

independent analysis of Archive data

while eliminating the need for other

analysis packages. This software can be

ordered directly from the Archive (412–

227–6950) or downloaded from OJJDP’s

Web site.

Comment 2: ‘‘Number arrested means

nothing. Number convicted would be

significant.’’

Response: Data from the National

Juvenile Court Data Archive indicate

that of the 122,000 robbery and

aggravated assault cases disposed of by

juvenile courts in 1994, nearly threefourths were formally petitioned, and

more than half were adjudicated (i.e.,

‘‘convicted’’) or waived to criminal

court. Together these violent juvenile

cases accounted for 94 percent of all
33134 Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 116 /Wednesday, June 17, 1998 / Notices

Violent Crime Index cases processed by

juvenile courts in 1994.

For those juveniles charged with

person offenses (a broader range of

crimes than Index offenses), more than

60 percent received some disposition

other than ‘‘release,’’ whether processed

through formal (petition) or informal

methods. Although there is a dropoff

from arrest to disposition for these

offenses, OJJDP finds that the outcomes

of court processing have not changed

substantially over the years. Therefore,

the trends that OJJDP is describing

would be essentially the same whether

arrest data or court data are used to

describe changes.

Comment 3: The number of juveniles

who commit violent crimes is small.

Response: Just 1⁄2 of 1 percent of

juveniles ages 10 to 17 were arrested for

a violent crime in 1996, but these often

high-profile crimes help to fuel public

fear and concern about the threat of

juvenile violence and influence

legislative and policy decisions. OJJDP’s

programming does not focus

disproportionately on the most violent

juveniles but instead includes the entire

spectrum of juvenile offenders and

youth at risk of delinquency. OJJDP

supports a comprehensive strategy that

incorporates two principal components:

• Preventing youth from becoming

delinquent by focusing prevention

programs on at-risk youth.

• Improving the response of the

juvenile justice system to delinquent

offenders through a system of graduated

sanctions, including a continuum of

treatment alternatives that provide

immediate intervention, intermediate

sanctions, and community-based and

secure corrections, incorporating

aftercare services when appropriate.

This comprehensive strategy also

recognizes that an effective system of

graduated sanctions must protect the

public by including the option of

transfer to the criminal justice system

for those serious, violent, or chronic

juvenile offenders who are not amenable

to treatment in the juvenile justice

system or whose criminal acts are so

egregious as to justify transfer.

Comment 4: Thousands of children

are at risk for abuse and neglect and are

‘‘more likely to be the victim of a violent

crime, than to commit one.’’

Response: OJJDP shares the writer’s

concern for children and youth who are

abused and neglected and who are

victims of crime. One of the

publications listed above, Juvenile

Offenders and Victims: 1997 Update on

Violence, provides the latest statistics,

not only on juvenile offenders, but also

on juvenile victims. OJJDP supports a

wide array of prevention programming,

including family strengthening and

nurse home visitation programs that

address the problems of abuse and

neglect. As the Proposed Plan stated:

‘‘These programs can build the

foundation for law-abiding lives for

children and interrupt the cycle of

violence that can turn abused or

neglected children into delinquents.’’

Comment: One writer applauded

OJJDP’s ‘‘efforts in addressing the

juvenile problem’’ and described a

proposed Community Renaissance

strategy and specific programs to help

deter high-risk youth from delinquency

and violence. The writer stated that he

was looking to OJJDP as a potential

partner in this venture.

Response: It is commendable that the

members of the Prisoner Advisory

Committee want to use their experience

to help young people avoid involvement

with the justice system. OJJDP suggested

that the most practical approach to

accomplish the Committee’s objectives

would be through collaboration with a

local agency or organization that works

with at-risk or delinquent juveniles. The

writer was referred to the Juvenile

Justice Specialist for Michigan as one

possible source of information about

local programs that might be interested

in working with the Committee.

Comment: One letter supported the

proposed programming in two specific

areas: gender-specific programming for

female juvenile offenders and Targeted

Outreach With a Gang Prevention and

Intervention Component (Boys & Girls

Clubs). The support for gender-specific

programming was counted with other

letters of support for this type of

program, addressed previously.

Response: Targeted Outreach With a

Gang Prevention and Intervention

Component (Boys & Girls Clubs), is a

continuation program, and no

additional applications will be solicited

this fiscal year. OJJDP expects that 10

new sites—all in rural areas—will

receive gang prevention training and

technical assistance. The Boys & Girls

Clubs of America will choose the new

sites.

Comment: One letter expressed

support for the Community Volunteer

Coordinator Program and for the Rural

Youth Gang Problems—Adapting

OJJDP’s Comprehensive Approach

program, while encouraging OJJDP not

to rely solely on Boys & Girls Clubs for

some programs because they do not

reach or serve many populations,

especially in rural areas. The support for

the Community Volunteer Coordinator

Program was counted and responded to

with other letters in favor of that

program.

Response: In regard to the comment

that OJJDP should not rely solely on

Boys & Girls Clubs for some programs,

especially in rural areas, the writer can

be assured that OJJDP has a high level

of confidence in the Boys & Girls Clubs

but is also well aware of the need for a

variety of partners in various aspects of

its mission to prevent delinquency and

criminal behavior among juveniles.

OJJDP is also cognizant of the special

needs of rural areas. The Rural Youth

Gang Problems—Adapting OJJDP’s

Comprehensive Approach program will

be funded. A solicitation will be issued

as part of the FY 1998 OJJDP

Discretionary Program Announcement:

Discretionary Grant Program: Parts C

and D. Information on how to obtain a

copy of the Program Announcement is

provided above under Supplementary

Information.

Comment: One letter made comments

in four specific areas, three of which are

listed and responded to below. The

fourth area, Gender Specific

Programming for Female Juvenile

Offenders, was responded to above, and

this writer’s interest in this type of

programming was counted among the

letters that commented on that topic.

Comment 1: Training and Technical

Assistance. The writer expressed the

hope that the training and technical

assistance activities in the Program Plan

‘‘include the provision of training to

people who work with females both at

risk and within the system.’’

Response: Wherever appropriate,

OJJDP-funded training and technical

assistance programs address the specific

concerns of female juveniles.

Specifically, OJJDP will continue to

provide funding for the Training and

Technical Assistance Program To

Promote Gender-Specific Programming

for Female Juvenile Offenders, which

will be implemented by the current

grantee, Greene, Peters and Associates.

Comment 2: Field-Initiated Research

and Field-Initiated Evaluation. The

writer supported both these proposed

programs.

Response: Only the Field-Initiated

Research program is being funded this

year. OJJDP believes that this type of

outreach to the field can result in

creative and innovative proposals. A

solicitation will be issued as part of the

FY 1998 OJJDP Discretionary Program

Announcement: Discretionary Grant

Program: Parts C and D. Information on

how to obtain a copy of the Program

Announcement is provided above under

Supplementary Information.

Comment 3: Introduction to Fiscal

Year 1998 Program Plan. The writer was

critical of the mention of a ‘‘single

agency with reference to prevention.’’
Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 116 /Wednesday, June 17, 1998 / Notices 33135

Response: The point about either

mentioning other agencies as illustrative

of prevention programs or mentioning

none is, generally speaking, a valid one.

Obviously, OJJDP cannot possibly list

all the effective national programs. The

Boys & Girls Clubs of America—one of

the largest and best-known providers of

afterschool programs for youth and an

organization whose work has been

evaluated and found to be successful—

was used as a convenient reference

point for readers. However, in response

to this comment, we will use a more

general reference in this part of the

program plan.

Comment: Another writer supported

four specific program areas: afterschool

and summer arts for at-risk youth, a

planning and demonstration project to

address issues surrounding learning

disabilities and delinquency, a juvenile

defender center, and gender-specific

programming for female juvenile

offenders.

Response: All of these programs were

addressed above. The writer’s support

for these programs was counted among

the letters that commented on those

topics.

Comment: One writer was generally

pleased about the direction OJJDP is

taking in 1998 but suggested that the

Technical Assistance for State

Legislators program should be

expanded. The writer proposed that

OJJDP establish a Technical Assistance

for County Officials program.

Response: OJJDP appreciates the

writer’s recognition of the importance of

its ongoing work with the National

Conference of State Legislatures.

Through the Title V Program—

popularly known as the Community

Prevention Grants Program, OJJDP has

been working closely with communities

nationwide to provide them with the

framework, tools, and initial funding to

develop and begin to implement

comprehensive, sustainable

delinquency prevention strategies. More

than 470 communities across the Nation

have embraced the rigorous community

assessment and delinquency prevention

planning process and received

prevention grants.

In regard to the suggestion to amend

the Proposed Plan to include a

Technical Assistance for County

Officials program, OJJDP agrees that

county-level officials are important

policymakers and need to be wellinformed on management and policy

issues. Indeed, over the years, OJJDP has

worked closely with the National

Association of Counties (NACO), with

which the writer’s organization is

affiliated. Although OJJDP will not

include the requested program in the

1998 Final Plan, a meeting will be held

at OJJDP with the writer and a

representation of NACO to talk about

opportunities for future partnerships,

cooperation, and collaboration among

the parties.

Comment: One writer praised OJJDP’s

information dissemination but

expressed concern about the program

goals in the Proposed Plan. Specifically,

the writer called for ‘‘a needsassessment and systematic evaluation of

court services’’; more attention to

‘‘multimodal and longitudinal

interventions, programs that address the

first time offender, and efforts to address

the unique needs of different subgroups

within the juvenile justice, such as the

adolescent sex offender’’; and

‘‘development and evaluation of

multicomponent interventions whose

content is based on the results of the

OJJDP-funded studies on the Causes and

[Correlates] of Delinquency.’’ The writer

also found the field-initiated research

section to be ‘‘virtually nonexistent.’’

Response: OJJDP appreciates the kind

words about the value of its information

dissemination through the Juvenile

Justice Clearinghouse. It is always

helpful to receive feedback on the

services OJJDP provides.

In regard to the concerns expressed

about the program goals outlined in the

Proposed Plan, OJJDP shares the writer’s

perspective on most of the issues raised

and regrets that the writer did not find

this agreement clearly reflected in the

plan. OJJDP is involved in many

activities that support the desired

approaches described in the letter. The

brief summaries below present

examples of efforts that OJJDP believes

are in accord with the direction the

writer would like to see OJJDP take.

Program of Research on the Causes

and Correlates of Delinquency. This

longitudinal study is being conducted

by research teams (the University at

Albany, State University of New York;

the University of Colorado, and the

University of Pittsburgh) in three sites:

Rochester, New York; Denver, Colorado;

and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The three

research teams have interviewed 4,000

participants at regular intervals for

nearly a decade, recording their lives in

detail and accumulating a substantial

body of knowledge about delinquency

and its causes. OJJDP has recently

increased its investment in this

research.

Comprehensive Strategy for Serious,

Violent, and Chronic Juvenile Offenders.

The foundation for OJJDP’s program

planning for the past 3 years has been

the Comprehensive Strategy for Serious,

Violent, and Chronic Juvenile

Offenders, which draws heavily on the

findings of the Causes and Correlates

study. The Comprehensive Strategy

recognizes the need for coordination

and collaboration among agencies and

organizations that serve children. The

Comprehensive Strategy has two main

components: (1) prevention and (2)

graduated sanctions that begin with

early interventions within the

community for first-time nonviolent

offenders, intermediate sanctions within

the community for more serious

offenders, and secure care for the most

serious, violent, and chronic juvenile

offenders. Through training and

technical assistance, OJJDP is

supporting more than 30 communities

in their efforts to create a continuum of

care that integrates services provided by

schools and social services with those

offered by law enforcement, courts, and

corrections. Part of this OJJDP assistance

is targeted at the development of risk

and needs assessments that can be used

by the juvenile justice system to

effectively change the nature of its

service delivery.

The SafeFutures program, discussed

below, is another example of OJJDP’s

support for this comprehensive

approach. Here, OJJDP used multiple

funding streams and collapsed them

into one program application as a way

of encouraging the coordination and

integration of service delivery at the

community level.

SafeFutures. The SafeFutures

Initiative, a 5-year demonstration

project currently in the second year of

implementation, was specifically

designed to address collaboration. The

demonstration’s main premise is that

juvenile delinquency can be most

effectively addressed through a

combined approach of prevention,

intervention, treatment, and sanctions.

This collaborative approach takes place

at two levels: the strategic planning

level with policymakers and agency

heads and the direct service integration

level. SafeFutures sites are actively

working to plan a continuum of services

and integrate frontline service delivery

across a multidisciplinary, interagency

team of professionals including the

court system, mental health, social

services, probation, law enforcement,

education, and housing. This effort is

being evaluated nationally through

OJJDP and through local evaluations in

each of the six sites.

Community Assessment Center (CAC)

Program. This multicomponent

demonstration initiative is designed to

test the efficacy of the CAC concept of

providing a 24-hour centralized, single

point of intake and assessment for

juveniles who have or are likely to come

into contact with the juvenile justice
33136 Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 116 /Wednesday, June 17, 1998 / Notices

system. A CAC facilitates earlier and

more efficient prevention and

intervention service delivery at the

‘‘front end’’ of the juvenile justice

system. OJJDP will provide an

additional year’s funding to further

support the implementation of CAC

enhancements and provide additional

support to the sites awarded grants in

FY 1997. This funding would enable

these sites to begin implementing the

CAC’s planned for with OJJDP funding

support or to enhance existing

operations. OJJDP is also funding a CAC

evaluation component and a technical

assistance component.

Study Group on the Serious, Violent,

and Chronic Juvenile Offender.

Originally charged with producing a

report on critical areas of interest about

these offenders, including prevention,

intervention, gangs, and other topics,

which it submitted in 1997, the Study

Group is currently focusing on the

youngest offenders and the pathways to

delinquency. OJJDP is continuing to

fund this effort, which began in FY

1995.

The writer is also encouraged to

review the field-initiated research

funding opportunities available through

OJJDP’s interagency agreements with the

National Institute of Justice under the

Juvenile Accountability Incentive Block

Grants Program and the Bureau of

Justice Statistics through the Statistical

Analysis Centers component.

Additionally, OJJDP still plans to fund

the field-initiated research effort

referenced in the Proposed Plan. The

writer may also want to look for the

results of OJJDP’s recently funded

research project on the development of

a juvenile sex offender typology.

Comment: One writer expressed

concern about three items that he would

like to see included in the Program Plan.

These issues are summarized and

responded to below.

Comment 1: An initiative aimed at

high-level municipal and county

policymakers and others would consist

of a collaborative strategic planning

process that could lead to more

comprehensive community approaches

to children’s victimization.

Response: As the writer noted, this

first item falls under OJJDP’s Missing

and Exploited Children’s Program

(MECP). One of MECP’s priorities is the

expansion and enhancement of training

as it relates to child victimization. Goals

for the coming years include the

incorporation of results of research and

demonstration programs into the overall

training program (including the

American Bar Association’s (ABA’s)

study of effective community-based

approaches for missing and exploited

children); the expansion of existing

training curriculums to focus on broader

child victimization issues; the

development of more comprehensive

and integrated training programs that

are based on the most current

knowledge and information about best

practices, approaches, and research; and

continued emphasis on providing high

level policymakers with the necessary

information, tools, and strategies to

effectively identify and address child

victimization issues in their community.

The writer was encouraged to continue

to discuss his concerns about missing

and exploited children’s issues with the

Director of OJJDP’s Missing and

Exploited Children’s Program.

Comment 2: The topic of criminal

record screening of adults working or

volunteering with children needs to be

addressed, with research on how States

are implementing screening laws and

technical assistance to States.

Response: This is another issue of

interest to OJJDP. Under a 1992 grant to

the ABA Center on Children and the

Law, the writer and the Center

conducted a legal review of the laws

and policies governing this issue. Many

laws have changed since then. The

National Child Protection Act of 1993

and laws such as Jacob Wetterling and

Megan’s Law have also impacted this

field. OJJDP recently released

Guidelines for the Screening of Persons

Working With Children, the Elderly, and

Individuals With Disabilities in Need of

Support. The writer’s suggestion of

conducting further research into the

implementation of screening laws and

the development of technical assistance

is a good one and potentially eligible for

funding under the Field-Initiated

Research Program.

Comment 3: Programs relating to early

‘‘status offense’’ misbehavior by

children under 12 and the operation of

‘‘parental responsibility’’ laws might

help in the early identification of and

intervention with predelinquent

children.

Response: Some ongoing OJJDP

programs address this issue. In the

research area, OJJDP is supporting the

work of a Study Group on Very Young

Offenders, which is focusing on the

pathways to delinquency. Chaired by

Dr. Rolf Loeber and Dr. David

Farrington, the Study Group will

examine the available research on youth

who start offending before 13, an

understudied population. The goals of

the research are to identify the

prevalence of such offending and to

determine how this offending affects

later offending behavior and how

society can best deal with these young

offenders to prevent future criminality.

Status offenders are also being studied

in the context of school truancy as part

of an evaluation of truancy

interventions that include a parental

component.

Another program that is somewhat

related to this issue is the Child Welfare

League of America (CWLA) project

entitled Assessment and

Decisionmaking Guidelines for Dealing

With Chemically Involved Children,

Youth, and Families. This program

receives funding from both OJJDP and

the Office of National Drug Control

Policy (ONDCP) and is part of a larger

ONDCP parent-focused initiative.

CWLA will produce a state-of-the-art

assessment instrument along with

decisionmaking guidelines for use by

frontline child welfare professionals

who work with clients involved with

alcohol and other drugs and their

families (parents). These resource

materials will assist child welfare

professionals to determine the most

appropriate casework approach,

placement option, and permanency plan

for children of substance abusers.

This assessment instrument and the

decisionmaking guidelines will be

problem-solving tools derived from

integrating original research, lessons

learned from actual cases, and the

training needs of child welfare staff. The

foundation for the guidelines are basic

principles of successful family

strengthening models, such as

maintaining respect for parents and

children while working with them and

promoting honesty and clarity regarding

choices and consequences.

Another OJJDP initiative that is

expected to contribute to better

identification of predelinquent children

and help improve the response to their

needs is the Community Assessment

Center (CAC) program. This

multicomponent demonstration

initiative is designed to test the efficacy

of the CAC concept of providing a 24-

hour centralized, single point of intake

and assessment for juveniles who have

or are likely to come into contact with

the juvenile justice system. A CAC

facilitates earlier and more efficient

prevention and intervention service

delivery at the ‘‘front end’’ of the

juvenile justice system.

Comment: One writer praised OJJDP’s

leadership and expressed support for

various OJJDP programs. The writer also

expressed interest in the new drug

prevention program and suggested that

OJJDP consider ‘‘highlighting the

juvenile crime that currently exists

within the Latino youth population and

to create ethnic-specific delinquency

prevention initiatives.’’
Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 116 /Wednesday, June 17, 1998 / Notices 33137

Response: OJJDP appreciates the kind

words about its leadership role in

addressing the needs of juveniles in this

time of limited resources. The Office is

also pleased to know of the writer’s

support for the prevention and

intervention programs listed in the

Proposed Plan; for OJJDP projects such

as the National Youth Gang Center,

Communities in Schools, and Family

Strengthening Programs; and for the risk

and protective factors prevention model

that is incorporated in OJJDP’s

Comprehensive Strategy for Serious,

Violent, and Chronic Juvenile

Offenders.

OJJDP will be implementing several

new alcohol and other drug programs

this fiscal year. As stated in the

Proposed Plan, two of the new programs

being developed, Combating Underage

Drinking and the Drug Prevention

Program, will be awarded competitively.

Program announcements can be

obtained by calling OJJDP’s Juvenile

Justice Clearinghouse (JJC) at 800–638–

8736 or by sending an e-mail request to

askncjrs@ncjrs.org. Program

announcements will also be available

online at www.ncjrs.org/ojjhome.htm.

Another program that OJJDP will be

administering and that may be of

interest to the writer is the Drug-Free

Communities Support program to

support the development and expansion

of community antidrug coalitions.

Information on this program is also

available through JJC.

In regard to the suggestion for ethnicspecific delinquency prevention

initiatives, OJJDP programs are

developed to serve the diversity of

youth in this country. Therefore, most

OJJDP-funded projects target youth of all

races and both genders. Specifically,

most of OJJDP’s discretionary projects

focus on implementing services and

activities to address juvenile crime,

violence, and abuse in their local

communities and on efforts to improve

the lives of children residing in abusive

living environments. In identifying

youth most in need of prevention and

intervention programs, some OJJDP

projects have targeted Latino youth. The

following are brief descriptions of

several current OJJDP discretionary

projects targeting Latino youth:

SafeFutures. The main premise of this

5-year demonstration project (currently

in the second year of implementation) is

that juvenile delinquency can be most

effectively addressed through a

combined approach of prevention,

intervention, treatment, and sanctions.

Two of the six demonstration sites are

serving a largely Latino population.

• The Imperial County, California,

SafeFutures program serves youth of all

races, but the project predominately

serves Latino youth because

approximately 69 percent (in 1995) of

the county’s population is Latino.

• The SafeFutures project in Contra

Costa County, California, also serves a

significant number of Latino youth. The

goal of this project is to create a

continuum of care for at-risk youth in

Contra Costa, specifically West Contra

Costa County. This program also serves

African-American, Asian, and other

youth.

Juvenile Mentoring Program (JUMP).

The goals of this one-to-one mentoring

program are to reduce juvenile

delinquency and gang participation by

at-risk youth, improve their school

performance, and reduce their dropout

rate.

• The Latino Mentoring Program,

Family Services, Inc., in Providence,

Rhode Island, links high-risk Latino

adolescents with mentors from the

business and education community.

Priority is given to gang-involved youth,

adjudicated delinquents, and

adolescents in abusive or neglected

home situations.

• The Mentors Matter collaborative of

Tulare County, Community Services

and Employment Training, Inc., in

Visalia, California, is serving many

students who live in a migrant labor

settlement where Hispanic students (99

percent of the school-age population in

the settlement) are at risk for poor

academic achievement, dropping out of

school, juvenile crime, involvement

with gangs, and teenage pregnancy.

• Big Sisters in Philadelphia,

Pennsylvania, serves Hispanic females,

ages 10 to 18, by helping them to

develop self-esteem and self-confidence,

exposing them to educational and career

opportunities, and working to prevent

teen pregnancy, dropping out of school,

and delinquency.

• The George Gervin Youth Center,

San Antonio, Texas, serves Mexican

youth, most of whom live in Victoria

Courts, where approximately 34 percent

of the youth are dropouts and teen

parents and where the largest number of

crimes in the city occurred in 1993. The

youth are introduced to the world of

work, summer jobs, and other new

experiences to motivate them to stay in

school and out of gangs and other

delinquent activities.

• The Rowland Unified School

District (La Punente, California) JUMP

program participants are 80 percent

Latino and 90 percent male.

• Valley Big Brothers Big Sisters of

Phoenix, Arizona, serves students in

grades seven and eight, most of whom

are Latino.

• Service for Adolescent & Family

Enrichment (Santa Barbara, California)

serves Latino youth, mostly males

between the ages of 10 and 15.

Pathways to Success

Aspira of Florida serves a target group

of 130 Latino migrant youth from rural

South Dade. Services provided to these

youth include career planning and art,

dance, and recreation activities.

Intensive Community-Based Aftercare

Demonstration and Technical

Assistance Program (IAP)

This is a demonstration effort in three

sites: Denver, Colorado; Las Vegas,

Nevada; and Norfolk, Virginia. The

model being tested is designed to assist

high-risk youth returning to their

community from secure confinement. In

all three sites, the target population

includes Latino youth.

Comprehensive Community-Wide

Approach to Gang Prevention,

Intervention, and Suppression Program

This program is currently being tested

in five demonstration sites: Mesa and

Tucson, Arizona; Riverside, California;

Bloomington, Illinois; and San Antonio,

Texas. Latino youth are among those

being served in each of the sites. Some

of these programs incorporate issues of

Hispanic or Chicano heritage, and most

of the programs have or have had

Hispanic staff.

Targeted Outreach With a Gang

Prevention and Intervention

Component (Boys & Girls Clubs of

America)

The programs of the Boys & Girls

Clubs of America provide services to

many Latino youth. OJJDP has

supported the Targeted Outreach

program for several years. The program

provides training and support to local

clubs to provide outreach to those youth

at risk of gang involvement. Many of the

Targeted Outreach programs provide

services to Latino youth. In 1997, 45

percent of the youth served were of

Hispanic origin, 45 percent were

African-American, and 10 percent were

of other races and ethnic backgrounds.

Latino communities are among the

many areas throughout the Nation

where OJJDP is supporting communitybased projects in schools,

neighborhoods, and the juvenile justice

arena in urban, suburban, and rural

cities and counties.

Introduction to Fiscal Year 1998

Program Plan

An effective juvenile justice system

must implement a sound

comprehensive strategy and must
33138 Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 116 /Wednesday, June 17, 1998 / Notices

identify and support programs that work

to further the objectives of the strategy.

These objectives include holding the

juvenile offender accountable; enabling

the juvenile to become a capable,

productive, and responsible citizen; and

ensuring the safety of the community.

For juveniles who come to the

attention of police, juvenile courts, or

social service agencies, a strong juvenile

justice system must assess the danger

they pose, determine what can help put

them back on the right track, deliver

appropriate treatment, and stay with

them when they return to the

community. When necessary, a strong

juvenile justice system also must

appropriately identify those serious,

violent, and chronic juveniles offenders

who are beyond its reach and ensure

their criminal prosecution and

incapacitation.

Research has shown that what works

to reduce juvenile crime and violence

includes prevention programs that start

with the earliest stages of life: good

prenatal care, home visitation for

newborns at risk of abuse and neglect,

steps to strengthen parenting skills, and

initiatives to prepare children for

school. These programs can build the

foundation for law-abiding lives for

children and interrupt the cycle of

violence that can turn abused or

neglected children into delinquents.

Prevention programs work for older

children, too: opportunities for youth

after school and on weekends, such as

programs that offer a variety of activities

and those that focus on mentoring, can

reduce juvenile alcohol and drug use,

improve school performance, and

prevent youth from getting involved in

crime and violent behavior.

Another focal point for juvenile

justice efforts is the community.

Without healthy communities, young

people cannot thrive. The key leaders in

the community, including

representatives from the juvenile justice,

health and mental health, schools, law

enforcement, social services, and other

systems, as well as leaders from the

private sector, must be jointly engaged

in the planning, development, and

operation of the juvenile justice system.

Attempts to improve the juvenile justice

system must be part of a broad,

comprehensive, communitywide

effort—both at the leadership and

grassroots level—to eliminate factors

that place juveniles at risk of

delinquency and victimization, enhance

factors that protect them from engaging

in delinquent behavior, and use the full

range of resources and programs within

the community to meet the varying

needs of juveniles. It is also important

to provide increased public access to the

system to ensure an appropriate role for

victims, a greater understanding of how

the system operates, and a higher level

of system accountability to the public.

The recent decreases in all measures

of juvenile violence known to law

enforcement (number of arrests, arrest

rates, and the percentage of violent

crimes cleared by juvenile arrests)

should encourage legislators, juvenile

justice policymakers and practitioners,

and all concerned citizens to support

ongoing efforts to address juvenile crime

and violence through a comprehensive

approach.

Three documents published during

the past 5 years provide the framework

for a comprehensive approach to an

improved, more effective juvenile

justice system. OJJDP’s Comprehensive

Strategy for Serious, Violent, and

Chronic Juvenile Offenders (1993) and

Guide for Implementing the

Comprehensive Strategy for Serious,

Violent, and Chronic Juvenile Offenders

(1995) were followed in 1996 by the

Coordinating Council on Juvenile

Justice and Delinquency Prevention’s

Combating Violence and Delinquency:

The National Juvenile Justice Action

Plan. The first of these publications

defined the elements of the

comprehensive strategy. The second

provided States and communities with

a more detailed explanation of what

would constitute the elements of a

comprehensive strategy, including

strategic and programmatic information

on risk and protective factor-based

prevention and a system of graduated

sanctions. The third prioritized Federal,

State, and local activities and resources

under eight critical objectives that are

central to reducing and preventing

juvenile violence, delinquency, and

victimization.

The OJJDP FY 1998 Program Plan is

rooted in the principles of the

Comprehensive Strategy and the

objectives of the Action Plan. Like the

OJJDP Program Plans for FY’s 1996 and

1997, the FY 1998 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 to juvenile offending,

and preventing the onset of

delinquency. The Program Plan,

therefore, 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.

Proposed new program areas were

identified for FY 1998 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. In a departure

from past practice, OJJDP presented for

public comment more proposed

programs than it expected to be able to

fund with the resources available. It was

OJJDP’s intent to stimulate discussion of

the best use of its FY 1998 discretionary

funding and to seek guidance from the

field as to which programs, among the

many described in the Proposed

Program Plan, would most effectively

advance the goals of promoting

delinquency prevention and early

intervention, improving the juvenile

justice system, and preserving the

public safety.

OJJDP will provide funding for a wide

variety of new programs, including

training and technical assistance

coordination for the SafeFutures

initiative, and training and technical

assistance for the Blueprints for

Violence Prevention project and for a

school safety program. New programs

also involve OJJDP collaboration with

other agencies to address problems such

as truancy, develop arts programs

directed toward at-risk youth and youth

held in juvenile detention and

corrections, and support the planning

and development of systems of care for

American Indian and Alaska Native

youth with mental health and substance

abuse needs. In addition, OJJDP will

provide funding for initial planning and

implementation of a Juvenile Defender

Center, coordination of youth-related

volunteer services, support for programs

designed to build infrastructure for

programming for female juvenile

offenders and teen mothers, and support

for additional work in the area of

disproportionate minority confinement

in secure juvenile facilities and other

institutions.

OJJDP considered, but is not funding

demonstration projects designed to

intervene early with students with

learning disabilities to prevent

delinquency and also to prevent

recidivism by those students in

correctional settings. See the Learning

Disabilities Among Juveniles At Risk of

Delinquency or in the Juvenile Justice

System program description below for a

discussion of why this program is not

being funded.

In addition, OJJDP has identified for

FY 1998 funding a range of research and

evaluation projects designed to expand

knowledge about juvenile offenders; the

effectiveness of prevention,

intervention, and treatment programs;

and the operation of the juvenile justice

system. New evaluation initiatives that

will be undertaken include the
Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 116 /Wednesday, June 17, 1998 / Notices 33139

Comprehensive Strategy for Serious,

Violent, and Chronic Juvenile

Offenders; the Boys & Girls Clubs of

America’s TeenSupreme Career

Preparation Initiative; analysis and

interpretation of juvenile justice-related

data from nontraditional sources; and

field-initiated research. Field-initiated

evaluation, which was included in the

Proposed Plan, will not be funded this

fiscal year. See the Field-Initiated

Evaluation program description below

for a discussion of why this program is

not being funded. Combined with new

OJJDP programs and programs being

continued in FY 1998, OJJDP’s new

demonstration and evaluation programs

form a continuum of programming that

supports the objectives of the Action

Plan and mirrors the foundation and

framework of the Comprehensive

Strategy.

OJJDP’s continuation activities and

the new FY 1998 programs are at the

heart of OJJDP’s categorical funding

efforts. For example, while focusing on

new areas of programming such as the

Juvenile Defender Center and the role of

the arts for juveniles in detention

centers and for at-risk youth, continuing

to offer training seminars in the

Comprehensive Strategy, and looking to

the SafeFutures program to implement a

continuum of care system, OJJDP will be

supporting programs that reduce the

likelihood of juvenile involvement in

hate crimes, reduce juvenile gun

violence, promote positive approaches

to conflict resolution, and explore the

mental health needs of juveniles.

Together, these and other activities

provide a comprehensive 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

develop a rural gang prevention and

intervention program and 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, activities related to the

identification of school-based gang

programs and the evaluation of the Boys

& 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, carriage of, and use of guns.

This programming builds on OJJDP’s

youth-focused community policing,

mentoring, and conflict resolution

initiatives and programming, including

the work of the Congress of National

Black Churches in supporting local

churches to address the prevention of

drug abuse, youth violence, and hate

crime.

In support of the need to break the

cycle of violence, OJJDP’s Safe Kids/

Safe Streets demonstration program,

currently 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 Program 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 in the juvenile and

criminal justice systems, particularly in

relation to juvenile violence and its

impact.

As described below, 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 impact juvenile crime and violence.

An additional OJJDP goal is to help

practitioners and policymakers translate

this information into action through its

training and technical assistance

providers as part of its mission to

stimulate and assist in the replication of

successful and promising strategies and

programs.

OJJDP will continue to fund

longitudinal research on the causes and

correlates of delinquency. Even more

important, however, OJJDP will

regularly share the findings from this

research with the field through OJJDP’s

publications, Home Page on the World

Wide Web, and JuvJust (an electronic

newsletter); 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. Some examples of these

publication topics include youth action

to prevent delinquency; family

strengthening; juvenile substance abuse

(prevention, intervention, and testing);

balanced and restorative justice;

developmental pathways in delinquent

behavior, gang migration, capacity

building for substance abuse treatment,

youth gangs, restitution programs,

school safety, and conditions of

confinement.

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; American

Indian 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. In the past few

years, the combined efforts of these

varied groups have brought about the

beginnings of change in the prevalence

of juvenile crime, violence, and

victimization. Now is the time to

strengthen old partnerships and forge

new ones to develop support for a longterm, comprehensive approach to a

more effective juvenile justice system.

Fiscal Year 1998 Programs

The following are brief summaries of

each of the new and continuation

programs projected to receive funding in

FY 1998, including ongoing projects

identified for supplemental funding

since the publication of the Proposed

Plan, which are grouped under the

heading New Supplemental Funding at

the end of the program list. Programs

that appeared in the Proposed Plan but

that will not receive funding are also

listed but are marked with asterisks. In

the program descriptions, brief

discussions are provided as to why

some proposed programs will not be

funded this fiscal year.

As indicated above, the program

categories are public safety and law

enforcement; strengthening the juvenile
33140 Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 116 /Wednesday, June 17, 1998 / Notices

justice system; delinquency prevention

and intervention; and child abuse and

neglect and dependency courts.

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 grantee

performance, application quality, fund

availability, and other factors.

A number of OJJDP programs have

been identified for funding

consideration by Congress with regard

to the grantee(s), the amount of funds,

or both. These programs, which are

listed below, are not included in the

program descriptions that follow.

National Council of Juvenile and Family

Court Judges

Teens, Crime, and the Community

Parents Anonymous, Inc.

Juvenile Offender Transition Program

Suffolk University Center for Juvenile

Justice

Center for Crimes and Violence Against

Children

Crow Creek Alcohol and Drug Program

Metro Denver Gang Coalition

In addition, OJJDP has been directed

by Congress to examine each of the

following proposals, provide grants if

warranted, and report to the Committees

on Appropriations of both the House

and the Senate on its intention for each

proposal:

Coalition for Juvenile Justice

The Hamilton Fish National Institute on

School/Community Violence

Low Country Children’s Center

Vermont Department of Social and

Rehabilitative Services

Grassroots Drug Prevention Program

Dona Ana Camp

Center for Prevention of Juvenile Crime

and Delinquency at Prairie View

University Project O.A.S.I.S.

KidsPeace—The National Centers for

Kids in Crisis, North America

Consortium on Children, Families, and

Law

New Mexico Prevention Project

No Hope in Dope Program

Study of the Link Between Child Abuse

and Criminal

Behavior in Alaska

Gainesville Juvenile Assessment Center

Lincoln Council on Alcohol and Drugs

Hill Renaissance Partnership

National Training and Information

Center

Culinary Arts Training Program for AtRisk Youth

Women of Vision Program for Youthful

Female Offenders

Violence Institute of New Jersey

Delancy Street Foundation

Law-Related Education

Fiscal Year 1998 Program Listing

Overarching

SafeFutures: Partnerships To Reduce

Youth Violence and Delinquency

Evaluation of SafeFutures

Program of Research on the Causes and

Correlates of Delinquency

OJJDP Management Evaluation Contract

Juvenile Justice Statistics and Systems

Development

Census of Juveniles in Residential

Placement

OJJDP National Training and Technical

Assistance Center

Technical Assistance for State

Legislatures

Telecommunications Assistance

OJJDP Technical Assistance Support

Contract—Juvenile Justice Resource

Center

Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse

Insular Area Support

Community Assessment Centers (CAC’s)

Training and Technical Assistance

Coordination for SafeFutures

Initiative

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 & Girls Clubs)

National Youth Gang Center

Evaluation of the Partnerships To

Reduce Juvenile Gun Violence

Program

The Chicago Project for Violence

Prevention

Safe Start—Child DevelopmentCommunity-Oriented Policing (CD–

CP)

Juvenile Justice Law Enforcement

Training and Technical Assistance

Program

Partnerships To Reduce Juvenile Gun

Violence

Comprehensive Community-Wide

Approach to Gang Prevention,

Intervention, and Suppression

Technical Assistance and Training

Rural Youth Gang Problems: Adapting

OJJDP’s Comprehensive Approach

Case Studies and Evaluation Planning of

OJJDP’s Rural Youth Gang Initiative

Delinquency Prevention and

Intervention

Youth-Centered Conflict Resolution

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

Training and Technical Assistance for

Family Strengthening Programs

Hate Crime

Strengthening Services for Chemically

Involved Children, Youth, and

Families

Diffusion of State Risk-and ProtectiveFactor Focused Prevention

Multisite, Multimodal Treatment Study

of Children With ADHD

Evaluation of the Juvenile Mentoring

Program

Truancy Reduction Demonstration

Program

Evaluation of the Truancy Reduction

Demonstration Program

Arts and At-Risk Youth

Community Volunteer Coordinator

Program

* Learning Disabilities Among Juveniles

At Risk of Delinquency or in the

Juvenile Justice System

Advertising Campaign—Investing in

Youth for a Safer Future

Strengthening the Juvenile Justice

System

Development of the Comprehensive

Strategy for Serious, Violent, and

Chronic Juvenile Offenders

Balanced and Restorative Justice Project

(BARJ)

Training and Technical Assistance

Program To Promote Gender-Specific

Programming for Female Juvenile

Offenders

Juvenile Transfers to Criminal Court

Studies

Replication and Extension of Fagan

Transfer Study

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 the Intensive CommunityBased Aftercare Program

Training and Technical Assistance for

National Innovations To Reduce

Disproportionate Minority

Confinement (The Deborah Ann

Wysinger Memorial Program)

Training for Juvenile Corrections and

Detention Management Staff

Training for Line Staff in Juvenile

Detention and Corrections
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Training and Technical Support for

State and Local Jurisdictional Teams

To Focus on Juvenile Corrections and

Detention Overcrowding

National Program Directory

Interagency Programs on Mental Health

and Juvenile Justice

Juvenile Residential Facility Census

The National Longitudinal Survey of

Youth 97

TeenSupreme Career Preparation

Initiative

Technical Assistance to Native

Americans

Youth Court: A Training & Technical

Assistance Delivery Program

School Safety Training and Technical

Assistance

Disproportionate Minority Confinement

Arts Programs for Juvenile Offenders in

Detention and Corrections

‘‘Circles of Care’’—A Program To

Develop Strategies To Serve Native

American Youth With Mental Health

and Substance Abuse Needs

National Juvenile Defender Training,

Technical Assistance, and Resource

Center

Gender-Specific Programming for

Female Juvenile Offenders

Evaluation Capacity Building

Field-Initiated Research

* Field-Initiated Evaluation

Analysis of Juvenile Justice Data

Evaluation of the Comprehensive

Strategy for Serious, Violent, and

Chronic Juvenile Offenders

Blueprints for Violence Prevention:

Training and Technical Assistance

Teambuilding Project for Courts

Evaluation of Youth-Related

Employment Initiative

Child Abuse and Neglect and

Dependency Courts

Safe Kids/Safe Streets: Community

Approaches to Reducing Abuse and

Neglect and Preventing Delinquency

National Evaluation of the Safe Kids/

Safe Streets Program

Secondary Analysis of Childhood

Victimization

Evaluation of Nurse Home Visitation in

Weed and Seed Sites

Supplemental Funding for Programs

Not Included in the Proposed Plan

The following new or ongoing

programs, which will require

supplemental funding in FY 1998, were

not included in the Proposed Plan

because the need for funding had not

been identified. No additional

applications will be solicited in FY

1998.

GAINS Center

OJJDP will transfer funds to the

National Institute of Corrections to

support a jointly funded effort under

which the GAINS Center will provide

training and technical assistance on

juvenile offenders with co-occurring

disorders. This is the second year of

funding of a 3-year effort.

The Academy

OJJDP is funding a followup study on

disproportionate minority confinement

that expands a field-initiated program

study that looked at court

decisionmaking to include examining

police decisionmaking and its impact on

the confinement of minorities.

Pathways to Success

OJJDP provided continuation funding

in FY 1998 to two sites (Aspira in

Miami, Florida, and Stopover Services

in Providence, Rhode Island) under the

Pathways to Success program. This

continuation funding will permit

program evaluators to collect important

data on the outcomes of the afterschool

programming implemented at these two

sites.

Do the Write Thing

OJJDP will continue funding the

National Campaign to Stop Violence to

expand its Do the Write Thing program.

Do the Write Thing promotes the

development of student ideas and

solutions to reduce crime and violence

through the written word. The program

is currently operating in 12 cities and

reaches more than 5,000 children.

Evaluation of the Youth Substance Use

Prevention Program

The program evaluator (University of

New Hampshire) for the Youth

Substance Use Prevention Program,

funded by the President’s Crime

Prevention Council under the Ounce of

Prevention grants program, will receive

additional funding to complete an

evaluation of 10 youth-led substance

use prevention projects.

Intergenerational Transmission of

Antisocial Behavior

This research grant, administered by

the National Institute of Mental Health

(NIMH), tracks the development of

delinquent behavior among children of

youth from Rochester, New York, who

were research subjects under OJJDP’s

Program of Research on the Causes and

Correlates of Delinquency, an ongoing

longitudinal study in three cities. OJJDP

will transfer funds to NIMH to support

this research.

Study Group on Very Young Offenders

The OJJDP Study Group on Very

Young Offenders, funded under a grant

to the University of Pittsburgh, will

explore what is known about the

prevalence and frequency of very young

offending under the age of 13; whether

such offending predicts future

delinquent or criminal careers; how

these youth are handled by various

systems including juvenile justice,

mental health, and social services; and

what are the best methods of preventing

very young offending and persistence of

offending.

Standards for Juvenile Confinement

Facilities

Support will be provided to the

Council of Juvenile Correctional

Administrators to continue the

Performance-Based Standards for

Juvenile Confinement Facilities

program, expanding the number of

demonstration sites that are testing the

impact of the performance-based

standards process as a means of

improving confinement conditions and

treatment services for juvenile

offenders.

San Diego Comprehensive Strategy

Program

An award to San Diego County (CA)

will support the San Diego

Comprehensive Strategy program’s

establishment of a coordinator position

to facilitate implementation of the

comprehensive strategy plan in San

Diego County.

University of Michigan Data Archive

Supplemental funding will be

provided to the University of Michigan

Data Archive to support the archiving of

data sets produced by OJJDP grantees.

Training and Technical Assistance to

Juvenile Detention and Corrections

OJJDP will provide funds to the

American Correctional Association

(ACA) to support technical assistance

and training to juvenile correctional

agencies. ACA will conduct a National

Forum on Juvenile Corrections/

Detention for agency administrators,

facilitate information exchange in the

field, provide workshops on emerging

issues, and develop and disseminate

papers and monographs to the field.

National Violence Prevention Training

OJJDP will transfer funds to the U.S.

Department of Education to support a

collaborative training project sponsored

by the Harvard School of Public Health,

the Education Development Center, Inc.,

the Prevention Institute, Inc., the

Massachusetts Corporation for

Educational Telecommunication, and

several Federal agencies including the

U.S. Department of Health and Human

Services’ Maternal and Child Health
33142 Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 116 /Wednesday, June 17, 1998 / Notices

Bureau, Center for Disease Control and

Prevention, Center for Injury

Prevention, and Indian Health Service

and OJJDP. This six-part satellite

training makes use of satellite

technology, the Internet, and hands-on

facilitation and highlights an array of

successful initiatives across the country

with a particular emphasis on reduction

of violence in schools and communities.

Overarching

SafeFutures: Partnerships To Reduce

Youth Violence and Delinquency

OJJDP is awarding grants of up to $1.4

million annually to each of six

communities for a 5-year project period

that began in FY 1995, to assist in

implementing comprehensive

community programs designed to

reduce youth violence and delinquency.

Boston, Massachusetts; Contra Costa

County, California; Seattle, Washington;

St. Louis, Missouri; Imperial County,

California (rural site); and Fort Belknap,

Montana (tribal site) were competitively

selected to receive awards under the

SafeFutures program 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, including 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

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 program

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; after

school activities; mentoring; treatment

alternatives for juvenile female

offenders; mental health services; day

treatment; graduated sanctions for

serious, violent, and chronic juvenile

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 at each of the

six sites. OJJDP has also committed a

cadre of training and technical

assistance (TTA) resources to

SafeFutures through a full-time TTA

coordinator for SafeFutures and a host

of partner organizations committed to

assisting SafeFutures sites. The TTA

coordinator 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 in public

housing areas of 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 grantees. No

additional applications will be solicited

in FY 1998.

Evaluation of SafeFutures

In FY 1995, OJJDP funded six

communities under the SafeFutures:

Partnerships To Reduce Youth Violence

and Delinquency program. The program

sites are Boston, Massachusetts; Contra

Costa County, California; Fort Belknap

Indian Community, Harlem, Montana;

Imperial County, California; Seattle,

Washington; St. Louis, Missouri. The

SafeFutures Program provides support

for a comprehensive prevention,

intervention, and treatment program to

meet the needs of at-risk juveniles and

their families. In total, up to $8.4

million is being 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 FY 1995 funds to

conduct Phase I of the national

evaluation of the SafeFutures program.

OJJDP agreed to consider 2 years of

additional funding for Phase II. The

evaluation addresses the program

implementation process and measures

performance outcomes across the six

sites. The process evaluation focuses

primarily on the development and

implementation of a strategic plan

designed to establish a continuum of

care and integrated services for young

people in high-risk communities. The

evaluation will identify obstacles and

key factors contributing to the

successful implementation of the

SafeFutures program. The evaluator is

responsible for developing a cross-site

report documenting the process of

program implementation for use by

other funding agencies or communities

that want to develop and implement a

comprehensive community-based

strategy to address serious, violent, and

chronic delinquency.

In FY 1996, the Urban Institute

developed a logic model that links

program activities and outputs to

desired intermediate and long-term

outcomes. Their evaluator also held a

cross-site cluster meeting and

conducted site visits at each of the six

SafeFutures sites.

In FY 1997, in addition to continuing

its onsite monitoring, the Urban

Institute, in collaboration with the

OJJDP SafeFutures program

management team, developed the

national evaluation plan and introduced

it to the sites at the cluster meeting on

information technology held in

Oakland, CA, in September 1997.

In FY 1998, the Urban Institute will

continue the process evaluation and

will conduct interviews with key

stakeholders, service providers, and

youth in order to assess the extent to

which a community and its policy board

have mobilized to implement a

continuum of care and develop an

integrated system of services over the

course of SafeFutures program

implementation. The research team will

also complete the development of

performance measures to be used by all

sites to monitor the outcomes for

targeted populations within and across

sites. They will compile and process the

results of the performance outcomes

from the sites and provide feedback to

both the sites and to OJJDP. Beginning

in FY 1998, the national evaluator will
Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 116 /Wednesday, June 17, 1998 / Notices 33143

design and conduct sample surveys of

youth in the community to assist in

monitoring community-level changes in

the prevalence and incidence of certain

risk factors as well as developmental

and community assets on levels of

delinquency and violence in the

targeted community. In addition,

longitudinal samples of youth and their

families will be followed over time to

observe the extent to which multiple

needs are identified and responded to

over the course of the SafeFutures

program interventions.

The evaluation will be implemented

by the current grantee, the Urban

Institute. No additional applications

will be solicited in FY 1998.

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 (Causes and

Correlates): The University of Colorado

at Boulder, the University of Pittsburgh,

and the University at Albany, State

University of New York. Results from

this longitudinal study have been used

extensively in the field of juvenile

justice and have contributed

significantly to the development of

OJJDP’s Comprehensive Strategy for

Serious, Violent, and Chronic Juvenile

Offenders and other OJJDP program

initiatives.

OJJDP began funding this program in

1986 and has invested approximately

$10.3 million to date. Currently, OJJDP

is supporting site data analyses under

three-year project period grants awarded

to each site in FY 1996. The Causes and

Correlates program has addressed a

variety of issues related to 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 Causes and Correlates project

sites, each has unique design features.

Additionally, each project has

disseminated the results of its research

through a broad range of publications,

reports, and presentations.

With FY 1996 funding, each site of

the Causes and Correlates program was

provided funds to further analyze the

longitudinal data. Among the numerous

analyses conducted were risk factors for

teenage fatherhood, patterns of illegal

gun carrying among young urban males,

and factors associated with early sexual

activity among urban adolescents. Two

publications were developed as part of

the newly launched Youth Development

Series of OJJDP Bulletins.

In FY 1997, the sites continued both

their collaborative research efforts and

site-specific research. The cross site

analysis was on the early onset and cooccurrence of persistent serious

offending. Site specific analyses were

produced on victimization, over time

changes in delinquency and drug use,

impact of family changes on adolescent

development, and neighborhood,

individual, and social risk factors for

serious juvenile offending.

In FY 1998, at least one major cross

site analysis will be undertaken as well

as three site specific analyses per study

site.

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,

University at Albany, State University of

New York. No additional applications

will be solicited in FY 1998.

OJJDP Management Evaluation

Contract

OJJDP’s Management Evaluation

Contract was competitively awarded in

1995 for a period of 3 years. Its purpose

is to provide OJJDP with an expert

resource capable of performing

independent program evaluations and

assisting the Office in implementing

evaluation activities. The management

evaluation contract currently provides

the following types of assistance to

OJJDP:(1) assists OJJDP staff in the

determination of evaluation needs of

programs, program areas, or projects to

assist the agency in determining when

to invest its evaluation resources; (2)

develops evaluation designs that OJJDP

can use in defining requirements for a

grant or contract to implement the

evaluation; (3) provides technical

assistance with regard to evaluation

techniques to other jurisdictions

involved in the evaluation of programs

to prevent and treat juvenile

delinquency; (4) responds to the needs

of OJJDP by providing evaluations based

on available data or data that can be

readily developed to support OJJDP

decisionmaking under whatever

schedule is required by the

decisionmaking process. Evaluations

under this contract are program

evaluations, that is, evaluations of either

individual grants or contracts or groups

of grants or contracts that are designed

to determine the effectiveness and

efficiency of the program; (5) conduct a

full-scale evaluation research project;

and (6) provide training to OJJDP

program managers and other staff on

evaluation-related topics such as the

different kinds of evaluation data and

their uses, planning for program or

project information collection and

evaluation, and the role of evaluation in

the agency planning process.

Under this contract, evaluations may

be conducted on OJJDP-funded action

programs, including demonstrations,

tests, training, and technical assistance

programs and other programs, not

funded by OJJDP, designed to prevent

and treat juvenile delinquency.

Evaluations are carried out in

accordance with work plans prepared

by the contractor and approved by

OJJDP. Because the evaluations vary in

terms of program complexity,

availability of data, and purpose of the

evaluation, the time and cost of each

varies. Each evaluation is defined by

OJJDP and costs, method, and time are

determined through negotiations

between OJJDP and the contractor.

Because the purpose of many

evaluations is to inform management

decisions, the completion of an

evaluation and submission of a report

may be required in a specific and, often,

short time period.

This contract will be implemented by

the current contractor, Caliber

Associates. A new competitive contract

solicitation will be issued during FY

1998, and a new contract awarded in FY

1999.

Juvenile Justice Statistics and Systems

Development

The Juvenile Justice Statistics and

Systems Development (SSD) program

was competitively awarded in FY 1990

to the National Center for Juvenile

Justice (NCJJ) to improve national, State,

and local statistics on juveniles as

victims and offenders. Over the last

seven years, through continuation

funding, the project has focused on

three major tasks: (1) assessing 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; and (3)

providing training and technical

assistance for local agencies in

developing or enhancing management

information systems.

Under the second task, OJJDP released

the seminal analysis Juvenile Offenders

and Victims: A National Report in

September 1995, Juvenile Offenders and

Victims: 1996 Update on Violence in

March 1996, and Juvenile Offenders and

Victims: 1997 Update on Violence in
33144 Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 116 /Wednesday, June 17, 1998 / Notices

October 1997. A training curriculum,

Improving Information for Rational

Decisionmaking in Juvenile Justice, was

drafted for pilot testing, and future

documents will be produced based on

this effort.

In FY 1998, NCJJ will: (1) 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; (2) update

the Compendium of Federal Statistical

Programs on juvenile victims and

offenders and work with the Office of

Justice Programs’ Crime Statistics

Working Group and other Federal

interagency statistics working groups;

(3) provide technical support to OJJDP

in enhancing the availability and

accessibility of statistics on the OJJDP

web site; (4) 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; and (5) produce

a second edition of Juvenile Offenders

and Victims: A National Report.

This project will be implemented by

the current grantee, NCJJ. No additional

applications will be solicited in FY

1998.

Census of Juveniles in Residential

Placement

The Census of Juveniles in Residential

Placement (CJRP) is replacing the

biennial Census of Public and Private

Juvenile Detention, Correctional, and

Shelter Facilities, known as the

Children in Custody census. This newly

designed census will 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 the CJRP to more accurately

represent the numbers of juveniles in

residential placement and to describe

the reasons for their placement. A new

method of data collection, tested in FY

1996, involves gathering data in a rostertype format, often by electronic means.

The new methods are expected to result

in more accurate, timely, and useful

data on the juvenile population, with

less reporting burden for facility

respondents.

In FY 1997, OJJDP funded initial

implementation of the CJRP, including

form preparation, mailout, and

processing of census forms. In October

1997, the first census using the revised

methodology was conducted.

OJJDP will continue funding this

project in FY 1998 to clean the data

files, allowing the production of new

data products based on the 1997 census.

This program will be implemented

through an existing interagency

agreement with the Bureau of the

Census. No additional applications will

be solicited in FY 1998.

OJJDP National Training and Technical

Assistance Center

The National Juvenile Justice and

Delinquency Prevention Training and

Technical Assistance Center (NTTAC)

was established in FY 1995 under a

competitive 3-year project period award

to Community Research Associates.

NTTAC serves as a national training and

technical assistance clearinghouse,

inventorying and coordinating the

integrated delivery of juvenile justice

training/technical assistance resources

and establishing a data base of these

resources.

In FY 1995, work involved

organization and staffing of the Center,

orientation for OJJDP training/technical

assistance providers regarding their role

in the Center’s activities, and initial data

base development.

NTTAC’s funding in FY 1996

provided services in the form of

coordinated technical assistance

support for OJJDP’s SafeFutures and

gang program initiatives, continued

promotion of collaboration between

OJJDP training/technical assistance

providers, developed training/technical

assistance materials, and completed and

disseminated the first 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

training-of-trainers programs. NTTAC

continued to evolve as a central source

for information pertaining to the

availability of OJJDP-supported training/

technical assistance programs and

resources.

In FY 1997, NTTAC completed the

first draft of the jurisdictional team

training/technical assistance packages

for gender-specific services and juvenile

correctional services; provided training/

technical assistance in support of

OJJDP’s SafeFutures and Gangs

programs; updated and disseminated

the second Training and Technical

Assistance Resource Catalog; created a

Web site for the Center and a ListServe

for the Children, Youth and Affinity

Group; held three focus groups on needs

assessments; and coordinated and

provided 38 instances of technical

assistance in conjunction with OJJDP’s

training/technical assistance grantees

and contractors.

In FY 1998, NTTAC will finalize, field

test, and coordinate delivery of the

jurisdictional team training/technical

assistance packages on critical needs in

the juvenile justice system, update the

resource catalog, facilitate the annual

OJJDP training/TA grantee and

contractor meeting, continue to update

the repository of training/TA materials

and the electronic data base of training/

TA materials, and continue to respond

to training/TA requests from the field.

The current grantee, Community

Research Associates, will complete its

work under the award in FY 1998. A

solicitation will be issued as part of the

FY 1998 OJJDP Discretionary Program

Announcement: Discretionary Grant

Program: Parts C and D. Information on

how to obtain a copy of the Program

Announcement is provided above under

Supplementary Information.

Technical Assistance for State

Legislatures

Since FY 1995, OJJDP has awarded

annual grants to the National

Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL)

to provide relevant and timely

information on comprehensive

approaches in juvenile justice that are

geared to the legislative environment.

The purpose of this project is to aid

State legislators in improving State

juvenile justice systems when crafting

legislative responses to youth violence.

State legislatures have a unique role and

responsibility in establishing State

policy and approaches and

appropriating funds for juvenile justice.

Nearly every State has enacted, or is

considering, statutory changes affecting

the juvenile justice system. Historically,

State legislatures have lacked the

information needed to comprehensively

address juvenile justice issues.

Experience with this project indicates

that policymakers find it has helped

them understand the ramifications and

nuances of juvenile justice reform.

Since OJJDP began funding this

project, NCSL has conducted three

invitational Legislator’s Leadership

Forums; sponsored sessions on juvenile

justice reform at the NCSL annual

meetings; expanded clearinghouse and

juvenile justice enactment reporting;

and produced and distributed a

publication, Legislator’s Guide to

Comprehensive Juvenile Justice. The

invitational meetings were attended by

more than 100 legislators and additional

legislative staff from 34 States selected

as key decisionmakers on juvenile

justice reform. Meeting sessions and

information services reached at least

500 legislators or legislative staff in all
Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 116 /Wednesday, June 17, 1998 / Notices 33145

States. In addition, project publications

were distributed to more than 2,000

legislative members, staff, and agencies

to provide for further broad distribution

of information central to comprehensive

strategies in juvenile justice to a State

legislative audience throughout the

States.

The grant has improved capacity for

the delivery of information services to

legislatures, with the number of

information requests handled for

legislators and staff having increased to

about 500 per year. It is expected that

the Children and Families and Criminal

Justice programs will respond to another

500 information requests in FY 1998.

In FY 1998, NCSL will 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 involves

supporting increased communication

between State legislators and State and

local leaders who influence

decisionmaking regarding juvenile

justice issues. NCSL will provide

intensive technical assistance to four

States, continue outreach activities, and

maintain its clearinghouse function.

Additionally, NCSL will assist in the

production of a live satellite

videoconference directed primarily to

State legislators.

The project will be implemented by

the current grantee, NCSL. No

additional applications will be solicited

in FY 1998.

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. The advantages of these

technologies include increased access to

information and training for

professionals in the juvenile justice

system, reduced travel costs to

conferences, and reduced time attending

meetings away from one’s home or

office. OJJDP uses this cost-effective

medium to share with the field the

salient elements of the most effective or

promising approaches to various

juvenile justice issues. The field has

responded positively to these live

satellite teleconferences and has come

to expect them at regular intervals.

OJJDP selected Eastern Kentucky

University (EKU) through a competitive

program announcement in FY 1992 to

conduct a feasibility study on using this

technology in its programming. In FY

1995, EKU was awarded a competitive

grant to undertake production of live

satellite videoconferences. Since the

inception of this grant in FY 1995, EKU

has produced 13 live satellite

teleconferences, with an average of 360

downlink sites participating in each.

The project produced four

teleconferences in FY 1995 (Juvenile

Boot Camps, Reducing Youth Gun

Violence, Youth Out of the Education

Mainstream, and Conflict Resolution for

Youth), four in FY 1996 (Community

Collaboration, Effective Programs for

Serious, Violent, and Chronic Juvenile

Offenders, Youth-Oriented Community

Policing, Leadership Challenges for

Juvenile Detentions and Corrections),

and five in FY 1997 (Has the Juvenile

Court Outlived Its Usefulness?, Youth

Gangs in America, Preventing Drug

Abuse Among Youth, Mentoring for

Youth, and Treating Drug-Involved

Youth).

In FY 1998, OJJDP will continue the

cooperative agreement with EKU in

order to provide program support and

technical assistance for a variety of

information technologies, including

audioconferences, fiber optics, and

satellite teleconferences, producing four

to five additional live national satellite

teleconferences. The grantee will 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 will be implemented by

the current grantee, EKU. No additional

applications will be solicited in FY

1998.

OJJDP Technical Assistance Support

Contract—Juvenile Justice Resource

Center

This contract 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. OJJDP extended the current

contract until a new contract can be

competitively awarded. Applications

have been solicited and received, and

the new contract is expected to be

awarded shortly.

This contract will be implemented by

the current contractor, Aspen Systems

Corporation, until a new contract is

awarded.

Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse

A component of the National Criminal

Justice Reference Service (NCJRS), the

Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse (JJC) is

OJJDP’s central source for the collection,

synthesis, and dissemination of

information on all aspects of juvenile

justice, including 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

serves the entire juvenile justice

community, including researchers, law

enforcement officials, judges,

prosecutors, probation and corrections

staff, youth-service personnel,

legislators, the media, and the public.

Among its many support services, JJC

offers toll-free telephone access to

information; prepares specialized

responses to information requests;

produces, warehouses, and distributes

OJJDP publications; exhibits at national

conferences; maintains a comprehensive

juvenile justice library and data base;

and administers several electronic

information resources. Recognizing the

critical need to inform juvenile justice

practitioners and policymakers on

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 (NIJ) under a

competitively awarded contract to

Aspen Systems Corporation.

This program will continue to be

implemented by the current contractor,

Aspen Systems Corporation, until the

new contract is awarded. NIJ has issued

a new competitive solicitation, and a

new contract will be awarded during FY

1998.

Insular Area Support

The purpose of this program is to

provide 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 of 1974,

as amended, 42 U.S.C. 5665(e).

Community Assessment Centers (CAC’s)

The Community Assessment Center

(CAC) program is a multicomponent

demonstration initiative designed to test

the efficacy of the Community

Assessment Center concept. CAC’s

provide a 24-hour centralized point of

intake and assessment for juveniles who

have or are likely to come into contact

with the juvenile justice system. The

main purpose of a CAC is to facilitate

earlier and more efficient prevention

and intervention service delivery at the

‘‘front end’’ of the juvenile justice
33146 Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 116 /Wednesday, June 17, 1998 / Notices

system. In FY 1997, OJJDP funded two

planning grants and two enhancement

grants to existing assessment centers for

a 1-year project period, a CAC

evaluation project, and a technical

assistance component.

The planning grants were awarded to

the Denver Juvenile Court in Denver,

Colorado, and to the Lee County

Sheriff’s Office in Fort Myers, Florida,

to support a 1-year intensive planning

process for the development and

implementation of a CAC in each

community. In Denver, community

leaders are assessing the feasibility of a

CAC and building on existing

infrastructure developed with support

from the Center for Substance Abuse

Treatment’s Juvenile Justice Integrated

Treatment Network program. In Fort

Myers, community leaders are

completing an initial planning process

and are planning to open their CAC in

the near future. Planning in this site will

continue after implementation and will

focus on enhancing the CAC in Fort

Myers to become more consistent with

the CAC concept and on developing

linkages with the community’s

Comprehensive Strategy initiative.

The enhancement component of the

CAC program is designed to increase the

effectiveness and efficiency of existing

assessment centers by supporting

various and specific program

enhancements and to provide support to

existing assessment centers in an effort

to create consistency with OJJDP’s CAC

concept.

Also in FY 1997, two communities

received 1-year awards to help existing

assessment centers provide enhanced

services and to demonstrate the

effectiveness of the CAC concept

overall. Jefferson Center for Mental

Health in Jefferson County, Colorado,

and Human Service Associates, Inc., in

Orlando, Florida, were competitively

selected to receive awards under the

CAC program on the basis of their

demonstrated commitment to

specifically implement an enhancement

that makes the existing CAC more

consistent with the CAC concept. The

Jefferson Center for Mental Health is

developing improved case management

procedures and an improved

management information system.

Human Services Associates, Inc., is

creating an intensive integrated case

management system for high-risk youth

referred to the CAC, an enhancement

also consistent with the OJJDP CAC

concept.

In FY 1998, OJJDP will provide

additional funding to support the full

and continued implementation of

selected CAC enhancements and

additional support to the sites awarded

planning grants in FY 1997. This

funding will enable these sites to begin

implementing the CAC’s planned for

with OJJDP funding support or to

enhance existing operations.

The CAC initiative evaluation

component, being conducted by the

National Council on Crime and

Delinquency, and the technical

assistance component, being delivered

by the Florida Alcohol and Drug Abuse

Association, were funded in FY 1997 for

2-year project periods and will not

require additional funds in FY 1998.

These programs will be implemented

by the current grantees, Jefferson Center

for Mental Health, Human Service

Associates, Inc., Denver Juvenile Court,

and Lee County Sheriff’s Office. No

additional applications will be solicited

in FY 1998.

Training and Technical Assistance

Coordination for SafeFutures Initiative

OJJDP will provide funding for longterm training and technical assistance

(TA) for the remaining 3 years of the

SafeFutures initiative. The purpose of

this TA effort will be to build local

capacity for implementing and

sustaining effective continuum of care

and systems change approaches to

preventing and controlling juvenile

violence and delinquency in the six

SafeFutures communities. Project

activities will include assessment,

identification, and coordination of the

implementation of training and TA

needs at each SafeFutures site and

administration of cross-site training.

OJJDP will continue funding under a

grant for the provision of training and

technical assistance coordination to the

six SafeFutures sites. No additional

applications will be solicited in FY

1998.

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 FY 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 began full-scale

implementation of the program model

and began serving gang-involved youth

in the targeted areas. In each site, a

multidisciplinary team has been

established to coordinate the services

that project youth receive. Teams are

made up of various community

institution representatives, including

police, probation, outreach or street

workers, court representatives, service

providers, and others. The services

provided through this team—or

recommended by them—include social

interventions such as outreach, case

management, counseling, substance

abuse treatment, anger management, life

skills, cultural awareness, controlled

recreation activities, access to

educational, social, and economic

opportunities such as GED attainment,

school reintegration, vocational training,

and job development and placement.

Also included in the service mix is

accountability or social control. This is

provided through traditional

suppression from law enforcement and

probation, and also accountability

through the schools, community-based

agencies, parents, families, and

community members. The team meets

regularly to go over progress with each

youth, so that each team member is

aware of prevailing risks and positive

developments and can use this

information to be supportive of the

youth when contacted in the field by

providing additional services,

modifying ‘‘treatment plans,’’ or

invoking accountability measures

ranging from values clarification and

general motivational support to arrest

and prosecution. In addition to core

team members, other agencies also

support the programs, such as the faith

community, local Boys & Girls Clubs,

and alternative and mainstream schools.

In some sites, prevention components

have been established to work hand-inhand with the intervention and

suppression program. For example, in

one site a mentoring program has been

established for youth who are younger

siblings of gang members targeted in the

intervention components.

The demonstration sites also

participated in training and technical

assistance activities, including cluster

conferences sponsored by OJJDP and

site-specific consultations on issues

such as information sharing and

outreach activities.
Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 116 /Wednesday, June 17, 1998 / Notices 33147

In FY 1998, OJJDP will provide a

fourth year of funding to selected

demonstration sites to target up to 200

youth prone to gang violence in each

site through continuing implementation

of the program model and work with the

independent evaluator of this

demonstration program.

This project will be implemented by

the current demonstration sites. No

additional applications will be solicited

in FY 1998.

Evaluation of the Comprehensive

Community-Wide Approach to Gang

Prevention, Intervention, and

Suppression Program

The University of Chicago, School of

Social Service Administration, received

a competitive cooperative agreement

award in FY 1995. This 4-year project

period award supports the evaluation of

OJJDP’s Comprehensive CommunityWide Approach to Gang Prevention,

Intervention, and Suppression Program.

The evaluation grantee assisted the five

program sites (Bloomington, Illinois;

Mesa, Arizona; Riverside, California;

San Antonio, Texas; and Tucson,

Arizona) 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 FY 1997, following 2 years of

program development and evaluation

design, the grantee trained the local site

interviewers; gathered and tracked data

from police, prosecutor, probation,

school, and social service agencies;

collected individual gang member

interviews from both the program and

comparison areas; provided onsite

technical assistance to the local sites;

consulted with local evaluators on

development and implementation of

local site parent/community resident

surveys; and coordinated ongoing efforts

with local researchers.

In FY 1998, the grantee will continue

to gather and analyze data required to

evaluate the program; monitor and

oversee the quality control of data;

provide assistance for completion of

interviews; and provide ongoing

feedback to project sites.

This project will be implemented by

the current grantee, the University of

Chicago, School of Social Service

Administration. No additional

applications will be solicited in FY

1998.

Targeted Outreach With a Gang

Prevention and Intervention

Component (Boys & Girls Clubs)

This program is designed to enable

local Boys & 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 more

constructive programs. In FY 1997, Boys

& Girls Clubs of America provided

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 & Girls

Clubs. A national evaluation of this

program, through Public/Private

Ventures, was also started in FY 1997

under this award.

In FY 1998, the Boys & Girls Clubs of

America will provide training and

technical assistance to 20 existing gang

prevention sites, 3 existing intervention

sites, and OJJDP’s gang and SafeFutures

demonstration sites. The national

evaluation of the Targeted Outreach

program will continue in FY 1998. The

Targeted Outreach program will also

provide training and technical

assistance to up to 10 new rural

Targeted Outreach sites and will

consider implementing two new pilot

programs: Targeted Reintegration,

which involves working with youth

coming out of institutional placements,

and another developmental pilot project

with the Violence Impact Forums of the

Tariq Khamisa Foundation (TKF). The

latter project is a collaborative effort of

OJJDP, the Office for Victims of Crime,

the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, TKF,

and other organizations.

This program will be implemented by

the current grantee, the Boys & Girls

Clubs of America. No additional

applications will be solicited in FY

1998.

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 awarded in FY 1995 for a

3-year project period. The NYGC was

created to expand and maintain the

body of critical knowledge about youth

gangs and effective responses to them.

In FY 1997, NYGC continued to assist

state and local jurisdictions to collect,

analyze and exchange information on

gang-related demographics, legislation,

literature, research and promising

program strategies. It also supported the

work of the National Gang Consortium,

a group of federal agencies, gang

program representatives and

researchers. A major activity was a

survey of all federal agencies and the

presentation of data on their programs,

planning cycles and other resources. It

continued to promote the collection and

analysis of gang related data and

published the results of its first National

Youth Gang Survey of 2,000 law

enforcement agencies.

OJJDP will extend the project an

additional year and provide FY 1998

funds to NYGC to conduct more indepth

analyses of the first and second National

Youth Gang Survey results that track

changes in the nature and scope of the

youth gang problem. NYGC, through its

Focus Group on Data Collection and

Analysis, will continue its efforts to

foster integration of gang-related items

into other relevant surveys and national

data collection efforts. NYGC will also

provide technical assistance to OJJDP’s

new Rural Gang program sites.

Fiscal year 1998 funds will support an

additional year of funding to the current

grantee, the Institute for

Intergovernmental Research. No

additional applications will be solicited

in FY 1998.

Evaluation of the Partnerships To

Reduce Juvenile Gun Violence Program

COSMOS Corporation received a

competitive award in FY 1997. This 3-

year project period award supports

OJJDP’s Evaluation of the Partnerships

To Reduce Juvenile Gun Violence

Program. The program will document

and evaluate the process of community

mobilization, planning, and

collaboration needed to develop a

comprehensive, collaborative approach

to reducing gun violence involving

juveniles in four sites. The sites are

Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Oakland,

California: Shreveport, Louisiana; and

Syracuse, New York.

In FY 1997, the grantee conducted

onsite technical assistance workshops

with partner organizations and assisted

the sites in planning and developing

local Partnerships To Reduce Juvenile

Gun Violence.

In FY 1998, the grantee will develop

data collection protocols, conduct a

process evaluation, and continue to

provide onsite technical assistance to

the sites. In addition to the four sites

listed above, the grantee will also

identify additional promising/effective

programs underway in communities

across the country and evaluate a select
33148 Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 116 /Wednesday, June 17, 1998 / Notices

number of these programs. With an

expanded base of youth gun violence

programs, there is greater opportunity to

identify sites that are employing similar

strategies with different targeted

populations.

This evaluation will be implemented

by the current grantee, COSMOS

Corporation. No additional applications

will be solicited in FY 1998.

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. In addition, the Chicago

Project serves to demonstrate 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. The project began in

January 1995 with joint funding from

OJJDP and the Centers for Disease

Control and prevention (CDC), National

Center for Injury Prevention and Control

(NCIPC), the Bureau of Justice

Assistance, and the Department of

Housing and Urban Development. The

project currently provides technical

assistance to a variety of communitybased and citywide organizations

involved in violence prevention

planning. The majority of the technical

assistance supports community level

efforts and agencies working to directly

support the community plan.

In FY 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 FY 1997, the Chicago Project

further refined the violence prevention

strategy developed in the Austin

community, began implementation of

the strategy, and continued to provide

technical assistance to the Logan Square

and Grand Boulevard communities as

they developed their violence

prevention strategies.

In FY 1998, OJJDP will continue

funding the project, which will

complete the strategic planning process

with Logan Square and Grand

Boulevard and continue to work with

Austin in implementing its strategy.

The Chicago Project for Violence

Prevention will be implemented by the

current grantee, the University of

Illinois, School of Public Health. No

additional applications will be solicited

in FY 1998.

Safe Start—Child DevelopmentCommunity-Oriented Policing (CD–CP)

The Child Development-CommunityOriented Policing (CD–CP) program, an

innovative partnership between the

New Haven Department of Police

Services and the Child Study Center at

the Yale University School of Medicine,

addresses the psychological burdens on

children, families, and the broader

community of increasing levels of

community violence. In FY 1993, OJJDP

provided support to document Yale—

New Haven’s child-centered,

community-oriented policing model.

The program model consists of

interrelated training and consultation,

including a child development

fellowship for police supervisors; police

fellowship for clinicians; seminars on

child development, human functioning,

and policing strategies; a 15-hour

training course in child development for

all new police officers; weekly

collaborative meetings and case

conferences that support institutional

changes in police practices; and

establishment of protocols for referral

and consultation to ensure that children

receive the services they need.

In FY 1994, the Bureau of Justice

Assistance, using community policing

funds, joined with OJJDP to support the

first year of a 3-year training and

technical assistance grant to replicate

the CD–CP program nationwide. In each

of FY’s 1995, 1996, and 1997, OJJDP

provided grants of $300,000 to the Yale

Child Study Center to replicate the

model through training of law

enforcement and mental health

providers in Buffalo, New York;

Charlotte, North Carolina; Nashville,

Tennessee; and Portland, Oregon.

The CD–CP program has provided a

wide range of coordinated police and

clinical responses in the four replication

sites, including round-the-clock

availability of consultation with a

clinical professional and a police

supervisor to patrol officers who assist

children exposed to violence; weekly

case conferences with police officers,

educators, and child study center staff;

open police stations located in

neighborhoods and accessible to

residents for police and related services;

community liaison and coordination of

community response; crisis response;

clinical referral; interagency

collaboration; home-based followup;

and officer support and neighborhood

foot patrols. In the CD–CP program’s last

4 years of operation in the New Haven

site, more than 450 children have been

referred to the consultation service by

officers in the field. It is anticipated that

these results can be obtained in the

replication sites.

In FY 1997, through a partnership

between OJJDP, Violence Against

Women Grants Office, and Office for

Victims of Crime (OVC), $700,000

($300,000 from OJJDP, $300,000 from

the Violence Against Women Grants

Office, and $100,000 from OVC) was

allocated to CD–CP to expand the

program under a new Safe Start

Initiative designed to support the

following activities:

• Development of a training and

technical assistance center in New

Haven consisting of a team of expert

practitioners who provide training for

law enforcement, prosecutors, mental

health professionals, school personnel,

and probation and parole officers to

better respond to the needs of children

exposed to community violence

including but not limited to family

violence, gang violence, and abuse or

neglect.

• Plan for expansion of program sites

from the original four. Future sites, the

total number of which are yet to be

determined, will be selected

competitively based upon each site’s

capacity to establish a core police/

mental health provider team concerned

with child victimization.

• Further research, data collection,

analysis, and evaluation of CD–CP in

the program sites.

• The development of a casebook for

practitioners, which will detail

intervention strategies and various

aspects of the CD–CP collaborative

process.

In FY 1998, this project will be

continued by the current grantee, the

Yale University School of Medicine, in

collaboration with the New Haven

Department of Police Services. No

additional applications will be solicited

in FY 1998.

Juvenile Justice Law Enforcement

Training and Technical Assistance

Program

Juvenile crime and victimization

present major challenges to law

enforcement and other practitioners

who are responsible for prevention,

intervention, and enforcement efforts.

Violent crime committed by juveniles,
Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 116 /Wednesday, June 17, 1998 / Notices 33149

juvenile involvement in gangs and

drugs, and decreasing fiscal resources

are a few of the challenges facing

juvenile justice practitioners today.

OJJDP is committed to helping

Federal, State, local, and tribal 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.

In FY 1997, a contract was awarded

to John Jay College of Criminal Justice

(John Jay) for the Law Enforcement

Training and Technical Assistance

program. Since the program’s inception

in March 1997, John Jay has trained

approximately 700 State, local, and

tribal workshop participants and

provided requested onsite technical

assistance to 16 communities.

Fiscal year 1998 funds will support

the continuation of seven regional

training workshops: the Chief Executive

Officer Youth Violence Forum;

Managing Juvenile Operations (MJO);

Gang, Gun, and Drug Policy; School

Administrators for Effective Operations

Leading to Improved Children and

Youth Services (SAFE Policy); Youth

Oriented-Community Policing; Tribal

Justice Training and Technical

Assistance; and the Serious Habitual

Offender Comprehensive Action

Program (SHOCAP).

A solicitation will be issued as part of

the FY 1998 OJJDP Discretionary

Program Announcement: Discretionary

Grant Program: Parts C and D.

Information on how to obtain a copy of

the Program Announcement is provided

above under Supplementary

Information.

Partnerships To Reduce Juvenile Gun

Violence

OJJDP will award continuation grants

of up to $200,000 to each of four

competitively selected communities that

initially received funds in FY 1997 to

help them increase the effectiveness of

existing youth gun violence reduction

strategies by enhancing and

coordinating prevention, intervention,

and suppression strategies and

strengthening linkages between

community residents, law enforcement,

and the juvenile justice system. Baton

Rouge, Louisiana; Oakland, California;

Shreveport, Louisiana; and Syracuse,

New York, were competitively selected

to receive 3-year awards.

The goals of this initiative are to

reduce juveniles’ illegal access to guns

and address the reasons they carry and

use guns in violence exchanges. Each of

the sites is required to address five

objectives: (1) reduce illegal gun

availability to juveniles; (2) reduce the

incidence of juveniles’ illegally carrying

guns; (3) reduce juvenile gun-related

crimes; (4) increase youth awareness of

the personal and legal consequences of

gun violence; and (5) increase

participation of community residents

and organizations in public safety

efforts.

To accomplish the goals and

objectives, each site will complete the

development of a comprehensive plan

and incorporate the following seven

strategies in the target area:

(1) Positive opportunity strategies for

young people, such as mentoring, job

readiness, and afterschool programs.

(2) An educational strategy in which

students learn how to resolve conflicts

without violence, resist peer pressure to

possess or carry guns, and distinguish

between real violence and television

violence.

(3) A public information strategy that

uses radio, local television, and print

outlets to broadly communicate to

young people the dangers and

consequences of gun violence and

present information on positive youth

activities taking place in the

community.

(4) A law enforcement/community

communication strategy that expands

neighborhood communication;

community policing, such as a program

that notifies neighborhood residents

when particular incidents or concerns

have been addressed; and community

supervision to educate at-risk and courtinvolved juveniles on the legal

consequences of their involvement in

gun violence.

(5) A grassroots community

involvement and mobilization strategy

that engages neighborhood residents,

including youth, in improving the

community.

(6) A suppression strategy that

reduces juvenile access to illegal guns

and illegal gun trafficking in

communities by developing special gun

units, using community allies to report

illegal gun trade, targeting gang

members and illegal gun possession

cases for prosecution, and increasing

sanctions.

(7) A juvenile justice system strategy

that applies appropriate treatment

interventions to respond to the needs of

juvenile offenders who enter the system

on gun-related charges. Interventions

may include specialized gun courts,

family counseling, victim impact

awareness classes, drug treatment,

probation, or intensive community

supervision, including aftercare. The

approach should focus on addressing

the reasons juveniles had access to,

carried, and used guns illegally.

A national evaluation is being

conducted by COSMOS Corporation to

document and understand the process

of community mobilization, planning,

and collaboration needed to develop a

comprehensive, collaborative approach

to reducing juvenile gun violence.

The Partnerships To Reduce Juvenile

Gun Violence program will be carried

out by the four current grantees. No

additional applications will be solicited

in FY 1998.

Comprehensive Community-Wide

Approach to Gang Prevention,

Intervention, and Suppression

Technical Assistance and Training

Since 1995, OJJDP has provided

funding to five communities to

implement and test a comprehensive

program model for gang prevention,

intervention and suppression, known as

the Spergel model. In 1997, the sites

were awarded continuation funding for

the third year of a 3-year project period

grant to continue program

implementation. OJJDP will provide a

fourth year of funding for this program.

To support the ongoing

implementation and a potential fourth

year of operations (being proposed

elsewhere in this Program Plan), OJJDP

will provide funding to the University

of Chicago for enhanced technical

assistance and training services. This

award will be made to the University’s

Gang Research, Evaluation and

Technical Assistance (GRETA) program,

through the School of Social Service

Administration. Technical assistance

and training to be provided through this

award may include technical assistance

and training to law enforcement,

probation, and parole on their role in

the model; technical assistance to

community and grassroots organizations

on their role in the model; and technical

assistance on team development,

information sharing, information

systems, and data collection and on

issues of sustainability and

organizational and systems change to

better deal with the community’s youth

gang problem. Other training and

technical assistance services to be

provided may include the development

of relevant materials for onsite use, such

as a manual on the model being

implemented (in response to the

national evaluation advisory board’s

recommendations), a manual on youth
33150 Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 116 /Wednesday, June 17, 1998 / Notices

outreach and a ‘‘lessons learned’’

publication or other materials, including

audiovisual and electronic media.

Training and technical assistance

services provided under this project will

be limited to OJJDP’s comprehensive

gang demonstration sites in Mesa and

Tucson, Arizona; Riverside, California;

Bloomington, Illinois; and San Antonio,

Texas, and other selected OJJDP

grantees.

This project will be implemented by

the current grantee, the University of

Chicago. No additional applications will

be solicited in FY 1998.

Rural Youth Gang Problems: Adapting

OJJDP’s Comprehensive Approach

In 1996, OJJDP’s National Youth Gang

Center (NYGC) completed its first

annual nationwide survey of law

enforcement agencies regarding gang

problems experienced in their

jurisdictions. This survey represents the

largest number of small law

enforcement agencies in rural counties

ever surveyed. Among the findings of

this survey is that half of the 2,007 gang

survey respondents reporting youth

gang problems in 1995 serve

populations under 25,000, confirming

that youth gangs are not just a problem

for large cities and metropolitan

counties. Youth gangs are emerging in

new localities, especially smaller and

rural communities. Many of the

agencies in smaller and rural

communities had no personnel assigned

to deal with youth gangs or gang units.

OJJDP’s Comprehensive Approach to

Gang Prevention, Intervention, and

Suppression (Spergel Model) is

currently being implemented and tested

in multiple jurisdictions. The

communities implementing the model

are mainly suburban and urban in

nature, with areas of dense population

within the community.

In light of the rural gang problems

exposed by the nationwide gang survey,

OJJDP will fund a new initiative to

assist rural communities in

implementing the fully adaptable

Comprehensive Approach in a way that

is appropriate to rural community

needs, through a comprehensive and

systematic problem assessment and

program design process. Upon

completion of the problem assessment

using law enforcement-based gang

incident, census, and other data,

communities would engage in a process

of adapting and eventually applying the

Comprehensive Approach in a way that

responds to the gang problems

identified.

OJJDP will award funds to up to four

rural communities to conduct a rural

youth gang planning and assessment

project and will also award funds for

related evaluations and provide

technical assistance services to funded

sites.

A solicitation will be issued as part of

the FY 1998 OJJDP Discretionary

Program Announcement: Discretionary

Grant Program: Parts C and D.

Information on how to obtain a copy of

the Program Announcement is provided

above under Supplementary

Information.

Case Studies and Evaluation Planning

of OJJDP’s Rural Youth Gang Initiative

OJJDP will award a competitive grant

for a 1-year process evaluation to

document the strategies used by the

Rural Youth Gang Problems—Adapting

OJJDP’s Comprehensive Approach

initiative demonstration sites to assess

their local youth gang problems and

plan for the adaptation and

implementation of this comprehensive

approach in rural communities. This

documentation will subsequently be

disseminated to the field for use by

other rural communities that want to

replicate the comprehensive approach

to rural gang problems.

A solicitation will be issued as part of

the FY 1998 OJJDP Discretionary

Program Announcement: Discretionary

Grant Program: Parts C and D.

Information on how to obtain a copy of

the Program Announcement is provided

above under Supplementary

Information.

Delinquency Prevention and

Intervention

Youth-Centered Conflict Resolution

In FY 1995, OJJDP funded the Illinois

Institute for Dispute Resolution (IIDR) to

implement the Youth-Centered Conflict

Resolution (YCCR) program under a

competitively awarded 3-year

cooperative agreement. The purpose of

this program, which began in October

1995, is to integrate conflict resolution

education (CRE) programming into all

levels of education in the Nation’s

schools, juvenile facilities, and youthserving organizations.

During the first 2 years, IIDR provided

training and technical assistance

through a number of mechanisms. In

year one, activities included

participation in the development of a

satellite teleconference on CRE, a

presentation on the YCCR program at

the National Institute for Dispute

Resolution annual conference, and three

regional training conferences for teams

from schools, communities, and

juvenile facilities. IIDR also completed

the project’s first major resource

document, Conflict Resolution

Education: A Guide to Implementing

Programs in Schools, Youth-Serving

Organizations, and Community and

Juvenile Justice Settings. Second-year

activities included followup training

and intensive technical assistance

including onsite work with the

Washington, DC, school system. In the

second project year, with additional

funding from the National Endowment

for the Arts, IIDR developed a pilot

curriculum and conducted a series of 10

training sessions to assist arts program

staff and administrators in infusing

conflict resolution skills and principles

into art programs for at-risk youth.

Additional funding this year will allow

the project to conduct another series of

trainings.

Activities planned for FY 1998

include State training conferences,

onsite technical assistance to

SafeFutures, Weed and Seed, and other

sites, increased followup support, and a

survey of gang intervention programs to

identify those that use conflict

resolution techniques as part of their

efforts.

Also, IIDR will expand the level of

support that project staff provide to

schools, communities, and youthserving organizations, including training

provided in partnership with national

organizations such as Boys & Girls Clubs

of America and the National Juvenile

Detention Association. Efforts will also

be undertaken to facilitate peer-to-peer

mentoring among youth education and

youth-serving organizations. Special

emphasis will be placed on

disseminating information about

effective conflict resolution programs

and implementation issues through

print and electronic media. Project staff

will also work with staff in State

departments of education and offices of

State Attorneys General to promote

replication of local conflict resolution

programs and to partner with State

agencies to establish ‘‘training of

trainers’’ institutes or programs to build

local capacity to implement successful

CRE programs for youth.

OJJDP has entered into a partnership

with the U.S. Department of Education

to expand this project. The project will

be implemented by the current grantee,

IIDR. No additional applications will be

solicited in FY 1998.

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 (CIS), Inc. CIS,

Inc., provides training and technical

assistance to CIS programs in States and

local communities, enabling them to
Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 116 /Wednesday, June 17, 1998 / Notices 33151

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.

In FY 1997, the CIS—Federal

Interagency Partnership (1) performed

extensive research and compilation of

conference materials and other

resources outlining trends and activities

related to family strengthening and

parent participation initiatives; (2)

produced a quarterly issue of Facts You

Can Use; (3) formed a committee

responsible for developing a description

of the Family Service Center site

strategy; (4) formulated a plan for

providing training and technical

assistance to SafeFutures sites; (5)

advanced activities under the Youth

Entrepreneurship Program by

implementing the second phase of the

minigrant process and by providing

technical assistance; (6) developed a

violence prevention resource directory

and offered training on violence

prevention; (7) provided program-level

liaison and coordination to facilitate

access by State and local CIS

organizations to Federal agency

products; and (8) added new features to

the CIS web site to increase local and

State program access to Federal

resources.

OJJDP will continue funding this

project in FY 1998. The program will be

implemented by the current grantee,

Communities In Schools, Inc. No

additional applications will be solicited

in FY 1998.

The Congress of National Black

Churches: National Anti-Drug Abuse/

Violence Campaign (NADVC)

OJJDP will award continuation

funding to the Congress of National

Black Churches (CNBC) for its national

public awareness and mobilization

strategy to address the problems of

juvenile drug abuse, violence, and hate

crime 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 drugrelated violence.

The CNBC National Anti-Drug Abuse/

Violence Campaign (NADVC) is a

partner in the Education Development

Center’s (EDC) Juvenile Hate Crime

Initiative. NADVC has 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. Two regional conferences were

held during the past year in Columbus,

South Carolina, and Memphis,

Tennessee. Approximately 80

participants, representing more than 20

burned churches from black and white

congregations, attended.

In FY 1997, the program expanded

through NADVC’s Regional Hate Crime

Prevention Initiative, the Campaign’s

model for anti-drug/violence strategies,

and NADVC’s faith community network.

NADVC has assisted in the development

of programs in 87 sites, whose activities

vary depending on their stage of

development. The smallest of these

alliances consists of 6 congregations and

the largest has 134. 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.

NADVC’s technical assistance,

consultations, and training have helped

sites to leverage more than $15 million

in funds from corporations, foundations,

and Federal, State, and local

government. CNBC receives frequent

requests for its NADVC model for the

development of prevention programs in

the faith community. The model is

easily tailored to the local community’s

assessment of its drug, delinquency,

violence, and hate crime problems.

NADVC has contributed to many

agency conferences, workshops, and

advisory committees on the issues of

violence, substance abuse prevention,

policing, and high-risk youth services.

The Campaign has also produced a

National Training and Site Development

Guide and a video to assist sites in

implementing the NADVC model.

NADVC will continue to support the

expansion of new sites in FY 1998, seek

new partnerships, and enhance efforts

to address hate crime and family

violence intervention issues.

The program will be implemented by

the current grantee, the Congress of

National Black Churches. No additional

applications will be solicited in FY

1998.

Risk Reduction Via Promotion of Youth

Development

The Risk Reduction Via Promotion of

Youth Development program, also

known as Early Alliance, is a large-scale

prevention study involving hundreds of

children and several elementary schools

located in lower socioeconomic

neighborhoods of Columbia, South

Carolina. This program is funded

through an interagency agreement with

the National Institute of Mental

Health(NIMH). NIMH’s grantee is the

University of South Carolina. The

Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention and the National Institute on

Drug Abuse have also provided funding

for the program.

This large-scale project is designed to

promote coping-competence and reduce

risk for conduct problems, aggression,

substance use, delinquency and

violence, and school failure beginning

in early elementary school. The project

also seeks to alter home and school

climates to reduce risk for adverse

outcomes and to promote positive youth

development. 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

consisting of lower risk children

(residing in socioeconomically

disadvantaged neighborhoods). The

interventions begin in first grade, and

children are being followed

longitudinally throughout the 5 years of

the project.

Funded initially in FY 1997 through

a fund transfer to NIMH under an

interagency agreement, support will be

continued for an additional 4 years. No

additional applications will be solicited

in FY 1998.

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
33152 Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 116 /Wednesday, June 17, 1998 / Notices

and agencies providing family

strengthening services. In response to

these needs, OJJDP awarded a 3-year

competitive cooperative agreement in

FY 1995 to the University of Utah’s

Department of Health Education (DHE)

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

completed initial drafts of 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 the second program year, DHE

completed a second draft of the

literature review and model program

summaries; convened a second regional

conference in Washington, DC;

conducted program-specific workshops;

produced user and training-of-trainers

guides; and distributed videos of several

family strengthening workshops.

In the third program year, DHE will

coordinate technical assistance and

training of agencies that are in the

process of implementing the identified

model programs. In addition, the

grantee will establish a minigrant

supplement program to provide

stipends to a minimum of 10 sites to

ensure program implementation. DHE

will also update and publish its

literature review and develop programspecific bulletins to be distributed by

OJJDP and also made available on the

OJJDP Web site. The grantee’s technical

assistance delivery system and the

overall impact of the project will also be

assessed.

This program will be implemented in

FY 1998 by the current grantee, the

University of Utah’s DHE. No additional

applications will be solicited in FY

1998.

Hate Crime

In FY 1998, OJJDP will provide

continuation funding to the Education

Development Center (EDC) to expand

their hate crime prevention efforts. EDC

has produced and published a

multipurpose curriculum, entitled

Healing the Hate, for hate crime

prevention in middle schools and other

classroom settings. The curriculum has

been disseminated to 20,000 law

enforcement, juvenile justice

professionals, and educators throughout

the country.

Because of increased racial, ethnic,

and religious tensions and hate crimes

in various regions of the country, OJJDP

expanded this grant to allow EDC to

provide training and technical

assistance to youth, educators, juvenile

justice and law enforcement

professionals and representatives of

local public/private community

agencies and organizations and the faith

community. The recipients of this

training/technical assistance obtained

the knowledge and skills necessary to

establish prejudice reduction and

violence prevention programs to

decrease bias crimes by youth in their

schools and communities. During the

past year, EDC conducted training/

technical assistance at three sites in

different regions of the country (Boston,

Massachusetts; Chicago, Illinois; and

Miami, Florida). Dissemination of

products was achieved through national

educational, advocacy, and justice

networks and at 15 other national

conferences. In FY 1997, additional

Hate Crimes project activities were

funded through an interagency

agreement with the U. S. Department of

Education.

In FY 1998, EDC project work will

include training, technical assistance,

networking among practitioners and

policymakers, and continued

partnership training with the Congress

of National Black Churches. EDC will

conduct one regional, multidisciplinary

training, which will incorporate both

hate crime prevention and response for

practitioners, and two trainings for

trainers on hate crime prevention and

response. For policymakers and youth

practitioners, 10 hate crime prevention

and response training sessions will be

held at national and statewide

conferences targeting policymakers in

the core disciplines (education, juvenile

justice, criminal justice, and youthserving programs) and youth. EDC will

provide technical assistance through

outreach, response to requests, remote

and onsite consultation, and facilitation

of networking.

EDC will also develop and

disseminate a hate crime prevention and

response guide for communities; a hate

crime prevention and response guide for

juvenile justice, criminal justice, and

the judiciary; and articles and bulletins

for selected publications for

practitioners and policymakers in the

core disciplines (education, juvenile

justice, criminal justice, and youthserving programs). In addition, EDC will

develop a hate crime prevention World

Wide Web site and translate and

produce a Spanish language version of

Healing the Hate: A National Bias Crime

Curriculum for Middle Schools.

EDC will create an expert advisory

council to increase collaboration and

networking among practitioners and

policymakers in the core disciplines

(education, juvenile justice, criminal

justice, and youth-serving programs).

EDC will continue its partnership

with the Congress of National Black

Churches, Inc., by conducting joint

training sessions and technical

assistance efforts to prevent church

burnings.

The project will be implemented, in

partnership with the U.S. Department of

Education, by the current grantee,

Education Development Center. No

additional applications will be solicited

in FY 1998.

Strengthening Services for Chemically

Involved Children, Youth, and Families

The abuse of alcohol and other drugs

(AOD) is inextricably linked with both

personal and economic adversity and

crime in society. Alcohol and drug

abuse exact a devastating toll, especially

on the most vulnerable—young children

and adolescents. Recognizing that the U.

S. Department of Justice and the U.S.

Department of Health and Human

Services are both servicing the same

pool of children affected by parental

substance use/abuse, the two

Departments have initiated a joint

program.

OJJDP will administer this training

and technical assistance program, using

funds transferred to OJJDP by the

Substance Abuse and Mental Health

Services Administration (SAMHSA),

through a cooperative agreement to the

Child Welfare League of America

(CWLA). To achieve maximum

effectiveness in aiding chemically

involved families, child welfare

professionals must be able to address

entrenched family problems caused by

alcohol and other drug abuse, while

simultaneously delivering services that

protect and promote the health and

well-being of children. These

professionals need information,

resource materials, and training to

increase their knowledge of the link

between chemical dependency and a

host of related conditions that

negatively affect child and family wellbeing.

CWLA, a nonprofit organization, will

carry out the required activities of this

interagency agreement by assisting child

welfare personnel to provide

appropriate intervention services for

AOD-impacted children and their

caregivers. Through collaboration

between the CWLA program, policy

specialists in chemical dependency,
Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 116 /Wednesday, June 17, 1998 / Notices 33153

child protective services, family support

services, foster care, kinship care, and a

cadre of other agencies, CWLA will

produce a state-of-the-art

comprehensive assessment tool and

decisionmaking guidelines that frontline

child welfare workers and supervisors

can use in determining: (1) how alcohol

and drugs are impacting child safety

and family functioning and (2) the most

appropriate intervention options for

each child victim.

CWLA will also conduct training for

trainers to facilitate effective use of this

guide by child welfare workers.

CWLA’s assessment instrument and

decision-making guidelines for

chemically-involved children and

families will direct the vital first steps

for child welfare professionals toward

achieving increased safety to AODinvolved children and families. This

instrument will not only outline a

culturally competent, strengths-based

substance abuse assessment tool, but

also suggest new approaches to engaging

families and addressing their needs. The

casework, placement, and permanency

planning options outlined in the

guidelines will advance participatory

decisionmaking models that result in

family strengthening. Case plans that

emphasize flexible options, encourage

parents as partners in decisionmaking,

involve extended family in caregiving,

can promote the best interest of children

and families.

Training and technical assistance to

child welfare professionals supported

by this agreement will help to develop

innovative and effective approaches to

meeting the needs of children in the

child welfare system whose parents are

AOD abusers. The activities funded by

this agreement will focus on developing,

expanding, or enhancing initiatives that

raise public awareness and educate

child welfare workers and policymakers

on the most appropriate services for

children of substance abusing parents to

prevent these children and youth from

becoming AOD abusers.

OJJDP funds will enable CWLA to

produce a guidebook for top-level

officials that describes current practices,

models of innovation, and the policy

choices faced in linking child welfare

service agencies and their substance

abuse counterparts. Also under

consideration is increasing the number

of sites in which CWLA will conduct

training-of-trainer sessions from the four

sites and 100 workers approved under

the cooperative agreement, to eight sites

and 200 workers.

This jointly funded project will be

implemented by CWLA. No additional

applications will be solicited in FY

1998.

Diffusion of State Risk- and ProtectiveFactor Focused Prevention

OJJDP is providing funds to the

National Institute on Drug Abuse

(NIDA), through an interagency

agreement, to support this 5-year

evaluation program. Fiscal year 1997

funds were used to begin this diffusion

study of the natural history of the

adoption, implementation, and effects of

the public health approach to

prevention, focusing on risk and

protective factors for substance abuse at

the State and community levels. The

study seeks to identify phases and

factors that influence the adoption of

the public health approach and assess

the association between the use of this

approach for community prevention

planning and the levels of risk and

protective factors and substance abuse

among adolescents.

The study will also examine State

substance abuse data gathered from

1988 through 2001 and use key

informant interviews conducted in

1997, 1999, and 2001 to identify and

describe the process of implementing

the epidemiological risk-and protectivefactor approach in seven collaborating

States: Colorado, Kansas, Illinois,

Maine, Oregon, Utah, and Washington.

This project will be implemented by

the current grantee, the Social

Development Research Group at the

University of Washington, School of

Social Work. No additional applications

will be solicited in FY 1998.

Multisite, Multimodal Treatment Study

of Children With ADHD

OJJDP will transfer funds under an

interagency agreement with the National

Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) to

fund this study. OJJDP’s participation in

this NIMH-sponsored research is

designed to enhance and expand the

project to include analysis of justice

system contact on the part of the

subjects. The study began in 1992,

studying the long-term efficacy of

stimulant medication and intensive

behavioral and educational treatment

for children with attention deficit/

hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Originally funded for 5 years, this new

round of funding would continue the

six study sites for another 5 years, to

2003. Given this continuation, many of

the children involved in the study will

reach the age at which children

normally begin antisocial behavior. To

date, no extensive study has examined

the relationship between delinquency

and ADHD.

This expanded study, principally

funded by NIMH, will follow the

original study families and include a

comparison group. With OJJDP support,

the project sites are beginning to look at

the subjects’ delinquent behavior and

legal system contact. This second

funding cycle will include studies of

substance use and antisocial behavior.

OJJDP will support this study through

an interagency agreement with the

National Institute of Mental Health. No

additional applications will be solicited

in FY 1998.

Evaluation of the Juvenile Mentoring

Program

The overall goals of the Part G

Juvenile Mentoring Program (JUMP) are

the reduction of delinquency, gang

participation, violence, and substance

abuse and related behavior and the

enhancement of educational

opportunity, academic achievement,

investments in school, and contribution

to one’s community. Translating these

impact goals to outcome goals, the

evaluation grantee will assess and

measure the relative probability that

JUMP mentees will reflect reductions in

delinquency, gang participation, and

associated negative behaviors and show

improvements in school attendance,

school completion, and academic

performance.

The evaluation objectives include

assessing and measuring the extent to

which the quality of the mentor-mentee

relationship generates attitudes, values,

and intermediary behavior that increase

the probability of the positive outcomes

cited as goals. A second objective

includes assessing and measuring the

attributes of mentor characteristics and

behaviors that contribute most to the

attainment of mentee results. Other

objectives include ensuring that the

evaluation instrument is optimally

designed, worded, and configured;

providing ongoing assistance to JUMP

program grantees; implementing quality

assurance for raw data received from

JUMP grantees and assuring proper

entry into the management information

data base; preparing appropriate data

analysis for each JUMP grantee;

generating analyses of site-specific

findings; and preparing an aggregate

analysis of implementation results and

outcome data from all sites with special

focus on attributable program effects

and implications for replication.

This evaluation is being conducted by

Information Technology International

under a 2-year grant that was

competitively awarded in FY 1997. The

primary focus of the initial award is the

original 41 JUMP program sites. OJJDP

will extend the project period in FY

1998 with Part G funds for an additional

2 years in order to continue the original

evaluation sites and expand the ongoing
33154 Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 116 /Wednesday, June 17, 1998 / Notices

evaluation to the 52 JUMP grants

awarded to new sites in FY 1997. No

additional applications will be solicited

in FY 1998.

Truancy Reduction Demonstration

Program

Truancy often leads to dropping out

of school, delinquency, and drug abuse.

For many youth, truancy may be a first

step to a lifetime of unemployment,

crime, and incarceration.

OJJDP is engaging in a joint funding

effort with the U.S. Department of

Education and the Executive Office for

Weed and Seed to award competitive

discretionary funds for jurisdictions to

address the problem of truancy. OJJDP

will be looking for schools and school

districts to apply jointly with law

enforcement, other juvenile justice

system agencies, or community-based

programs (such as Weed and Seed sites)

to develop and implement a

collaborative program designed to

reduce truancy in their jurisdictions.

Evaluation of the Truancy Reduction

Program

Evaluation of Truancy Reduction

Demonstration Program

OJJDP will award a competitive grant

for the first year of a proposed 31⁄2-year

evaluation process that will support

implementation and assess the effect of

a variety of truancy reduction programs.

The evaluation will determine how

community collaboration can impact

truancy and lead to systemic reform and

assist OJJDP in developing a community

collaborative truancy reduction program

model and identify the essential

elements of that model.

A solicitation will be issued as part of

the FY 1998 OJJDP Discretionary

Program Announcement: Discretionary

Grant Program: Parts C and D.

Information on how to obtain a copy of

the Program Announcement is provided

above under Supplementary

Information.

Arts and At-Risk Youth

The need for afterschool programs for

youth at risk of delinquency is wellknown. The opportunity to join an

afterschool arts program that helps

students develop their talents and

abilities has been shown to help youth

stay in school; receive higher grades;

develop self-esteem; and resist peer

pressure to engage in negative

behaviors, such as substance and

alcohol use, and other delinquent acts.

Unfortunately, juveniles who are at

greatest risk of delinquency are the ones

who often have the least opportunity to

join such programs because they are not

available in their schools,

neighborhoods, or communities. These

youth have limited experiences both in

the world of work and in job training

skills. In addition, lack of conflict

resolution skills makes it difficult for

youth to retain jobs once they are

employed because they are not well

equipped to handle conflicts that may

arise.

OJJDP will be funding an afterschool

and summer arts program that combines

the arts with job training and conflict

resolution skills. This project will

include summer jobs or paid internships

to enable youth to put into practice the

job and conflict resolution skills they

are learning. By combining the arts with

practical life experiences, at-risk youth

are able to gain valuable insights into

their own abilities and the possibilities

that await them in the world of work if

they continue to attend school, study,

and graduate.

OJJDP is collaborating with the

Bureau of Justice Assistance, the Safe

and Drug-Free Schools Program of the

U.S. Department of Education, the

National Endowment for the Arts, and

the U.S. Department of Labor for this 2-

year pilot project. OJJDP will award up

to two competitive grants to develop

and implement a strategy based on

research, implement process evaluation,

and create reports on the strengths and

weaknesses of the pilot program.

A solicitation will be issued as part of

the FY 1998 OJJDP Discretionary

Program Announcement: Discretionary

Grant Program: Parts C and D.

Information on how to obtain a copy of

the Program Announcement is provided

above under SUPPLEMENTARY

INFORMATION.

Community Volunteer Coordinator

Program

OJJDP will fund noncompetitively the

establishment of ‘‘volunteer

coordinators’’ in three to five ongoing

community-based initiative sites for the

purpose of expanding the quality,

sustainability, and number of safe and

positive activities for young people

during nonschool hours. Building on

the work of the ‘‘Presidents’’ Summit for

America’s Future,’’ OJJDP will seek

partnerships with other Federal

agencies to provide support to identified

collaboratives that have demonstrated a

clearly articulated plan for increasing

volunteerism and representation from

schools, law enforcement, city or county

government, youth groups, and

community-based organizations. Small

grants will support the hiring of an

individual in the community who will

be responsible for inventorying

programs; planning; and recruiting,

connecting, and training volunteers to

participate in a range of programs that

provide youth services (mentoring,

tutoring, neighborhood restoration,

counseling, recreational activities,

mediation services, media outreach, and

other forms of community service for

youth).

Learning Disabilities Among Juveniles

at Risk of Delinquency or in the

Juvenile Justice System

Some researchers have concluded that

children who have difficulties in school

often become frustrated because of

constant failure. Studies have shown

that youth who have a learning

disability (LD) are very likely to become

truant or drop out of school rather than

face the ridicule of their peers. The

relationship between an LD and juvenile

delinquency is complex.

A learning disability is a neurological

condition that impedes a person’s

ability to store, process, or produce

information. Learning disabilities can

affect the ability to read, write, speak, or

compute math and can impair

socialization skills. Individuals with

LD’s are generally of average or above

average intelligence, but the disability

creates a gap between ability and

performance.

School failure associated with

learning disabilities is an important risk

factor for juvenile delinquency.

Whatever the presenting problem (e.g.,

abuse or neglect, truancy, or

delinquency), a large percentage of

children who come before the court

have some specific learning disability

that may have contributed, either

directly or indirectly, to the behavior

that led to their presence in court. A

child with an LD is much more likely

to come into contact with the juvenile

justice system than one without an LD.

The prevalence of LD in a population of

juvenile delinquents is extremely high:

approximately 35 percent of all children

in the juvenile justice system have an

identified LD.

To better address the needs of these

youth, greater attention needs to be paid

at a much younger age to the nature of

learning disabilities, their impact on

learning and the processing of

information in and out of the classroom

setting, and their relationship to

dropping out and delinquency. Parents,

schools, and the juvenile courts need to

be more aware of this hidden handicap.

These children could be helped if their

disabilities were properly diagnosed

and treated. Professionals who directly

interact with the learning disabled need

to share knowledge on how to identify

and treat learning disabilities with

juvenile justice system practitioners in

order to reduce the number of system-
Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 116 /Wednesday, June 17, 1998 / Notices 33155

involved juveniles who are learning

disabled and to retain them in the

education mainstream.

Although committed to addressing the

increasing number of juveniles

identified with learning disabilities, the

Office will not fund a demonstration

program in FY 1998 as described in the

Proposed Plan. OJJDP will instead work

with the U.S. Department of Education’s

Office of Special Education and

Rehabilitation Services and the Office of

Vocational and Adult Education to

initiate a variety of activities, including

development of a model demonstration

program. Other activities this fiscal year

will include a focus on developing

programs designed to (1) prevent

delinquency and incarceration of youth

with learning disabilities through early

assessment and intervention

coordinated across school, police, court,

probation, and other community-based

services, and (2) reduce recidivism by

juvenile offenders by ensuring that

students with learning disabilities in

correctional settings receive

appropriate, specially designed

instructional services that address

individual needs.

Advertising Campaign—Investing in

Youth for a Safer Future

OJJDP will continue its support of the

Crime Prevention Coalition of America

ad campaign, ‘‘Investing in Youth for A

Safer Future,’’ through the transfer of

funds to the Bureau of Justice

Assistance (BJA) under an Intra-agency

Agreement. OJJDP and BJA are funding

through a cooperative agreement the

National Crime Prevention Council

(NCPC) to produce, disseminate, and

support public service advertising and

related media that are designed to

inform the public of effective solutions

to juvenile crime and to motivate young

people and adults to get involved and

support these solutions. The featured

solutions include effective prevention

programs and intervention strategies.

The program will be administered by

BJA through its existing grant to NCPC.

No additional applications will be

solicited in FY 1998.

Strengthening the Juvenile Justice

System

Development of the Comprehensive

Strategy for Serious, Violent, and

Chronic Juvenile Offenders

In FY 1995, the National Council on

Crime and Delinquency (NCCD) and

Developmental Research and Programs,

Inc. (DRP), completed Phases I and II of

a collaborative effort to support the

development and implementation of

OJJDP’s Comprehensive Strategy for

Serious, Violent, and Chronic Juvenile

Offenders. This effort involved assessing

existing and previously researched

programs in order to identify effective

and promising programs that can be

used in implementing the

Comprehensive Strategy. A series of

reports were combined into the Guide

for Implementing the Comprehensive

Strategy for Serious, Violent, and

Chronic Juvenile Offenders. The effort

also included convening the forum

‘‘Guaranteeing Safe Passage: A National

Forum on Youth Violence,’’ holding two

regional training seminars for key

leaders on implementing the

Comprehensive Strategy, and

disseminating the Guide at national

conferences.

In FY 1996, Phase II work included

two regional training seminars; the

delivery of intensive training and

technical assistance to three pilot sites—

Lee County, Florida; Ducal County,

Florida; and San Diego County,

California; and the delivery of technical

assistance to five States and selected

local jurisdictions implementing the

Comprehensive Strategy.

In FY 1997, the project continued its

targeted dissemination of OJJDP’s

Comprehensive Strategy for Serious,

Violent, and Chronic Juvenile Offenders

at several national conferences and

additional regional training seminars

and continued providing the five States

with intensive training for

implementing the Comprehensive

Strategy, providing individualized

technical assistance to individual

jurisdictions interested in implementing

the Comprehensive Strategy, and

continuing developmental work on

Comprehensive Strategy training

materials.

In FY 1998, this project will continue

the implementation efforts and expand

to up to two additional States. In each

of the new States, up to six jurisdictions

will be identified to receive

Comprehensive Strategy

implementation training and technical

assistance.

This project will be implemented by

the current grantees, NCCD and DRP. No

additional applications will be solicited

in FY 1998.

Balanced and Restorative Justice

Project (BARJ)

Based on research showing that

properly structured restitution programs

can reduce recidivism, OJJDP has

supported development and

improvement of juvenile restitution

programs since 1977. The BARJ project

sprang from OJJDP’s RESTTA

(Restitution, Education, Specialized

Training, and Technical Assistance)

Project. In FY 1992, Florida Atlantic

University (FAU) was awarded a

competitive grant to enhance the

development of restitution programs as

part of systemwide juvenile justice

improvement using balanced approach

concepts and restorative justice

principles. In subsequent years, the

project developed a BARJ program

model. The model was initially

described in a 1994 OJJDP Program

Summary entitled Balanced and

Restorative Justice, which became a

reference source for BARJ training.

The BARJ project currently provides

intensive training, technical assistance,

and guideline materials to three selected

sites that over recent years have been

implementing major systemic change in

accordance with the BARJ model. The

three sites are Allegheny County,

Pennsylvania; Dakota County,

Minnesota; and West Palm Beach

County, Florida. In addition, the BARJ

Project has continuously offered

technical assistance and training to

other jurisdictions nationwide. Project

staff have also provided training at

regional roundtables and at professional

conferences dealing with juvenile

justice system improvement. In 1997,

the project published another reference

document entitled Balanced and

Restorative Justice for Juveniles: A

Framework for Juvenile Justice in the

21st Century. The project also compiled

a BARJ Implementation Guide.

In FY 1998, the BARJ Project will

produce additional reference and

training materials and will offer further

training and technical assistance.

This project will be implemented by

the current grantee, FAU. No additional

applications will be solicited in FY

1998.

Training and Technical Assistance

Program To Promote Gender-Specific

Programming for Female Juvenile

Offenders

The 1992 Amendments to the Juvenile

Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act

addressed, for the first time, the issue of

gender-specific services. The

Amendments require States

participating in the JJDP Act’s Part B

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 FY 1995, OJJDP’s Gender-Specific

Services program focused on providing

training and technical assistance

directly to States and promoting the
33156 Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 116 /Wednesday, June 17, 1998 / Notices

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

available for juvenile female offenders

under direct grants, sponsorship of

national conferences, and inclusion of a

gender-specific service component in

the OJJDP-funded comprehensive

SafeFutures program.

In FY 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

preparing 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. In FY

1997, the training curriculum for

policymakers, advocacy organizations,

and community leaders was developed

and pilot-tested at three sites, and a

final draft of the monograph was

completed.

In FY 1998, GPA will develop a needs

assessment for State Advisory Groups,

develop a technical assistance package,

and develop and test a curriculum for

practitioners based on the monograph

findings.

This program will be implemented by

the current grantee, GPA. No additional

applications will be solicited in FY

1998.

Juvenile Transfers to Criminal Court

Studies

In FY 1995, OJJDP competitively

awarded two extensive studies of the

increasing juvenile transfer

phenomenon. Most States have passed

new legislation either permitting or

requiring the transfer of alleged juvenile

offenders to criminal court under

certain circumstances. However, 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. Preliminary findings

from these two studies (along with other

efforts started over the past 2 years)

have provided a wealth of information.

The study undertaken in Florida has

extensively examined the records of

juveniles transferred to adult court

along with similar juveniles who were

not transferred, including case attribute

information. Through this data

collection, the research is bringing to

light the differences in case handling

and how these differences affect the

outcome of the specific case. The

differences in dispositions will

naturally be a concern for many

interested in the subject.

In FY 1998, OJJDP will increase the

understanding of the transfer issues by

expanding the Florida study to include

a greater number of cases and to include

some basic recidivism measures. The

Florida study has relied mainly on

paper records for the case information.

Such records require considerable time

and effort to review. As such, the

number of cases included in the first

phase of this study was relatively small.

Expansion of this study will allow the

researchers to examine a greater number

of cases in the a wider range of

jurisdictions in Florida resulting in a

greater understanding of the issue based

on how the dynamics of jurisdictions

may differ. Also, by expanding the

tracking of the case subjects to include

arrests and court cases following

transfer to adult court, the researchers

will provide insight on the recidivism

that follows transfer of jurisdiction.

This project will be carried out by the

current grantee, the Juvenile Justice

Advisory Board of the State of Florida.

No new applications will be solicited in

FY 1998.

Replication and Extension of Fagan

Transfer Study

The ‘‘Comparative Impact of Juvenile

Versus Criminal Court Sanctions on

Recidivism Among Adolescent Felony

Offenders: A Replication and

Extension’’ project will continue in FY

1998, building on the past work of Dr.

Jeffrey Fagan. In FY 1997, OJJDP

awarded a two-year project period grant

to Columbia University to build on Dr.

Fagan’s seminal study of 1986 transfers

in New York and New Jersey. The

earlier study was the first of its kind to

compare four contiguous counties with

similar 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 replication and extension

research project will be able to answer

questions about how case processing

decisions have changed in the last

decade. The new study will compare

case attribute information and 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 will 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 will 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 will also collaborate

with the other research conducted

under OJJDP’s Juvenile Transfers to

Criminal Court Studies program in

sharing data collection instruments and

in planning appropriate joint analyses.

This project will be implemented by

the current grantee, Columbia

University. No additional applications

will be solicited in FY 1998.

The Juvenile Justice Prosecution Unit

OJJDP has historically supported

prosecutor training through the National

District Attorneys Association (NDAA).

This training has increased the

involvement and leadership of elected

and appointed prosecutors in juvenile

justice systems issues, programs, and

services. To continue that progress,

OJJDP funded a 3-year project period

grant in FY 1996 to the American

Prosecutors Research Institute (APRI),

the research and technical assistance

affiliate of NDAA, to promote

prosecutor training. Under this award,

APRI established a Juvenile Justice

Prosecution Unit (JJPU). The JJPU holds

workshops on juvenile-related policy,
Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 116 /Wednesday, June 17, 1998 / Notices 33157

leadership, and management for chief

prosecutors and juvenile unit chiefs and

also provides prosecutors with

background information on juvenile

justice issues, programs, training, and

technical assistance.

The project solicits planning and

other advisory input from prosecutors

familiar with juvenile justice system

and prosecutor 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 FY 1997,

for example, APRI held two executive

seminars for 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. APRI has also produced

materials focused on juvenile

prosecution-related issues for the

benefit of prosecutors nationally.

In FY 1998, APRI will present

additional workshops and seminars and

will develop new reference materials for

prosecutors. Included in the documents

expected to be developed will be a

compendium of juvenile justice

programs conducted by prosecutors

offices, technical assistance packages

related to significant juvenile justice

programs and issues of interest to

prosecutors, and newsletters updating

developments in the juvenile

prosecution field.

This project will be implemented by

the current grantee, APRI. No additional

applications will be solicited in FY

1998.

Due Process Advocacy Program

Development

In FY 1993, OJJDP competitively

funded the American Bar Association

(ABA) to determine the status of

juvenile defense services in the United

States, develop a report, and then

develop training and technical

assistance. The ABA— along with its

partners, the Youth Law Center of San

Francisco, California, and the Juvenile

Law Center of Philadelphia,

Pennsylvania—conducted an extensive

survey of public defender offices, courtappointed systems, law school clinics,

and the literature. These data were then

analyzed and a report, entitled A Call

for Justice, was developed and

published in December 1995.

The ABA has also developed and

delivered specialized training to

juvenile defenders in several

jurisdictions, such as the State of

Maryland, the State of Tennessee,

Baltimore County, Maryland, and

several other States and localities, to

assist in increasing the capacity of

juvenile defenders to provide more

effective defense services. In October

1997, the ABA and its partners

organized and implemented the first

Juvenile Defender Summit at

Northwestern University in Chicago,

Illinois. The Summit brought together

public defenders, court-appointed

lawyers, law school clinic directors,

juvenile offender services

representatives, and others for a 21⁄2-day

meeting to examine the issues related to

juvenile defense services and

recommend strategies for improving

these services. A report is forthcoming

on the Summit and the

recommendations that emerged from the

seven working groups.

OJJDP will fund the establishment of

a Juvenile Defender Training, Technical

Assistance, and Resource Center in FY

1998, to be operational in early FY 1999.

To ensure that training and technical

assistance continue in the interim and

into 1999 and to provide for the

transition to the new Juvenile Defender

Center, OJJDP will continue the Due

Process Advocacy grant for an

additional year.

This project will be implemented by

the current grantee, the American Bar

Association. No new applications will

be solicited in FY 1998.

Quantum Opportunities Program (QOP)

Evaluation

In FY 1997, OJJDP funded an impact

evaluation of the Quantum

Opportunities Program (QOP)through an

interagency fund transfer to the U.S.

Department of Labor (DOL). QOP was

designed by the Ford Foundation and

Opportunities Industrialization Centers

of America as a career enrichment

program using a model providing basic

education. Personal and cultural

development, community service, and

mentoring. The purpose of the OJJDP

funding for the evaluation is to

determine whether QOP reduces the

likelihood that inner-city youth at

educational risk will enter the criminal

justice system, including the juvenile

justice system. The QOP impact

evaluation is designed to 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; self-esteem 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.

In FY 1998, OJJDP will continue this

enhancement to the DOL-funded

evaluation to 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.

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 will be implemented

through an interagency agreement with

the U.S. Department of Labor. No

additional applications will be solicited

in FY 1998.

Intensive Community-Based Aftercare

Demonstration and Technical

Assistance Program

This initiative is designed to support

implementation, training and technical

assistance, and an independent

evaluation of an intensive communitybased 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

ensure adequate service delivery and

the required level of social control.

In FY 1995, the Johns Hopkins

University received a competitively

awarded 3-year grant to test its intensive

community-based aftercare model in

four demonstration sites: Denver (Metro

area), Colorado; Clark County (Las

Vegas), Nevada; Camden and Newark,

New Jersey; and Norfolk, Virginia.

The Johns Hopkins University has

contracted with California State

University at Sacramento to assist in the

implementation process by providing

training and technical assistance and by

making OJJDP funds available through
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contracts to each of the four

demonstration sites.

Each of the sites developed risk

assessment instruments for use in

selecting high-risk 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

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

made available to other States and

OJJDP grantees on a limited basis.

This effort is the first attempt to

implement an intensive, integrated

approach to aftercare with the necessary

transition and reentry components. One

more year of program operation and

data collection would provide the

information and data needed for

analysis of the effectiveness of the IAP

model. The National Council on Crime

and Delinquency is performing an

evaluation under a separate grant.

In FY 1998, OJJDP will provide a

fourth year of funding to the Johns

Hopkins University to provide ongoing

training and technical assistance to

three of the four selected sites. (One of

the four sites, New Jersey, has

discontinued its participation in the

demonstration.) This fourth year of

funding will also expand aftercare

technical assistance services to include

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. In addition, the grantee will work

with selected States that plan to

implement the IAP model with State

funds.

The IAP project will be implemented

by the current grantee, the Johns

Hopkins University. No additional

applications will be solicited in FY

1998.

Evaluation of the Intensive CommunityBased Aftercare Program

In FY 1995, OJJDP competitively

awarded a 3-year grant to the National

Council on Crime and Delinquency

(NCCD) to perform a process evaluation

and design an outcome evaluation of the

Intensive Community-Based Aftercare

Demonstration and Technical

Assistance program. In FY 1997, the

project was extended an additional year

to begin the outcome evaluation.

The purpose of the outcome

evaluation is to answer the following

key research questions: (1) To what

extent is the nature of supervision and

services provided Intensive CommunityBased Aftercare Program (IAP) youth

different from that given to ‘‘regular’’

parolees? (2) To what extent does IAP

have an impact on the subsequent

delinquent or criminal involvement of

program participants? (3) To what

extent does the IAP have an impact on

the specific areas of youth functioning

that it targets for intervention? These

intermediate outcomes include, for

example, reduction of substance abuse,

improved family functioning, improved

peer relationships, improved selfconcept, and reduced delinquent or

criminal behavior. (4) To what extent is

IAP cost-effective?

To obtain the answers to these

questions, NCCD is (1) using a true

experimental design that will involve

random assignment of IAP-eligible

youth to either the experimental or

control conditions; (2) using a series of

measures to compare differences

between the two groups in terms of

services delivered, prepost changes in

selected areas of youth functioning, and

the extent and nature of recidivism; and

(3) estimating the per-participant costs

for the IAP and control groups.

Data collection is being accomplished

using several methods, including use of

a series of forms developed to capture

data on youth and program

characteristics and a battery of

standardized testing instruments

administered before and after

institutional commitment and IAP to

measure the changes in youth

functioning. The grantee is also

conducting searches of State agency and

State police records to measure

recidivism and analyzing State agency

and juvenile court data to estimate

costs.

This project will be implemented by

the current grantee, NCCD. No

additional applications will be solicited

in FY 1998.

Training and Technical Assistance for

National Innovations To Reduce

Disproportionate Minority Confinement

(The Deborah Ann Wysinger Memorial

Program)

National data and studies have shown

that minority children are

overrepresented in secure juvenile and

criminal justice facilities across the

country. Since the 1988 reauthorization

of the JJDP Act, State Formula Grants

program plans have addressed the

disproportionate confinement of

minority juveniles. This is

accomplished by gathering and

analyzing data to determine whether

minority juveniles are

disproportionately confined and, if so,

designing strategies to address this

issue. A competitive Special Emphasis

discretionary grant program was

developed in FY 1991 to demonstrate

model approaches to addressing

disproportionate minority confinement

(DMC) in five State pilot sites (Arizona,

Florida, Iowa, North Carolina, and

Oregon). Funds were also awarded to a

national contractor to provide technical

assistance to assist both the pilot sites

and other States, evaluate their efforts,

and share relevant information.

In FY’s 1994 and 1995, OJJDP made

additional Special Emphasis

discretionary funds available to

nonpilot States that had completed data

gathering and assessment in order to

provide initial funding for innovative

projects designed to address DMC.

These efforts to address DMC have

yielded an important lesson: that

systemic, broad-based interventions are

necessary to address the issue. In

recognition of the continued need to

improve the ability of States and local

jurisdictions to address DMC, OJJDP

issued a competitive solicitation in FY

1997 for innovative proposals to

implement a 3-year national training,

technical assistance, and information

dissemination initiative focused on the

disproportionate confinement of

minority youth.

In FY 1997, through a competitive

selection process, OJJDP awarded a 3-

year contract to implement the DMC

training program to Cygnus Corporation,

Inc. Project objectives for the first year

were (1) to disseminate to States,

localities, OJJDP staff, and key OJJDP

grantees a review and synthesis of the

existing knowledge base and research

on DMC that includes State and local

practices designed to address DMC; (2)

to develop a training curriculum for

policymakers, decisionmakers, and

practitioners in the juvenile justice

system; (3) to develop and deliver

technical assistance to OJJDP grantees
Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 116 /Wednesday, June 17, 1998 / Notices 33159

and to incorporate DMC issues,

practices, and policies; (4) to develop

and begin the process of assisting DMC

grantees to implement and

institutionalize their DMC programs; (5)

to collaborate with OJJDP’s Formula

Grants program technical assistance

contractor, Community Research

Associates, and OJJDP staff to help

States improve their DMC compliance

plans and their strategic planning as it

addresses DMC; (6) to plan, develop,

and implement a national dissemination

and education effort to facilitate

development of effective DMC efforts at

the State and local levels; and (7) to

convene an advisory group to support

the project team on current DMC policy,

practice and progress.

This project will be implemented by

the current grantee, Cygnus Corporation,

Inc. No additional applications will be

solicited in FY 1998.

Training for Juvenile Corrections and

Detention Management Staff

This training program for juvenile

corrections and detention management

staff began in FY 1991 under a 3-year

interagency agreement with the National

Institute of Corrections (NIC). The

program offers 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 specialized-need

offenders, and managing the violent or

disruptive offender. Because of the

continuing need for the executive level

training NIC provides, the agreement

was renewed for an additional 3-year

term in FY 1994 and renewed again in

FY 1997 for a 2-year term. In FY 1997,

NIC conducted 8 training seminars, 2

workshops, 1 satellite video conference

and made 14 technical assistance

awards, reaching more than 6,000

participants.

In FY 1998, OJJDP will continue to

support the development and

implementation of a comprehensive

training program for juvenile corrections

and detention management staff through

the interagency agreement with NIC. It

is anticipated that in FY 1998 the

project will provide 6 seminars to more

than 150 executives and management

staff and technical assistance related to

training to a number of juvenile

corrections and detention agencies. The

training is conducted at the NIC

Academy and regionally.

The program will be implemented by

the current grantee, NIC. No additional

applications will be solicited in FY

1998.

Training for Line Staff in Juvenile

Detention and Corrections

Training is a cost-effective tool for

helping to improve conditions of

confinement and services for youth

detained or confined in residential

facilities. In FY 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 serving

juvenile detention and corrections

facilities. In FY 1995 and FY 1996,

NJDA developed eight training

curriculums, including a corrections

careworker curriculum and a train-thetrainer curriculum. In addition, NJDA

conducted 42 separate trainings,

developed lesson plans, and provided

technical assistance to juvenile justice

agencies.

In FY 1997, NJDA received its final

year of funding under the grant to

provide training and technical

assistance services to State agencies and

organizations in 16 States, assist

regional groups and local organizations,

directly train nearly 700 line staff, and

respond to telephone requests for

technical assistance services. NJDA also

established Web site connections with

OJJDP, the American Correctional

Association, and other organizations. A

community college in Michigan is

adapting two of the NJDA curriculums,

Juvenile Detention Careworker

Curriculum and Juvenile Corrections

Careworker Curriculum, for academic

credit.

In FY 1998, OJJDP will award a grant

to NJDA under the new Juvenile

Accountability Incentive Block Grants

(JAIBG) program. This project,

Accountability-Based Training for Staff

in Juvenile Confinement Facilities, will

emphasize accountability, competency

development, and community

protection and restoration in its

curriculums. These goals are driving

forces behind the Comprehensive

Strategy for Serious, Violent, and

Chronic Juvenile Offenders and the

Balanced and Restorative Justice Model

in current juvenile justice policy.

Accountability-based interventions can

change juvenile offenders through

healthy relationships with healthy

adults. Staff training remains the most

cost-effective strategy of integrating

these principles within juvenile

confinement and custody facilities.

In formal partnership with the

National Association of Juvenile

Correctional Agencies, Juvenile Justice

Trainers Association, and the School of

Criminal Justice at Michigan State

University, NJDA’s goals for FY 1998

include the delivery of line staff training

and technical assistance, conducting

training evaluation in conjunction with

the National Training and Technical

Assistance Center (NTTAC) protocols,

providing pilot training for trainers,

developing action plans for two new

curriculums, drafting line staff

professional development models, and

disseminating training materials and

services through the NTTAC and the

Internet.

This project will be implemented by

the current grantee, NJDA. No

additional applications will be solicited

in FY 1998.

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 impacting 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

FY 1994 for a 3-year project period,
33160 Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 116 /Wednesday, June 17, 1998 / Notices

provides training and technical

assistance materials for use by State and

local jurisdictional teams. After

information collection and preparation

of training and technical assistance

materials in FY’s 1994 and 1995, NJDA

selected three jurisdictions in FY 1996

for onsite development,

implementation, and testing of

procedures to reduce crowding. The

sites are Camden, New Jersey;

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; and the

Rhode Island Juvenile Corrections

System. In FY 1997, project

accomplishments included the

following: (1) development of a resource

guide, Juvenile Detention and Training

School Crowding: Court Case

Summaries, and a training tool,

‘‘Crowding in Juvenile Detention

Centers: A Problem-Solving Manual’’ (in

draft); (2) delivery of comprehensive

technical assistance to two detention

centers and limited technical assistance

to two State juvenile corrections

systems; and (3) training presentations

to the National Council of Juvenile and

Family Court Judges and other groups.

In FY 1998, OJJDP will award

continuation funding to NJDA to

continue efforts to reduce overcrowding

in facilities where juveniles are held,

through systemic change within local

juvenile detention systems or statewide

juvenile corrections systems. Among the

specific activities planned for FY 1998

are (1) publication of a special edition

of the NJDA Journal for Juvenile Justice

and Detention focused exclusively on

jurisdictional teamwork to reduce

overcrowding in juvenile detention and

corrections (jurisdictional teams consist

of designated NJDA/Youth Law Center

project staff working with key juvenile

justice officials in the sites selected for

technical assistance); (2) completion of

a strategy to deliver comprehensive

technical assistance to the Nebraska

Health and Human Services Agency; (3)

identification of additional sites for

comprehensive training and technical

assistance; (4) development of a desktop

guide on juvenile facility overcrowding;

(5) further refinement of the

jurisdictional team training and

technical assistance package; (6)

development of a national

videoconference on crowding issues; (7)

education and information

dissemination to the juvenile justice

community; and (8) exploration of

public/private partnerships.

This project will be implemented by

the current grantee, NJDA. No

additional applications will be solicited

in FY 1998.

National Program Directory

In FY 1998, OJJDP proposes to

support the maintenance of this

directory that identifies and categorizes

juvenile justice agencies, facilities, and

programs in the United States to allow

for routine statistical data collections

covering these agencies and programs.

The directory project has developed

lists of juvenile detention, correctional,

and shelter facilities. This list, which

includes all public and private facilities

that can hold juveniles who are in the

juvenile justice system in a residential

setting (i.e., with sleeping, eating, and

other necessary facilities), has served as

the frame for OJJDP’s Census of

Juveniles in Residential Placement and

would serve as the frame for OJJDP’s

Juvenile Residential Facility Census.

The directory project has also begun

development of a list of juvenile

probation offices to serve as the frame

for OJJDP’s Survey of Juvenile

Probation.

Beyond developing the computer

structure, this project developed 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 FY

1998 through an interagency agreement

with the Census Bureau. No additional

applications will be solicited in FY

1998.

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. In the 1997

program planning process, OJJDP

determined that with the minimal

resources available it would be cost

effective to support several ongoing

programs funded by other Federal

agencies that were consistent with the

recommended areas of activity. OJJDP

therefore transferred funds to three

Federal agencies to support the

enhancement of juvenile justice

components or research on at-risk youth

in the mental health area.

First, OJJDP transferred funds to the

Center for Mental Health Services

(CMHS), U.S. Department of Health and

Human Services, to support a 3-year

effort to provide technical assistance to

the 31 existing CMHS Child Mental

Health sites. The project period began

on October 1, 1997, and will end on

September 30, 2000. These funds will be

used to strengthen the capacity of the

existing sites by providing technical

assistance on mental health services for

juveniles in the juvenile justice system

and by including them in the

continuum of care that is being created

in the sites.

OJJDP also transferred funds to the

National Institute of Corrections (NIC),

which, along with the Substance Abuse

and Mental Health Services

Administration, supports a program to

provide technical assistance with regard

to programming and services for

juvenile offenders with co-occurring

disorders. This is also a 3-year project

period that began on October 1, 1997,

and will end on September 30, 2000.

NIC will supplement the existing

technical assistance provider, the

GAINS Center, to enable it to devote

technical assistance resources to

support improved treatment and

services programs for juvenile offenders

with co-occurring disorders in the

juvenile justice system. Previously, the

focus of the grant had been on the

provision of technical assistance to the

adult system.

Finally, OJJDP transferred funds to the

National Institute of Mental Health

(NIMH) to partially support additional

costs associated with the conduct of an

expanded and extended followup study

of various treatment modalities for

attention deficit hyperactive disorder

(ADHD) in children. The expanded

followup will assess substance abuse

and use and related factors necessary for

evaluating changes in ADHD children’s

risk for subsequent substance use and

abuse attributable to their randomly

assigned treatment conditions. In

addition, the multimodal treatment

study of children with ADHD affords

the opportunity to assess the experience

of study participants with the legal

system, e.g., contacts with the juvenile

justice system, acts of delinquency,

court referrals, and other criminal and/

or precriminal activities.

In FY 1998, OJJDP will transfer

additional funds to support

continuation of the NIC and CMHS

technical assistance and the training

and research of NIMH. No new

applications will be solicited in FY

1998.

Juvenile Residential Facility Census

In 1998, OJJDP will fund the

development and testing of a new

census of juvenile residential facilities.
Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 116 /Wednesday, June 17, 1998 / Notices 33161

This census will focus on those facilities

that are authorized to hold juveniles

based on contact with the juvenile

justice system. During FY 1997, the

project conducted an extensive series of

interviews with facility administrators

and facility staff onsite at 20 locations.

The subjects covered in these interviews

included education, mental health and

substance abuse treatment, health

services, conditions of custody, staffing,

and facility capacity. From these

interviews, the project staff have

produced an extensive and detailed

report for OJJDP discussing how best to

capture information on these topics and

has produced a draft questionnaire

based on these results.

In FY 1998, the project staff will

refine the draft instrument and test it

through a series of cognitive interviews

onsite at approximately 25 facilities.

After another round of revision and

comment, the questionnaire will be

tested for feasibility by conducting a

sample survey of 500 facilities. Again,

the questionnaire will go through a

round of revision based on the test

results before being finalized.

This project will be conducted

through an interagency agreement with

the Bureau of the Census, Governments

Division and Statistical Research

Division. No new applications will be

solicited in FY 1998.

The National Longitudinal Survey of

Youth 97

OJJDP will support the second round

of data collection under the National

Longitudinal Survey of Youth 97

(NLSY97) through an interagency

agreement with the Bureau of Labor

Statistics (BLS). In 1994, BLS began its

design and development work for a new

National Longitudinal Survey of Youth,

similar to the ongoing National

Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979.

Under the NLSY97, a nationally

representative sample of 10,000 youth

ages 12 to 17 years old was selected in

order to study the school-to-work

transition. However, BLS has

acknowledged the importance of

collecting additional data on the

involvement of these youth in antisocial

and other behavior that may affect their

successful transition to productive work

careers.

The breadth of topics covered by this

survey provides a rich and

complementary source of information

about risk and protective factors that are

also related to the initiation, persistence

and desistance of delinquent and

criminal behavior. This interagency

agreement supplements the data

collection by asking questions about

delinquency, guns, drug sales, and

violent behavior. In addition to

generating the first national, cross

sectional, estimates of self-reported

delinquency since the late National

Youth Survey of the early 1980’s, this

new longitudinal survey will also

provide an opportunity to determine the

generalizability of the findings from

OJJDP’s Program of Research on the

Causes and Correlates of Delinquency

and other city-specific longitudinal

studies across a nationally

representative population of youth.

The program will be implemented by

the BLS under an interagency

agreement. No additional applications

will be solicited in FY 1998.

TeenSupreme Career Preparation

Initiative

In FY 1998, OJJDP, in partnership

with the U.S. Department of Labor’s

(DOL’s) Employment and Training

Administration, will provide funding

support to the Boys & Girls Clubs of

America for demonstration and

evaluation of the TeenSupreme Career

Preparation Initiative. DOL will provide

$2.5 million to support the program,

and OJJDP will provide $250,000 to

support the initial costs of the

evaluation. This initiative will provide

employment training and other related

services to at-risk youth through local

Boys & Girls Clubs with TeenSupreme

Centers. The Boys & Girls Clubs of

America currently has 41 TeenSupreme

Centers in local clubs around the

country and may consider expanding

the number of centers in 1998. DOL

funds will support program staffing in

the existing 41 TeenSupreme Centers

and provide intensive training and

technical assistance to each site. These

funds will also be used by the Boys &

Girls Clubs of America to provide

administrative and staffing support to

this program from the national office.

OJJDP funds will be used to support the

evaluation component of the program.

Boys & Girls Clubs of America will

contract with an independent evaluator

to evaluate the program.

This jointly funded Department of

Labor and OJJDP initiative will be

implemented by the Boys & Girls Clubs

of America. No additional applications

will be solicited in FY 1998.

Technical Assistance to Native

Americans

American Indian programs for

juveniles are facing increasing pressures

because of the growing number of youth

who are involved in drug abuse, gang

activity, and delinquency. Many

reservations are experiencing the

problems that plague communities

nationwide: gang activity, violent crime,

use of weapons, and increasing drug

and alcohol abuse.

From FY 1992 to FY 1995, OJJDP

funded four American Indian sites to

support the development of communitybased programs to deal with these

problems. These sites were the Gila

River Indian Community in Arizona; the

Navajo Nation Chinle District in

Arizona; the Red Lake Ojibwe in

Minnesota; and the Pueblo of Jemez in

New Mexico. Each of these communities

implemented programs specifically

designed to meet the needs of the tribe.

For example, in Gila River, an

alternative school was developed and

implemented. The Navajo Nation

expanded the Peace Maker program to

accommodate additional delinquent

offenders, an approach that was adopted

by the Red Lake and Pueblo of Jemez

communities. Additional programming,

such as job skills development, was also

initiated in some of these communities

to meet the needs of tribal youth.

Although these programs were well

received, the sites also needed to

expand programming options such as

gang and drug prevention and

intervention programs.

In FY 1997, American Indian

Development Associates (AIDA) was

selected to implement OJJDP’s national

technical assistance program for tribes

and urban tribal programs across the

country. This 3-year program will

support the development of additional

program options for the four tribes

previously funded and extend technical

assistance to tribal communities and

urban tribal programs nationwide. AIDA

initially developed a needs assessment

instrument and provided other technical

assistance to Juvenile Detention

Facilities in Indian Country under an

agreement to support the Office of

Justice Programs (OJP) Corrections

Program Office’s project with the Gila

River and Yankton Tribes. AIDA also

facilitated team learning activities

during the Arizona Indian Youth Gang

Prevention Conference, coordinated the

First Native American Juvenile Justice

Summit, and provided technical

assistance to Indian tribes on behalf of

OJJDP, the Office of Tribal Justice, and

the OJP Indian Desk.

In FY 1998, AIDA will continue to

provide technical assistance to

American Indian and Alaskan Native

communities. Technical assistance will

enable the tribes to further develop

alternatives to detention, specifically

targeting juveniles who are first or

nonviolent offenders; design guidebooks

for the tribal peacemaking process to be

used in addressing juvenile delinquency

issues that are reported to Family

District Court systems; design and
33162 Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 116 /Wednesday, June 17, 1998 / Notices

implement juvenile justice needs

assessments to assist tribes in

responding to juvenile detention and

alternatives to detention needs; develop

protocols to implement State Children’s

Code provisions that affect Native

American Children; establish

sustainable, comprehensive communitybased planning processes that focus on

the needs of tribal youth; plan and

conduct juvenile justice training

seminars; and assist John Jay College of

Criminal Justice to design and develop

a Tribal Justice Training and Technical

Assistance Workshop under OJJDP’s

Law Enforcement Training Contract.

The workshop will emphasize juvenile

probation, serious habitual offenders,

and tribal youth gangs.

This program will be implemented by

the current grantee, American Indian

Development Associates. No additional

applications will be solicited in FY

1998.

Youth Court: A Training and Technical

Assistance Delivery Program

OJJDP considers teen courts, also

called peer or youth 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 FY 1996 to supplement the

existing Teen Court Program of the

National Highway Traffic Safety

Administration (NHTSA), of the U.S.

Department of Transportation. The

NHTSA grant was awarded in FY 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

NHTSA grant was supplemented with

OJJDP FY 1996 and FY 1997 funds to

support the development of the joint

publication Peer Justice and Youth

Empowerment: An Implementation

Guide for Teen Court Programs and to

provide an expanded technical

assistance capacity.

The national response to APPA’s

training and technical assistance and to

the Guide has been very enthusiastic. A

second printing of the Guide will be

available later this year. NHTSA and

OJJDP have received numerous requests

to provide additional training seminars

and technical assistance based on the

Guide.

In FY 1998, OJJDP is collaborating

with NHTSA, HHS, and the Department

of Education, to enhance the training

seminars with information on the

possibility of teen courts being used as

an integral part of balanced and

restorative justice initiatives and to help

address the growing problem of children

who are being suspended and expelled

from school because of misbehavior,

including misbehavior related to

learning problems. These activities will

complement current training on the use

of teen courts to address youth

possession and use of alcohol and

marijuana, issues of particular interest

to these agencies. Technical assistance

will be provided to selected

jurisdictions with site-specific strategic

planning for the program organizers on

developing, implementing, or enhancing

teen court programs, particularly in

school-related areas. OJJDP will award a

competitive grant under the Juvenile

Accountability Incentive Block Grants

program to implement a 2-year training

and technical assistance program.

School Safety Training and Technical

Assistance

Since 1984, OJJDP and the U.S.

Department of Education have provided

joint funding to the National School

Safety Center to promote safe schools—

free of crime and violence through

training and technical assistance and

the dissemination of information. This

initiative has focused national attention

on cooperative solutions to problems

that disrupt the educational process.

Because an estimated 3 million

incidents of crime occur in America’s

schools each year, it is clear that this

problem continues to plague many

schools, threatening students’ safety and

undermining the learning environment.

OJJDP will continue this partnership

with the Department of Education by

issuing a competitive solicitation for a

cooperative agreement with a private

nonprofit organization to provide

training and technical assistance to

communities and school districts across

the country. It is expected that these

activities will be closely coordinated

with the ongoing review of literature,

research, and evaluation of school-based

demonstration efforts being undertaken

by the Hamilton Fish National Institute

on School and Community Violence

with OJJDP FY 1998 funding support.

A solicitation will be issued as part of

the FY 1998 OJJDP Discretionary

Program Announcement: Discretionary

Grant Program: Parts C and D.

Information on how to obtain a copy of

the Program Announcement is provided

above under Supplementary

Information.

Disproportionate Minority Confinement

OJJDP is interested in exploring

additional work in the area of

disproportionate minority confinement

in secure detention or correctional

facilities, adult jails and lockups, and

other secure institutional facilities. The

proposed work will include a variety of

activities, including—but not limited

to—demonstration programs, national

education efforts, and local program

evaluations.

Disproportionate minority

representation in secure juvenile

facilities and other institutions is a

major problem facing the juvenile

justice system. While minorities

represent 32 percent of the juvenile

population ages 12 to 17, they represent

68 percent of the confined juvenile

population.

OJJDP has previously funded

programs designed to assist and enable

States to identify strategies to address

the overrepresentation of minority

juveniles, including an evaluation of a

county juvenile court’s efforts to reduce

minority overrepresentation. Similar

efforts, particularly those that offer

conceptual, indepth, capacity-building

will help to ensure that minority

juvenile offenders receive appropriate

treatment at all stages of the juvenile

justice system process. OJJDP will join

the Rockefeller Foundation, Annie E.

Casey Foundation, Open Society

Institute, California Wellness

Foundation, and the Bureau of Justice

Assistance in making funds available to

the Youth Law Center to support the

initiative Building Blocks For Youth, a

3-year effort to promote a

comprehensive approach to addressing

the problem of disproportionate

incarceration of minority youth in the

juvenile justice system. The initiative

provides a five-pronged strategy based

on research and targeted at policies and

attitudes that contribute to differential

treatment of minority youth. It supports

the Training and Technical Assistance

for National Innovations To Reduce

Disproportionate Minority Confinement

program being implemented by Cygnus

Corporation and OJJDP’s Formula

Grants technical assistance provider and

its ongoing efforts to reduce DMC.

Arts Programs for Juvenile Offenders in

Detention and Corrections

OJJDP will provide support for arts

programs for youth in juvenile detention

centers and corrections facilities

through the establishment of artist-inresidence programs. This initiative will

increase awareness of opportunities to
Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 116 /Wednesday, June 17, 1998 / Notices 33163

establish visual, performing, media, and

literacy artist-in-residence programs in

juvenile detention centers and

corrections facilities.

OJJDP will encourage the

development of these programs by

convening interested arts organizations

and juvenile justice agencies for the

purpose of providing training in arts

program development to one

demonstration site and three

enhancement sites.

OJJDP will be collaborating with the

NEA and will issue a competitive

solicitation in FY 1998. The awarded

grantees will receive training and

technical assistance support over the

duration of the grant through a provider

selected by NEA and OJJDP.

A solicitation will be issued as part of

the FY 1998 OJJDP Discretionary

Program Announcement: Discretionary

Grant Program: Parts C and D.

Information on how to obtain a copy of

the Program Announcement is provided

above under Supplementary

Information.

‘‘Circles of Care’’—A Program To

Develop Strategies To Serve Native

American Youth With Mental Health

and Substance Abuse Needs

The Center for Mental Health Services

(CMHS) of the Substance Abuse and

Mental Health Services Administration

(SAMHSA) is developing a Guidance for

Federal Applicants that will result in

the funding of a 3-year program to 6–8

sites to plan and develop systems of

care for American Indian youth who are

seriously emotionally disturbed and/or

substance abusers. The grantees will

engage in a structured process to plan,

develop, and test a system of care that

achieves the outcomes developed by

American Indian, Alaskan Native, or

urban nonprofit organizations serving

populations of American Indian or

Alaskan Native youth.

OJJDP will provide resources,

including grant funds and technical

assistance, where appropriate, to assure

that American Indian/Alaskan Native

youth who are in the juvenile justice

system and who are seriously

emotionally disturbed or substance

abusers are planned for and made part

of the service system. OJJDP will

transfer funds to CMHS/SAMHSA to

assist with the development and

implementation of this program.

Juvenile Defender Training, Technical

Assistance, and Resource Center

In FY 1993, OJJDP competitively

funded the American Bar Association

(ABA) to determine the status of

juvenile defense services in the United

States, develop a report, and provide

training and technical assistance. The

ABA—along with its partners, the Youth

Law Center of San Francisco, California,

and the Juvenile Law Center of

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania—conducted

an extensive survey of public defender

offices, court-appointed systems, law

school clinics, and the literature. These

data were then analyzed and a report,

entitled A Call for Justice, was

developed and published in December

1995.

The ABA has also developed and

delivered specialized training to

juvenile defenders in several

jurisdictions, such as the State of

Maryland, the State of Tennessee,

Baltimore County, Maryland, and

several other States and localities, to

assist in increasing the capacity of

juvenile defenders to provide more

effective defense services. In October

1997, the ABA and its partners

organized and implemented the first

Juvenile Defender Summit at

Northwestern University in Chicago,

Illinois. The Summit brought together

public defenders, court-appointed

lawyers, law school clinic directors,

juvenile offender services

representatives, and others for a 21⁄2-day

meeting to examine the issues related to

juvenile defense services and

recommend strategies for improving

these services.

This work has served as a catalyst for

the development of a more permanent

structure to support training and

technical assistance and to serve as a

clearinghouse and resource center for

juvenile defenders in this country.

Recognizing that a lack of training,

technical assistance, and resources for

juvenile defenders weakens the juvenile

justice system and results in a lack of

due process for juvenile offenders,

OJJDP will provide seed money in FY

1998 to fund the initial planning and

implementation of a Juvenile Defender

Center. The grantee is expected to

establish a broad-based partnership of

public and private organizations to help

ensure long-term financial support for a

permanent Center. The Center will be

designed to provide both general and

specialized training and technical

assistance to juvenile defenders in the

United States. The design will also

incorporate a resource center for

purposes such as serving as a repository

for the most recent litigation on key

issues, a brief bank, and information on

expert witnesses. OJJDP anticipates that

this program will be a 5-year effort.

A solicitation will be issued as part of

the FY 1998 OJJDP Discretionary

Program Announcement: Discretionary

Grant Program: Parts C and D.

Information on how to obtain a copy of

the Program Announcement is provided

above under Supplementary

Information.

Gender-Specific Programming for

Female Juvenile Offenders

In 1996, one in four juvenile arrests

was of a female, and increases in arrests

between 1992 and 1996 were greater for

juvenile females than juvenile males in

most offense categories. Yet programs to

address the unique needs of female

delinquents have been and remain

inadequate in many jurisdictions. The

risk factors that females face are not

identical with those facing males. Major

risk factors for girls include abuse and

exploitation, substance abuse, teen

pregnancy and parenting, low or

damaged self-esteem, and truancy or

dropping out of school. Communities

and their juvenile justice systems need

to develop programs designed to help

female offenders overcome these risk

factors.

Cook County, for example, used an FY

1995 competitive grant to build a

network of support for juvenile female

offenders in Cook County. The County’s

work in this area involved developing a

gender-specific needs and strengths

assessment instrument and a risk

assessment instrument for juvenile

female offenders, providing training in

implementing gender-appropriate

programming, and designing a pilot

program that includes a communitybased continuum of care with a unique

case management system.

In FY 1998, OJJDP will provide

continuation funding to the Cook

County gender-specific program. In

addition, Cook County will provide

technical assistance and support to the

State of Connecticut in planning for

systemic change and modifications in

policies and procedures that will

facilitate more effective handling of

female juvenile offenders and establish

a hierarchy of sanctions with an

emphasis on pregnant girls and girls

who are mothers. Cook County will

share lessons learned and help

Connecticut develop specialized

programs for girls from prevention to

detention; identify and utilize a range of

support services to augment the

program; incorporate changes in

program components that work with

pregnant girls and girls who are

mothers; and develop outreach

initiatives and planning. Additional

technical assistance for this effort will

be provided by Greene, Peters, and

Associates, OJJDP’s gender-specific

training and technical assistance

grantee. Connecticut will use the FY

1998 funds to conduct a 1-year planning

grant to plan for statewide systemic
33164 Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 116 /Wednesday, June 17, 1998 / Notices

change to provide gender-specific

services, programs, and case

management for female juvenile

offenders, including those who are

pregnant and mothers.

The project will be implemented, in

partnership with the Bureau of Justice

Assistance, by the current grantee, the

Cook County Bureau of Public Safety

and Judicial Coordination, and the State

of Connecticut’s Office of Alternative

Sanctions. No additional applications

will be solicited in FY 1998.

Evaluation Capacity Building

The question of ‘‘what works’’

pervades discussions of juvenile justice.

To find answers, program

administrators and agency personnel

need to conduct rigorous evaluations of

programs of interest. OJJDP has

determined that a strong, cooperative

arrangement between OJJDP and State

agencies responsible for juvenile justice

and delinquency prevention

programming can most effectively

provide answers to this question. To

that end, OJJDP will provide funding in

FY 1998 for an assessment of the current

capacity of State and local agencies to

evaluate juvenile justice programs, to

conduct regional training workshops

and provide technical assistance in

response to the needs assessment, and

to design a project that identifies

programs proven by evaluation to be

effective. A goal of this program is to

build the capacity of State formula

grants agencies to conduct rigorous

evaluations of juvenile justice programs

and projects funded in their states with

JJDP Act funds. OJJDP will then take the

lead in disseminating evaluation results

and information to the field.

This project will be implemented by

the Justice Research and Statistics

Association (JRSA), using the model

developed under a grant from the

Bureau of Justice Assistance to enhance

the criminal justice evaluation capacity

of States and localities.

Field-Initiated Research

OJJDP’s efforts to address the

problems of juvenile offending are

enriched most through the thoughtful

and dedicated efforts of researchers in

the field. Through the work of agencies,

individuals, and organizations, OJJDP

has benefited from innovative thinking

and new directions. To encourage such

innovative research in juvenile

offending and juvenile justice, OJJDP is

considering offering grants in FY 1998

for research initiated by researchers in

the field. Through this series of grants,

OJJDP would expect to learn new

alternatives and options for various

problems facing the juvenile justice

system.

OJJDP is particularly interested in

research that opens new avenues of

inquiry regarding youth criminality, the

prevention of juvenile crime,

interventions with youthful offenders,

and juvenile justice system policy and

practice.

Field-Initiated Evaluation

OJJDP has decided not to fund a fieldinitiated evaluation program in FY

1998. Although OJJDP understands that

such evaluations are important and that

there is a need for knowledge of ‘‘what

works’’ in the juvenile justice field,

limited resources preclude funding this

program in FY 1998. However, OJJDP

will support a Juvenile Accountability

Incentive Block Grants Program

Research and Evaluation program and

continue the numerous evaluations

already underway and referenced in this

Program Plan. OJJDP is making $1.95

million available through a competitive

solicitation issued by the National

Institute of Justice for topical research or

evaluation projects and researcherpractitioner partnerships. The deadline

for submission of proposals under this

program is July 14, 1998. For a copy of

the solicitation, forms, and guidelines,

contact NCJRS at 800–851–3420 or the

Department of Justice Response Center

at 800–421–6770.

Analysis of Juvenile Justice Data

Funding for this new program will

provide for the analysis and

interpretation of diverse sources of data

and information on juvenile offending

and the juvenile justice system, beyond

that currently funded for the analysis of

OJJDP data sets. This project will

provide a source for identifying and

reporting important information from

nontraditional sources. The project will

develop OJJDP’s capacity to use and

analyze data collections covering such

related areas as health, education, and

employment. It will provide a means for

routinely publishing specialized reports

that assimilate such data sources. It will

also support the management and

direction of OJJDP efforts through the

contribution of analyses directed

towards the Office’s priorities and

initiatives.

A solicitation will be issued as part of

the FY 1998 OJJDP Discretionary

Program Announcement: Discretionary

Grant Program: Parts C and D.

Information on how to obtain a copy of

the Program Announcement is provided

above under Supplementary

Information.

Evaluation of the Comprehensive

Strategy for Serious, Violent, and

Chronic Juvenile Offenders

In FY 1998, OJJDP will begin a

multiyear, multisite evaluation of the

Comprehensive Strategy for Serious,

Violent, and Chronic Juvenile

Offenders. The evaluation will first look

at the lessons learned from the

Comprehensive Strategy training and

technical assistance process that was

provided in three pilot communities:

Fort Myers and Jacksonville, Florida,

and San Diego, California. The

evaluation will then look at the effect of

the 2-year training and technical

assistance process that is currently

being provided in 5 States and 26 local

jurisdictions and is about to commence

in up to two additional States. The

training and technical assistance

process is designed to transfer the

knowledge, skills, tools, and practices

necessary to develop a comprehensive

strategic plan in each community. The

evaluation will document the

effectiveness of the training and

technical assistance process in a sample

of communities. The evaluation will

also look at the crime and delinquency

outcomes and the level of services being

provided in each of the jurisdictions

that have successfully completed the

training and technical assistance

process and are implementing their

comprehensive strategic plan. In the

first year, the evaluation will also

document baseline data in the States

and local communities. This project will

be implemented by Caliber Associates

under OJJDP’s current evaluation

contract. No additional applications will

be solicited in FY 1998.

Blueprints for Violence Prevention:

Training and Technical Assistance

In a 1994 survey, more than half of

the respondents identified crime and

violence as the most important problem

facing this country, and violence was

unanimously identified as the ‘‘biggest

problem’’ facing the Nation’s public

schools. Many communities are ready to

take meaningful action to combat these

problems, but are struggling in

determining both ‘‘what works’’ and

how to implement those effective

strategies and programs. As a result,

many jurisdictions are moving forward

with insufficient knowledge on how to

be successful in both of these areas of

focus.

To address this issue, OJJDP will

award a cooperative agreement to the

Center for the Study and Prevention of

Violence (CSPV) at the University of

Colorado. CSPV has completed a study,

begun in 1996, of 10 violence
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prevention programs that met a rigorous

scientific standard of program

effectiveness and replicability—

programs that could be documented in

‘‘blueprints’’ that could be utilized for

further replication. Under this grant,

CSPV will provide technical assistance

to community organizations and

program providers to ensure quality

replication of Blueprint model programs

that have been demonstrated to be

effective in reducing adolescent

violence, crime, and substance abuse.

The specific goal of this project will

be to assist in the replication of these

blueprint programs by (1) determining

the feasibility of program development

for each community or agency request

for technical assistance in terms of a

needs assessment and the capacity for

the community/agency to implement

the program with integrity and (2)

providing training and technical

assistance to communities/agencies that

are ready to begin the implementation

process. CSPV will both monitor and

assist the program during its first year

of operation.

This project will be implemented by

the Center for the Study and Prevention

of Violence because of its unique status

as the developer of the Blueprints for

Violence Prevention project and

previous research in this specific area.

No additional applications will be

solicited in FY 1998.

Teambuilding Project for Courts

OJJDP, in conjunction with the State

Justice Institute (SJI), will support

projects to (1) explore emerging issues

that will affect juvenile courts as they

enter the 21st century, and (2) develop

and test innovative approaches for

managing juvenile courts, securing

resources required to fully meet the

responsibilities of the judicial branch,

and institutionalizing long-range

planning processes across the multiple

disciplines in the juvenile justice

system. This joint effort will test

innovative programs and procedures for

providing clear and open

communications between the judiciary,

other branches of government, and

juvenile justice practitioners.

The primary goal will be to develop

and implement a teambuilding project

designed to facilitate better coordination

and information sharing and foster

innovative, efficient solutions to

problems facing juvenile courts.

Activities may include (1) preparing and

presenting educational programs to

foster development of effective

multidisciplinary teams; (2) delivering

onsite technical assistance to develop a

team or enhance an existing

partnership; (3) providing information

on teambuilding through a national

resource center; and (4) preparing

manuals, guides, and other written and

visual products to assist in the

development and operation of effective

teams.

A competitive assistance award will

support the demonstration project.

Funds will be transferred to SJI to

administer the program through a

cooperative agreement under the new

Juvenile Accountability Incentive Block

Grants (JAIBG) program.

Evaluation of Youth-Related

Employment Initiative

OJJDP is collaborating with the U.S.

Department of Labor (DOL) to support

youth employment and training

programs that will result in the

reintegration of juvenile offenders into

society. DOL will provide funding for

three different demonstration programs:

large-scale model community

demonstration programs in high-crime

areas; an education and training youth

offenders initiative that will provide

comprehensive school to work

education and training within juvenile

corrections facilities and followup

services and job placement as part of

community aftercare; and

communitywide coordination projects

to small-and medium-sized

communities to develop linkages among

various agencies that support

prevention and recovery services for

youthful offenders. OJJDP will fund a 3-

year evaluation of the education and

training of youthful offenders within

juvenile corrections facilities and the

community aftercare component of this

initiative.

A competitive solicitation will be

issued for this evaluation as part of the

FY 1998 OJJDP Discretionary Program

Announcement: Discretionary Grant

Program: Parts C and D. Information on

how to obtain a copy of the Program

Announcement is provided above under

Supplementary Information.

Child Abuse and Neglect and

Dependency Courts

Safe Kids/Safe Streets: Community

Approaches to Reducing Abuse and

Neglect and Preventing Delinquency

Reports of child victimization, abuse,

and neglect in the United States

continue to be alarming. For example, in

1996 alone, an estimated 3.1 million

children were reported to public welfare

agencies for abuse or neglect. Nearly 1

million of those children were

substantiated as victims. Usually, abuse

is inflicted by someone the child knows,

frequently a family member.

Numerous studies cite the connection

between abuse or neglect of a child and

later development of violent and

delinquent behavior. Acknowledging

this correlation and the need to both

improve system response and foster

strong, nurturing families, several

offices and bureaus of the Office of

Justice Programs joined in FY 1996 to

develop a coordinated program

response. The resulting initiative, a 51⁄2

year demonstration program designed to

foster coordinated community responses

to child abuse and neglect, was titled

Safe Kids/Safe Streets: Community

Approaches to Reducing Abuse and

Neglect and Preventing Delinquency.

(An accompanying evaluation program,

Evaluation of the Safe Kids/Safe Streets

Program, was also developed.)

The purpose of the Safe Kids/Safe

Streets program is to break the cycle of

early childhood victimization and later

juvenile or adult criminality and to

reduce child and adolescent abuse and

neglect and resulting child fatalities. It

strives to do this by providing fiscal and

technical support for efforts to

restructure and strengthen State and

local criminal and juvenile justice

systems to be more comprehensive and

proactive in helping children and

adolescents and their families. The

program also has as a goal to implement

or strengthen coordinated management

of abuse and neglect cases by improving

the policy and practice of the criminal

and juvenile justice systems and the

child welfare, family services, and

related systems. These goals require

communities to develop, implement,

and/or expand cross-agency strategies.

OJJDP, the administering agency for

the Safe Kids/Safe Streets program,

awarded competitive cooperative

agreements in FY 1997 to five

demonstration sites and to a national

evaluator. Funds are provided by OJJDP,

the Office of Victims of Crime (OVC)

and the Violence Against Women Grants

Office (VAWGO). Recipients of the

awards are the National Children’s

Advocacy Center, Huntsville, Alabama;

the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa

Indians in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan;

Heart of America United Way of Kansas

City, Missouri; Toledo Hospital

Children’s Medical Center in Toledo,

Ohio; and the Community Network for

Children, Youth and Family Services of

Chittenden County, Vermont. The

national evaluator is Westat, Inc., of

Rockville, Maryland.

Four of the five funded demonstration

sites are in the process of developing

implementation plans. The fifth is in the

initial stages of implementing its plans

to improve the coordination of

prevention, intervention, and treatment

services and to improve cross-agency

coordination. The national evaluator has
33166 Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 116 /Wednesday, June 17, 1998 / Notices

begun the process of assessing site

needs and developing measurement

variables. Each award has been made

under a 51⁄2 year project period.

In FY 1998, Safe Kids/Safe Streets

grantees will continue to implement

their plans. Continuation awards will be

made to each of the current

demonstration sites. No additional

applications will be solicited in FY

1998.

National Evaluation of the Safe Kids/

Safe Streets Program

To evaluate the Safe Kids/Safe Streets

grant program, OJJDP competitively

awarded a grant to Westat, Inc. in FY

1997. The purpose of the evaluation is

to document and explicate the process

of community mobilization, planning,

and collaboration that has taken place

before and during the Safe Kids/Safe

Streets awards; to inform program staff

of performance levels on an ongoing

basis; and to determine the effectiveness

of the implemented programs in

achieving the goals of the Safe Kids/Safe

Streets program. The initial 18-month

grant will begin a process evaluation

and determine the feasibility of an

impact evaluation. If it is determined

that an impact evaluation is feasible,

additional funds may be awarded to

implement such an evaluation in FY

1998.

The goals for Phase I of the Evaluation

of the Safe Kids/Safe Streets program

are (1) to understand the process of

implementation of the Safe Kids/Safe

Streets program in order to strengthen

and refine the program for future

replication; (2) to identify factors that

contribute to or impede the successful

implementation of the program; (3) to

help develop or improve the capability

and utility of local data systems that

track at-risk youth, including victims of

child neglect or abuse; (4) to build an

understanding of the general

effectiveness of the Safe Kids/Safe

Streets program approach and its

program components; and (5) to help

develop the capacity of Safe Kids/Safe

Streets sites to evaluate what works in

their communities.

The objectives of this initial phase of

the evaluation are (1) to develop a

detailed design, including data

collection instruments, for a process

evaluation of the Safe Kids/Safe Streets

program for implementation in

collaboration with all sites; (2) to

develop templates for capturing the data

necessary for the national process

evaluation and to make those templates

available for implementation at the

sites; and (3) to provide evaluation

training and technical assistance for,

and to collaborate with, grantees at each

of the sites in implementing a process

evaluation of the development and

implementation of each Safe Kids/Safe

Streets program site.

This evaluation will be implemented

by the current grantee, Westat, Inc. No

additional applications will be solicited

in FY 1998.

Secondary Analysis of Childhood

Victimization

In FY 1997, OJJDP awarded a two-year

grant to the University at Albany, State

University of New York, to support

secondary analysis of data that were

collected on 1,200 individuals as part of

a National Institute of Justice research

project that began in 1986. The data set

includes extensive information on

psychiatric, cognitive, intellectual,

social, and behavioral functioning. It

also contains information on

documented and self-reported criminal

and runaway behavior in a large sample

of unsubstantiated cases of early

childhood physical and sexual abuse

and neglect and matched controls. The

data base includes information from

archival juvenile court and probation

department records and law

enforcement records and interview

information on a range of topics,

including psychiatric assessment,

intelligence, and reading ability.

The initial set of secondary analyses,

during the first year of the OJJDP award,

focused on childhood victimization as a

precursor to running away and

subsequent delinquency. Initial research

questions focused on whether running

away puts a child at increased risk for

becoming a violent offender and repeat

violent offender as a juvenile and

whether abused and neglected children

who run away are at greater risk than

children who have not been abused.

In FY 1998, the research will look at

several other outcomes such as out-ofhome placements and drug use by

children who run away. Gender

differences will also be explored. This

research will also explore the

differential impact of childhood

victimization by race/ethnicity.

This project is being conducted by

Cathy Spatz Widom, principal

researcher, under a grant to the

University at Albany, State University of

New York. No additional applications

will be solicited in FY 1998.

Evaluation of Nurse Home Visitation in

Weed and Seed Sites

OJJDP will administer an evaluation

of Nurse Home Visitation programs in

six Weed and Seed sites across the

Nation with funds transferred to OJJDP

from the U.S. Department of Health and

Human Services. Six Weed and Seed

sites, one of which is a SafeFutures site,

are providing nurse home visitation

services. These sites have been

designated for evaluation in order to

determine the impact of the specific

program model of nurse home visitation

implemented within normal operating

environments in communities. Nurse

home visitation has been found to be

effective in reducing welfare

dependency, increasing employment,

decreasing or delaying repeat

childbearing, reducing the incidence of

child maltreatment, and reducing crime

and delinquency within the context of

randomized clinical trials.

The project will be implemented by

the University of Colorado Prevention

Research Center. No additional

applications will be solicited in FY

1998.

Dated: June 10, 1998.

Shay Bilchik,

Administrator, Office of Juvenile Justice and

Delinquency Prevention.

[FR Doc. 98–15832 Filed 6–16–98; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 4410–18–P