The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

Criminal Justice Spending/ About Byrne JAG / Impact of the Money

On February 17, President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, otherwise know as the Recovery Act. The $787.2 billion bill includes a number of spending priorities including $4 billion for state and local justice assistance programs.

> View the full bill

www.Recovery.gov is the official government website designed to track how the money in the stimulus bill is being spent.

Criminal Justice Spending in the Bill

The criminal justice spending in this bill is detailed below:

o $2 billion for the Byrne JAG formula grant program;
o $225 million for Byrne competitive grants;
o $225 million for Violence Against Women programs, of which $175 million is for the STOP grants and $50 million is for the transitional housing assistance grants program;
o $1 billion for the COPS Office for the hiring and rehiring of additional career law enforcement officers and civilian public safety personnel.  The bill waives the 25% local match and the $75,000 per officer cap;
o $40 million for competitive grants to provide assistance and equipment to local law enforcement along the Southern border and in High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas to combat criminal narcotics activity stemming from the Southern border, of which $10 million shall be for ATF’s Project Gunrunner;
o $225 million for Indian Country grants;
o $100 million to be distributed by the Office for Victims of Crime;
o $125 million for assistance to law enforcement in rural areas; and
o $50 million for Internet Crimes Against Children initiatives.

Other provisions/text:
o $2 million for DOJ’s Inspector General’s office;
o $10 million for management and administration and oversight of programs within the Office on Violence Against Women, the Office of Justice Programs, and the COPS office.  No administrative overhead costs shall be deducted by DOJ from the programs;
o DOJ will be required to submit a spend plan to the Hill within 60 days of enactment;
o The conference report text on the Byrne Competitive Grants is as follows:  “for competitive, peer-reviewed grants to units of State, local, and tribal government, and to national, regional, and local non-profit organizations to prevent crime, improve the administration of justice, provide services to victims of crime, support critical nurturing and mentoring of at-risk children and youth, and for other similar activities;”
o The report text on the rural law enforcement section reads as follows: “to combat the persistent problems of drug-related crime in rural America.  Funds will be available on a competitive basis for drug enforcement and other law enforcement activities in rural states and rural areas, including for the hiring of police officers and for community drug prevention and treatment programs;”
o The report text on the victims’ compensation section reads as follows:  “to support State compensation and assistance programs for victims and survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, child abuse, drunk driving, homicide, and other Federal and state crimes;”
o The report text on the tribal assistance reads as follows:  “to assist American Indian and Alaska Native tribes, to be distributed under the guidelines set forth by the Correctional Facilities on Tribal Lands program.  The Department is directed to coordinate with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and to consider the following in the grant approval process:  (1) the detention bed space needs of an applicant tribe; and (2) the violent crime statistics of the tribe.”

> View the text of the conference report   

About the Byrne Justice Assistance Grant Program

The Byrne Justice Assistance Grant program (Byrne JAG) is the cornerstone federal crime-fighting program, enabling communities to target resources to their most pressing local needs. Byrne/JAG is the only comprehensive federal crime-fighting program, allowing for a system-wide approach and enabling counties and municipalities to target resources to their most pressing local needs.

Byrne JAG was created by the 2005 merger of the Edward Byrne Memorial Grant Program and the Local Law Enforcement Block Grant programs.  Sixty percent of the Byrne JAG money passes through the states to local governments and non-profit service providers; the remaining 40 percent goes directly to local law enforcement based on FBI crime rates.  Funding is authorized at $1.1 billion annually, but funding has historically hovered around $500 million annually.  In FY08, funding was cut by 67%, from $520 million in FY07 to $170 million in FY08.
 
Byrne JAG can be used broadly for law enforcement needs, as well as prosecution and courts, prevention and education, corrections and community corrections, drug treatment and enforcement, planning, evaluation and technology and crime victim and witness programs.  It is flexible money that can be deployed quickly to urgent and changing challenges.

States and local communities have used Byrne JAG funds to test and improve innovative criminal justice practices that are now replicated nationwide, such as drug courts, methamphetamine lab reduction, anti-gang strategies, reentry programs and information sharing protocols.

State and Local Impact of Stimulus Funding

Fully 75 percent of the Byrne JAG funding to states in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 will be used to create and sustain a wide variety of jobs across the entire criminal justice system, according to a recent survey of state agencies.  These are family-supporting jobs in the public, private and non-profit sectors in both urban and rural areas, including: 

Victim service providers, juvenile and adult probation officers, drug and alcohol counselors, law enforcement officers and other staff, IT personnel, prosecutors, forensic criminalists and forensic scientists, judges, public defenders, administrative clerks, drug and gang investigators, K-9 Officers, criminalists, research analysts, child abuse investigators, court administrators, school resource officers, DARE Officers, Special Victims Unit investigators, victims’ advocates, prisons and jail personnel, domestic violence investigators and prosecutors, support staff, computer crime analysts, and DNA lab specialists.

Byrne JAG funded initiatives work to prevent and fight crime.  Thirty-four state criminal justice agencies responding to a survey reported:
• 457 multi-jurisdictional task forces supported
• 113,834 arrests made;
• 6.5 million pounds of drugs seized worth over $10.1 billion;
• 2,445 meth labs dismantled;
• 128 specialty and drug courts funded which served 5,865 offenders;
• 596 prevention programs funded which served over 102,036 youth; and
• 236 victim services programs funded which helped 184,068 victims.

NCJA participated in a podcast explaining what this funding means for state and local criminal justice efforts.
To listen to the podcast, click here.