[Federal Register Volume 61, Number 34 (Tuesday, February 20, 1996)]
[Notices]
[Pages 6456-6475]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 96-3771]
[[Page 6455]]
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Part IV
Department of Justice
_______________________________________________________________________
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
_______________________________________________________________________
Proposed Comprehensive Plan for Fiscal Year 1996; Notice
Federal Register / Vol. 61, No. 34 / Tuesday, February 20, 1996 /
Notices
[[Page 6456]]
DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
Proposed Comprehensive Plan for Fiscal Year 1996
AGENCY: Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and
Delinquency Prevention.
ACTION: Notice of Proposed Program Plan for fiscal year 1996.
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SUMMARY: The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention is
publishing this notice of its Proposed Comprehensive Plan for fiscal
year 1996.
DATES: Comments must be submitted on or before April 5, 1996.
ADDRESSES: Comments may be mailed to Shay Bilchik, Administrator,
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Room 742, 633
Indiana Avenue NW., Washington, DC 20531.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Eileen M. Garry, Special Assistant to
the Administrator, (202) 307-6226. [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. Sec. 5601 et seq. ( JJDP
Act), the Administrator of OJJDP is publishing for public comment a
Proposed Comprehensive Plan describing the program activities that
OJJDP proposes to carry out during fiscal year 1996. The Proposed
Comprehensive Plan includes activities authorized in Parts C and D of
Title II of the JJDP Act, codified at 42 U.S.C. Sec. 5651-5665a, 5667,
5667a. Taking into consideration comments received on this Proposed
Comprehensive Plan, the Administrator will develop and publish a Final
Comprehensive Plan describing the particular program activities that
OJJDP intends to fund during fiscal year 1996, using in whole or in
part funds appropriated under Parts C and D of Title II of the JJDP
Act.
At the time of publication, OJJDP's fiscal year 1996 appropriation
level has not been determined. Consequently, OJJDP has not provided
dollar amounts for programs included in the proposed plan. Both the
final decision to fund new and continuation programs and the amount of
funds provided will depend, in part, on the level of Part C and Part D
funds available for fiscal year 1996.
By receiving public comment at this point in time, the Office will
be able to make appropriate modifications in the final program plan, if
necessitated by a lower appropriation, that reflect priorities in the
field.
Notice of the official solicitation of grant or cooperative
agreement applications under the Final Comprehensive Plan will be
published at a later date in the Federal Register. No proposals,
concept papers, or other forms of application should be submitted at
this time.
Overview
OJJDP was established by the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
Prevention Act of 1974, as amended, 42 U.S.C. Sec. 5601 et seq. to
provide a comprehensive, coordinated approach to prevent and control
juvenile crime and improve the juvenile justice system. OJJDP
administers a State Formula Grants Program in 57 States and
territories, funds more than 100 projects through its Special Emphasis
Discretionary Grant Program and its National Institute for Juvenile
Justice and Delinquency Prevention, and coordinates Federal activities
related to juvenile justice and delinquency prevention.
OJJDP serves as the staff agency for the Coordinating Council on
Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention; coordinates the
Concentration of Federal Efforts Program; and administers the Title IV
Missing and Exploited Children's Program, the Title V Prevention
Incentive Grants Program, and programs under the Victims of Child Abuse
Act of 1990, as amended Sec. 42 U.S.C. 13001 et seq.
Fiscal Year 1996 Program Planning Activities
The OJJDP program planning process for fiscal year 1996 is
coordinated with the Assistant Attorney General, Office of Justice
Programs (OJP), and the four other OJP Program Bureaus: the Bureau of
Justice Assistance (BJA); the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS); the
National Institute of Justice (NIJ); and the Office for Victims of
Crime (OVC). The program planning process involves the following steps:
Internal review of existing programs by OJJDP staff.
Internal review of proposed programs by OJP bureaus and
selected 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, including focus group
sessions held during fiscal year 1995 to receive input in proposed new
program areas.
Consideration of suggestions made by juvenile justice
policy makers concerning State and local needs.
Consideration of all comments received during the period
of public comment on the Proposed Comprehensive Plan.
Discretionary Program Activities
Discretionary Grant Continuation Policy
OJJDP has listed on the following pages continuation projects
currently funded in whole or in part with Part C and Part D funds and
eligible for continuation funding in fiscal year 1996, 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.
Consideration for continuation funding for an additional project
period for previously funded discretionary grant programs will be based
upon several factors, including:
The extent to which the project responds to the applicable
requirements of the JJDP Act.
Responsiveness to OJJDP and Department of Justice fiscal
year 1996 program priorities.
Compliance with performance requirements of prior grant
years.
Compliance with fiscal and regulatory requirements.
Compliance with any special conditions of the award.
Availability of funds (based on program priority
determinations).
In accordance with Section 262 (d)(1)(B) of the JJDP Act, as
amended, U.S.C. Sec. 5665a, the competitive process for the award of
Part C funds shall not be required if the Administrator makes a written
determination waiving the competitive process:
1. With respect to programs to be carried out in areas in which the
President declares under the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and
Emergency Assistance Act codified at 42 U.S.C. Sec. 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.
[[Page 6457]]
OJJDP Funding Policy
OJJDP seeks to focus its assistance on the development and
implementation of programs with the greatest potential for reducing
juvenile delinquency and improving the juvenile justice system by
establishing partnerships with State and local governments and public
and private organizations. To that end, OJJDP has set three goals that
constitute the major elements of a sound policy for juvenile justice
and delinquency prevention:
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.
To foster the use of community-based programs and services
for juvenile offenders, consistent with preserving the public safety,
and in a manner that serves the appropriate development and best use of
secure detention and corrections options.
To improve the juvenile justice system and the response of
the system to juvenile delinquents, status offenders, and dependent,
neglected, and abused children.
Underlying each of the three goals is the overarching premise that
achievement of these goals is vital to protecting the long-term safety
of the public from increased juvenile delinquency and violence. In
pursuing these goals, we divide our programs into the key categories
you will find in the program plan: public safety and law enforcement,
strengthening the juvenile justice system, delinquency prevention and
intervention, and child abuse and neglect and dependency courts. The
following discussion, however, addresses the broader goals of OJJDP.
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 non-criminal, 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-focused delinquency
prevention approach based on public health and social development
models.
Early interventions are designed to provide services to juveniles
whose non-criminal misbehavior indicates that they are on a delinquent
pathway, or for first time non-violent delinquent offenders or non-
serious repeat offenders who do not respond to initial system
intervention. These interventions are generally non-punitive 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 ameliorate risk or enhance
protective factors.
Community-Based Alternatives
A second OJJDP goal is to identify and promote effective community-
based programs and services for juveniles who have formal contact with
the juvenile justice system, emphasizing options that maintain the
safety of the public, are appropriately restrictive, and promote and
preserve positive ties with the child's family, school, and community.
Communities cannot afford to place responsibility for juvenile
delinquency entirely on publicly operated juvenile justice system
programs. A sound policy for combating juvenile delinquency and
reducing the threat of youth violence makes maximum use of a full range
of public and private programs and services, most of which operate in
the juvenile's home community, including those provided by the health
and mental health, child welfare, social service, and educational
systems.
Coordination of the development of community-based programs and
services with the development and use of a secure detention and
correctional system capability for those juveniles who require a secure
option is cost effective, will protect the public, reduce facility
crowding, and result in better services for both institutionalized
juveniles and those who can be served while remaining in their
community environment.
Improvement of the Juvenile Justice System
A third goal of OJJDP is to promote improvements in the juvenile
justice system and facilitate the most effective allocation of system
resources. This goal is necessary for holding juveniles who commit
crimes accountable for their conduct, particularly serious and violent
offenders who sometimes slip through the cracks of the system or are
inappropriately diverted. This includes assisting law enforcement
officers in their efforts to prevent and control delinquency and the
victimization of children through community policing programs and
coordination and collaboration with other system components and with
child caring systems. It involves helping juvenile and family courts
and the prosecutors and public defenders who practice in those courts,
to provide individualized 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.
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 when the provision of
victims services improves the operation of the juvenile justice system.
It also calls for building an appropriate juvenile detention and
corrections capacity and for intensified efforts to use juvenile
detention and correctional facilities when necessary and under
conditions that maximize public safety, while providing effective
rehabilitation services. It requires encouraging states to carefully
consider the use of expanded transfer authority that sends the most
serious, violent, and intractable juvenile offenders to the criminal
justice system, while preserving individualized justice. It
necessitates conducting research and gathering statistical information
in order to understand how the juvenile justice system works in serving
children and families. And finally, the system can only be improved if
information and knowledge is communicated, understood, and applied for
the purpose of juvenile justice system improvement.
Introduction to Fiscal Year 1996 Proposed Program Plan
Unprecedented rates of juvenile violence and delinquency,
victimization, school drop out, teen pregnancy, illegal drug use, and
child abuse and neglect are plaguing our country. In jurisdictions
across the Nation, over-burdened juvenile justice and dependency court
systems are too often responsible for redressing the results of
unstable families lacking parenting skills and communities with
inadequate health and mental health support networks, fragmented social
service delivery systems, a shortage of constructive activities for
young people, and easy access to guns and drugs. They
[[Page 6458]]
lack the resources necessary to respond to serious, violent, and
chronic delinquency, to hold juveniles accountable, and to turn back
the tide of increasing violent delinquency by providing early
intervention services for at-risk juveniles and their families.
The OJJDP fiscal year 1996 Proposed Comprehensive Plan seeks to
support programming that is built on sound research and strengthens
collaborations needed to empower the juvenile justice and dependency
court systems to work effectively with communities in preventing and
controlling delinquency and reducing juvenile victimization.
In 1993, OJJDP published a Comprehensive Strategy for Serious,
Violent, and Chronic Juvenile Offenders (Comprehensive Strategy).
Designed to provide a response to the social crisis we are facing, the
Comprehensive Strategy utilizes statistics, research, and program
evaluations as the basis for a set of sound principles for establishing
a continuum of care for our children. The Comprehensive Strategy
emphasizes the importance of local planning teams assessing the factors
which put youth at risk for delinquency, determining available
resources, and putting in place prevention programs that either reduce
those risk factors or provide protective factors that buffer juveniles
from the impact of risk factors. The Comprehensive Strategy also
stresses the importance of early intervention for juveniles whose
behavior puts them on one or more pathways to delinquency and of having
a system of graduated sanctions that can ensure immediate and
appropriate accountability and treatment for juvenile offenders.
During Fiscal Year 1995 OJJDP published a Guide for Implementing
the Comprehensive Strategy for Serious, Violent, and Chronic Juvenile
Offenders (Guide). The Guide provides information on the process of
identifying risk and protective factors in the community and offers
detailed information about programs known to prevent delinquency or
reduce recidivism. By providing a foundation and framework for each
community's individualized strategy, the Guide can serve as a powerful
tool for states, cities, counties, and neighborhoods that are
mobilizing to address the problem of juvenile violence and delinquency.
The Comprehensive Strategy also served as the foundation for the
development of the National Juvenile Justice Action Plan (Action Plan),
due to be published by the Coordinating Council on Juvenile Justice and
Delinquency Prevention in March. The Action Plan provides an additional
resource to communities that seek to balance vigorous enforcement of
the law and prevention services in order to reduce juvenile delinquency
and violence. The Action Plan prioritizes Federal activities and
resources under eight critical objectives, each of which needs to be
addressed in order to effectively combat delinquency and violence. The
Action Plan describes grants, training, technical assistance,
information dissemination, and research and evaluation activities that
will assist jurisdictions to: (1) Strengthen their juvenile justice
systems; (2) prosecute certain serious, violent and chronic juvenile
offenders in the criminal justice system; (3) target youth gun, gang
and drug violence through comprehensive policing and prevention
techniques; (4) create positive opportunities for youth; (5) break the
cycle of violence by addressing child victimization, abuse and neglect;
(6) mobilize communities into effective partnerships for change; (7)
conduct research and evaluate programs; and (8) develop a public
education campaign in order to both get the message out about successes
in addressing juvenile delinquency and violence and rebuild confidence
in every community's ability to impact this serious problem. These are
the activities that the research, as well as numerous expert
commissions on at-risk children, youth, families, and communities,
indicates are necessary to make a lasting difference. It is these
activities, coupled with the Comprehensive Strategy implementation,
that form the basis of OJJDP's 1996 Proposed Program Plan.
The Program Plan supports a balanced approach to aggressively
addressing juvenile delinquency and violence through graduated
sanctions, improving the juvenile justice system's ability to respond,
and preventing the onset of delinquency. It takes into account the
short term need to ensure public safety and the long term imperative of
supporting children's development into healthy, productive citizens
through a range of prevention, early intervention, and graduated
sanctions programs.
Three major new program areas were identified through a process of
engaging OJJDP staff, other Federal agencies, and juvenile justice
practitioners in an examination of existing programs, research
findings, and the needs of the field. They are: (1) Developing one-
stop, community-based intake, assessment and case referral centers and
programs for juveniles who may require services or juvenile justice
system interventions; (2) supporting the linkage between community and
law enforcement responses to youth gun violence; and (3) improving the
dependency and criminal court system's and the community's response to
child abuse and neglect. In addition, a range of proposed research and
evaluation projects that will expand our knowledge about juvenile
offenders, the effectiveness of prevention, intervention, and treatment
programs, and the operation of the juvenile justice system have been
identified for fiscal year 1996 funding consideration. Enhanced program
support in the area of disproportionate minority confinement, gender-
specific services, and technical assistance to Native American Tribes,
would also be provided. Combined with OJJDP programs being continued in
fiscal year 1996, these new demonstration and support programs form a
continuum of programming that supports the objectives of the Action
Plan and mirrors the foundation and framework of the Comprehensive
Strategy.
These continuation activities and programs, as complemented by
proposed new programs, are at the heart of OJJDP's categorical funding
efforts. For example, while focusing on the possible development of
assessment centers as a new area of programming, OJJDP will continue to
offer training seminars in the Comprehensive Strategy and look to the
SafeFutures program to implement the Comprehensive Strategy model under
existing grants and contracts. Combined, these activities provide a
holistic approach to prevention and early intervention programs while
enhancing the juvenile justice system's capacity to provide immediate
and appropriate accountability and treatment for juvenile offenders.
OJJDP's Part D Gang Program will continue to support a range of
comprehensive prevention, intervention, and suppression activities at
the local level, evaluate those activities, and inform communities
about the nature and extent of gang activities and effective and
innovative programs through OJJDP's National Youth Gang Center.
Similarly, the proposed demonstration program focusing on juvenile gun
violence would complement existing law enforcement and prosecutorial
training programs by supporting grassroots community organization's
efforts to address juvenile access, carriage, and use of guns. This
programming would build upon OJJDP's youth-focused community policing,
mentoring, and conflict resolution initiatives, as well as programming
in the area of drug abuse prevention, such as funding to the Congress
of National Black Churches and the National Center for Neighborhood
Enterprise for local
[[Page 6459]]
church and neighborhood-based drug abuse prevention programs.
In support of the need to break the cycle of violence, OJJDP's new
demonstration program to improve linkages between the dependency and
criminal court systems, child welfare and social service providers, and
family strengthening programs will complement ongoing support of Court
Appointed Special Advocates, Child Advocacy Centers, and prosecutor and
judicial training in the dependency field that is funded under the
Victims of Child Abuse Act of 1990, as amended.
The Plan's proposed research and evaluation programming would
support many of the above activities by filling in critical gaps in our
knowledge about the level and seriousness of juvenile crime and
victimization, its causes and correlates, and effective programs in
preventing delinquency and violence. At the same time, OJJDP's research
efforts will also be geared toward efforts that monitor and evaluate
the ways juveniles are treated by the juvenile and criminal justice
systems and any trends in this response, particularly as they relate to
juvenile violence and its impact.
OJJDP is also utilizing the national perspective afforded it, to
disseminate information to those at the grassroots level--
practitioners, policy makers, community leaders, and service providers
who are directly responsible for planning and implementing policies and
programs that impact on juvenile crime and violence.
OJJDP will continue to fund longitudinal research on the causes and
correlates of delinquency, the findings of which are shared regularly
with the field through OJJDP publications, utilize state-of-the-art
technology to develop and disseminate an interactive CD-ROM on programs
that work to prevent delinquency and reduce recidivism, air national
satellite teleconferences on key topics of relevance to practitioners,
and publish new reports and documents on timely topics such as school-
based conflict resolution, curfews, the Federal Educational Records
Privacy Act, confidentiality of juvenile court records, innovative
sentencing options, and strategies to reduce youth gun violence.
The various contracts, grants, cooperative agreements, and
interagency fund transfers described in the Program Plan form a
continuum of activity designed to address the crisis of youth violence
and delinquency in our Nation. In isolation, this programming can do
little. However, the emphasis of OJJDP's programming is on
collaboration. It is through collaboration that Federal, State, and
local agencies, Native American Tribes, national organizations, private
philanthropies, the corporate and business sector, health, mental
health and social service agencies, schools, youth, families, and
clergy can come together to form partnerships and leverage additional
resources, identify needs and priorities, and implement innovative
strategies. Together, we can make a difference.
Fiscal Year 1996 Proposed Programs
The following are brief summaries of each of the proposed new and
continuation programs for fiscal year 1996. As indicated above, the
program categories are public safety and law enforcement, strengthening
the juvenile 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 proposed within each
category are subject to change with regard to their priority status,
sites for implementation, and other descriptive data and information
based on the review and comment process, grantee performance,
application quality, fund availability, and other factors.
A number of programs contained in this document have been
identified for funding by Congress with regard to the grantee(s), the
amount of funds, or both. Such programs are indicated by an asterisk
(*). The 1996 Appropriations Act Conference Report for the Departments
of Commerce, Justice, and State, the Judiciary, and Related Agencies
Programs identified six programs for OJJDP to examine and fund if
warranted. One of these programs is included in the Plan for
continuation funding. The remaining five will receive careful
consideration for funding in fiscal year 1996.
Fiscal Year 1996 Program Listing
Overarching
Program of Research on the Causes and Correlates of Delinquency
Field-Initiated Research
Evaluation of SafeFutures
OJJDP Management Evaluation Contract
Juvenile Justice Statistics and Systems Development
Research Program on Juveniles Taken into Custody--NCCD
Juveniles Taken into Custody--Interagency Agreement
Children in Custody--Census
Juvenile Justice Data Resources
National Juvenile Court Data Archive*
National Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Training and
Technical Assistance Center
Technical Assistance for State Legislatures
OJJDP Technical Assistance Support Contract--JJRC
Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse
Telecommunications Assistance
Coalition for Juvenile Justice
Insular Area Support *
Public Safety and Law Enforcement
Kids and Guns: Reducing Youth Gun Violence
Comprehensive Community-Wide Approach to Gang Prevention,
Intervention, and Suppression Program
Targeted Outreach with a Gang Prevention and Intervention Component
(Boys and Girls Clubs)
National Youth Gang Center
Child-Centered Community-Oriented Policing
Law Enforcement Training and Technical Assistance Program
Violence Studies *
Hate Crimes
Strengthening the Juvenile Justice System
Development of OJJDP's Comprehensive Strategy for Serious, Violent,
and Chronic Juvenile Offenders
Serious, Violent, and Chronic Juvenile Offender Treatment Program
Community Assessment Centers
Juvenile Restitution: A Balanced Approach
Training and Technical Assistance Program to Promote Gender-Specific
Programming for Female Juvenile Offenders
Technical Assistance to Native American Programs
National Indicators of Juvenile Violence and Delinquent Behavior and
Related Risk Factors
Evaluation of the Comprehensive Community-Wide Approach to Gang
Prevention, Intervention, and Suppression
Evaluation of Intensive Community-Based Aftercare Demonstration and
Technical Assistance Program
Evaluation of Statewide DMC Projects
Juvenile Mentoring Program (JUMP) Evaluation
Juvenile Transfers to Criminal Court Studies
Technical Assistance to Juvenile Courts *
Juvenile Court Judges Training *
The Juvenile Justice Prosecution Unit
Due Process Advocacy Program Development
Intensive Community-Based Aftercare Demonstration and Technical
Assistance Program
Training and Technical Assistance for National Innovations to Reduce
Disproportionate Minority Confinement (The Deborah Wysinger Memorial
Program)
Juvenile Probation Survey Research
Improvements in Correctional Education for Juvenile Offenders
Performance-Based Standards for Juvenile Detention and Corrections
Facilities
Technical Assistance to Juvenile Corrections and Detention (The
James E. Gould Memorial Program)
Training for Juvenile Corrections and Detention Staff
Training for Line Staff in Juvenile Detention and Corrections
[[Page 6460]]
Training and Technical Support for State and Local Jurisdictional
Teams to Focus on Juvenile Corrections and Detention Overcrowding
National Program Directory
Delinquency Prevention and Intervention
Training In Risk-Focused Prevention Strategies
Youth-Centered Conflict Resolution
Pathways to Success
Teens, Crime, and the Community: Teens in Action in the 90s *
Law-Related Education
Cities in Schools--Federal Interagency Partnership
Race Against Drugs
The Congress of National Black Churches: National Anti-Drug Abuse/
Violence Campaign (NADVC)
Community Anti-Drug Abuse Technical Assistance Voucher Project
Training and Technical Assistance for Family Strengthening Services
Henry Ford Health System *
Jackie Robinson Center *
Child Abuse and Neglect and Dependency Courts
A Community-Based Approach to Combating Child Victimization
Permanent Families for Abused and Neglected Children *
Parents Anonymous, Inc.*
Lowcountry Children's Center, Inc.*
Overarching
Program of Research on the Causes and Correlates of Delinquency
Three projects sites comprise the Program of Research on the Causes
and Correlates of Delinquency: The University of Colorado at Boulder,
the University of Pittsburgh, and the State University of New York at
Albany. The main purpose of fiscal year 1996 funding would be to
support additional data analyses in support of OJJDP program
development. Results from this program have been used extensively in
the development of OJJDP's Comprehensive Strategy for Serious, Violent,
and Chronic Juvenile Offenders and other program initiatives.
OJJDP began funding this program in 1986 and has invested
approximately $10 million to date. The program has addressed many
issues of juvenile violence and delinquency. These include developing
and testing causal models for chronic violent offending and examining
interrelationships among gang involvement, drug selling, and gun
ownership/use. To date, the Program has produced a massive amount of
information on the causes and correlates of delinquent behavior.
Although there is great commonality across the projects, each has
unique design features. Additionally, each project has disseminated the
results of its research through a variety of publications, reports, and
presentations.
With proposed fiscal year 1996 funding, each site of the Causes and
Correlates Program would be provided additional funds to further
analyze the longitudinal data. New publications, including two joint
publications, would be developed in fiscal year 1996 and both the role
of mental health in delinquency and pathways to delinquency would be
the subject of further analyses.
This program would be implemented by the current grantees,
Institute of Behavioral Science, University of Colorado at Boulder;
Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, University of Pittsburgh; and
Hindelang Criminal Justice Research Center, State University of New
York at Albany. No additional applications would be solicited in fiscal
year 1996.
Field-Initiated Research
Through the fiscal year 1996 Field-Initiated Research program,
OJJDP would solicit innovative programs that address critical research
and evaluation needs of the juvenile justice field. Priority research
topics include: youth gangs in residential facilities; mental health
issues; waiver and transfer to the juvenile justice system; reporting
of child victimization; improving data collaboration efforts between
juvenile justice, child welfare, child protective services, and mental
health; institutional crowding; and topics related to OJJDP's
Comprehensive Strategy for Serious, Violent, and Chronic Juvenile
Offenders. In addition to research topics, this program would also
entertain proposals from State and local agencies wishing to conduct
evaluations of programs initiated with OJJDP Formula, Title V, and
discretionary funds that appear to be having significant impact and
offer a possibility for national replication.
OJJDP proposes to issue a competitive solicitation for this
initiative in fiscal year 1996.
Evaluation of SafeFutures
In fiscal year 1995, OJJDP funded six communities under the
SafeFutures: Partnerships to Reduce Youth Violence and Delinquency
Program. The program sites are: Contra Costa County, California; Fort
Belknap Indian Community, Montana; Boston, Massachusetts; St. Louis,
Missouri; Seattle, Washington; and Imperial County, California. The
SafeFutures Program provides support for a comprehensive prevention,
intervention, and treatment program to meet the needs of at-risk
juveniles and their families.
Approximately $8 million per year will be made available 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 Phase I
cooperative agreement award in fiscal year 1995. The national
evaluation of the SafeFutures program will consist of both process and
impact components for each funded site. The evaluation process includes
an examination of planning procedures and the extent to which each
sites'' implementation plan is consistent with the principles of a
continuum of care/graduated sanctions model. The evaluation will
identify the obstacles and key factors contributing to the successful
implementation of the SafeFutures continuum of care model. The
evaluator is responsible for developing a cross-site monograph
documenting the process of program implementation for use by other
communities that want to develop and implement a comprehensive
community-based strategy to address serious, violent, and chronic
delinquency.
A fiscal year 1996 supplemental award will be made to the current
grantee, the Urban Institute, to complete first year funding. No
additional applications will be solicited in fiscal year 1996.
OJJDP Management Evaluation Contract
The purpose of this contract, competitively awarded in fiscal year
1995 to Caliber Associates, is to provide to OJJDP an expert resource
capable of performing independent, management-oriented evaluations of
selected OJJDP programs. These evaluations are designed to determine
the effectiveness and efficiency of either individual projects or
groups of projects. The contractor also assists OJJDP in determining
how to make the best use of limited evaluation resources and how best
to design and implement evaluations. Work plans that have been
requested or will be requested from the contractor in fiscal year 1996
include: continuing the evaluation of three OJJDP-funded bootcamps;
continuing to support the evaluation of Title V delinquency prevention
programs at the local level; preparation of OJJDP's Title V Program
report to Congress; providing assistance to OJJDP program development
working groups; assisting
[[Page 6461]]
OJJDP in the creation of an ``evaluation partnership for juvenile
justice'' designed to improve the number and quality of evaluations
conducted by Formula Grants Program grantees, other Federal agencies,
private foundations that fund evaluations, and State and local
governments; and conducting other short- or long-term evaluations as
required. The contract will be performed by the current contractor,
Caliber Associates. No additional applications will be solicited in
fiscal year 1996.
Juvenile Justice Statistics and Systems Development
The Juvenile Justice Statistics and Systems Development (SSD)
Program was competitively awarded to the National Center for Juvenile
Justice (NCJJ) in fiscal year 1990 to improve national, state, and
local statistics on juveniles as victims and offenders. The project has
focused on three major functions: (1) Assessment of how current
information needs are being met with existing data collection efforts
and recommending options for improving national level statistics; (2)
analyzing data and disseminating information gathered from existing
Federal statistical series and national studies. Based on this work,
OJJDP released the first ``Juvenile Offenders and Victims: A National
Report'' in September 1995; and (3) provision of training and technical
assistance for local agencies in developing or enhancing management
information systems. A training curriculum, ``Improving Information for
Rational Decision making in Juvenile Justice,'' was drafted for pilot
testing.
In this final phase of the SSD project, NCJJ will complete a long-
term plan for improving national statistics on juveniles as victims and
offenders, including constructing core data elements for a national
reporting program for juveniles waived or transferred to criminal
court, an implementation plan for integrating data collection on
juveniles by juvenile justice, mental health, and child welfare
agencies, and a report on standardized measures and instruments for
self-reported delinquency surveys. The project will also make
recommendations to fill information gaps in the areas of juvenile
probation, juvenile court and law enforcement responses to juvenile
delinquency, violent delinquency, and child abuse and neglect. In
addition, the SSD Project will provide an update of Juvenile Offenders
and Victims: A National Report, and work with the Office of Justice
Programs Crime Statistics Working Group and other Federal interagency
working groups on statistics. The project will be implemented by the
current grantee, NCJJ. No additional applications will be solicited in
fiscal year 1996.
Research Program on Juveniles Taken Into Custody--NCCD
The Research Program on Juveniles Taken into Custody was designed
and implemented in fiscal year 1989 in response to a growing need for
comprehensive juvenile custody data. The project now has the
participation of all State juvenile corrections agencies. Each year the
project produces a report on juveniles taken into custody. In fiscal
year 1996, the National Council on Crime and Delinquency (NCCD) will
continue to refine the State Juvenile Correctional System Reporting
Program. It is anticipated that individual-level data for 1996 will be
representative of more than 85 percent of the at-risk juvenile
population. In addition, NCCD will prepare reports providing a detailed
summary and analysis of the most recent data regarding: (1) The number
and characteristics of juveniles taken into custody; (2) the rate at
which juveniles are taken into custody; and (3) the trends demonstrated
by the data.
This program will be implemented by the current grantee, NCCD. No
additional applications will be solicited in fiscal year 1996.
Juveniles Taken Into Custody (JTIC)--Interagency Agreement
OJJDP would continue its program to improve the collection of
juvenile custody data through an interagency agreement with the Bureau
of the Census. This agreement provides for the collection and
processing of individual-level data on juveniles under State
correctional custody. The Census Bureau and OJJDP have developed close
working relationships with State juvenile corrections agencies. Through
these relationships, OJJDP has developed a program to collect data on
each juvenile in State custody and the Census Bureau has developed an
understanding of the State data that allows for ``translation'' of
State information to a national format. Each year since 1990, the
Census Bureau has collected this information and processed it for
analysis by the National Council on Crime and Delinquency (NCCD).
The resulting analyses are published by OJJDP in annual Juveniles
Taken Into Custody reports that are disseminated to practitioners and
planners and used to meet statutory information requirements in OJJDP's
Annual Report to the President and Congress.
The program would be implemented in fiscal year 1996 by the Bureau
of the Census under an interagency agreement.
Children in Custody--Census
Under this ongoing collaborative program between OJJDP and the U.S.
Bureau of the Census, OJJDP proposes to transfer funds to the Census
Bureau to complete the 1995 biennial census of public and private
juvenile detention, correctional, and shelter facilities. The Census
describes juvenile custody facilities in terms of their resident
population, programs, and physical characteristics. It also provides
information on trends in the use of juvenile custody facilities for
delinquent juveniles and status offenders. The Census Bureau's Center
for Survey Methods Research would also continue to develop and test a
roster-based data collection system designed to enhance information
collected on juveniles in custody beginning with the 1997 biennial
census. Finally, the Bureau's Governments Division would continue its
efforts to develop a complete directory of juvenile justice facilities
and programs. This directory would serve as the frame for conducting
the 1997 census and other future surveys. It would contain basic
information on each facility that is necessary for creating
representative samples. It would also contain basic administrative
information to be used in conducting the census. The program would be
implemented by the U.S. Bureau of the Census under an existing
interagency agreement.
Juvenile Justice Data Resources
OJJDP has entered into an agreement with the Inter-University
Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) at the University
of Michigan to make OJJDP data sets routinely available to researchers.
Under this agreement, ICPSR assures the technical integrity and
develops a universal format for the data. The codebooks, along with the
data, provide clear guidance for additional analyses. Once prepared,
ICPSR provides access to these data sets to member institutions and the
public. Among the data sets previously processed and available through
ICPSR are the Children in Custody Census (1971-1991); the Conditions of
Confinement Study; and the National Incidence Studies of Missing,
Abducted, Runaway, and Thrownaway Children (NISMART).
This program would be implemented under an interagency agreement
with ICPSR. No additional applications would be solicited in fiscal
year 1996.
[[Page 6462]]
National Juvenile Court Data Archive*
The National Juvenile Court Data Archive collects, processes,
analyzes, and disseminates automated data and published reports from
the Nation's juvenile courts. The Archive's reports examine referrals,
offenses, intake, and dispositions, in addition to providing
specialized topics such as minorities in juvenile courts and
information on specific offense categories. The Archive also provides
assistance to jurisdictions in analyzing their juvenile court data. In
1995, this project produced a bulletin, Offenders in Juvenile Court
1992, and a report, Juvenile Court Statistics 1992, along with a number
of OJJDP Fact Sheets and special analyses.
In fiscal year 1996, the Archive will enhance the collection,
reporting, and analysis of more detailed data on detention,
dispositions, risk factors, and treatment data using offender-based
data sets from a sample of juvenile courts.
The project will be implemented by the current grantee, the
National Center for Juvenile Justice. No additional applications will
be solicited in fiscal year 1996.
National Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Training and
Technical Assistance Center
The National Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Training
and Technical Assistance Center (NTTAC) was competitively funded in
fiscal year 1995 for a 3-year project period to develop a national
training and technical assistance clearinghouse, inventory juvenile
justice training/technical assistance resources, and establish a data
base with respect to these resources.
In fiscal year 1995, work involved organization and staffing of the
Center, providing an orientation for OJJDP training and technical
assistance providers regarding their role in the Center's activities,
and initial data base development.
In fiscal year 1996, NTTAC will conduct needs assessments, support
training/technical assistance program development, promote
collaboration between OJJDP training/technical assistance providers,
develop training/technical assistance materials, and promote evaluation
of OJJDP-supported training and technical assistance. In addition,
NTTAC will prepare program materials and implement specialized
training, including training-of-trainers programs, and develop
standards and procedures for academic/professional accreditation/
certification of OJJDP training and trainers. NTTAC provides a single,
central source for information pertaining to the availability of OJJDP
supported training/technical assistance programs and will publish and
maintain an up-to-date catalog of such programs.
This project will be implemented by the current grantee, Community
Research Associates. No additional applications will be solicited in
fiscal year 1996.
Technical Assistance for State Legislatures
State legislatures are being pressed to respond to public fear of
juvenile crime and a loss of confidence in the capability of the
juvenile justice system to respond effectively. For the most part,
State legislatures have had insufficient information to properly
address juvenile justice issues. In fiscal year 1995, OJJDP awarded a
two-year grant to the National Conference of State Legislators (NCSL)
to provide relevant, timely information on comprehensive approaches in
juvenile justice that are geared to the legislative environment. In
fiscal year 1995, NCSL convened a Leadership Forum with invited
legislators; convened several focus groups; and established an
information clearinghouse function. In fiscal year 1996, OJJDP will
award second-year funding to the NCSL to further identify, analyze, and
disseminate information to help State legislatures make more informed
decisions about legislation affecting the juvenile justice system. A
complementary task will involve supporting increased communication
between State legislators and State and local leaders who influence
Decision making regarding juvenile justice issues. NCSL will provide
technical assistance to four states, will continue outreach activities
and maintain its clearinghouse function.
The project will be implemented by the current grantee, NCSL. No
additional applications will be solicited in fiscal year 1996.
OJJDP Technical Assistance Support Contract: Juvenile Justice Resource
Center
This 3-year contract, competitively awarded in fiscal year 1994,
provides technical assistance and support to OJJDP, its grantees, and
the Coordinating Council on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
in the areas of program development, evaluation, training, and
research. This program support contract will be supplemented in fiscal
year 1996. The contract will be implemented by the current contractor,
Aspen Systems Corporation. No additional applications will be solicited
in fiscal year 1996.
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 database, and administers several electronic
information resources. Recognizing the critical need to inform juvenile
justice practitioners and policy makers 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 under a competitively awarded contract . The
project will be implemented by the current grantee, Aspen Systems
Corporation. No additional applications will be solicited in fiscal
year 1996.
Telecommunications Assistance
Developments in information technology and distance training can
expand and enhance OJJDP's capacity to disseminate information and
provide training and technical assistance. These technologies have the
following advantages when used properly: increased access to
information and training for persons in the juvenile justice system;
reduced travel costs to conferences; and reduced time attending
meetings requiring one or more nights away from one's home or office.
Additionally, the successful use of ``live'' satellite teleconferences
by OJJDP during the past year has generated an enthusiastic response
from the field.
During the past twelve months the grantee has produced four live
satellite teleconferences on the following topics: Community
Collaboration for
[[Page 6463]]
Delinquency Prevention; Model Juvenile Correctional Programs for
Serious, Violent, Chronic Offenders; Youth Focused Community Policing;
and Juvenile Boot Camps.
OJJDP proposes to continue the competitive cooperative agreement
award to Eastern Kentucky University in 1994 to provide program support
and technical assistance for a variety of information technologies,
including audio-graphics, satellite teleconferences, and fiber optics.
The grantee would also continue to provide limited technical assistance
to other grantees interested in using this technology and explore
linkages with key constituent groups to advance mutual goals and
objectives. This project would be implemented by the current grantee,
Eastern Kentucky University. No additional applications would be
solicited in fiscal year 1996.
Coalition for Juvenile Justice
The Coalition for Juvenile Justice supports and facilitates the
purposes and functions of each State's Juvenile Justice State Advisory
Group (SAG). The Coalition, acting as a statutorily authorized, duly
chartered Federal advisory committee, reviews Federal policies and
practices regarding juvenile justice and delinquency prevention, and
prepares and submits an annual report and recommendations to the
President, Congress, and the Administrator of OJJDP. The Coalition also
serves as an information center for the SAGs and conducts an annual
conference to provide training for SAG members. The program would be
implemented by the current grantee, the Coalition for Juvenile Justice.
No additional applications would be solicited in fiscal year 1996.
Insular Area Support*
The purpose of this program is to provide supplemental financial
support to the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, the Trust
Territory of the Pacific Islands (Palau), and the Commonwealth of the
Northern Mariana Islands. Funds are available to address the special
needs and problems of juvenile delinquency in these insular areas, as
specified by Section 261(e) of the JJDP Act, as amended, 42 U.S.C.
Sec. 5665(e).
Public Safety and Law Enforcement
Kids and Guns: Reducing Youth Gun Violence
This project is intended to enhance the effectiveness of
comprehensive youth gun violence reduction efforts by supporting
innovative local community-generated strategies. Under a competitive
announcement, OJJDP proposes funding community-based organizations and
local units of government to strengthen their linkages to broader youth
gun violence reduction efforts.
Applicants would be encouraged to: be creative in designing
initiatives for the prevention, intervention, and reduction of youth
gun violence in targeted neighborhoods; coordinate their efforts with
other community-based law enforcement initiatives, youth-serving
organizations, crime victim organizations, and the juvenile justice
system; and collaborate with these agencies to evaluate program
effectiveness. Applicants would also be required to show that their
proposed initiative reflects current youth gun violence research and a
local assessment of youth access to guns, why young people carry guns,
and why they use them.
OJJDP also proposes to support an independent evaluation of this
project that focuses on collecting and analyzing data on the program
implementation process. The evaluator would also design an impact
evaluation in collaboration with OJJDP and an approved advisory board.
The Reducing Youth Gun Violence project would be competitively
funded in up to three sites with a 2-year project period. The
evaluation would be competitively funded under a cooperative agreement
to a single grantee for a 3-year project period.
Comprehensive Community-Wide Approach to Gang Prevention, Intervention,
and Suppression Program
This program supports the implementation of a comprehensive gang
program model in five jurisdictions. The program was competitively
awarded with fiscal year 1994 funds under a 3-year project period. The
demonstration sites implementing the model, developed with OJJDP
funding support by the University of Chicago, are: Mesa, Arizona;
Tucson, Arizona; Riverside, California; Bloomington, Illinois; and San
Antonio, Texas. Implementation of the comprehensive gang program model
requires the mobilization of the community to address gang-related
violence by making available social interventions, providing social/
academic/vocational and other types of opportunities, supporting gang
suppression through law enforcement, prosecution and other community
control mechanisms, and supporting organizational change and
development in community agencies to more effectively address gang
violence prone youth.
During the past year, the demonstration sites began an ongoing
problem assessment process to identify the full nature and extent of
the gang problem in the community and its potential causes. The
assessment process will also help communities to understand what may
cause gang violence in their community and to identify benchmarks by
which program success may be measured. The demonstration sites also
participated in training and technical assistance activities, including
two cluster conferences sponsored by OJJDP. In addition, the
demonstration sites began strategy implementation and service provision
and made progress in community mobilization, either through existing
planning structures or by creating new structures.
In fiscal year 1996, demonstration sites will receive second year
funding to continue implementation of the model program and build upon
the sustained mobilization, planning and assessment processes.
Additionally, the demonstration sites will continue to target youth
prone to gang violence through continuing implementation of the program
model and work with the independent evaluator of this demonstration
program. No additional applications will be solicited in fiscal year
1996.
Targeted Outreach With a Gang Prevention and Intervention Component
(Boys and Girls Clubs)
This program is designed to enable local Boys and Girls Clubs to
prevent youth from entering gangs and to intervene with gang members in
the early stages of gang involvement to divert them from gang
activities into more constructive programs. In fiscal year 1996, Boys
and Girls Clubs of America would provide training and technical
assistance to existing gang prevention and intervention sites and
expand the gang prevention and intervention program to 30 additional
Boys and Girls Clubs, including those in SafeFutures sites. This
program would be implemented by the current grantee, the Boys and Girls
Clubs of America. No additional applications would be solicited in
fiscal year 1996.
National Youth Gang Center
The proliferation of gang problems ranging from large inner cities
to 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
[[Page 6464]]
involves five program components, one of which is the implementation
and operation of the National Youth Gang Center (NYGC). The NYGC was
competitively funded with fiscal year 1994 funds for a three-year
project period. The purpose of the NYGC is to expand and maintain the
body of critical knowledge about youth gangs and effective responses to
them. NYGC assists State and local jurisdictions in the collection,
analysis, and exchange of information on gang-related demographics,
legislation, research, and promising program strategies. The Center
also coordinates activities of the OJJDP Gang Consortium--a group of
Federal agencies, gang program representatives, and service providers.
Other major tasks include statistical data collection and analysis on
gangs, analysis of gang legislation, gang literature review,
identification of promising gang program strategies, and gang
consortium coordination activities.
Fiscal year 1996 funds will support second year funding of the NYGC
cooperative agreement to the current grantee, the Institute for
Intergovernmental Research. No additional applications will be
solicited in fiscal year 1996.
Child Centered Community-Oriented Policing
In fiscal year 1993, OJJDP provided support to the New Haven,
Connecticut Police Department and the Yale University Child Development
Center to document a child-centered, community-oriented policing model
being implemented in New Haven, Connecticut. The basic elements of the
model are a 10-week training course in child development for all new
police officers and child development fellowships for all community-
based district commanders who direct neighborhood police teams. The
fellowships provide 4 to 6 hours of training each week over a 3-month
period at Yale's Child Study Center. The program also includes: (1) a
24-hour consultation from a clinical professional and a police
supervisor to patrol officers who assist children who have been exposed
to violence; (2) weekly case conferences with police officers,
educators, and child study center staff; and (3) open police stations,
located in neighborhoods and accessible to residents for police and
related services, community liaison, and neighborhood foot patrols.
In fiscal year 1994, BJA community policing funds helped support
the first year of a 3-year training and technical assistance grant to
replicate the program nationwide. These funds supported the development
of criteria for a request for proposals, protocols for consultation,
train-the-trainer sessions for New Haven police and clinical faculty,
and the development of a multi-model strategy for data collection and
program evaluation. Fiscal year 1995 OJJDP funds supported continuation
of the project's expansion in up to four replication sites.
Fiscal year 1996 funds will support the implementation of the five-
phase replication protocol in the four selected sites, replication site
data collection and analysis activities, and development of a detailed
casebook about the model and program.
This project will be implemented by the current grantee, the Yale
University School of Medicine. No additional applications will be
solicited in fiscal year 1996.
Law Enforcement Training and Technical Assistance Program
This continuation award will supplement the 3-year law enforcement
and technical assistance support contract, competitively awarded in
fiscal year 1994 to Fox Valley Technical College in Appleton,
Wisconsin. Fiscal year 1996 funds will be used to continue to provide
services under the nationwide training and technical assistance program
designed to improve law enforcement's capability to respond to juvenile
delinquency, to contribute to delinquency prevention, and to address
issues of missing and exploited children and child abuse and neglect.
Technical assistance under this contract is provided in response to a
wide variety of requests from Federal, State, county, and local
agencies with responsibility for the prevention and control of juvenile
delinquency and juvenile victimization. The contract supports
continuation of the Gang, Gun, and Drug Policy Training Program, the
Police Operations Leading to Improved Children and Youth Services
series of training programs, a Native American Law Enforcement Training
Program, and a variety of other law enforcement training programs
offered by OJJDP.
This contract will be implemented by the current contractor, Fox
Valley Technical College. No additional applications will be solicited
in fiscal year 1996.
Violence Studies*
The 1992 Amendments to the JJDP Act required OJJDP to fund two-year
studies on violence in three urban and one rural jurisdiction. Building
on the results of OJJDP's Program of Research on the Causes and
Correlates of Delinquency, these studies were to examine the incidence
of violence committed by or against juveniles in urban and rural areas
of the United States. In fiscal year 1994, OJJDP initiated this program
by supporting studies of homicides by and of youth in Milwaukee,
Wisconsin and a cross-site study in rural areas in South Carolina,
Georgia, and Florida. The grantees are the University of Wisconsin and
the University of South Carolina. In fiscal year 1995, OJJDP provided
funding for the second year of these studies and initiated two new
violence studies in Los Angeles, California, and Washington, D.C. The
grantees are the University of Southern California and the Institute
for Law and Justice.
These four studies will provide valuable information regarding
community violence patterns, with a particular focus on homicide and
firearm use involving juveniles. They will also improve the juvenile
justice system by identifying strategic law enforcement responses to
juvenile violence and by identifying diversion, prevention, and control
programs that ameliorate juvenile violence.
During fiscal year 1996, the University of Wisconsin and the
University of South Carolina will analyze their data and issue their
findings with prior year funds. The University of Southern California
will receive fiscal year 1996 funds to identify violence prevention
programs and conduct a household survey and interview adolescents and
their care givers in Los Angeles County. The Institute for Law and
Justice will receive fiscal year 1996 funds to collect and analyze
aggregate data from various juvenile justice providers and from a
series of interviews with agency staff serving adjudicated juveniles.
This will be followed by analysis and the preparation of a
comprehensive report.
The program will be continued by the current project grantees. No
additional applications will be solicited in fiscal year 1996.
Hate Crimes
In fiscal year 1993, OJJDP competitively awarded a grant to
Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC), to assess existing curriculum
materials and develop a multi-purpose curriculum for use in educational
and institutional settings. In fiscal years 1994 and 1995, EDC
developed a multipurpose curriculum for hate crime prevention in school
and other classroom settings and the curriculum was pilot tested in the
eighth grade of the Collins Middle School in Salem, Massachusetts.
Information received in the pilot test was evaluated and the
[[Page 6465]]
curriculum redesigned. EDC then tested the curriculum in additional
sites in New York and Florida to ensure that it was geographically and
demographically representative. In consultation with the Office for
Victims of Crime, EDC also developed a dissemination strategy for the
curriculum and other products, including a judges guide on sanctions
for juveniles who commit hate crimes.
In fiscal year 1996, EDC would identify school districts and
juvenile justice agencies across the country who are interested in
receiving training in the curriculum. EDC would also provide training
to education and juvenile justice personnel in order to foster adoption
of the curriculum. The project would be implemented by the current
grantee, EDC. No additional applications would be solicited in fiscal
year 1996.
Strengthening the Juvenile Justice System
Development of OJJDP's Comprehensive Strategy for Serious, Violent, and
Chronic Juvenile Offenders
The National Council on Crime and Delinquency, in collaboration
with Developmental Research and Programs, Inc., has completed Phase I
and II of a collaborative effort to support development and
implementation of OJJDP's Comprehensive Strategy for Serious, Violent,
and Chronic Juvenile Offenders. Phase I involved assessing existing and
previously researched programs in order to identify effective and
promising programs that can be used in implementing the Comprehensive
Strategy. In Phase II, a series of reports were combined into a Guide
for Implementing the Comprehensive Strategy for Serious, Violent, and
Chronic Juvenile Offenders. Phase II also included convening of a
forum, ``Guaranteeing Safe Passage: A National Forum on Youth
Violence,'' and holding two regional training seminars for key leaders
on implementing the Comprehensive Strategy.
In fiscal year 1996, Phase III of the project will be funded to
provide: targeted dissemination of the Comprehensive Strategy at
national conferences; intensive training for selected States to
implement the Comprehensive Strategy in up to six local jurisdictions;
individualized technical assistance for the five Serious, Violent, and
Chronic Juvenile Offender Program sites and the six SafeFutures sites;
technical assistance to a limited number of individual jurisdictions
interested in implementing the Comprehensive Strategy; and continued
development of Comprehensive Strategy implementation materials.
The program will be implemented by the current grantees, the
National Council on Crime and Delinquency and Developmental Research
and Programs, Inc., under third-year funding of this 3-year program. No
additional applications will be solicited in fiscal year 1996.
Serious, Violent, and Chronic Juvenile Offender Treatment Program
The Serious, Violent, and Chronic Juvenile Offender Treatment
Program is designed to assist local jurisdictions in the development
and implementation of a comprehensive strategy for the intervention,
treatment, and rehabilitation of juvenile offenders. The program is an
extension of an initial effort, funded by OJJDP in 1993, entitled
``Accountability-Based Community Intervention (ABC) Program.'' Under
the ABC initiative, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C. were
competitively funded to plan and implement a comprehensive graduated
sanctions strategy.
In fiscal year 1994, under a competitive announcement, OJJDP
awarded funds under the Serious, Violent, and Chronic Offender
Treatment Program to three additional jurisdictions (Boston,
Massachusetts; Richmond, Virginia; and Jefferson Parish, Louisiana) to
develop and implement a graduated sanctions plan. The plan's basic
elements include: (1) assess the existing continuum of secure and
nonsecure intervention, treatment, and rehabilitation services in each
jurisdiction; (2) define the juvenile offender population; (3) develop
and implement a program strategy; (4) develop and implement an
evaluation; (5) integrate private nonprofit, community-based
organizations into the provision of offender services; (6) incorporate
an aftercare program as an integral component of all residential
placements; (7) develop a resource plan to enlist the financial and
technical support of other Federal, State, and local agencies, private
foundations, or other funding sources; and (8) develop a victim
assistance component using local organizations.
In fiscal year 1995, the ABC Program jurisdictions completed
program funding and in fiscal year 1996, each of the three fiscal year
1994 grantees will receive awards to continue implementation
activities. No additional applications will be solicited in fiscal year
1996.
Community Assessment Centers
In fiscal year 1996, OJJDP proposes to identify jurisdictions that
have developed assessment programs for juveniles and established
linkages to integrated service delivery systems through the use of
assessment centers. The concept of community assessment centers,
reflecting the use of community input in a center's development and
operations, offers many advantages, including comprehensive needs
assessments of at-risk, dependent, or delinquent youth; improved access
to integrated services; the promotion of alternatives to incarceration;
and an enhanced ability to monitor racial and gender disparities in
juvenile justice processing through automated information systems.
OJJDP will examine current efforts across the Nation in order to
identify replicable components or models that meet, or could be adapted
to meet, the following goals:
Ensuring positive outcomes for youth through the provision
of comprehensive, community-based assessments that result in the
development of an integrated treatment plan while avoiding unnecessary
detention.
Promoting and increasing the use of alternatives to
detention and a system of graduated sanctions for delinquent offenders.
Providing for more accurate and timely monitoring of the
processing of at-risk, dependent, or delinquent juveniles to ensure
fair and equitable treatment and outcomes in all phases of the juvenile
justice system.
Enhancing access to data or records across disciplines and
integrating assessment, case management, and community-based services
through the use of automated information systems, consistent with the
principles of confidentiality.
If it is determined through this initial survey that a replicable
model exists or can be developed, OJJDP intends to issue a competitive
solicitation, late in fiscal year 1996, for the replication or
development of the model, including an evaluation component. OJJDP
seeks comment on the proposed program and funding process at this time.
Juvenile Restitution: A Balanced Approach
OJJDP proposes to continue support of the juvenile restitution
training and technical assistance program in fiscal year 1996. The
project design is based on practitioner recommendations regarding
program needs and on how best to integrate and institutionalize
[[Page 6466]]
restitution and community service as key components of juvenile justice
dispositions. In 1992, a working group was convened to help map out a
plan for optimum development of the components of restitution programs.
Plan components include community service, victim reparation, victim-
offender mediation, offender employment and supervision, employment
development, and other program elements designed to establish
restitution as an important element to improving the juvenile justice
system. This project is guided by balanced and restorative justice
principles, which include the need to provide a balance of community
protection, offender competency development, and accountability in
programs for sanctioning and controlling juvenile offenders.
In fiscal year 1995, the project assisted three local jurisdictions
to implement the ``balanced approach,'' participated in presenting
regional ``round tables'' for States interested in adopting the
balanced and restorative justice model, and provided ad hoc technical
assistance. In fiscal year 1996 the project will continue this work and
also develop guideline materials on the balanced and restorative
justice program. This project will be implemented by the current
grantee, Florida Atlantic University. No additional applications will
be solicited in fiscal year 1996.
Training and Technical Assistance Program To Promote Gender-Specific
Programming for Female Juvenile Offenders
The 1992 Amendments to the JJDP Act, Public Law 102-586, 106 Stat.
4982, addressed for the first time the issue of gender specific
services. The Amendments required States participating in OJJDP's State
Formula Grants Program to conduct an analysis of gender-specific
services for the prevention and treatment of juvenile delinquency,
including the types of services available, the need for such services,
and a plan for providing needed gender-specific services for the
prevention and treatment of juvenile delinquency.
In fiscal year 1995, the OJJDP Gender Specific Services Program
effort focused on providing training and technical assistance directly
to States and on providing and promoting the establishment of State
level gender-specific programs. Training and technical assistance have
been provided to a broad spectrum of policymakers and service providers
regarding services for juvenile female offenders.
In addition, OJJDP, in conjunction with the American Correctional
Association (ACA), sponsored a National Juvenile Female Offender
Conference. The purpose of the Conference was to provide juvenile
corrections agency staff with an increased awareness of the unique
problems and rehabilitative needs of female offenders and improve
skills in working effectively with these offenders. Innovative juvenile
female corrections programs were presented, including new approaches
and strategies for operating facility-based programs for female
offenders.
OJJDP also awarded discretionary grants to implement programs for
female juvenile offenders and at-risk girls. Under the competitive
Program to Promote Alternative Programs for Juvenile Female Offenders,
OJJDP funded programs in Washington, D.C. and Chicago, Illinois. In
addition, OJJDP has funded expansion of the Practical and Cultural
Education Center for Girls, Inc. (P.A.C.E.) Program in Miami, Florida.
Also, in order to provide the field with information regarding existent
projects and current research, OJJDP funded Girls, Incorporated to
conduct a national gender-specific services forum, which will be held
during fiscal year 1996. Finally, OJJDP's six SafeFutures Program sites
will implement components designed to establish services for at-risk
and delinquent girls.
In fiscal year 1996, OJJDP proposes to award a competitive grant to
support a training and technical assistance program designed to build
upon the work of these multiple efforts. It would transfer lessons
learned, stimulate formulation of State and local policies based upon
research findings and statistical trend data, and assist community-
based youth serving agencies and juvenile detention and correctional
programs to initiate, refine, and expand gender-specific programming
that utilizes the strengths and capabilities unique to females.
In fiscal year 1996, one two-year project period award would be
made based upon a competitive solicitation.
Technical Assistance to Native American Programs
Native American programs for juveniles are facing increasing
pressures because of the increasing numbers 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 fiscal years 1992 to 1995, OJJDP funded four Native American
sites to support the development of programs to impact these problems.
These sites are Gila River, Pueblo Jemez, the Navajo Nation and the Red
Lake Band of Chippewas. Each of these sites has been implementing
programs specifically designed to meet the needs of the tribe. In Gila
River an alternative school has been developed and implemented. The
Navajo Nation has expanded the Peace Maker program to accommodate
additional delinquent offenders and this approach has been adapted to
the Red Lake and Pueblo Jemez communities. Additional programing, such
as job skills development, has also been developed in some of the sites
to meet the needs of their youth.
Although these programs have been successful, there is a need at
these sites to expand programing options such as gang prevention and
intervention programs. Other Native American Tribes have similar
problems and needs, as do programs for Native Americans in many major
metropolitan areas.
OJJDP proposes to fund a national technical assistance program to
support the development of additional programing for the four sites
that OJJDP currently funds and to extend programing support to Tribes
and urban tribal programs across the country. OJJDP would fund a
technical assistance provider to provide direct technical assistance
and to coordinate the delivery of technical assistance by other
experts. It is anticipated that this would be a three-year technical
assistance program.
National Indicators of Juvenile Violent and Delinquent Behavior and
Related Risk Factors
The difficulty of using juvenile arrests as a reliable measure of
the level and nature of juvenile crime is well known. While juvenile
arrest statistics have been useful as a barometer of juvenile
involvement in crime, there are many critical dimensions in measuring
this phenomenon that cannot be captured by any method other than direct
measures of self-reported delinquency. The Department of Labor's Bureau
of Labor Statistics is launching a 12,000-subject survey of 12-17-year-
old juveniles that provides an opportunity to supplement the data
collection by asking relevant questions about delinquency, guns, and
violence. This longitudinal survey also provides an unprecedented
opportunity to determine the generalizability of the findings from
OJJDP's Program of Research on the Causes and Correlates of Delinquency
across a broad range of juvenile populations. A transfer of funds
[[Page 6467]]
to the Department of Labor is anticipated.
Evaluation of the Comprehensive Community-Wide Approach to Gang
Prevention, Intervention and Suppression Program
The University of Chicago, School of Social Services
Administration, received a competitive cooperative agreement award in
fiscal year 1994. This four-year project period award supports an
evaluation of OJJDP's Comprehensive Community-Wide Approach to Gang
Prevention, Intervention, and Suppression Program. The evaluation will
assist the five program sites in establishing realistic and measurable
objectives, to document program implementation, and to measure the
impact of a variety of gang program strategies. It will also provide
interim feedback to the program implementors. The five sites are
Bloomington, Illinois; Mesa, Arizona; Tucson, Arizona; Riverside,
California; and San Antonio, Texas.
In fiscal year 1996, the grantee will: design and implement
organizational surveys and youth interviews; develop and implement
program tracking and worker questionnaires and interviews; gather and
track aggregate level offense/offender client data from police,
prosecutor, probation, school, and social service program sources;
develop and implement uniform individual level criminal justice data
collection efforts; consult with local evaluators on development and
implementation of local site parent/community resident surveys; and
coordinate ongoing efforts with local researchers conducting special
surveys of gang youth in the program.
This project will be continued by the current grantee, the
University of Chicago, School of Social Services Administration. No
additional applications will be solicited in fiscal year 1996.
Evaluation of Intensive Community-Based Aftercare Demonstration and
Technical Assistance Program
The National Council on Crime and Delinquency (NCCD) received a 3-
year competitive fiscal year 1994 grant to conduct a process evaluation
and design an impact evaluation of the Intensive Community-Based
Aftercare Demonstration and Technical Assistance Program at sites in
Colorado, New Jersey, Nevada, and Virginia. NCCD's initial award funded
the design and implementation of the process evaluation, the design of
an impact evaluation, and start-up data collection. A report on the
process evaluation will be submitted in the spring of 1996. Fiscal year
1996 funding will enable NCCD to begin the impact evaluation. Because
of the excellent progress made during the first two years on the
process evaluation, OJJDP intends to extend this program for three
additional years to allow sufficient time for completion of an impact
evaluation.
The project will be implemented by the current grantee, NCCD. No
additional applications will be solicited in fiscal year 1996.
Evaluation of Statewide DMC Projects
This program would include completion of a process evaluation begun
by OJJDP's Management Evaluation Program contractor, Caliber
Associates, and would be continued with an impact evaluation following
approval of an impact evaluation design. A 3-year program is
anticipated.
This program would supplement evaluation efforts of OJJDP directed
at State and local programs designed to impact disproportionate
minority confinement (DMC). Caliber Associates has conducted
evaluations of the five DMC pilot sites funded from OJJDP discretionary
funds to formulate and test programs designed to reduce DMC. The pilot
site evaluations were, for the most part, process evaluations because
it was difficult to identify specific impacts of small programs at the
local level. This State-level evaluation will be expected to measure
changes in disproportionate minority confinement and test assumptions
about the reasons for these changes.
Michigan has been tentatively selected as the site for this study
through a State application process. To prepare for this evaluation,
Caliber Associates will complete an evaluability assessment and a
preliminary process evaluation. The grantee would have full access to
the Caliber data, complete the process evaluation, and design and
implement an outcome evaluation. The grantee would complete a process
evaluation report at the end of the first year, incorporating the
earlier data collection and analysis conducted by Caliber Associates. A
single competitive agreement would be awarded under this program in
fiscal year 1996.
Juvenile Mentoring Program (JUMP) Evaluation
The Juvenile Mentoring Program (JUMP) was funded at 41 sites by
OJJDP in fiscal year 1995. In compliance with Part G, Section 288 H of
the JJDP Act, all JUMP sites are participating in a national evaluation
designed to determine the success and effectiveness of JUMP in reducing
delinquency and gang participation, improving academic performance, and
reducing the dropout rate. Each program participant has been provided
with a JUMP Evaluation Workbook containing data collection instruments
and instructions on their use. It provides for the collection of data
on delinquency, school performance, family functioning, and project
operations. Grantees are responsible for collecting and analyzing site
data and preparing periodic evaluation reports for OJJDP.
The evaluation grantee would be expected to: assist the sites in
implementing the JUMP Evaluation Workbook; provide other evaluation
technical assistance to the funded sites; and complete a cross-site
evaluation of results from the 41 sites at the end of the JUMP program
grants. A draft report to Congress would be prepared based on the
cross-site evaluation.
It is anticipated that one two-year cooperative agreement would be
competitively awarded to carry out this program.
Juvenile Transfers to Criminal Court Studies
States are increasingly enacting juvenile code revisions broadening
judicial waiver authority, providing prosecutor direct file authority,
and mandating transfer of older, more violent juveniles to criminal
court. Many States are also developing innovative procedures, such as
blending traditional features of juvenile and criminal justice
sentencing practices, through statutes that categorize juvenile
offenders into different classes according to the seriousness of the
offense, designating juvenile or criminal court for each class, or
providing judges with discretion to make these judgments at sentencing.
Studies of the impact of criminal court prosecution of juveniles have
yielded mixed conclusions. Solid research on the intended and
unintended consequences of transfer of juveniles to criminal court will
enable policy makers and legislatures to develop statutory provisions
and policies and improve judicial and prosecutorial waiver and transfer
decisions.
To address this shortage of research programs, OJJDP competitively
funded two juvenile waiver and transfer research projects in fiscal
year 1995. The first, awarded to the National Center for Juvenile
Justice, compares juvenile and criminal court handling of juveniles in
four States that authorize judicial waiver of serious and violent
juvenile offenders and mandate criminal court handling for specified
categories of juvenile offenders. The second study,
[[Page 6468]]
awarded to the Florida Juvenile Justice Advisory Board, evaluates
Florida's system of blending the option of criminal and juvenile
justice system sentencing to handle serious or violent juvenile
offenders. Additional funding is proposed in fiscal year 1996 to enable
the projects to collect case specific information on sentence
completion and recidivism data to provide a more definitive assessment
of the impact of criminal versus juvenile justice system handling of
serious and violent offender cases.
The projects would be implemented by the current grantees, the
National Center for Juvenile Justice and the Florida Juvenile Justice
Advisory Board. No additional applications would be solicited in fiscal
year 1996.
Technical Assistance to Juvenile Courts*
The National Center for Juvenile Justice (NCJJ), the research
division of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges,
provides technical assistance under this grant for juvenile court
practitioners. The focus of the technical assistance is on court
administration and management, program development, and special legal
issues. During fiscal year 1995, NCJJ responded to over 830 requests
for technical assistance.
In fiscal year 1996, special emphasis will be placed on appropriate
sanctions for handling serious, violent, and chronic juvenile offenders
and other emerging issues confronting the juvenile court, such as the
increased use of waivers and transfers. The program will be implemented
by the current grantee, NCJJ. No additional applications will be
solicited in fiscal year 1996.
Juvenile Court Judges Training*
The primary focus of this project in fiscal year 1996 will be to
continue and refine the training and technical assistance program
offered by the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges.
The objectives of the training are to supplement law school curriculums
by providing basic training to new juvenile court judges and to provide
experienced judges with state-of-the-art training on developments in
juvenile and family case law and effective dispositional options.
Emphasis is also placed on alcohol and substance abuse, child abuse and
neglect, gangs and violence, disproportionate incarceration of minority
youth, and intermediate sanctions. Training is also provided to other
court personnel, including juvenile probation officers, aftercare
workers, and child protection and community treatment providers. In
fiscal year 1995, over 13,000 judges and court personnel received
training through some 80 different programs. In addition, over 800
training related technical assistance requests were completed.
The project will be implemented by the current grantee, the
National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges. No additional
applications will be solicited in fiscal year 1996.
The Juvenile Justice Prosecution Unit
OJJDP has historically supported prosecutor training activities
through the National District Attorneys' Association (NDAA). To
continue that work, OJJDP awarded a 3-year project period grant in
fiscal year 1995 to enable NDAA to establish a Juvenile Justice
Prosecution Unit to provide prosecutor training, implement workshops on
juvenile justice related executive policy, leadership, and management
for chief prosecutors and juvenile unit chiefs, and provide background
information to prosecutors on juvenile justice issues and programs.
The project is implemented by the American Prosecutors Research
Institute (APRI), based on planning and input by prosecutors familiar
with juvenile justice needs. APRI is the research and technical
assistance affiliate of NDAA. The project utilizes a working group of
chief prosecutors and juvenile unit chiefs to support project staff in
providing training, technical assistance, and juvenile justice-related
research and program information to practitioners nationwide. Start-up
activities focused on the collection of information regarding juvenile
programs in prosecutor offices. In fiscal year 1996, the project will
convene a symposium of prosecutor coordinators from all 50 States in
order to refine prosecutor training and technical assistance needs.
APRI will also conduct three workshops for elected and appointed
prosecutors and juvenile unit chiefs to help improve prosecutor
handling of juvenile cases.
The project will be implemented by the current grantee, APRI. No
additional applications will be solicited in fiscal year 1996.
Due Process Advocacy Program Development
In fiscal year 1993, OJJDP funded the American Bar Association
(ABA), in partnership with the Juvenile Law Center (JLC) of
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and the Youth Law Center (YLC) of San
Francisco, California, to develop strategies to improve due process and
the quality of legal representation. The goals of the program are to
increase juvenile offenders' access to legal services and to improve
the quality of preadjudication, adjudication, and dispositional
advocacy for juvenile offenders. The strategies developed will be made
available to State and local bar associations and other relevant
organizations so that they can develop approaches to increase the
availability and quality of counsel for juveniles.
In fiscal years 1994 and 1995, the ABA, JLC, and YLC conducted an
assessment of the current state of the art with regard to legal
services, training, and education. This survey included a review of
literature, case law, State statutes, and a survey of public defenders,
court appointed lawyers, law school clinical programs, and judges. A
report, entitled ``A Call for Justice, An Assessment of the Access to
Counsel and Quality of Representation in Delinquency Proceedings'' was
developed and published by the ABA. It has been widely distributed to
State and local bar associations, Chairs of State Juvenile Justice
Advisory Committees, participants in the ABA survey, the National
Association of Child Advocates, and others.
In fiscal year 1996, training is scheduled to begin with the first
training being provided to the States of Tennessee, Maryland, and
Virginia. The structure and scope of the training will be tailored to
fit the needs of each site. A training manual, under development, will
cover training on key issues such as detention, transfer or waiver, and
dispositions. It is designed to fill gaps in existing training
programs. The ABA and its partners will also establish networks with
public defenders offices, children's law centers, and others through
the HANDSNET system and mailings that provide program updates.
This program will be implemented by the current grantee, ABA. No
additional applications will be solicited in fiscal year 1996.
Intensive Community-Based Aftercare Demonstration and Technical
Assistance Program
This initiative is designed to support implementation, training and
technical assistance, and evaluation of an intensive community-based
aftercare model in four jurisdictions that were competitively selected
to participate in this demonstration program. The overall goal of this
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
[[Page 6469]]
segments: (1) Pre-release and preparatory planning activities during
incarceration; (2) structured transitioning involving the participation
of institutional and aftercare staffs both prior to and following
community reentry; and (3) long-term reintegrative activities to insure
adequate service delivery and the required level of social control.
In fiscal year 1994, The Johns Hopkins University received a grant
to test an intensive community-based aftercare model in four
demonstration sites: Denver (Metro), Colorado; Clark County (Las
Vegas), Nevada; Camden and Newark, New Jersey; and Norfolk, Virginia.
Each of the four sites received additional funds to support program
implementation in fiscal year 1995. The Johns Hopkins University
contracts with California State University at Sacramento to assist in
the implementation process by providing training and technical
assistance and by making funds available through contracts to each of
the four demonstration sites. Each of the sites have developed risk
assessment instruments for use in selecting specific youth who need
this type of intensive aftercare intervention, hired and trained staff
in the intensive aftercare model, identified existing and needed
community support (intervention) services, and identified data
necessary for an accurate evaluation of the intensive community-based
aftercare program. In addition, each of the sites has begun random
assignment of clients to the program. The Johns Hopkins University and
its sub-contractor, California State University at Sacramento, have
provided continuous training and technical assistance to both
administrators/managers and line staff in the intensive community-based
aftercare sites. Staff have been trained in the theoretical
underpinnings of the IAP model as well as in the practical applications
of the model, such as techniques for identifying juveniles appropriate
for the program. Training and technical assistance in this model have
also been available to other states and OJJDP grantees on a limited
basis.
In fiscal year 1996, the sites will continue to implement and test
the aftercare model. An independent evaluation contractor is performing
a process evaluation and has designed an impact evaluation to be
implemented under a separate grant. The Johns Hopkins University will
provide continuing training and technical assistance to the four
selected sites and will initiate aftercare technical assistance
services to jurisdictions participating in the OJJDP/Department of the
Interior Youth Environmental Services (YES) Program and to OJJDP's six
SafeFutures Program sites. This funding supports the third budget
period of a 3-year project period.
This project will be implemented by the current grantee, The Johns
Hopkins University. No additional applications will be solicited in
fiscal year 1996.
Training and Technical Assistance for National Innovations To Reduce
Disproportionate Minority Confinement (The Deborah Wysinger Memorial
Program)
National data and studies have shown that minority children are
over represented in juvenile and criminal justice facilities across the
country. Accordingly, Congress, in the 1988 reauthorization of the JJDP
Act, amended the Formula Grants Program State plan requirements to
include addressing disproportionate confinement of minority juveniles.
This is accomplished by gathering data, analyzing it to determine the
extent to which minority juveniles are disproportionately confined, and
designing strategies to address this issue. A Special Emphasis
discretionary grant program was developed 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,
to evaluate their efforts, and share relevant information.
In fiscal years 1994 and 1995, OJJDP made additional Special
Emphasis discretionary funds available to non-pilot States that had
completed data gathering and assessment in order to provide initial
funding for innovative projects designed to address DMC.
These efforts to impact DMC have yielded an important lesson: that
systemic, broad-based interventions are necessary to reduce DMC. OJJDP
recognizes the need to foster the development and documentation of
effective strategies using training, technical assistance, information
dissemination, provision of practical and targeted resource tools, and
public education. In order to further these strategies, OJJDP proposes
to competitively solicit innovative proposals to implement a 3-year
national training, technical assistance, and information dissemination
initiative focused on the disproportionate confinement of minority
youth. The selected grantee would: (1) review and synthesize current
State and local practices and policies designed to reduce DMC; (2)
develop and deliver training to juvenile justice specialists, SAG
Chairs, and selected grantees to inform them of DMC requirements, best
practices and issues; (3) assist key OJJDP grantees to incorporate DMC
issues, practices and policies into their training and education
programs (key grantees are those training and technical assistance
providers working with police, the courts and juvenile detention staff,
SafeFutures sites, Title V, and some State Challenge Program grant
recipients); (4) assist the eight current DMC grantees to manage and
institutionalize their programs; (5) support the Formula Grants Program
technical assistance contractor and OJJDP staff in reviewing State DMC
plans; and (6) develop and carry out a national dissemination and
public education program on DMC and help States and localities develop
similar local education programs.
The selected DMC grantee would coordinate with OJJDP's National
Training and Technical Assistance Center and other OJJDP contractors to
identify OJJDP program areas where DMC policies and practices can be
integrated into ongoing program activities. The DMC grantee and the
National Training and Technical Assistance Center would also
collaborate in the development of toolkits and resource products--
screening tools, assessment, and training components--to be used by
jurisdictions at each stage of their DMC data gathering, assessment and
program response cycle. Other resource products would include
educational curricula, technical assistance protocols for working with
courts, police, intake services, probation and prosecutor's offices,
assessment and screening tools, and planning and analysis tools for
juvenile justice specialists.
OJJDP proposes to competitively award a single grant to implement a
3-year national training, technical assistance, and information
dissemination initiative focused on the disproportionate confinement of
minority youth.
Juvenile Probation Survey Research
Juvenile probation is one of the most critical areas of the
juvenile justice system. However, there is presently very little
information available on juveniles on probation. We do not know how
many juveniles are on probation, their demographic characteristics,
their offenses, or the conditions of their probation, including length,
residential confinement, electronic monitoring, restitution, etc. This
project would
[[Page 6470]]
conduct survey research and develop a questionnaire to collect this
important information. As States operate their juvenile probation
systems in very different manners, this project would also examine how
these differences will affect the information collected.
It is anticipated that one 2-year cooperative agreement would be
competitively awarded to carry out this program.
Improvements in Correctional Education for Juvenile Offenders
The Improvements in Correctional Education for Juvenile Offenders
Program, a program development and demonstration initiative, was
awarded to the National Organization for Social Responsibility (NOSR)
in fiscal year 1992. It is being implemented in three phases:
identification, assessment, and testing and dissemination. The purpose
of the Program is to assist juvenile corrections administrators in
planning and implementing improved educational services for detained
and incarcerated juvenile offenders.
During the 3-year project period, the grantee implemented the first
two phases of the program. An extensive literature search of effective
education practices was undertaken and a report on effective practices
in juvenile corrections education was published and a training and
technical assistance manual were published. In addition, three State
juvenile corrections facilities were selected as model sites for
testing effective educational practices. The sites are: Adobe Mountain
School, Arizona; Lookout Mountain Youth Center, Colorado; and Sauk
Centre, Minnesota.
In fiscal year 1995, NOSR received funding to implement Phase III,
testing and dissemination. The three model test sites are receiving
site specific technical assistance in the assessment of their
educational programs and in the development and implementation of
effective educational practices, including reintegration of appropriate
juveniles back into the mainstream education system.
Fiscal year 1996 funds would be used to assist each site to enhance
its curriculum and implementation strategy to better address the needs
of the juveniles they serve.
The project would be implemented by the current grantee, NOSR. No
additional applications would be solicited in fiscal year 1996.
Performance-Based Standards for Juvenile Detention and Correctional
Facilities
There is a need to increase the accountability of detention and
correctional agencies, facilities, and staff in performing their basic
functions. The development of performance-based standards has emerged
as a primary strategy for improving conditions of confinement. This
program supports the development and implementation of performance-
based standards for juvenile detention and corrections. The performance
measures and standards being developed will address both services and
the quality of life for confined juveniles. They will reflect the
consensus of a broadly representative group of national organizations
on the mission, goals, and objectives of juvenile detention and
corrections. OJJDP plans to promote nationwide adoption and
implementation of the measures and standards through a future training
and technical assistance program.
In fiscal year 1995, OJJDP awarded a competitive 18-month
cooperative agreement to the Council of Juvenile Corrections
Administrators (CJCA) to develop national performance-based standards
for juvenile detention and correctional facilities. A National
Consortium of major professional and advocacy organizations is
providing technical advice and support in all aspects of the
development and implementation of the standards. The project will focus
on standards in the areas of: safety; security; order; programming/
treatment/education; health; and justice.
During fiscal year 1996, the working groups will complete the
drafting of performance criteria and measures, as well as assessment
tools for monitoring performance in all substantive areas. In addition,
all materials will be field tested and revised as needed. A plan for
implementation will also be submitted.
By 1997, initial performance standards and a measurement system
will be developed along with specific plans for an 18-month period of
intensive demonstration and testing of the performance-based standards
and their impact on juvenile corrections and detention programming.
The program will be implemented by the current grantee, CJCA. No
additional applications will be solicited in fiscal year 1996.
Technical Assistance to Juvenile Corrections and Detention (The James
E. Gould Memorial Program)
The primary purpose of the Technical Assistance to Juvenile
Corrections and Detention project is to provide specialized technical
assistance to juvenile corrections, detention, and community
residential service providers. The grantee, the American Correctional
Association (ACA), also plans and convenes an annual Juvenile
Corrections and Detention Forum. The Forum provides an opportunity for
juvenile corrections and detention leaders to meet and discuss issues,
problems, and solutions to emerging corrections and detention problems.
The ACA also provides workshops and conferences on current and emerging
national issues in the field of juvenile corrections and detention and
offers technical assistance through document dissemination. OJJDP
awarded a fiscal year 1995 competitive grant to ACA to provide these
services over a 3-year project period. The project will be implemented
by the current grantee, ACA. No additional applications will be
solicited in fiscal year 1996.
Training for Juvenile Corrections and Detention Staff
In fiscal year 1996, OJJDP will continue to support the development
and implementation of a comprehensive training program for juvenile
corrections and detention management staff through an interagency
agreement with the National Institute of Corrections (NIC). The program
is designed to offer a core curriculum for juvenile corrections and
detention administrators and mid-level 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 needs of offenders,
and managing the violent or disruptive offender. The training is
conducted at the NIC Academy and regionally. This program is a
continuation activity, initiated in fiscal year 1991 under an
interagency agreement with NIC that was renewed in fiscal year 1994. No
additional applications will be solicited in fiscal year 1996.
Training for Line Staff in Juvenile Detention and Corrections
In fiscal year 1994, the National Juvenile Detention Association
(NJDA) was awarded a competitive 3-year project period grant to
establish a training program to meet the needs of the more than 38,000
line staff of juvenile detention and corrections facilities. In the
first year under the grant, NJDA revised and updated a 40-hour
Detention Careworker curriculum, developed a 24-hour Train-the-Trainer
for the Detention Careworker curriculum, conducted 16 separate
trainings and developed new lesson plans in 7 substantive areas,
conducted a national training needs assessment for juvenile corrections
careworkers, and
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provided technical assistance to 37 agencies and training to 887 line
staff.
In fiscal year 1996, NJDA will continue to offer training to
practitioners, develop new curriculums around emerging issues, and
complete the development and testing of a 40-hour basic careworker
curriculum for juvenile corrections line staff. Additionally, NJDA will
deliver selected training programs for juvenile detention and
corrections line staff on a number of topical issues.
This project will be implemented by the current grantee, NJDA. No
additional applications will be solicited in fiscal year 1996.
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,
county, and city levels. The trend in a number of jurisdictions toward
an increased use of detention and commitment to State facilities has
been reversed when key decision makers, 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 to modify practices and policies. In some instances modification
has occurred in response to court orders. Compliance with court orders
is improved with the support of enhanced interagency communication and
planning among those agencies affecting the flow of juveniles through
the system.
In addressing the problems of overcrowded facilities, OJJDP
considered the recommendations of the Conditions of Confinement study
regarding overcrowding, the data on over-representation of minority
youth in confinement, and other information that suggests crowding in
juvenile facilities must be reduced. Policy makers can do this 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 fiscal year 1994 for a three-
year project period, provides training and technical assistance
materials for use by State and local jurisdictional teams. In fiscal
year 1995, the project collected information on strategies that are
used or could be used to control crowding, and prepared training and
technical assistance materials. Based on the demonstrated need for
assistance and related criteria, NJDA will select three jurisdictions
in fiscal year 1996 for onsite development, implementation, and testing
of crowding reduction procedures, and will provide regional training on
these procedures to other jurisdictions.
A fiscal year 1996 continuation award will be made to the current
grantee, the National Juvenile Detention Association. No additional
applications will be solicited in fiscal year 1996.
National Program Directory
In fiscal year 1995, OJJDP initiated the development of a National
Program Directory, a national list of all juvenile justice offices,
facilities, and programs in the United States, through the Bureau of
the Census. The Census Bureau developed a directory format for juvenile
detention and correctional facilities, which would contain the
addresses and phone numbers of localities, names and titles of
directors, and important classification information, classify
facilities by the agency or firm that operates them, and list the
functions of the facility. This structure was developed specifically to
provide OJJDP with the ability to conduct surveys and censuses of
juvenile custody facilities. The effort placed into developing this
structure would also translate to other areas, such as a list of
juvenile probation offices.
Beyond developing the computer structure, this project would also
develop, in fiscal year 1996, the actual sampling frame or address
list. The development of complete frames for any segment of the
juvenile justice system requires many different approaches. The Census
Bureau would use contacts with professional organizations to compile a
preliminary list of juvenile facilities, courts, probation offices, and
programs. The Census Bureau would then seek contacts in each State for
further clarification of the lists. All leads would be followed until a
complete list of all programs of interest has been exhausted. This
program would be funded through an interagency agreement with the
Census Bureau. No additional applications would be solicited in fiscal
year 1996.
Delinquency Prevention and Intervention
Training In Risk-Focused Prevention Strategies
OJJDP will provide additional training in fiscal year 1996 to
communities interested in developing a risk-focused delinquency
prevention strategy. This training supports OJJDP's Title V Delinquency
Prevention Incentive Grants Program, codified at 42 U.S.C. Sec. 5781-
5785, by providing the knowledge and skills necessary for State, local,
and private agency officials and citizens to identify and address risk
factors that lead to violent and delinquent behavior in children. In
fiscal years 1994 and 1995, this training was offered to all States,
territories, and the District of Columbia that received discretionary
grants from OJJDP to implement the Title V Program.
OJJDP awarded a new contract with fiscal year 1995 funds to perform
ongoing tasks and provide prevention training in the following areas:
(1) orientation on risk and resiliency-focused prevention theories and
strategies for local community leaders; (2) the identification,
assessment and addressing of risk factors; (3) ``training of trainers''
in selected States to provide a statewide capacity to train communities
in risk-focused prevention; and (4) development of training curriculums
and materials to increase the capacity of States and localities to
conduct risk-focused prevention training. These services will be
provided through second year funding of a competitive contract awarded
to Developmental Research and Programs, Inc. No additional applications
will be solicited in fiscal year 1996.
Youth-Centered Conflict Resolution
Increasing levels of juvenile violence have become a national
concern. Violence in and around school campuses and conflict among
juveniles both in schools and neighborhoods have become extremely
problematic for school administrators, teachers, parents, community
leaders, and the public. While experts may debate the merits and impact
of the varied contributing factors, most would agree that school
curriculums do not provide for the systematic teaching of problem- and
conflict-resolving skills.
To address this issue, OJJDP awarded a competitive grant in fiscal
year 1995 to the Illinois Institute for Dispute Resolution to develop,
in concert with other established conflict resolution organizations, a
national strategy for broad-based education and training in the use of
conflict resolution skills. In
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support of this task, the grantee is to conduct four regional
conferences based on a joint publication being developed by the
Departments of Justice and Education. The grantee will also provide
technical assistance and disseminate information about conflict
resolution programs. The project will be continued by the current
grantee, the Illinois Institute for Dispute Resolution. No additional
applications will be solicited in fiscal year 1996.
Pathways to Success
This project is a collaborative effort among OJJDP, the Bureau of
Justice Assistance (BJA), and the National Endowment for the Arts. The
Pathways to Success Program promotes vocational skills, entrepreneurial
initiatives, recreation, and arts education during afterschool,
weekend, and summer hours by making a variety of opportunities
available to at-risk youth.
Through a competitive process, five sites were funded in fiscal
year 1995, the first year of a 2-year project period. The selected
programs are located in: Newport County, Rhode Island; New York, New
York; Anchorage, Alaska; Washington, D.C.; and Miami, Florida.
The SOS Playbacks: Arts-Based Delinquency Based Juvenile
Delinquency Prevention Program, located in Newport County, Rhode
Island, provides an afterschool arts program for students aged 13-18
from local public housing developments. Students in the program
participate in peer-to-peer support and education through the mediums
of visual arts, dance, and drama.
Project CLEAR, located in New York City, provides extended day
programs to students in two elementary schools that have a high
percentage of students who live in low-income areas and have limited
English proficiency. Services include academic tutoring, arts in
education instruction, physical recreation, and group counseling
services. Two hundred students in grades 1-6 are served annually.
Saturday programs for targeted youth and their families and evening
programs for parents are also provided.
The Anchorage School District and the out-North Theater in
Anchorage, Alaska have collaborated to provide afterschool and summer
theater programs for students aged 12-14 from low income areas in
Anchorage. Students involved in this program will produce and perform
in plays they have written that reflect their personal life
experiences.
The District of Columbia Courts Elementary Baseball Program
provides combined recreational activities, tutoring activities, one-to-
one mentoring, and parent workshops for students aged 6-10 who are
enrolled in Garrett Elementary School in Washington, D.C. This school
is located in one of the highest crime areas in Washington, D.C. The
central activity of this program is interleague baseball games. Team
participation is contingent upon student participation in tutoring and
other activities.
The Aspira ``Youth Sanctuary'' Program, located in Dade County,
Florida, addresses delinquency and other behavioral problems of Latino
youth aged 10-16 who reside in migrant camps. This program teaches art,
including community mural projects, folklore dance incorporating Latino
dancing, and provides recreation opportunities for targeted students
afterschool, on weekends, and during the summer months. Parent training
workshops and parent support are key activities in this program.
This Program will be implemented in fiscal year 1996 by the current
project grantees. No additional applications will be solicited in
fiscal year 1996.
Teens, Crime, and the Community: Teens in Action in the 90s*
This continuation program is conducted by the National Crime
Prevention Council (NCPC) in partnership with the National Institute
for Citizen Education in the Law (NICEL). Teens in Action in the 90s is
a special application of the Teens, Crime, and Community (TCC) program
that operates on the premise that teens, who are disproportionately the
victims of crimes, can contribute to improving their schools and
communities through a broad array of activities.
During fiscal year 1995, the TCC Program expanded to more than 100
new sites, primarily through five regional expansion centers located in
New England, the Mid-Atlantic States, the Mid-South, the Deep South,
and the Pacific Northwest Coast. These TCC projects utilized Boys and
Girls Clubs of America and their affiliates in six localities to become
partners in TCC efforts in these cities.
More than 4,000 teachers, social service providers, juvenile
justice professionals, law enforcement officers, and other community
leaders participated in intensive training to help sites implement the
TCC curriculum in their communities. Over 1,000 individuals benefited
from technical assistance, materials, and consultation regarding TCC in
areas of program implementation, fund development, and networking
opportunities.
In fiscal year 1996, NCPC and NICEL will implement the National
Teens, Crime, and the Community Program in additional locations across
the country. In addition, TCC will seek to implement projects in the
six SafeFutures Program sites.
This program will be implemented by the current grantee, NCPC. No
additional applications will be solicited in fiscal year 1996.
Law-Related Education (LRE)
The national Law-Related Education (LRE) Program ``Youth for
Justice'' includes five coordinated LRE projects and programs operating
in 48 States and 4 non-State jurisdictions.
The program's purpose is to provide training and technical
assistance to State and local school jurisdictions that will result in
the institutionalization of quality LRE programs for at-risk juveniles.
The focus of the program during fiscal year 1996 would be to continue
linking LRE to violence reduction and to involve program participants
in finding solutions to juvenile violence. The major components of the
program are coordination and management, training and technical
assistance, assistance to local program sites, public information and
program development and assessment.
This program would be implemented by the current grantees, the
American Bar Association, the Center for Civic Education, the
Constitutional Rights Foundation, the National Institute for Citizen
Education in the Law, and the Phi Alpha Delta Legal Fraternity. No
additional applications would be solicited in fiscal year 1996.
Cities in Schools--Federal Interagency Partnership
This program is a continuation of a national school dropout
prevention model developed and implemented by Cities in Schools, Inc.
The Cities in Schools (CIS) Program provides training and technical
assistance to States and local communities, enabling them to adapt and
implement the CIS model. The model brings social, employment, mental
health, drug prevention, entrepreneurship, and other resources to high-
risk youth and their families in the school setting. Where CIS State
organizations are established, they assume primary responsibility for
local program replication during the Federal interagency partnership.
The Federal Interagency Partnership program is based on a program
strategy that is designed to enhance CIS, Inc.'s capability to provide
training and technical assistance, introduce selected
[[Page 6473]]
initiatives to CIS youth at the local level, disseminate information,
and network with Federal agencies on behalf of State and local CIS
programs.
Fiscal year 1995 accomplishments include the following:
establishment of 15 student-run entrepreneurship programs;
establishment of a consulting program consisting of a pool of CIS State
and local program directors and other experts to support the expanded
technical assistance needs of the CIS network of State and local
programs; production and distribution of two publications, a catalogue
of program resources, and a history of the CIS program; a three-day
training session featuring presentations from Federal agencies on the
financial and programmatic resources available through their
Departments; and a catalogue of State and local programs in the areas
of family strengthening and parent participation, working with
adjudicated or incarcerated youth, violence prevention, prevention of
AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases, and conflict resolution.
The Cities in Schools Federal Interagency Partnership program is
jointly funded by OJJDP and the Departments of Health and Human
Services and Commerce under an OJJDP grant. The project would be
implemented by the current grantee, Cities in Schools, Inc. No
additional applications would be solicited in fiscal year 1996.
Race Against Drugs
The Race Against Drugs (RAD) Program is a unique drug awareness,
education, and prevention campaign designed to help young people
understand the dangers of drugs and live a non-impaired lifestyle. With
help and assistance from 23 motor sports organizations, the cooperation
of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Drug Enforcement
Administration, the U.S. Navy, and other government agencies, the
National Child Safety Council, and a variety of corporate sponsors, RAD
has become an exciting and innovative addition to drug abuse prevention
programs. RAD activities now include national drug awareness and
prevention activities at schools, malls, and motor sport events;
television and public service announcements, posters, and signage on T-
shirts, hats, decals, etc.; and specialized programs like the ``Adopt-
A-School Essay and Scholarship'' and ``Winner's Circle'' programs.
Curriculum materials include the Be A Winner Action Book for 6-8th
graders, a RAD Adult Guide, and a RAD coloring book for K-4th graders.
In fiscal year 1995 the program was funded to develop additional
and updated curriculum materials, reach additional program sites, and
demonstrate the Winner's Circle Program in Seattle, Washington. It was
funded jointly by the Bureau of Justice Assistance and OJJDP with the
Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP) providing extensive
printing and clearinghouse support.
In fiscal year 1996, OJJDP proposes to continue funding over a two-
year project period in order to expand program operations to reach
500,000 youth at 300 RAD events annually, conduct 20 adopt-a-school
programs in conjunction with major racing events, develop mobile
educational exhibits and a variety of new educational materials, and
conduct a program evaluation. OJJDP anticipates that the program would
operate with private direct funding and in-kind support at the end of
the project period.
The program would be implemented by the current grantee, the
National Child Safety Council. No additional applications would be
solicited in fiscal year 1996.
The Congress of National Black Churches: National Anti-Drug Abuse/
Violence Campaign (NADVC)
OJJDP proposes to continue funding the Congress of National Black
Churches' (CNBC) national public awareness and mobilization strategy to
address the problem of juvenile drug abuse and violence in targeted
communities. The goal of the CNBC national strategy is to summon,
focus, and coordinate the leadership of the black religious community,
in cooperation with the Department of Justice and other Federal
agencies and organizations, to mobilize groups of community residents
to combat juvenile drug abuse and drug-related violence.
The campaign now operates in 37 city alliances, having grown from 5
original target cities. The smallest of these alliances consists of 6
churches and the largest has 135 churches. The NADVC program involves
approximately 2,220 clergy and affects 1.5 million youth and the adults
who influence their lives. NADVC also provides technical support to
four statewide religious coalitions.
As a result of NADVC's technical assistance and training workshops,
project sites have been able to leverage approximately $1.5 million in
private and government funding.
NADVC has contributed to the planning and presentation of numerous
technical assistance and training conferences on violence and substance
abuse prevention and produced a National Training and Site Development
Guide and a video to assist sites implement the NADVC model.
The Program would be expanded in fiscal year 1996 to address family
violence intervention issues and target up to 6 additional cities, for
a total of 43 cities. Consideration would be given to SafeFutures sites
when selecting the new sites. This program would be implemented by the
current grantee, CNBC. No additional applications would be solicited in
fiscal year 1996.
Community Anti-Drug-Abuse Technical Assistance Voucher Project
The National Center for Neighborhood Enterprise (NCNE) has extended
its outreach to community-based grassroots organizations around the
country that are working effectively to solve the problems of juvenile
drug abuse. This project has three goals: (1) To allow various
neighborhood groups to inexpensively purchase needed services through
the use of technical assistance vouchers disbursed by NCNE; (2) to
demonstrate the cost-effective use of vouchers to help neighborhood
groups secure technical assistance for anti-drug-abuse projects to
serve high-risk youth; and (3) to extend OJJDP funded technical
assistance to groups that are often excluded because they lack the
administrative sophistication, technical and grantsmanship skills, and
resources to participate in traditional competitive grant programs.
The Technical Assistance Voucher Project builds upon the strengths
and problem solving capacity existing in low-income communities
nationwide and provides much needed technical and monetary resources to
grassroots organizations that are operating youth anti-drug programs
and activities for high risk youth.
The program awards 15-25 vouchers, ranging from $1,000 to $10,000
annually. Eligible organizations must have: proven effectiveness in
serving a specific constituency; a small operating budget ($150,000
maximum); 501(c)(3) tax exempt status; and a program that targets high-
risk youth and/or juvenile offenders; and leadership that is indigenous
to the community. Vouchers can be used for planning, proposal writing,
program promotion, legal assistance, financial management, and other
activities. This project would be implemented by the current grantee,
NCNE. No additional applications would be solicited in fiscal year
1996.
Training and Technical Assistance for Family Strengthening Services
Prevention, early intervention, and effective crisis intervention
are critical
[[Page 6474]]
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 have not
generally been available to community organizations and agencies
providing family strengthening services. In response, OJJDP awarded a
three-year competitive grant in fiscal year 1995 to the University of
Utah's Department of Health and Education to provide training and
technical assistance to communities interested in establishing or
enhancing a continuum of family-strengthening efforts, including parent
training. Grant activities include a literature review, national
search, rating, and selection of family strengthening models,
development and implementation of a marketing and dissemination
strategy, and the selection of sites to receive intensive technical
assistance. The grantee will also convene two regional conferences,
produce user and training-of-trainers guides, and distribute videos of
several family-strengthening workshops.
This program will be implemented by the current grantee, the
University of Utah's Department of Health and Education. No additional
applications will be solicited in fiscal year 1996.
Henry Ford Health System*
In fiscal year 1995, the Henry Ford Health System (HFHS) initiated
a two-year program in Detroit, Michigan called ``Reducing Youth
Violence Through School-Based Initiatives.'' The program serves seven
elementary schools and two middle schools that feed into a Detroit high
school. Primary Program activities are to identify juveniles at high
risk, assess the needs of target youth, identify resources available in
the community to serve those needs, coordinate community resources to
create comprehensive programs, and evaluate the efficacy of the
program. Participants include teachers, family members, community
programs and agencies, as well as student and health center staff. This
project will be implemented by the current grantee, HFHS. No additional
applications will be solicited in fiscal year 1996.
Jackie Robinson Center*
This three-year project, initially funded in fiscal year 1994,
supports expansion of the Brooklyn USA Athletic Association, Inc.'s
Jackie Robinson Centers for Physical Culture (JRC), which provide a
comprehensive youth development and delinquency and crime prevention
program. Presently, there are 18 school and 3 replication sites in
operation serving in-school youth between the ages of 8 and 18. JRC's
services are designed to prevent New York City youth from becoming
involved in street gangs, violence, or drug and alcohol abuse, and to
alert, educate, and inform youth and their parents about these issues.
Activities conducted by JRC include development of positive peer
groups, youth leadership, social and personal skills training, academic
tutoring, sports, cultural activities, rap and discussion groups,
individual counseling, parent education and involvement, community
events, on-site crisis intervention, referral to treatment, physical/
medical examinations, social service referral, and college and job
placement assistance. JRC has increased its recruitment and
registration from 750 to 6,600 students. Students in each of the 18
sites participated in a minimum of 3 special events during the year.
In fiscal year 1996, JRC will develop a data bank system to monitor
the in-school progress of participating students through indicators
such as attendance, academic, and behavioral records. This project will
be implemented by the current grantee, the Brooklyn USA Athletic
Association, Inc. No additional applications will be solicited in
fiscal year 1996.
Child Abuse and Neglect and Dependency Courts
A Community-Based Approach to Combating Child Victimization
Statistics on child abuse and neglect are alarming. In 1994 alone,
an estimated 3.1 million abused or neglected children were reported to
public welfare agencies. More than 1 million of these cases were
substantiated. Each year, an estimated 2,000 children--most under 4
years old--die at the hands of parents or caretakers.
Research demonstrating a link between child victimization and later
involvement in violent delinquency suggests the efficacy of preventing
child abuse and neglect and treating the victims of abuse as a means of
reducing later violent and delinquent behavior.
To break the cycle of childhood victimization and violent
delinquency, OJJDP proposes to enter into a joint solicitation with
other bureaus of the Office of Justice Programs, in cooperation with
other Federal agencies, to foster comprehensive, community-based,
interagency and multi disciplinary approaches to the prevention,
identification, intervention, and treatment of child abuse and neglect.
It is anticipated that two to five demonstration projects would be
competitively awarded in fiscal year 1996 as part of a 5-year project
period. Sites would be required to address each of the following
program areas: (1) Data collection and evaluation; (2) system reform
and accountability; (3) training and technical support to
practitioners; (4) provision of a continuum of services to protect
children and support families; and (5) prevention education and public
information.
Training and technical assistance would be made available to
selected sites in a number of areas, including system reform,
practitioner training, victim advocacy, team-building and interagency
collaboration, family-strengthening services assessment and
implementation, and diversity/cultural awareness training.
Applicants would also be expected to demonstrate an ability to
leverage other available sources of funds and document a readiness to
engage in reform of child protection systems, progress in assessing and
addressing child abuse and neglect, and broad community representation,
commitment, and participation.
Permanent Families for Abused and Neglected Children*
This is a national project to prevent unnecessary foster care
placement of abused and neglected children, to reunify the families of
children in care, and to ensure permanent adoptive homes when
reunification is impossible. The purpose is to ensure that foster care
is used only as a last resort and as a temporary solution. Accordingly,
the project is designed to ensure that government's responsibility to
children in foster care is acknowledged by the appropriate disciplines.
Project activities include national training programs for judges,
social service personnel, citizen volunteers, and others under the
Reasonable Efforts Provision of the Social Security Act, as amended, 42
U.S.C. Sec. 671(a)(15), training in selected States, and implementation
of a model guide for risk assessment.
The project is implemented by the National Council of Juvenile and
Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ). NCJFCJ provides support services to
coordinate programs, trains judges in the Court Appointed Special
Advocate (CASA) program, and implements the Model Court Program in
additional jurisdictions.
In fiscal year 1996, a new program to divert families from the
court system through arbitration under court supervision will be
developed in three model courts using other funding
[[Page 6475]]
sources. However, the program will be incorporated into NCJFCJ's
permanency planning training.
The Permanent Families for Abused and Neglected Children Program
will be implemented by the current grantee, NCJFCJ. No additional
applications will be solicited in fiscal year 1996.
Parents Anonymous, Inc.*
Parents Anonymous, Inc. (PA) establishes groups and adjunct
programs that respond to the needs of families through a mutual support
model of parents and professionals sharing their expertise and their
belief in each individual's ability to grow and change in ways that
create caring and safe environments for themselves and their children.
In fiscal year 1994, OJJDP began supporting PA's Juvenile Justice
Project to enhance PA's mission to prevent child abuse and neglect by
developing a new capability within the PA network to address the needs
of high-risk, inner-city populations, with an emphasis on minority
parents.
As a result of OJJDP funding, PA has: developed 31 new groups in 11
states; produced and disseminated the booklet, I Am A Parents Anonymous
Parent, in Spanish; convened a National Leadership Conference in
Washington, D.C. in February 1995 which focused on outreach,
recruitment and services for families of color and collaboration with
juvenile justice agencies; convened an Executive Directors'' Leadership
Conference in Claremont, California, in November 1995; conducted
written surveys, focus groups, and intensive telephone interviews to
gather ``best practices'' data; produced and disseminated 12,000 copies
of an expanded Innovations PA newsletter; and produced and disseminated
15,000 copies of The Parent Networker, a new semi-annual publication
focused on issues of diversity.
In fiscal year 1996, PA will convene at least two regional
trainings focused on working with families of color in high-risk
settings, produce and disseminate two technical assistance bulletins,
one on parent involvement as it relates to communities and families of
color, and the other on strategies for providing PA programs for
incarcerated parents, conduct two teleconference trainings, provide
training and technical assistance to implement PA services in up to six
SafeFutures Program sites, expand the number of PA affiliates working
with the Juvenile Justice Project, and publish and disseminate a ``PA
Best Practices'' manual.
The project will be implemented by the current grantee, PA. No
additional applications will be solicited in fiscal year 1996.
Lowcountry Children's Center, Inc.*
OJJDP will continue to fund Lowcountry Children's Center, Inc.
(LCC) of Charleston, South Carolina in its expansion and coordination
of the services required to create a model multi-disciplinary, crisis
intervention program for child victims of sexual assault and their
families. LCC's goals are to: (1) Continue their existing multi-
disciplinary services, (2) enhance support and coordination between law
enforcement and the Solicitor's (prosecutors) office in cases
concerning allegations of child physical and sexual assault, (3)
provide medical examination in a timely manner, and (4) collect and
analyze data regarding the demographics of child victims and their
families and the characteristics of the perpetrator, the sexual
assault, and the community response. In 1995, as a result of this
multi-disciplinary approach, LCC has exceeded its initial projections
regarding the number of individual children who have been assessed and
the number of clinical treatment units provided to these children and
their families (as of December 31, 1995). LCC provided physical
examinations for 194 children alleged to be victims of sexual abuse in
a child-oriented environment and in a timely manner.
This project will be continued by the current grantee, LCC, Inc. No
additional applications will be solicited in fiscal year 1996.
Shay Bilchik,
Administrator, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
[FR Doc. 96-3771 Filed 2-16-96; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4410-18-P
