[Federal Register Volume 62, Number 125 (Monday, June 30, 1997)]
[Notices]
[Pages 35250-35275]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 97-16858]
[[Page 35249]]
_______________________________________________________________________
Part II
Department of Justice
_______________________________________________________________________
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
_______________________________________________________________________
Comprehensive Program Plan (FY 1997) and Discretionary Program
Announcements and Application Kit Availability; Notice
Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 125 / Monday, June 30, 1997 /
Notices
[[Page 35250]]
DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
[OJP (OJJDP)-1115]
RIN 1121-ZA62
Comprehensive Program Plan for Fiscal Year 1997 and Availability
of Discretionary Program Announcements and Application Kit
AGENCY: Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and
Delinquency Prevention, Justice.
ACTION: Notice of Final Program Plan for fiscal year 1997 and
Availability of the Fiscal Year 1997 Discretionary Program
Announcements and Application Kit.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention is
publishing its Final Program Plan for fiscal year 1997 and announces
the availability of the Fiscal Year 1997 Discretionary Program
Announcements and Application Kit.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Eileen M. Garry, Special Assistant to
the Administrator, at 202-307-5911. [This is not a toll-free number.]
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Office of Juvenile Justice and
Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) is a component of the Office of Justice
Programs in the U.S. Department of Justice. Pursuant to the provisions
of Section 204 (b)(5)(A) of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
Prevention Act of 1974, as amended, 42 U.S.C. Sec. 5601 et seq. (JJDP
Act), on March 13, 1997, the Administrator of OJJDP published for
public comment a Proposed Comprehensive Plan describing the program
activities that OJJDP proposed to carry out during fiscal year (FY)
1997. The Proposed Comprehensive Plan included activities authorized in
Parts C and D of Title II of the JJDP Act, codified at 42 U.S.C.
Sec. 5651-5665a, 5667, 5667a. The public was invited to comment on the
Proposed Plan by April 28, 1997. The Administrator analyzed the public
comments received, and that analysis is provided below. Taking these
comments into consideration, the Administrator developed this Final
Comprehensive Plan describing the particular program activities that
OJJDP intends to fund during FY 1997, using in whole or in part funds
appropriated under Parts C and D of Title II of the JJDP Act.
The Fiscal Year 1997 Discretionary Program Announcements and
Application Kit is now available. To order an OJJDP Application Kit,
please call the Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse, toll free, (800) 638-
8736 or visit the OJJDP Home Page, Grants and Funding section,
www.ncjrs.org/ojjdp/html/grants.html.
Overview
This is a critical time for juvenile justice, a time of both
opportunity and challenge. Earlier this year, the Department of Justice
announced a reduction in overall juvenile violent crime (3 percent) and
a significant drop in juvenile homicide arrests (14 percent) between
1994 and 1995, the first downturns we have seen in 9 years. A National
Center for Juvenile Justice analysis of the 1995 Uniform Crime Report
data reveals that this decrease in overall juvenile crime arrests was
driven by decreased arrests of juveniles 14 and under, an encouraging
sign. While these younger juveniles were responsible for 30 percent of
juvenile violent crime arrests in 1995, they accounted for more than
half of the reported decline in juvenile violent crime arrests. All of
the 2 percent decline in property arrests is attributable to these
younger juveniles.
In order to ensure that these positive trends continue, we must
continue to focus our efforts on establishing a continuum of
prevention, early intervention, and graduated sanctions programs;
strengthening the juvenile justice system; and building stronger, safer
communities. These efforts are needed because we are still confronted
with unacceptably high rates of juvenile crime. Juveniles still account
for 18 percent of all arrests, some 2.7 million in 1995. Even with the
1995 decline in juvenile violent crime arrests noted above, the number
is still 12 percent greater than the 1991 level and 67 percent above
the 1986 level. Juveniles were involved in 32 percent of all robbery
arrests, 23 percent of weapon arrests, and 15 percent of murder and
aggravated assault arrests in 1995.
In the troubling area of drug use, juveniles were involved in 13
percent of all drug arrests in 1995, and the number of juvenile drug
arrests has increased 138 percent since 1991. According to the 22d
national survey in the Monitoring the Future study, illicit drug use
among schoolchildren rose again in 1996. Since 1991, the proportion of
students using any illicit drug in the 12 months prior to the survey
has increased steadily. For 8th graders alone, the proportion has more
than doubled (from 11 percent to 24 percent) since 1991. Since 1992,
the proportion among 10th graders has nearly doubled (from 20 percent
to 38 percent), and among 12th graders, it has risen by about half
(from 27 percent to 40 percent).
Federal leadership in responding to the problems confronting
juvenile justice is vested in OJJDP. Established in 1974 by the JJDP
Act, OJJDP is the Federal agency responsible for providing a
comprehensive, coordinated approach to preventing and controlling
juvenile crime and improving the juvenile justice system. OJJDP
administers State Formula Grants, State Challenge Grants, and the Title
V Community Prevention Grants programs in States and territories; funds
gang and mentoring programs under Parts D and G of the JJDP Act; funds
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 both the
Title IV Missing and Exploited Children's Program and programs under
the Victims of Child Abuse Act of 1990, as amended, 42 U.S.C.
Sec. 13001 et seq.
Fiscal Year 1997 Program Planning Activities
The OJJDP program planning process for FY 1997 was coordinated with
the Assistant Attorney General, Office of Justice Programs (OJP), and
the four other OJP program bureaus: the Bureau of Justice Assistance
(BJA), the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), the National Institute
of Justice (NIJ), and the Office for Victims of Crime (OVC). The
program planning process involved the following steps:
Internal review of existing programs by OJJDP staff.
Internal review of proposed programs by OJP bureaus and
Department of Justice components.
Review of information and data from OJJDP grantees and
contractors.
Review of information contained in State comprehensive
plans.
Review of comments made by youth service providers,
juvenile justice practitioners, and researchers, to receive input in
proposed new program areas.
Consideration of suggestions made by juvenile justice
policymakers concerning State and local needs.
Consideration of all comments received during the period
of public comment on the Proposed Comprehensive Plan.
Discretionary Program Activities
Discretionary Grant Continuation Policy
OJJDP has listed on the following pages continuation projects
currently funded in whole or in part with Part C
[[Page 35251]]
and Part D funds and eligible for continuation funding in FY 1997,
either within an existing project period or through an extension for an
additional project period. A grantee's eligibility for continued
funding for an additional budget period within an existing project
period depends on the grantee's compliance with funding eligibility
requirements and achievement of the prior year's objectives. The amount
of award is based on prior projections, demonstrated need, and fund
availability.
The only projects described in the Proposed Program Plan were those
being considered for FY 1997 continuation funding and programs OJJDP
was proposing for new awards in FY 1997.
Consideration for continuation funding for an additional budget or
project period for previously funded discretionary grant programs was
based upon several factors, including the following:
The extent to which the project responds to the applicable
requirements of the JJDP Act.
Responsiveness to OJJDP and Department of Justice FY 1997
program priorities.
Compliance with performance requirements of prior grant
years.
Compliance with fiscal and regulatory requirements.
Compliance with any special conditions of the award.
Availability of funds (based on appropriations and program
priority determinations).
In accordance with Section 262 (d)(1)(B) of the JJDP Act, as
amended, 42 U.S.C. Sec. 5665a, the competitive process for the award of
Part C funds is not required if the Administrator makes a written
determination waiving the competitive process:
1. With respect to programs to be carried out in areas in which the
President declares under the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and
Emergency Assistance Act codified at 42 U.S.C. 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.
Program Goals
The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (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, Native American and Native Alaskan
jurisdictions, and public and private agencies and organizations. To
that end, OJJDP has set three goals that constitute the major elements
of a sound policy that assures public safety and security while
establishing effective juvenile justice and delinquency prevention
programs:
To promote delinquency prevention and early intervention
efforts that reduce the flow of juvenile offenders into the juvenile
justice system, the numbers of serious and violent offenders, and the
development of chronic delinquent careers. While removing serious and
violent juvenile offenders from the street serves to protect the
public, long-term solutions lie primarily in taking aggressive steps to
stop delinquency before it starts or becomes a pattern of behavior.
To improve the juvenile justice system and the response of
the system to juvenile delinquents, status offenders, and dependent,
neglected, and abused children.
To preserve the public safety in a manner that serves the
appropriate development and best use of secure detention and
corrections options, while at the same time fostering the use of
community-based programs for juvenile offenders.
Underlying each of the three goals is the overarching premise that
their achievement is vital to protecting the long-term safety of the
public from increased juvenile delinquency and violence. The following
discussion addresses these three broad goals.
Delinquency Prevention and Early Intervention
A primary goal of OJJDP is to identify and promote programs that
prevent or reduce the occurrence of juvenile offenses, both criminal
and noncriminal, and to intervene immediately and effectively when
delinquent or status offense conduct first occurs. A sound policy for
juvenile delinquency prevention seeks to strengthen the most powerful
contributing factor to socially acceptable behavior--a productive place
for young people in a law-abiding society. Delinquency prevention
programs can operate on a broad scale, providing for positive youth
development, or can target juveniles identified as being at high risk
for delinquency with programs designed to reduce future juvenile
offending. OJJDP prevention programs take a risk and protective factor-
focused delinquency prevention approach based on public health and
social development models.
Early interventions are designed to provide services to juveniles
whose noncriminal misbehavior indicates that they are on a delinquent
pathway or to first-time nonviolent delinquent offenders or nonserious
repeat offenders who do not respond to initial system intervention.
These interventions are generally nonpunitive but serve to hold a
juvenile accountable while providing services tailored to the
individual needs of the juvenile and the juvenile's family. They are
designed to both deter future misconduct and reduce the negative or
enhance the positive factors present in a child's life.
Improvement of the Juvenile Justice System
A second goal of OJJDP is to promote improvements in the juvenile
justice system and facilitate the most effective allocation of system
resources. This goal is necessary for holding juveniles who commit
crimes accountable for their conduct, particularly serious and violent
offenders who sometimes slip through the cracks of the system or are
inappropriately diverted. This includes assisting law enforcement
officers in their efforts to prevent and control delinquency and the
victimization of children through community policing programs and
coordination and collaboration with other system components and with
child caring systems. Meeting this goal involves helping juvenile and
family courts, and the prosecutors and public defenders who practice in
those courts, to provide a system of justice that maintains due process
protections. It requires trying innovative programs and carefully
evaluating those programs to determine what works and what does not
work. It includes a commitment to involving crime victims in the
juvenile justice system and ensuring that their rights are considered.
In this regard, OJJDP will continue to work closely with the Office
for Victims of Crime to further cooperative programming, including the
provision of services to juveniles who are crime victims or the
provision of victims services that improve the operation of the
juvenile justice system. Improving the juvenile justice system also
calls for building an appropriate juvenile detention and corrections
capacity and for intensified efforts to use juvenile detention and
correctional facilities only 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
[[Page 35252]]
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
are communicated, understood, and applied for the purpose of juvenile
justice system improvement.
Corrections, Detention, and Community-Based Alternatives
A third OJJDP goal is to maintain the public safety through a
balanced use of secure detention and corrections and community-based
alternatives. This involves identifying and promoting effective
community-based programs and services for juveniles who have formal
contact with the juvenile justice system and emphasizing options that
maintain the safety of the public, are appropriately restrictive, and
promote and preserve positive ties with the child's family, school, and
community. Communities cannot afford to place responsibility for
juvenile delinquency entirely on publicly operated juvenile justice
system programs. A sound policy for combating juvenile delinquency and
reducing the threat of youth violence makes maximum use of a full range
of public and private programs and services, most of which operate in
the juvenile's home community, including those provided by the health
and mental health, child welfare, social service, and educational
systems.
Coordination of the development of community-based programs and
services with the development and use of a secure detention and
correctional system capability for those juveniles who require a secure
option is cost effective, will protect the public, reduce facility
crowding, and result in better services for both institutionalized
juveniles and those who can be served while remaining in their
community environment.
In pursuing these broad goals, OJJDP divides its programs into six
key categories: public safety and law enforcement; strengthening the
juvenile justice system; delinquency prevention and intervention; child
abuse, neglect, and dependency courts; and missing and exploited
children. A sixth category, overarching programs, contains programs
that have significant elements common to more than one category.
Summary of Public Comments on the Proposed Comprehensive Plan for
Fiscal Year 1997
OJJDP published its proposed Comprehensive Plan for FY 1997 in the
Federal Register (Vol. 62, No. 49) on March 13, 1997, for a 45-day
public comment period. OJJDP received 14 letters commenting on the
proposed plan. All comments have been considered in the development of
OJJDP's Final Comprehensive Plan for FY 1997.
The majority of the letters provided positive comments about the
overall plan or specific programs. The following is a summary of the
substantive comments received and OJJDP's responses to the comments.
Unless otherwise indicated, each comment was made by a single
respondent.
Comment: Three respondents praised the overall plan, including its
breadth and coverage of important concepts in prevention and early
intervention and its broad viewpoint and scope of activities. One of
the three urged OJJDP to continue to support community alternatives,
at-risk youth identification, multifaceted interventions, strong
educational components, and evaluation and followup.
Response: OJJDP appreciates the support expressed by these
respondents and their recognition of the importance of prevention and
early intervention programs.
Comment: Three respondents made helpful suggestions on the proposed
Evaluation of Teen Courts. One writer recommended that the OJJDP
proposal include ``evaluations of how well youth courts are
implemented, analyses of populations they serve, relationships between
communities and offenders, and impacts of youth courts upon
recidivism.'' This individual also suggested analyses of whether teen
courts strengthened attachments between juveniles and teachers or
police officers and, noting the uneven quality of data maintained by
local law enforcement agencies, suggested that the recidivism analysis
should be carried out in communities that keep good juvenile arrest
records. The writer also expressed concern about the ethical
ramifications of the use of experimental designs for the evaluation and
suggested that OJJDP should not require an experimental design.
A second respondent offered several specific suggestions,
recommending that the evaluation begin with an inventory of as many
teen courts in operation as possible. Comments about the process
evaluation touched on the context in which teen courts operate, the
referral of offenders, selection of cases, operation of the court
hearing, completion of sentences, and final disposition. The writer
identified a need to focus on both nonoffending youth and offenders and
a need for information on sentences and community involvement.
The final respondent on the teen court evaluation suggested that
OJJDP require applicants to ``demonstrate experience in basic
development of a teen court program with demonstrated success in
evaluating their own teen court program.''
Response: These comments have considerable merit. In the
description of this program in the Final Plan, OJJDP has added an
inventory of teen courts and teen court models as part of the first
phase of the evaluation. The other suggestions will be incorporated
into the solicitation. In regard to the ethical concerns about the use
of experimental designs, the description of the teen court evaluation
does not require an experimental design. Also, it should be noted that
concern over denying treatment to individuals assigned to control
groups is something that evaluators face constantly, and there are a
variety of ways to overcome this problem. In addition, capacity issues
often make the concern moot.
Comment: One writer expressed concern that libraries are not
mentioned as possible collaborators in the proposed plan. The same
respondent suggested that library programs, such as the Enoch Pratt
Library's training and mentoring program for at-risk youth in
Baltimore, should be included in the proposed study of the juvenile
justice system by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS).
Response: The list of collaborators in the closing paragraph of the
introduction is illustrative, not all-inclusive, and libraries can be
considered to be implicitly included in the reference to ``local
agencies.'' OJJDP agrees with the respondent that libraries can play an
important role in providing prevention programs for at-risk young
people. However, in view of varied local needs, priorities, resources,
and existing planning and service delivery systems, OJJDP does not see
a need to go beyond providing general guidance on the range of
participants. Therefore, the closing paragraph of the introduction
remains unchanged from the proposed plan.
In regard to the NAS study, nothing in the description of the study
in the proposed plan specifically precludes examination of a library-
based program for at-risk youth.
Comment: One respondent indicated concern that ``little or no
attention'' is directed to female juvenile offenders in the proposed
plan.
Response: OJJDP is well aware of the importance of this segment of
the juvenile population and their special needs. The proposed plan
included
[[Page 35253]]
continuation of the Training and Technical Assistance Program To
Promote Gender-Specific Programming for Female Juvenile Offenders.
Greene, Peters and Associates, which was awarded a 3-year competitive
grant in FY 1996, will provide a comprehensive framework for addressing
the complex needs of female adolescents at risk for delinquent
behavior. In addition, the proposed plan described a project that will
allow the Cook County Board of Commissioners to use Federal, State, and
local resources to implement a pilot program for female offenders.
Finally, in response to the writer's concerns about the lack of
programming for females, OJJDP can also point to the six sites in
OJJDP's ongoing SafeFutures initiative, which includes components
designed to establish services for at-risk and delinquent girls, and to
the Program of Research on the Causes and Correlates of Delinquency.
This OJJDP-funded research program is providing invaluable information
about delinquent behavior, including gender-related data, through a
longitudinal study of 4,000 adolescents in three cities. In addition,
funding for gender-specific programming for female juvenile offenders
is also available through OJJDP's Formula Grants, Challenge, and Title
V (Community Prevention) funding, which is distributed to the States.
Gender-specific programming for female juvenile offenders is one of 10
specific Challenge Activities funded under Part E of the JJDP Act.
Comment: One letter included comments from officials of two
components of a local organization. One writer wrote approvingly of
Youth Substance Abuse Prevention Programs; School-Based [Gang]
Prevention and Intervention Programs; Youth-Centered Conflict
Resolution; Teens, Crime, and the Community; Law-Related Education;
Teen Courts; and Youth Entrepreneurship (a component of the Communities
In Schools-Federal Interagency Partnership). The other writer, who
coordinated a Mediation Center that had received funding from OJJDP,
recommended that funding support to existing programs be continued so
that ``work begun will be work continued.''
Response: OJJDP appreciates the first writer's expression of
support for these programs, which are all included in the final plan.
In regard to the comment about continuation funding, many of the
programs described in the plan are ones that are being continued. The
question of continued funding for existing programs is one that is
always decided on a case-by-case basis and involves many
considerations, including availability of funds and congressional and
Administration/Department of Justice program priorities. OJJDP is well
aware of the importance of the outstanding work that the Mediation
Center has done under its 1-year grant from OJJDP. However, the
discretionary funding available under Parts C and D is limited. In many
cases, grants such as the one awarded to the Mediation Center are
intended to generate and stimulate specific types of activity with the
expectation that, once inaugurated, successful programs will be able to
secure funding from other sources, such as State, county, or local
governments and private fund sources.
Comment: One respondent addressed the need for comprehensive
visitation, mediation, and conflict resolution services for children of
divorced or troubled families.
Response: Three of the programs in the proposed plan are related to
these areas of interest. Training and Technical Assistance for Family
Strengthening Programs provides training and technical assistance to
family services agencies and administrators to enable them to improve
or establish effective family strengthening programs nationwide. In the
Youth-Centered Conflict Resolution program, the Illinois Institute for
Dispute Resolution is developing, in concert with other conflict
resolution organizations, a national strategy for broad-based education
and training in the use of conflict resolution skills. OJJDP is
providing funds to support the national Parents Anonymous (PA)
organization's comprehensive, neighborhood-based, shared leadership
model to serve the needs of minority and ethnic families in low-income,
high-crime areas of 11 States. Through PA, parents observe, practice,
and learn skills in parenting, communication, conflict resolution, and
other related life skills.
Comment: Two writers expressed support for the work of Communities
In Schools (CIS).
Response: OJJDP appreciates these positive comments, which reflect
the strengths of the CIS program. The FY 1997 funding for the
Communities In Schools-Federal Interagency Partnership will help CIS
continue to meet the challenge of working with young people who are
either at risk of dropping out of school or have returned to complete
their education after leaving the school environment.
Comment: One respondent raised the issue of the need for remedial
action early in childhood for specific, verified incidences of abuse
and neglect to forestall later delinquency and violence. Calling for
action at ages far lower than 10 or 11, the writer noted that physical
and sexual abuse and neglect in early childhood are often predictors of
later delinquency and violence and that remedial programs for young
victims would be a powerful crime prevention tool.
The positive news released in 1996 must not lead to a relaxation of
efforts to lower unacceptably high rates of juvenile violence and
delinquency. Instead, this partial success should lead the Nation to
intensify its commitment to reducing juvenile crime and to sustain the
1995 decline in arrest rates. This commitment must focus on
strengthening the ability of communities to provide for their immediate
safety through law enforcement and correctional strategies, to develop
and implement both prevention and intervention programs, and to provide
those services that will enable children to grow up as healthy and
productive citizens in nurturing homes, safe schools, and peaceful,
caring communities. To be effective, however, this commitment must be
rooted in a comprehensive approach to the problems of juvenile
delinquency, violence, and victimization.
Over the past 4 years, OJJDP has developed a framework for an
improved, more effective juvenile justice system. The foundation was
laid in 1993 with the publication of OJJDP's Comprehensive Strategy for
Serious, Violent, and Chronic Juvenile Offenders. The Comprehensive
Strategy uses statistics, research, and program evaluations as the
basis for a set of sound principles for establishing a continuum of
care for the Nation's children. The Comprehensive Strategy emphasizes
the importance of local planning teams that assess the influences or
factors putting youth at risk for delinquency, determine available
resources, and put prevention programs in place to either reduce those
risk factors or provide protective factors that buffer juveniles from
the impact of risk factors. The Comprehensive Strategy also stresses
the importance of early intervention for juveniles whose behavior puts
them on one or more pathways to delinquency and a system of graduated
sanctions that can ensure immediate and appropriate accountability and
treatment for juvenile offenders.
In 1995, OJJDP published its Guide for Implementing the
Comprehensive Strategy for Serious, Violent, and Chronic Juvenile
Offenders, a resource to help States, cities, and communities implement
the Comprehensive Strategy. Early in 1996, the Coordinating Council on
Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
[[Page 35254]]
Prevention, of which OJJDP is a member, published Combating Violence
and Delinquency: The National Juvenile Justice Action Plan. The Action
Plan prioritizes Federal activities and resources under eight critical
objectives that must be addressed to effectively combat delinquency and
violence. Research and the findings of numerous commissions support the
choice of these objectives as central to reducing and preventing
juvenile violence, delinquency, and victimization. The objectives are
to (1) provide immediate intervention and appropriate sanctions and
treatment for delinquent juveniles; (2) prosecute certain serious,
violent, and chronic juvenile offenders in criminal court; (3) reduce
youth involvement with guns, drugs, and gangs; (4) provide
opportunities for children and youth; (5) break the cycle of violence
by addressing youth victimization, abuse, and neglect; (6) strengthen
and mobilize communities; (7) support the development of innovative
approaches to research and evaluation; and (8) implement an aggressive
public outreach campaign on effective strategies to combat juvenile
violence.
The OJJDP FY 1997 Program Plan is rooted in the principles of the
Comprehensive Strategy and the objectives of the Action Plan. Just as
in 1996, the Program Plan supports a balanced approach to aggressively
addressing juvenile delinquency and violence through establishing
graduated sanctions, improving the juvenile justice system's ability to
respond, and preventing the onset of delinquency. The Program Plan also
recognizes the need to ensure public safety and support children's
development into healthy, productive citizens through a range of
prevention, early intervention, and graduated sanctions programs.
Proposed new program areas were identified for FY 1997 through a
process of engaging OJJDP staff, other Federal agencies, and juvenile
justice practitioners in an examination of existing programs, research
findings, and the needs of the field. OJJDP's national conference,
``Juvenile Justice at the Crossroads,'' held in December 1996 was
particularly helpful in developing proposed program priorities for FY
1997. The new program areas selected for FY 1997 following public
review and comment are school-based gang intervention and prevention,
juvenile sex offenders, mental health, and cost-benefit analyses. The
program called Interagency Programs on Mental Health and Juvenile
Justice, described in the Proposed Program Plan as a potential
competitive program, has been changed in the Final Plan to a program of
OJJDP support for several ongoing programs funded by other Federal
agencies. The program description, which can be found under the Public
Safety and Law Enforcement category, provides a more complete
explanation of this change. In addition, OJJDP has identified for FY
1997 funding a range of research and evaluation projects designed to
expand knowledge about juvenile offenders; the effectiveness of
prevention, intervention, and treatment programs; and the operation of
the juvenile justice system. Specific evaluation initiatives will be
undertaken related to Boys and Girls Clubs of America's gang outreach
efforts, teen courts, the President's Crime Prevention Council's drug
and alcohol use prevention program, and gun violence reduction. The
Evaluation of Youth Gun Violence Reduction Programs, described in the
Proposed Plan as a potential competitive program, will be funded
through an existing evaluation grantee. A more complete explanation of
this change can be found in the program description, which appears
under the Public Safety and Law Enforcement Category. Combined with
OJJDP programs being continued in FY 1997, these new demonstration and
evaluation programs form a continuum of programming that supports the
objectives of the Action Plan and mirrors the foundation and framework
of the Comprehensive Strategy.
OJJDP's continuation activities and the new FY 1997 programs are at
the heart of OJJDP's categorical funding efforts. For example, while
focusing on the development of assessment centers as a new area of
programming, continuing to offer training seminars in the Comprehensive
Strategy, and looking to the SafeFutures program to implement a
continuum of care system, OJJDP will be exploring how to better address
juvenile sex offenders and the mental health needs of juvenile
offenders. 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, including those
with special treatment needs.
OJJDP's Part D Gang Program will continue to support a range of
comprehensive prevention, intervention, and suppression activities at
the local level, evaluate those activities, and inform communities
about the nature and extent of gang activities and effective and
innovative programs through OJJDP's National Youth Gang Center.
Similarly, our new activities related to school-based gang programs and
the evaluation of the Boys and Girls Clubs gang outreach effort, along
with an evaluation of selected youth gun violence reduction programs,
will complement existing law enforcement and prosecutorial training
programs by supporting and informing grassroots community
organizations' efforts to address juvenile gangs and juvenile access
to, carriage of, and use of guns. This programming will build upon
OJJDP's youth-focused community policing, mentoring, and conflict
resolution initiatives and programming in the area of drug abuse
prevention, including funding to the Race Against Drugs program, the
Congress of National Black Churches, and the National Center for
Neighborhood Enterprise for schools, local church, and neighborhood-
based drug abuse prevention programs.
In support of the need to break the cycle of violence, OJJDP's
SafeKids/Safe Streets demonstration program, currently being
implemented in partnership with other OJP offices and bureaus, will
improve linkages between the dependency and criminal court systems,
child welfare and social service providers, and family strengthening
programs and will complement ongoing support of Court Appointed Special
Advocates, Child Advocacy Centers, and prosecutor and judicial training
in the dependency field, funded under the Victims of Child Abuse Act of
1990, as amended.
The Plan's research and evaluation programming will support many of
the above activities by filling in critical gaps in knowledge about the
level and seriousness of juvenile crime and victimization, its causes
and correlates, and effective programs in preventing delinquency and
violence. At the same time, OJJDP's research efforts will also be
geared toward efforts that monitor and evaluate the ways juveniles are
treated by the juvenile and criminal justice systems and the trends in
this response, particularly as they relate to juvenile violence and its
impact.
OJJDP is also utilizing its national perspective to disseminate
information to those at the grassroots level-practitioners,
policymakers, community leaders, and service providers who are directly
responsible for planning and implementing policies and programs that
impact juvenile crime and violence.
OJJDP will continue to fund longitudinal research on the causes and
correlates of delinquency, the findings of which are shared regularly
with the field through OJJDP publications; utilize state-of-the-art
technology to provide the field with an interactive CD-ROM on promising
and effective programs
[[Page 35255]]
designed to prevent delinquency and reduce recidivism; air national
satellite teleconferences on key topics of relevance to practitioners;
and publish new reports and documents on timely topics such as truants
and dropouts, mentoring, home visitation and parent training, youth-
related community policing strategies, youth gang homicides and drug
trafficking, conflict resolution, collaborative partnerships, sharing
of information pursuant to the Federal Educational Rights and Privacy
Act, confidentiality of juvenile court records, innovative sentencing
options, and strategies to reduce youth gun violence.
The various contracts, grants, cooperative agreements, and
interagency fund transfers described in the Program Plan form a
continuum of activity designed to address youth violence, delinquency,
and victimization. In isolation, this programming can do little.
However, the emphasis of OJJDP's programming is on collaboration. It is
through collaboration that Federal, State, and local agencies; Native
American tribes; national organizations; private philanthropies; the
corporate and business sector; health, mental health, and social
service agencies; schools; youth; families; and clergy can come
together to form partnerships and leverage additional resources,
identify needs and priorities, and implement innovative strategies.
Together, as the promising statistics published last year demonstrate,
we have made-and we can continue to make-a difference.
Fiscal Year 1997 Programs
The following are brief summaries of each of the new and
continuation programs scheduled to receive funding in FY 1997. As
indicated above, the program categories are public safety and law
enforcement; strengthening the juvenile justice system; delinquency
prevention and intervention; child abuse, neglect, and dependency
courts; and missing and exploited children. However, because many
programs have significant elements of more than one of these program
categories, or generally support all of OJJDP's programs, they are
listed in an initial program category called Overarching Programs. The
specific program priorities within each category are subject to change
with regard to their priority status, sites for implementation, and
other descriptive data and information based on grantee performance,
application quality, fund availability, and other factors.
A number of programs contained in this document have been
identified for funding by Congress with regard to the grantee(s), the
amount of funds, or both. Such programs are indicated by an asterisk
(*). The 1997 Appropriations Act Conference Report for the Departments
of Commerce, Justice, and State, the Judiciary, and Related Agencies
Programs identified 12 programs for OJJDP to examine and fund if
warranted. Four of these programs (Coalition for Juvenile Justice;
KidsPeace-The National Center for Kids in Crisis, North America; Law-
Related Education; and Parents Anonymous, Inc.) are included in the
Plan for continuation funding. The remaining eight are receiving
careful consideration for funding in FY 1997. They are:
Parents Resource Institute for Drug Education
Restorative Justice Challenge Grants
Institute on Violence and Destructive Behavior
Consortium on Children, Families, and the Law
Kansas Juvenile Intake and Assessment Center
Project O.A.S.I.S.
Savannah Youth Foundation
Teen Night Out
Fiscal Year 1997 Program Listing
Overarching
SafeFutures: Partnerships To Reduce Youth Violence and Delinquency
Evaluation of SafeFutures
Program of Research on the Causes and Correlates of Delinquency
Study Group on the Serious, Violent, and Chronic Juvenile Offender
National Academy of Sciences Study of Juvenile Justice
The Hamilton Fish National Institute on School/Community Violence *
OJJDP Management Evaluation Contract
Juvenile Justice Statistics and Systems Development
Census of Juveniles in Residential Placement
Cost-Benefit Analyses of Juvenile Justice Programs
Juvenile Justice Data Resources
National Juvenile Court Data Archive*
National Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Training and
Technical Assistance Center
Technical Assistance for State Legislatures
OJJDP Technical Assistance Support Contract-Juvenile Justice Resource
Center
Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse
Telecommunications Assistance
Coalition for Juvenile Justice*
Insular Area Support*
Public Safety and Law Enforcement
Comprehensive Community-Wide Approach to Gang Prevention, Intervention,
and Suppression Program
Evaluation of the Comprehensive Community-Wide Approach to Gang
Prevention, Intervention, and Suppression Program
Targeted Outreach With a Gang Prevention and Intervention Component
(Boys and Girls Clubs)
The Developmental Dynamics of Gang Membership and Delinquency
National Youth Gang Center
Evaluation of Youth Gun Violence Reduction Programs
The Chicago Project for Violence Reduction
Child-Centered Community-Oriented Policing
Law Enforcement Training and Technical Assistance Program
Violence Studies
Strengthening the Juvenile Justice System
Development of OJJDP's Comprehensive Strategy for Serious, Violent, and
Chronic Juvenile Offenders
Serious, Violent, and Chronic Juvenile Offender Treatment Program
Juvenile Restitution: A Balanced Approach
Training and Technical Assistance Program to Promote Gender-Specific
Programming for Female Juvenile Offenders
Cook County Juvenile Female Offenders Project
Juvenile Transfers to Criminal Court Studies
Replication and Expansion of Fagan Transfer Study
Technical Assistance to Juvenile Courts*
Juvenile Court Judges Training*
The Juvenile Justice Prosecution Unit
Due Process Advocacy Program Development
Quantum Opportunities Program (QOP) Evaluation
Intensive Community-Based Aftercare Demonstration and Technical
Assistance Program
Evaluation of Intensive Community-Based Aftercare Demonstration and
Technical Assistance Program
Interventions To Reduce Disproportionate Minority Confinement in Secure
Detention and Correctional Facilities (The Deborah Ann Wysinger
Memorial Program)
State Justice Statistics Program for Statistical Analysis Centers
Juvenile Probation Survey Research
Performance-Based Standards for Juvenile Detention and Correctional
Facilities
Technical Assistance to Juvenile Corrections and Detention (The James
E. Gould Memorial Program)
Training for Juvenile Corrections and Detention Management Staff
[[Page 35256]]
Training for Line Staff in Juvenile Detention and Corrections
Training and Technical Support for State and Local Jurisdictional Teams
To Focus on Juvenile Corrections and Detention Overcrowding
National Program Directory
A Comprehensive Juvenile Sex Offender Typology
KidsPeace-The National Centers for Kids in Crisis, North America*
The Bethesda Day Treatment Program
Interagency Programs on Mental Health and Juvenile Justice
Delinquency Prevention and Intervention
Training In Risk-Focused Prevention Strategies
Youth Substance Use Prevention Programs (The President's Crime
Prevention Council)
Survey of School-Based Gang Prevention and Intervention Programs
Youth-Centered Conflict Resolution
Teens, Crime, and the Community: Teens in Action in the 90s*
Law-Related Education*
Communities In Schools-Federal Interagency Partnership
The Congress of National Black Churches: National Anti-Drug Abuse/
Violence Campaign (NADVC)
Risk Reduction Via Promotion of Youth Development
Community Anti-Drug Abuse Technical Assistance Voucher Project
Training and Technical Assistance for Family Strengthening Programs
Training and Technical Assistance To Promote Teen Court Programs
Evaluation of Teen Courts
Henry Ford Health System
Angel Gate Academy*
Suffolk County PAL (Police Athletic League)*
Do the Write Thing
Child Abuse and Neglect and Dependency Courts
Permanent Families for Abused and Neglected Children*
Parents Anonymous, Inc.*
Missing and Exploited Children
Jimmy Ryce Law Enforcement Training Center*
Overarching
SafeFutures: Partnerships To Reduce Youth Violence and Delinquency
The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP)
will award grants of up to $1.4 million to each of six communities,
initially funded with FY 1995 funds, to assist with comprehensive
community programs designed to reduce youth violence and delinquency.
Boston, Massachusetts; Seattle, Washington; St. Louis, Missouri; Contra
Costa County, California; Imperial County, California; and Fort
Belknap, Montana (Native American site) were selected competitively to
receive 5-year awards under the SafeFutures program on the basis of
their substantial planning and progress in community assessment and
strategic planning to address delinquency.
SafeFutures seeks to prevent and control youth crime and
victimization through the creation of a continuum of care in
communities. This continuum enables communities to be responsive to the
needs of youth at critical stages of their development through
providing an appropriate range of prevention, intervention, treatment,
and sanctions programs.
The goals of SafeFutures are (1) to prevent and control juvenile
violence and delinquency in targeted communities by reducing risk
factors and increasing protective factors for delinquency; providing a
continuum of services for juveniles at risk of delinquency, including
appropriate immediate interventions for juvenile offenders; and
developing a full range of graduated sanctions designed to hold
delinquent youth accountable to the victim and the community, ensure
community safety, and provide appropriate treatment and rehabilitation
services; (2) to develop a more efficient, effective, and timely
service delivery system for at-risk and delinquent juveniles and their
families that is capable of responding to their needs at any point of
entry into the juvenile justice system; (3) to build the community's
capacity to institutionalize and sustain the continuum by expanding and
diversifying sources of funding; and (4) to determine the success of
program implementation and the outcomes achieved, including whether a
comprehensive program involving community-based efforts and program
resources concentrated on providing a continuum of care has succeeded
in preventing or reducing juvenile violence and delinquency.
Each of the six sites will continue to provide a set of services
that builds on community strengths and existing services and fills in
gaps within their existing continuum. These services include family
strengthening; afterschool activities; mentoring; treatment
alternatives for juvenile female offenders; mental health services; day
treatment; graduated sanctions for serious, violent, and chronic
juvenile offenders; and gang prevention, intervention, and suppression.
A national evaluation is being conducted by The Urban Institute to
determine the success of the initiative and track lessons learned at
each of the six sites. OJJDP has also committed a cadre of training and
technical assistance (TTA) resources to SafeFutures through OJJDP's
National Training and Technical Assistance Center, which has brought
together more than 40 TTA providers and dedicated a full-time TTA
coordinator for SafeFutures. The Center also assists the communities in
brokering and leveraging additional TTA resources. In addition, the
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has provided
interagency support of $100,000 for training and technical assistance
targeted to violence and delinquency prevention in public housing areas
of SafeFutures sites. Thus, operations, evaluation, and TTA have been
organized together to form a joint team at the national level to
support local site efforts.
SafeFutures activities will be carried out by the six current
SafeFutures grantees. No additional applications will be solicited in
FY 1997.
Evaluation of SafeFutures
With FY 1995 funds, OJJDP funded six communities under the
SafeFutures: Partnerships to Reduce Youth Violence and Delinquency
Program. The program sites are: Contra Costa County, California; Fort
Belknap Indian Community, Harlem, Montana; Boston, Massachusetts; St.
Louis, Missouri; Seattle, Washington; and Imperial County, California.
The SafeFutures Program provides support for a comprehensive
prevention, intervention, and treatment program to meet the needs of
at-risk juveniles and their families.
Up to approximately $8.4 million will be made available for annual
awards over a 5-year project period to support the efforts of these
jurisdictions to enhance existing partnerships, integrate juvenile
justice and social services, and provide a continuum of care that is
designed to reduce the number of serious, violent, and chronic juvenile
offenders.
The Urban Institute received a competitive 3-year cooperative
agreement award with FY 1995 funds to conduct a national evaluation of
the SafeFutures program. The evaluation will consist of both process
and impact components for each funded site. The evaluation process
includes an examination of planning procedures and the extent to which
each site's implementation plan is consistent with the principles of a
continuum of care
[[Page 35257]]
model. The evaluation will identify the obstacles and key factors
contributing to the successful implementation of the SafeFutures
program. The evaluator is responsible for developing a cross-site
monograph documenting the process of program implementation for use by
other communities that want to develop and implement a comprehensive
community-based strategy to address serious, violent, and chronic
delinquency.
In FY 1996, The Urban Institute developed a logic model, held a
cross-site cluster meeting, and conducted site visits at each of the
six SafeFutures sites. The Urban Institute is working closely with
local evaluators to develop individual project logic models. In FY
1997, the grantee will submit an evaluation plan and design and begin
implementation.
A FY 1997 supplemental award will be made to the current grantee,
The Urban Institute, to complete second year funding. No additional
applications will be solicited in FY 1997.
Program of Research on the Causes and Correlates of Delinquency
Three project sites participate in the Program of Research on the
Causes and Correlates of Delinquency: The University of Colorado at
Boulder, the University of Pittsburgh, and the State University of New
York at Albany. Results from this 10-year longitudinal study have been
used extensively in the field of juvenile justice and have contributed
to the development of OJJDP's Comprehensive Strategy for Serious,
Violent, and Chronic Juvenile Offenders and other program initiatives.
OJJDP began funding this program in 1986 and has invested
approximately $10.3 million to date. The program has addressed many
issues of juvenile violence and delinquency. These include developing
and testing causal models for chronic violent offending and examining
interrelationships among gang involvement, drug selling, and gun
ownership/use. To date, the program has produced a massive amount of
information on the causes and correlates of delinquent behavior.
Although there is great commonality across the project sites, each
has unique design features. Additionally, each project has disseminated
the results of its research through a variety of publications, reports,
and presentations.
With FY 1996 funding, each site of the Causes and Correlates
Program was provided additional funds to further analyze the
longitudinal data. New publications were developed, and both the role
of mental health in delinquency and pathways to delinquency were the
subject of further analyses.
In FY 1997, the sites will continue their collaborative research
efforts. Site-specific research will also continue. Additionally, the
grantees will work on developing a cross-site data access capability to
provide quick access to data from all three sites.
This program will be implemented by the current grantees-Institute
of Behavioral Science, University of Colorado at Boulder; Western
Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, University of Pittsburgh; and
Hindelang Criminal Justice Research Center, State University of New
York at Albany. No additional applications will be solicited in FY
1997.
Study Group on the Serious, Violent, and Chronic Juvenile Offender
In FY 1995, OJJDP funded the Study Group on the Serious, Violent,
and Chronic Juvenile Offender to answer questions about these
offenders. The objective of the Study Group is to develop a report that
will include critical areas of interest including prevention,
intervention, gangs, and other topics. The report will include programs
that appear to be effective in responding to the violent juvenile
offender. The report is expected to be completed in June 1997. Fiscal
year 1997 funding will be provided for the Study Group to develop
research papers on cost-benefit analysis and other topics that support
the research on serious, violent, and chronic juvenile offenders. The
Study Group, as an adjunct to their report, will also undertake the
development of a 5-year research plan for OJJDP's Research and Program
Development Division. The plan will include short-term and long-term
research goals and objectives.
The project will be implemented by the current grantee, the
University of Pittsburgh. No additional applications will be solicited
in FY 1997.
National Academy of Sciences Study of Juvenile Justice
The unprecedented increase in the rates of violent crime arrests of
youth between the ages of 12 and 17 through the mid 1990's, combined
with the projected growth of this population over the next decade,
portends an unwelcome increase in future violence by adolescents.
Public anxiety over the growing seriousness of juvenile violence has
led many States away from rehabilitation and toward deterrence and
punishment as the primary thrust of their juvenile justice efforts.
In FY 1997, OJJDP will support a 24-month study by the National
Academy of Sciences to examine research on the functioning of the
juvenile justice system over the past 10 years in the area of
delinquency prevention and control. The purpose of this extensive
review will be to provide a scientifically sound basis for planning a
multidisciplinary, multiagency agenda for research that not only
informs policymakers and practitioners about the nature and extent of
juvenile delinquency and violence but also identifies the most
effective strategies for preventing and reducing youth crime and
violence.
Issues of interest to the study include (1) an assessment of the
status of research into youth violence, methodological approaches to
evaluate the effectiveness of youth violence prevention efforts and the
efficacy of Federal, State, and local efforts to control youth
violence; (2) a review of research literature and data on juvenile
court practices during this period, including the experience with
Federal requirements regarding status offenders, detention practices,
and the impact of diversion strategies and waivers to criminal court
for certain offenders and offenses; (3) a review of research literature
and data on clients in the juvenile justice system including concerns
regarding disproportionate minority representation and gender bias; (4)
an assessment of available evaluation literature on system programs and
prevention strategies and programs, gaps in the research and
recommendations to strengthen it; and (5) the relationship between the
research on the causes and correlates of juvenile delinquency and
normal adolescent growth and development.
A project report, synthesizing materials gathered from discussions
and papers presented at workshops and panel meetings, will provide an
overview of the critical issues confronting the juvenile justice field,
gaps in current knowledge base, and future directions for research and
program development.
The program will be implemented by the National Academy of
Sciences. No additional applications will be solicited in FY 1997.
The Hamilton Fish National Institute on School/Community Violence*
This consortium of eight universities will study violence in
schools and the relationship of violence in schools to violence in the
community. The consortium includes the George Washington University
(Washington, D.C.), Morehouse School of Medicine (Georgia), the
University of Oregon, the University of Kentucky, Florida State
University, the University of Wisconsin,
[[Page 35258]]
Syracuse University (New York), and the University of Kansas. The
Institute is a research, development, and service organization
committed to assisting State and local policymakers, criminal justice
officials, school administrators, teachers, parents, and students to
reduce the present levels of violence in and around schools.
Each of the universities will establish a local community/schools/
university partnership committed to a long-term reduction in violence.
Each school, surrounding community, and a partner university will work
to diagnose specific problems of violence that occur in and around the
selected schools. After problem identification, the consortium and the
local community and schools will design and implement interventions to
address identified violence problems.
This program will be implemented by the George Washington
University. No additional applications will be solicited in FY 1997.
OJJDP Management Evaluation Contract
The purpose of this contract, competitively awarded in FY 1995 to
Caliber Associates, is to provide an expert resource capable of
performing independent, management-oriented evaluations of selected
juvenile delinquency programs. These evaluations are designed to
determine the effectiveness and efficiency of either individual
projects or groups of projects. The contractor also assists OJJDP in
determining how to make the best use of limited evaluation resources
and how best to design and implement evaluations.
In FY 1996, contract activities included continued evaluation of
three OJJDP-funded boot camps; continued support for the evaluation of
Title V delinquency prevention programs at the local level; assistance
in preparing OJJDP's 1995 Title V Program Report to Congress;
assistance to OJJDP program development working groups; assistance in
the creation of an ``evaluation partnership for juvenile justice''
designed to improve the number and quality of evaluations conducted by
Formula Grants Program grantees, other Federal agencies, private
foundations that fund evaluations, and State and local governments; and
conducting other short-or long-term evaluations as required.
Evaluation activities under consideration for FY 1997 include (1)
OJJDP's Pathways to Success program; (2) two law enforcement training
seminars, Managing Juvenile Operations and SAFE POLICY; (3) continued
impact evaluations of three OJJDP-funded boot camps; (4) continued
evaluation of Title V programs; (5) assistance to the OJJDP evaluation
working group; (6) support to OJJDP Formula Grants Program grantees;
and (7) evaluating OJJDP's implementation of the Comprehensive Strategy
for Serious, Violent, and Chronic Juvenile Offenders. The contract will
be implemented by the current contractor, Caliber Associates. No
additional applications will be solicited in FY 1997.
Juvenile Justice Statistics and Systems Development
The Juvenile Justice Statistics and Systems Development (SSD)
program was competitively awarded to the National Center for Juvenile
Justice (NCJJ) to improve national, State, and local statistics on
juveniles as victims and offenders. The project has focused on three
major functions: (1) assessing of how current information needs are
being met with existing data collection efforts and recommending
options for improving national level statistics; (2) analyzing data and
disseminating information gathered from existing Federal statistical
series and national studies. (Based on this work, OJJDP released the
first Juvenile Offenders and Victims: A National Report in September
1995 and released Juvenile Offenders and Victims: 1996 Update on
Violence in March 1996); and (3) providing of training and technical
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
statistics working groups. The project will be implemented by the
current grantee, NCJJ. No additional applications will be solicited in
FY 1997.
Census of Juveniles in Residential Placement
The Census of Juveniles in Residential Placement will replace the
biennial Census of Public and Private Juvenile Detention, Correctional,
and Shelter Facilities, known as the Children in Custody census. This
newly designed census will collect detailed information on the
population of juveniles who are in juvenile residential placement
facilities as a result of contact with the juvenile justice system.
Over the past 3 years, OJJDP and the Bureau of the Census, with the
assistance of a Technical Advisory Board, have developed a census
designed to more accurately represent the numbers of juveniles in
residential placement and describe the reasons for their placement. The
new method of data collection, tested in FY 1996, involved gathering
data in a roster-type booklet format or by electronic means. The new
methods are expected to result in more accurate and useful data on the
juvenile population, with less reporting burden for facility
respondents.
In FY 1997, OJJDP will fund the initial implementation of this
census, including form preparation, mailout, and processing of the
census forms. Some followup will also be done under this agreement.
This program will be implemented through an interagency agreement with
the Bureau of the Census. No additional applications will be solicited
in FY 1997.
Cost-Benefit Analyses of Juvenile Justice Programs
Finite resources require that hard choices be made among competing
programs. Juvenile justice practitioners are increasingly being asked
to justify their activities in terms of cost and effectiveness. Should
programs be continued, expanded, or discontinued? Cost-benefit analyses
are an important tool for policymakers and juvenile justice program
administrators. They can provide useful, quantifiable, and integrated
information. Accordingly, OJJDP will support studies designed to
determine monetary program benefits of multiple but similar kinds of
programs, of single programs, and across different programs.
A competitive solicitation for up to two studies will be issued in
FY 1997 to support cost-benefit analyses.
[[Page 35259]]
Juvenile Justice Data Resources
OJJDP has entered into an agreement with the Inter-University
Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) at the University
of Michigan to make OJJDP data sets routinely available to researchers.
Under this agreement, ICPSR assures the technical integrity of data and
develops a universal data format. The codebooks, along with the data,
provide clear guidance for additional analyses. Once prepared, ICPSR
provides access to these data sets to member institutions and the
public. Among the data sets previously processed and available through
ICPSR are the Children in Custody series; various data sets from the
Juvenile Court Statistics series; the Conditions of Confinement Study;
the National Incidence Studies of Missing, Abducted, Runaway, and
Thrownaway Children (NISMART); and data from the Delinquency in a Birth
Cohort II study.
This program will be implemented under an interagency agreement
with ICPSR. No additional applications will be solicited in FY 1997.
National Juvenile Court Data Archive*
The National Juvenile Court Data Archive collects, processes,
analyzes, and disseminates automated data and published reports from
the Nation's juvenile courts. The Archive's reports examine referrals,
offenses, intake, and dispositions in addition to providing information
on specialized topics such as minorities in juvenile courts and
specific offense categories. The Archive also provides assistance to
jurisdictions in analyzing their juvenile court data.
In FY 1996, the Archive enhanced the collection, reporting, and
analysis of detailed data on detention, dispositions, risk factors, and
treatment data using offender-based data sets from a sample of juvenile
courts. In support of OJJDP's National Forum on Female Offenders, the
Archive prepared a special statistics summary, Female Offenders in the
Juvenile Justice System.
In addition to preparing traditional reports, NCJJ prepared a
software package, Easy Access to Juvenile Court Statistics 1990-1994,
that allows users to quickly answer questions regarding a wide range of
case characteristics supported with national estimates. The software is
distributed free on diskette and is also available through OJJDP's
homepage on the World Wide Web.
The project will be implemented by the current grantee, NCJJ. No
additional applications will be solicited in FY 1997.
National Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Training and
Technical Assistance Center
The National Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Training
and Technical Assistance Center (NTTAC) was competitively funded in FY
1995 for a 3-year project period to develop a national training and
technical assistance clearinghouse, inventory and coordinate integrated
delivery of juvenile justice training/technical assistance (TA)
resources, and establish a data base of these resources.
In FY 1995, initial work involved organization and staffing of the
Center, orientation for OJJDP training/TA providers regarding their
role in the Center's activities, and initial data base development. In
FY 1996, NTTAC provided coordinated TA support for the OJJDP
SafeFutures and gang program initiatives, continued to promote
collaboration among OJJDP training/TA providers, developed training/TA
materials, and completed the OJJDP Training and Technical Assistance
Resource Catalog. In addition, NTTAC assisted State and local
jurisdictions and other OJJDP grantees with specialized training,
including the development of training-of-trainers programs. NTTAC
continued to evolve as a central source for information pertaining to
the availability of OJJDP-supported training/TA programs and resources.
In FY 1997, in cooperation with OJJDP training/TA grantees and
contractors, NTTAC will complete jurisdictional team training/TA
packages for gender-specific services and juvenile correctional
services, field test the packages, and coordinate delivery upon
request. NTTAC will also update the Training and Technical Assistance
Resource Catalog, the repository of training/TA materials, and the
electronically maintained data base of training/TA materials. Another
task for 1997 will be to develop one additional jurisdictional team
training/TA package.
This project will be implemented by the current grantee, Community
Research Associates. No additional applications will be solicited in FY
1997.
Technical Assistance for State Legislatures
State legislatures are being pressed to respond to public fear of
juvenile crime and a loss of confidence in the capacity of the juvenile
justice system to respond effectively. Nearly every State has already
implemented, or is considering, statutory changes affecting the
juvenile justice system. State legislatures have historically lacked
the information needed to properly address juvenile justice issues. In
FY 1995, OJJDP awarded a 2-year grant to the National Conference of
State Legislatures (NCSL) to provide relevant, timely information on
comprehensive approaches in juvenile justice that are geared to the
legislative environment. In FY 1995 and FY 1996, NCSL convened
Leadership Forums for selected legislators, organized focus groups, and
established an information clearinghouse function. In FY 1997, OJJDP
will award continuation funding to the NCSL to further identify,
analyze, and disseminate information to assist State legislatures to
make more informed decisions about legislation affecting the juvenile
justice system. A complementary task involves supporting increased
communication between State legislators and State and local leaders who
influence decisionmaking regarding juvenile justice issues. NCSL will
provide intensive technical assistance to four States, continue
outreach activities, and maintain its clearinghouse function.
The project will be implemented by the current grantee, NCSL. No
additional applications will be solicited in FY 1997.
OJJDP Technical Assistance Support Contract-Juvenile Justice Resource
Center
This 3-year contract, competitively awarded in FY 1994, provides
technical assistance and support to OJJDP, its grantees, and the
Coordinating Council on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention in
the areas of program development, evaluation, training, and research.
This program support contract will be extended in FY 1997. The contract
will be implemented by the current contractor, Aspen Systems
Corporation. A new competitive contract solicitation will be issued
during FY 1997, and a new contract awarded in FY 1998.
Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse
A component of the National Criminal Justice Reference Service
(NCJRS), the Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse (JJC) is OJJDP's central
resource for collecting, maintaining, producing, and sharing
information on all aspects of juvenile justice. Types of information
managed by JJC include research and evaluation findings, State and
local juvenile delinquency prevention and treatment programs and plans,
availability of resources, training and educational programs, and
statistics. JJC reaches the entire juvenile justice community and
[[Page 35260]]
other interested persons, serving researchers, law enforcement
officials, judges, prosecutors, probation and corrections staff, youth-
service personnel, legislators, the media, and the public.
Among its support services, JJC offers toll-free telephone and
online access to information; prepares specialized responses to
information requests; produces, warehouses, and distributes OJJDP
publications; exhibits at national conferences; and maintains a
comprehensive juvenile justice library and data base. Because of the
critical need to inform juvenile justice practitioners and policymakers
of promising program approaches, JJC continually develops and
recommends new products and strategies to communicate more effectively
the research findings and program activities of OJJDP and the field.
The entire NCJRS, of which the OJJDP-funded JJC is a part, is
administered by the National Institute of Justice under a
competitively-awarded contract.
The contract will be implemented by the current contractor, Aspen
Systems Corporation. No additional applications will be solicited in FY
1997.
Telecommunications Assistance
Developments in information technology and distance training have
expanded and enhanced OJJDP's capacity to disseminate information and
provide training and technical assistance. These technologies have the
advantages of increased access to information and training for
professionals in the juvenile justice system, reduced travel costs to
conferences, and reduced time attending meetings requiring one or more
nights away from one's home or office. Additionally, the successful use
of live satellite teleconferences by OJJDP during the past 2 years has
generated an enthusiastic response from the field.
During 1996, OJJDP's grantee, Eastern Kentucky University (EKU)
produced five live satellite teleconferences on the following topics:
juvenile boot camps, conflict resolution for youth, reducing youth gun
violence, youth out of the education mainstream, and the future of the
juvenile court.
In FY 1997, OJJDP will continue the competitively awarded
cooperative agreement to EKU in order to provide program support and
technical assistance for a variety of information technologies,
including audiographics, fiber optics, and satellite teleconferences,
producing five additional live national satellite teleconferences. The
grantee will also continue to provide technical assistance to other
grantees interested in using this technology and explore linkages with
key constituent groups to advance mutual information goals and
objectives.
This project will be implemented by the current grantee, EKU. No
additional applications will be solicited in FY 1997.
Coalition for Juvenile Justice*
The Coalition for Juvenile Justice supports and facilitates the
purposes and functions of each State's Juvenile Justice State Advisory
Group (SAG). Coalition members, acting as a statutorily authorized,
duly chartered Federal advisory committee, review Federal policies and
practices regarding juvenile justice and delinquency prevention and
prepare and submit an annual report and recommendations to the
President, Congress, and the Administrator of OJJDP. The Coalition also
serves as an information center for the SAG's and conducts an annual
conference to provide training for SAG members.
The program will be implemented by the current grantee, the
Coalition for Juvenile Justice. No additional applications will be
solicited in FY 1997.
Insular Area Support*
The purpose of this program is to provide supplemental financial
support to the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, the Trust
Territory of the Pacific Islands (Palau), and the Commonwealth of the
Northern Mariana Islands. Funds are available to address the special
needs and problems of juvenile delinquency in these insular areas, as
specified by Section 261(e) of the JJDP Act, as amended, 42 U.S.C.
Sec. 5665(e).
Public Safety and Law Enforcement
Comprehensive Community-Wide Approach to Gang Prevention, Intervention,
and Suppression Program
This program supports the implementation of a comprehensive gang
program model in five jurisdictions. The program was competitively
awarded with FY 1994 funds under a 3-year project period. The
demonstration sites implementing the model, which was developed by the
University of Chicago with OJJDP funding support, are Bloomington,
Illinois; Mesa, Arizona; Riverside, California; San Antonio, Texas; and
Tucson, Arizona. Implementation of the comprehensive gang program model
requires the mobilization of the community to address gang-related
violence by making available and coordinating social interventions,
providing social/academic/vocational and other opportunities, and
supporting gang suppression through law enforcement, probation, and
other community control mechanisms.
During the past year, the demonstration sites completed initial
gang violence problem assessments to identify the full nature and
extent of the gang problem in the community and its causes. The
assessment process has helped communities to understand causes of gang
violence in their community; identify key points for prevention,
intervention, and suppression; and identify benchmarks by which program
success may be measured. The demonstration sites also participated in
training and technical assistance activities, including cluster
conferences sponsored by OJJDP and visits to a program in Chicago where
the model has been implemented and demonstrated positive initial
results through a 4-year evaluation. In addition, the demonstration
sites began strategy implementation and service provision and made
progress in community mobilization, either through existing planning
structures or by creating new structures.
In FY 1997, demonstration sites will receive third-year funding to
continue implementation of the model program and build upon the
sustained mobilization, planning, and assessment processes.
Additionally, the demonstration sites will continue to target youth
prone to gang violence through continuing implementation of the program
model and work with the independent evaluator of this demonstration
program. No additional applications will be solicited in FY 1997.
Evaluation of the Comprehensive Community-Wide Approach to Gang
Prevention, Intervention and Suppression Program
The University of Chicago, School of Social Services
Administration, received a competitive cooperative agreement award in
FY 1994. This 4-year project period award supports the evaluation of
OJJDP's Comprehensive Community-Wide Approach to Gang Prevention,
Intervention, and Suppression Program. The evaluation grantee assisted
the five program sites (Bloomington, Illinois; Mesa, Arizona; Tucson,
Arizona; Riverside, California; and San Antonio, Texas) in establishing
realistic and measurable objectives, documenting program
implementation, and measuring the impact of a variety of gang program
strategies. It has also
[[Page 35261]]
provided interim feedback to the program implementors.
In FY 1996, the grantee designed and implemented organizational
surveys and youth interviews; developed and implemented program
tracking and worker questionnaires and interviews; gathered and tracked
aggregate level offense/offender client data from police, prosecutor,
probation, school, and social service program sources; developed and
implemented uniform individual level criminal justice data collection
efforts; consulted with local evaluators on development and
implementation of local site parent/community resident surveys; and
coordinated ongoing efforts with local researchers conducting special
surveys of gang youth in the program.
In FY 1997, the grantee will continue to gather data required to
evaluate the program and provide ongoing feedback to project sites.
This project will be implemented by the current grantee, the
University of Chicago, School of Social Services Administration. No
additional applications will be solicited in FY 1997.
Targeted Outreach With a Gang Prevention and Intervention Component
(Boys and Girls Clubs)
This program is designed to enable local Boys and Girls Clubs to
prevent youth from entering gangs, intervene with gang members in the
early stages of gang involvement, and divert youth from gang activities
into constructive activities and programs. In FY 1996, Boys and Girls
Clubs of America provided ongoing training and technical assistance to
30 existing gang prevention and 4 intervention sites and expanded the
gang prevention and intervention program to 23 additional Boys and
Girls Clubs, including clubs located in OJJDP's SafeFutures program
sites.
In FY 1997, Boys and Girls Clubs of America will provide training
and technical assistance to 20 new gang prevention sites, 3 new
intervention sites, and the 6 SafeFutures sites and initiate a national
evaluation of the Targeted Outreach: Gang Prevention and Intervention
Program.
This program will be implemented by the current grantee, the Boys
and Girls Clubs of America. No additional applications will be
solicited in FY 1997.
The Developmental Dynamics of Gang Membership and Delinquency
The Seattle Social Development Project (SSDP) is a longitudinal
gang prevention study conducted in collaboration with Seattle Public
Schools. Initially funded under a competitive field-initiated research
program, the analysis of gangs in the SSDP data set has examined
juveniles ages 10-18 to identify risk and protective factors for gang
membership. Analysis details predictors of gang membership, age of
initiation, length, desistance from gang membership, and consequences,
measured at age 18, of gang membership during early and mid-
adolescence.
In FY 1996, the research study revealed the extent of gang
membership in the SSDP sample, the types and proportion of crime
committed in the sample that are committed by gang members, the extent
of gang crime increases, when youth join gangs or already delinquent
youth join gangs, the length of time youth stay active members, the
childhood predictors of joining a gang in adolescence, and the
developmental risk factors that best predict joining a gang.
In FY 1997, the SSDP will obtain official criminal records for a
sample group, ages 18-21 years, and integrate them into the
longitudinal data set from the SSDP. Additional data analysis will
examine (1) the individual, peer, family, school, and neighborhood
predictors of early initiation into gangs; (2) the predictors of
sustained gang involvement; and (3) the effects of criminal justice
system involvement on gang membership.
This project will be implemented by the current grantee, the
University of Washington. No additional applications will be solicited
in FY 1997.
National Youth Gang Center
The proliferation of gang problems in large inner cities, smaller
cities, suburbs, and even rural areas over the past two decades led to
the development by OJJDP of a comprehensive, coordinated response to
America's gang problem. This response involved five program components,
one of which was the implementation and operation of the National Youth
Gang Center (NYGC). The NYGC was competitively funded with FY 1994
funds for a 3-year project period. NYGC was created to expand and
maintain the body of critical knowledge about youth gangs and effective
responses to them. NYGC assisted State and local jurisdictions in the
collection, analysis, and exchange of information on gang-related
demographics, legislation, research, and promising program strategies.
The Center also coordinated activities of the OJJDP Gang
Consortium-a group of Federal agencies, gang program representatives,
and service providers. Under the sponsorship of OJJDP, the National
Institute of Justice, the Bureau of Justice Assistance, and members of
the Regional Information Sharing Systems Program, the NYGC coordinated
a National Youth Gang Symposium in June 1996, with over 700
participants in attendance. Results of the first NYGC National Youth
Gang Survey were compiled and analyzed in FY 1996 and will be published
in FY 1997.
Other major NYGC tasks in FY 1996 included analysis of gang
legislation and coordination of the OJJDP Youth Gang Consortium. The
Consortium is developing information that will provide an overview of
Federal agencies, including the development of a matrix to include
information on planning cycles, contacts, and gang-related programs.
In FY 1997, NYGC will prepare the matrix of the program planning
cycle, information resources, contacts, and programs of the Consortium
members and promote collaboration so State and local youth-serving
agencies will be able to coordinate resources available from Federal
agencies. Also, NYGC will hold additional focus group meetings to
review the results of the first National Youth Gang Survey and to plan
the format of followup surveys.
Fiscal year 1997 funds will support third-year funding of the NYGC
cooperative agreement to the current grantee, the Institute for
Intergovernmental Research. No additional applications will be
solicited in FY 1997.
Evaluation of Youth Gun Violence Reduction Programs
In response to the problem of juvenile gun violence, OJJDP and the
International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) have identified
promising programs designed to reduce gun violence by youth. Currently,
numerous communities have implemented or are in the process of
implementing youth gun violence reduction programs. However, not enough
is known about the effectiveness of such programs.
In the Proposed Program Plan for FY 1997, OJJDP proposed to
evaluate a select number of promising youth gun violence reduction
programs currently under way in communities across the country, as
identified by IACP. After careful consideration, OJJDP decided not to
issue a separate solicitation for this evaluation but to combine this
work with research that is currently being undertaken under the
Evaluation of the Partnerships To Reduce Gun Violence, a grant that was
recently awarded to the
[[Page 35262]]
COSMOS Corporation. The Evaluation of the Partnerships To Reduce Gun
Violence will document and evaluate the process of community
mobilization, planning, and collaboration needed to develop a
comprehensive, collaborative approach to reducing gun violence
involving juveniles. The evaluation of the IACP sites is a natural
addition to the COSMOS project. With an expanded base of youth gun
violence projects, there is greater opportunity to identify sites that
are employing similar strategies with different targeted populations.
Combining the two projects will result in certain economies in terms of
staffing and other project costs.
OJJDP will, therefore, incorporate the program summarized in the
Proposed Program Plan and referred to as the Evaluation of Youth Gun
Violence Reduction Programs into the Evaluation of the Partnerships To
Reduce Youth Gun Violence. The current grantee, the COSMOS Corporation,
will implement the evaluation. No additional applications will be
solicited in FY 1997.
The Chicago Project for Violence Prevention
The Chicago Project for Violence Prevention's primary goal is the
development of a citywide, accelerated, long-term effort to reduce
violence in Chicago. Secondly, the Chicago Project demonstrates a
comprehensive, citywide violence prevention model. Overall project
objectives include reductions in homicide, physical injury, disability
and emotional harm from assault, domestic abuse, sexual abuse and rape,
and child abuse and neglect.
The Chicago Project is a partnership among the Chicago Department
of Public Health, the Illinois Council for the Prevention of Violence,
the University of Illinois, and Chicago communities. It began in
January 1995 as a public health initiative with OJJDP funding. The
project currently provides technical assistance to a variety of
community-based and citywide organizations involved in violence
prevention planning. The majority of technical assistance supports
community level work and agencies working to directly support the
community plan.
In FY 1996, technical assistance was provided to the central
planning group for the Austin community-based coalition, leadership and
staff of the Westside Health Authority in the Austin community, and to
other selected groups involved in the Austin plan for the development
of their components (e.g., to Northwest Austin Council for the
development of the afterschool and drug treatment components of the
Austin plan). These groups are members of the violence consortium in
Austin.
In FY 1997, the Chicago Project will further refine the violence
prevention strategy developed in the Austin community and begin
implementation of the strategy and continue to provide technical
assistance to the Logan Square and Grand Boulevard communities as they
develop their violence prevention strategies.
The Chicago Project for Violence Prevention will be implemented by
the current grantee, the University of Illinois, School of Public
Health. No additional applications will be solicited in FY 1997.
Child-Centered Community-Oriented Policing
In FY 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 FY 1994, Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) community policing
funds helped OJJDP to support the first year of a 3-year training and
technical assistance grant to replicate the program nationwide. These
funds supported the development of criteria for a request for
proposals, protocols for consultation, training-for-trainers sessions
for New Haven police and clinical faculty, and the development of a
multimodel strategy for data collection and program evaluation. Fiscal
year 1995 OJJDP funds supported initiation of program replication
efforts in Buffalo, New York; Charlotte, North Carolina; Nashville,
Tennessee; and Portland, Oregon. Fiscal year 1996 funds supported the
implementation of the five-phase replication protocol in the four
selected sites. Fiscal year 1997 continuation funding from OJJDP will
further support 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, in collaboration with the New Haven
Department of Police Services. No additional applications will be
solicited in FY 1997.
Law Enforcement Training and Technical Assistance Program
Juvenile crime and victimization present major challenges to
practitioners who are responsible for prevention, intervention, and
enforcement efforts. Increasing rates of violent crime committed by
juveniles, rising juvenile involvement in gangs and drugs, and
decreasing fiscal resources are just some of the challenges facing
juvenile justice practitioners today.
OJJDP is committed to helping State and local agencies,
organizations, and individuals face these challenges through a
comprehensive program of training and technical assistance that is
designed to enhance the juvenile justice system's ability to respond to
juvenile crime and delinquency. This assistance targets many audiences,
including law enforcement representatives, social service workers,
school staff and administrators, prosecutors, judges, corrections and
probation personnel, and key community and agency leaders.
Fiscal year 1997 funds will support the continuation of OJJDP's
Chief Executive Officer Youth Violence Forum; the Managing Juvenile
Operations (MJO) workshop; the Gang, Gun, and Drug POLICY workshop; the
School Administrators for Effective Police, Prosecution, Probation
Operations Leading to Improved Children and Youth Services (SAFE
POLICY) workshop; the Serious Habitual Offender Comprehensive Action
Program (SHOCAP); the Youth Oriented-Community Policing workshop; and
the Tribal Law Enforcement Training and Technical Assistance workshop.
In FY 1997, through a competitive selection process, OJJDP awarded
a 3-year contract to implement the Law Enforcement Training and
Technical Assistance Program. The contractor is the John Jay College of
Criminal Justice, teamed with the COSMOS Corporation. No additional
applications will be solicited in FY 1997.
[[Page 35263]]
Violence Studies
The 1992 Amendments to the JJDP Act directed OJJDP to fund 2-year
studies on violence in three urban and one rural jurisdiction. Building
on the results of OJJDP's Program of Research on the Causes and
Correlates of Delinquency, these studies were to examine the incidence
of violence committed by or against juveniles in urban and rural areas
of the United States. In FY 1994, OJJDP initiated a University of
Wisconsin study of homicides by and of youth in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
In that same year, under a grant to the University of South Carolina,
OJJDP funded a cross-site study in rural areas in South Carolina,
Georgia, and Florida. In FY 1995, in Los Angeles, California, and
Washington, D.C., the University of Southern California and the
Institute for Law and Justice initiated additional violence studies.
These four studies are providing valuable information regarding
community violence patterns, with a particular focus on homicide and
firearm use involving juveniles. Their results will assist the juvenile
justice system by identifying strategic law enforcement responses to
juvenile violence and by identifying diversion, prevention, and control
programs that ameliorate juvenile violence.
In FY 1996, the University of Wisconsin and the University of South
Carolina analyzed their data and made their project findings. The
Institute for Law and Justice collected and analyzed aggregate data
from various juvenile justice providers and from a series of interviews
with agency staff serving adjudicated juveniles. The University of
Southern California received funds to identify violence prevention
programs, conduct a household survey, and interview adolescents and
their caregivers in Los Angeles County.
In FY 1997, OJJDP will provide limited funding to the University of
Southern California to complete its study. The program will be
implemented by the current grantee, the University of Southern
California. No additional applications will be solicited in FY 1997.
Strengthening the Juvenile Justice System
Development of OJJDP's Comprehensive Strategy for Serious, Violent, and
Chronic Juvenile Offenders
The National Council on Crime and Delinquency and Developmental
Research and Programs, Inc., have completed Phases I and II of a
collaborative effort to support development and implementation of
OJJDP's Comprehensive Strategy for Serious, Violent, and Chronic
Juvenile Offenders. Phase I involved assessing existing and previously
researched programs in order to identify effective and promising
programs that can be used in implementing the Comprehensive Strategy.
In Phase II, a series of reports were combined into a Guide for
Implementing the Comprehensive Strategy for Serious, Violent, and
Chronic Juvenile Offenders. Phase II also included convening a forum,
``Guaranteeing Safe Passage: A National Forum on Youth Violence,'' and
holding two regional training seminars for key leaders on implementing
the Comprehensive Strategy.
In FY 1996, Phase III of the project was funded to provide:
targeted dissemination of information on the Comprehensive Strategy at
national conferences; intensive training for selected States to
implement the Comprehensive Strategy in up to six local jurisdictions;
the six SafeFutures sites; technical assistance to a limited number of
individual jurisdictions interested in implementing the Comprehensive
Strategy; and continued development of Comprehensive Strategy
implementation resources.
In FY 1997, the grantees will continue to target dissemination of
the Comprehensive Strategy for Serious, Violent, and Chronic Juvenile
Offenders and hold regional training seminars in the Southeast and
Midwest; provide training and technical assistance to additional state
and local jurisdictions interested in implementing the Comprehensive
Strategy; and provide intensive training and technical assistance in 5
competitively-selected Comprehensive Strategy States-Florida, Iowa,
Maryland, Rhode Island, and Texas.
The program will be implemented by the current grantees, the
National Council on Crime and Delinquency and Developmental Research
and Programs, Inc. No additional applications will be solicited in FY
1997.
Serious, Violent, and Chronic Juvenile Offender Treatment Program
The Serious, Violent, and Chronic Juvenile Offender Treatment
Program is designed to assist local jurisdictions in the development
and implementation of a comprehensive strategy for the intervention,
treatment, and rehabilitation of juvenile offenders. The program was
initially funded in 1993 under the Accountability-Based Community (ABC)
Intervention program. Under the ABC initiative, Allegheny County,
Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.C., were competitively funded to plan
and implement a comprehensive graduated sanctions plan.
In FY 1994, under a second competitive announcement, OJJDP awarded
funds under the Serious, Violent, and Chronic Offender Treatment
Program to three additional jurisdictions (Boston, Massachusetts;
Jefferson Parish, Louisiana; and Richmond, Virginia) to develop and
implement a comprehensive graduated sanctions plan.
Each jurisdiction's graduated sanctions plan included the following
basic elements: (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 FY 1996, each of the three FY 1994 grantees received awards to
continue implementation activities. Boston and Richmond will complete
operations during FY 1997. Jefferson Parish will receive a final 6-
month award in FY 1997.
No additional applications will be solicited in FY 1997.
Juvenile Restitution: A Balanced Approach
OJJDP will continue support of the juvenile restitution training
and technical assistance program in FY 1997. The project design is
based on practitioner recommendations regarding juvenile justice
program needs and the best methods for integrating and
institutionalizing restitution and community service as key components
of juvenile justice system dispositions. In FY 1992, a practitioner
working group helped map out a plan for optimum development of the
components of restitution programs. Plan components included community
service, victim reparation, victim-offender mediation, offender
employment and supervision, employment development, and other program
elements designed to establish
[[Page 35264]]
restitution as a key element in improving the juvenile justice system.
This project is guided by balanced and restorative justice (BARJ)
principles, which include the need to provide a balance of (1)
community protection, (2) offender competency development, and (3)
offender accountability to individual victims and communities. The
project helps juvenile justice agencies to introduce these elements in
programs for sanctioning and controlling juvenile offenders.
In FY 1995, the project assisted three local jurisdictions
(Allegheny County, Pennsylvania; Dakota County, Minnesota; and West
Palm Beach County, Florida) to implement the ``balanced approach,''
participated in presenting a series of regional roundtables for States
interested in adopting the BARJ model, and provided ad hoc technical
assistance. In FY 1996, the project continued training, technical
assistance, and development of guideline materials, including a
Balanced and Restorative Justice Project Resource Guide and a
Curriculum Guide on the BARJ model.
In FY 1997, the project will provide training-of-trainers programs
on the BARJ model based on the Curriculum Guide and the Resource Guide.
The grantee will also continue to offer technical assistance to the
increasing number of State and local jurisdictions interested in
pursuing balanced and restorative justice.
This project will be implemented by the current grantee, Florida
Atlantic University. No additional applications will be solicited in FY
1997.
Training and Technical Assistance Program To Promote Gender-Specific
Programming for Female Juvenile Offenders
The 1992 Amendments to the JJDP Act addressed, for the first time,
the issue of gender-specific services. The Amendments require States
participating in OJJDP's State Formula Grants Program to conduct an
analysis of gender-specific services for the prevention and treatment
of juvenile delinquency, including the types of services available, the
need for such services, and a plan for providing needed gender-specific
services for the prevention and treatment of juvenile delinquency.
In FY 1995, the OJJDP Gender-Specific Services Program focused on
providing training and technical assistance directly to States and on
providing and promoting the establishment of gender-specific programs
at the State level. Training and technical assistance were provided to
a broad spectrum of policymakers and service providers regarding
services for juvenile female offenders through direct grants,
sponsorship of national conferences, and inclusion of a gender-specific
service component in OJJDP's SafeFutures program.
In FY 1996, building upon these past efforts, OJJDP awarded a 3-
year competitive grant to Greene, Peters and Associates (GPA) to
provide a comprehensive framework for assisting policymakers, service
providers, educators, parents, and the general public in addressing the
complex needs of female adolescents who are at risk for delinquent
behavior. The project's objectives are to develop and test a training
curriculum for policymakers, advocacy organizations, and community-
based youth-serving organizations that conveys the need for effective
gender-specific programming for juvenile females and the elements of
such programs; to develop, test, and deliver a technical assistance
package on the development of gender-specific programs; to inventory
female-specific programs, identifying those program models designed to
build upon the gender-specific needs of girls, and prepare a monograph
suitable for national dissemination; to design and test a curriculum
for line staff delivering services to juvenile females; to design and
implement a public education initiative on the need for gender-specific
programming for girls; and to design and conduct training for trainers.
Because the grant was awarded at the end of FY 1996, work on the
project is in its initial stages.
The program will be implemented by the current grantee, GPA. No
additional applications will be solicited in FY 1997.
Cook County Juvenile Female Offenders Project
In FY 1995, OJJDP awarded a competitive grant to enable Cook County
to plan programs for juvenile female offenders in the Cook County
Juvenile Temporary Detention Center. A Steering Committee formed to
oversee the project included community and government agency
representatives working together to effectuate change in the way
juvenile female offenders are handled. To coordinate efforts, the
committee organized a task force of 30 government and community-based
agencies to promote gender equity and fairness.
The Steering Committee, with the assistance of task force members,
accomplished several key objectives during their planning effort. They
(1) developed a gender-specific needs and strengths assessment
instrument and a risk assessment instrument for juvenile female
offenders through a consulting contract with the National Council on
Crime and Delinquency; (2) provided training in implementing gender-
appropriate programming to more than 300 management and line staff
representing more than 100 local public and private agencies; (3)
compiled a directory of gender-specific services available in Cook
County; (4) assessed the strengths and interactions, and the areas for
improvement of interaction, among the five custodial agencies involved
in legal responsibilities for juvenile female offenders in Cook County
(the Chicago Police Department, Cook County Juvenile Temporary
Detention Center, Illinois Department of Children and Family Services,
Illinois Department of Corrections--Juvenile Division, and Cook County
Juvenile Probation); and (5) designed a pilot program that includes a
community-based continuum of care with a unique case management system.
In FY 1997, the project will join Federal, State, and local
resources to implement the pilot program. Under the program, each
juvenile female offender will have a case manager who will follow her
throughout her involvement in the juvenile justice system. The case
manager will advocate for services to meet the juvenile's needs in a
timely and consistent manner.
This program will be implemented by the current grantee, the Cook
County Board of Commissioners. No additional applications will be
solicited in FY 1997.
Juvenile Transfers to Criminal Court Studies
States are increasingly enacting juvenile code revisions broadening
judicial waiver authority, providing prosecutor direct file authority,
and mandating transfer of older, more violent juveniles to criminal
court. Many States are also developing innovative procedures, such as
blending traditional features of juvenile and criminal justice
sentencing practices, through statutes that categorize juvenile
offenders into different classes according to the seriousness of the
offense, designating juvenile or criminal court for each class, or
providing judges with discretion to make these judgments at sentencing.
Studies of the impact of criminal court prosecution of juveniles have
yielded mixed conclusions. Solid research on the intended and
unintended consequences of transfer of juveniles to criminal court will
enable policymakers and legislatures to develop statutory provisions
and
[[Page 35265]]
policies and improve judicial and prosecutorial waiver and transfer
decisions.
To address the shortage of recent research results, OJJDP
competitively funded two juvenile waiver and transfer research projects
in FY 1995. The first, awarded to the National Center for Juvenile
Justice, compares juvenile and criminal court handling of juveniles in
four States that authorize judicial waiver of serious and violent
juvenile offenders and mandate criminal court handling for specified
categories of juvenile offenders. The second study, awarded to the
Florida Juvenile Justice Advisory Board, evaluates Florida's system of
blending the option of criminal and juvenile justice system sentencing
for serious and violent juvenile offenders. Additional funding was
provided in FY 1996 to enable the projects to collect case specific
information on sentence completion and recidivism data in order to
provide a more definitive assessment of the impact of criminal versus
juvenile justice system handling of serious and violent offender cases.
In FY 1997, OJJDP will provide limited continuation funding in
jurisdictions that were part of one or both of these studies and
provide promising opportunities for longitudinal study. The projects
will be implemented by the current grantees, the National Center for
Juvenile Justice and the Florida Juvenile Justice Advisory Board. No
additional applications will be solicited in FY 1997.
Replication and Extension of Fagan Transfer Study
OJJDP will award a grant to Columbia University to conduct a study,
``The Comparative Impact of Juvenile Versus Criminal Court Sanctions on
Recidivism Among Adolescent Felony Offenders: A Replication and
Extension.'' This study will be a replication and expansion of an
original study and will be conducted by the Principal Investigator, Dr.
Jeffrey Fagan. His 1986 New York/New Jersey study was the first
transfer study comparing four contiguous counties matched on social,
economic, and criminogenic factors and offender cohorts with
essentially identical offense profiles. It was also the first such
study to go beyond comparing sentences to studying the deterrent
effects of the sanction and court jurisdiction on recidivism rates in
juvenile versus criminal court.
The replication and extension is the only research project that can
answer questions about how case processing decisions have changed in
the last decade. The new study will compare case dispositional outcomes
in 1981-82 with those cases processed in 1993-94, a time period
following sustained growth in the rates of youth violence. In addition,
a study component under the direction of Dr. Barry Feld will explore
whether there are factors being considered by prosecutors, judges and
defense attorneys that explain the variation in sentences/dispositions
and recidivism between groups of offenders handled in different
systems. This component will provide an analysis of the organizational,
contextual, or systemic factors involved in the decision processes
affecting both jurisdiction and punishment. The study will also conduct
interviews with selected offenders processed in different systems to
gain a perspective on the impact of criminal versus juvenile system
handling of such cases on further experiences with the justice system.
The project will also collaborate with the other OJJDP Juvenile
Transfers to Criminal Court Studies in sharing data collection
instruments and in planning joint analyses where appropriate.
This program will be implemented by Columbia University. No
additional applications will be solicited in FY 1997.
Technical Assistance to Juvenile Courts*
The National Center for Juvenile Justice (NCJJ), the research arm
of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, provides
technical assistance under this grant for juvenile court practitioners.
The focus of the technical assistance is on court administration and
management, program development, and special legal issues. During FY
1996, NCJJ responded to more than 850 requests for technical
assistance. In addition, NCJJ staff completed the Research Report State
Responses to Serious and Violent Juvenile Crime.
In FY 1997, NCJJ will develop an online technical assistance
capability to improve program monitoring and evaluation. In addition, a
desktop guide for juvenile probation administrators will be completed.
The program will be implemented by the current grantee, NCJJ. No
additional applications will be solicited in FY 1997.
Juvenile Court Judges Training*
The primary focus of this project in FY 1997 will be to continue
and refine the training and technical assistance program offered by the
National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ). The
objectives of the training are to supplement law school curriculums by
providing basic training to new juvenile court judges and to provide
experienced judges with state-of-the-art training on developments in
juvenile and family case law and effective dispositional options.
Emphasis is also placed on alcohol and substance abuse, child abuse and
neglect, gangs and violence, cultural diversity, 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 FY 1996, some 12,775 judges and court personnel
received training through 74 different programs. In addition, more than
800 training-related technical assistance requests were completed.
The project will be implemented by the current grantee, NCJFCJ. No
additional applications will be solicited in FY 1997.
The Juvenile Justice Prosecution Unit
OJJDP has historically supported prosecutor training activities
through the National District Attorneys Association (NDAA). To continue
that work, OJJDP awarded a 3-year project period grant in FY 1995 to
the American Prosecutors Research Institute (APRI), the research and
technical affiliate of NDAA, to establish a Juvenile Justice
Prosecution Unit (JJPU). JJPU holds workshops on juvenile justice-
related policy, leadership, and management for chief prosecutors and
unit chiefs. JJPU also provides prosecutors with background information
on juvenile justice issues and programs, training, and technical
assistance.
The project is based on planning and input by prosecutors familiar
with juvenile justice needs. It draws on the expertise of working
groups of elected or appointed prosecutors and juvenile unit chiefs to
support project staff in providing technical assistance, juvenile
justice-related research, program information, and training to
practitioners nationwide. In 1995, APRI collected information from
prosecutors and sponsored a National Invitational Symposium on Juvenile
Justice. The Symposium provided a forum for prosecutors to exchange
ideas on programs, issues, legislation, and practices in juvenile
justice. In 1996, APRI conducted three workshops for elected and
appointed prosecutors and juvenile unit chiefs to help improve
prosecutor involvement in the prosecution and prevention of juvenile
delinquency. In 1997, APRI will conduct a second National Symposium,
[[Page 35266]]
present additional workshops, and develop new reference materials for
prosecutors.
The project will be implemented by the current grantee, APRI. No
additional applications will be solicited in FY 1997.
Due Process Advocacy Program Development
In FY 1993, OJJDP funded the American Bar Association (ABA), in
partnership with the Juvenile Law Center (JLC) of Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, and the Youth Law Center (YLC) of San Francisco,
California, to develop strategies to improve due process and the
quality of legal representation in the juvenile justice system. The
goals of the program are to increase juvenile offenders' access to
legal services and to improve the quality of preadjudication,
adjudication, and dispositional advocacy for juvenile offenders. The
strategies that have been developed are being made available to State
and local defender organizations, State and local bar associations, and
other relevant organizations so that they can develop approaches to
increase the availability and quality of counsel for juveniles.
In FY 1994 and FY 1995, the ABA, JLC, and YLC conducted an
assessment of the current state of the art with regard to legal
services, training, and education. This survey included a review of
literature, case law, and State statutes and a survey of public
defenders, court-appointed lawyers, law school clinical programs, and
judges. As a result of this survey work, the ABA developed and
published a report entitled A Call for Justice: An Assessment of Access
to Counsel and Quality of Representation in Delinquency Proceedings.
The report has been widely distributed to State and local bar
associations, Chairs of State Juvenile Justice Advisory Groups,
participants in the ABA survey, the National Association of Child
Advocates, and others.
In FY 1996, training was initiated, beginning with the States of
Maryland, Tennessee, and Virginia. The structure and scope of the
training are tailored to fit the needs of each State.
In FY 1997, a training manual will be completed, covering key
issues such as detention, transfer or waiver, and dispositional
advocacy. The curriculum in the manual will build on existing quality
training curriculums and inform defender organizations and others about
the best training curriculums available. The training manual will be
designed to fill gaps in existing training programs. The ABA and its
partners will also continue to develop networks with public defenders
offices, children's law centers, and others through the HANDSNET system
and mailings that provide program updates. In addition, the ABA and its
partners will provide or arrange for onsite technical assistance to
additional jurisdictions that are actively pursuing the goals of this
initiative.
This program will be implemented by the current grantee, ABA. No
additional applications will be solicited in FY 1997.
Quantum Opportunities Program (QOP) Evaluation
OJJDP will fund an impact evaluation of the Quantum Opportunities
Program, which the U.S. Department of Labor, in partnership with the
Ford Foundation, is currently replicating in seven sites across the
United States. The purpose of the funding is to determine whether QOP
reduces the likelihood that inner-city youth at educational risk will
enter the criminal justice system, including the juvenile justice
system. The QOP impact evaluation is designed to measure the impact of
QOP participation on such outcomes as high school graduation and
enrollment in postsecondary education and training. Other student
outcomes to be examined include academic achievement in high school,
misbehavior in school, self-esteem and sense of control over one's
life, educational and career goals, and personal decisions such as
teenage parenthood, substance abuse, and criminal activity. Data on
criminal activity is being collected from individual student
interviews.
This evaluation enhancement to the Department of Labor-funded
evaluation will provide for the collection of analogous data from the
juvenile justice system, thus allowing estimates of the impact of the
QOP program on the likelihood of program youth becoming involved in the
criminal justice system. Initial attention will be focused on
identifying the appropriate governmental agencies responsible for the
data, dealing with confidentiality requirements, determining the
feasibility of collecting such information, preparing data collection
protocols for each site, and preparing a report outlining the data
collection design for implementation.
This program will be implemented through an interagency agreement
with the U.S. Department of Labor. No additional applications will be
solicited in FY 1997.
Intensive Community-Based Aftercare Demonstration and Technical
Assistance Program
This initiative is designed to support implementation, training and
technical assistance, and an independent evaluation of an intensive
community-based aftercare model in four jurisdictions that were
competitively selected to participate in this demonstration program.
The overall goal of the intensive aftercare model is to identify and
assist high-risk juvenile offenders to make a gradual transition from
secure confinement back into the community. The Intensive Aftercare
Program (IAP) model can be viewed as having three distinct, yet
overlapping segments: (1) Prerelease and preparatory planning
activities during incarceration; (2) structured transitioning involving
the participation of institutional and aftercare staffs both prior to
and following community reentry; and (3) long-term reintegrative
activities to insure adequate service delivery and the required level
of social control.
In FY 1994, The Johns Hopkins University received a multiyear grant
to test their 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 funding in FY 1996 to support program
implementation. The Johns Hopkins University contracts with California
State University at Sacramento to assist in the implementation process
by providing training and technical assistance and by making OJJDP
funds available through contracts to each of the four demonstration
sites. Each of the sites has developed risk assessment instruments for
use in selecting high-risk youth who need this type of intensive
aftercare, hired and trained staff in the intensive aftercare model,
identified existing and needed community support (intervention)
services, and identified and collected data necessary for the
independent evaluation of the intensive community-based aftercare
program. In accordance with a strong experimental research design, each
of the sites uses a system of random assignment of clients to the
program. The Johns Hopkins University and California State University
at Sacramento have provided continuing training and technical
assistance to both administrators/managers and line staff at the
intensive community-based aftercare sites. Staff have been fully
trained in the theoretical underpinnings of the IAP model and in its
practical applications, such as techniques for
[[Page 35267]]
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 FY 1997, the sites will continue to implement and test the
aftercare model. An independent contractor is performing an evaluation
under a separate grant. The Johns Hopkins University will provide
ongoing training and technical assistance to the four selected sites
and also provide aftercare technical assistance services to
jurisdictions participating in the OJJDP/Department of the Interior
Youth Environmental Service (YES) initiative, OJJDP's six SafeFutures
program sites, and other programs, including the New York State
Division for Youth's Youth Leadership Academy in Albany, New York.
The IAP project will be implemented by the current grantee, The
Johns Hopkins University. No additional applications will be solicited
in FY 1997.
Evaluation of Intensive Community-Based Aftercare Demonstration and
Technical Assistance Program
The National Council on Crime and Delinquency (NCCD) received a 3-
year competitive FY 1994 grant to conduct a process evaluation and
design an impact evaluation of the Intensive Community-Based Aftercare
Demonstration and Technical Assistance Program at sites in Colorado,
New Jersey, Nevada, and Virginia. NCCD's initial award funded the
design and implementation of the process evaluation, the design of an
impact evaluation, and start-up data collection. A report on the
process evaluation was submitted in the spring of 1996. Fiscal year
1996 funding enabled NCCD to begin the impact evaluation. Because of
the excellent progress made during the first two years on the process
evaluation, OJJDP extended this program for three additional years to
allow sufficient time for completion of the impact evaluation.
NCCD will use a true experimental design to answer the following
research questions: (1) Is the nature of supervision and services
provided to Intensive Community-Based Aftercare (IAP) youth different
from that given to ``regular'' parolees? (2) Does IAP have an impact on
the subsequent delinquent or criminal involvement of program
participants? (3) Does IAP have an impact on specific intermediate
outcomes such as reduction of substance abuse, improved peer
relationships, improved self-concept, and reduced delinquent or
criminal behavior? and (4) Is IAP cost-effective?
The project will be implemented by the current grantee, NCCD. No
additional applications will be solicited in FY 1997.
Interventions To Reduce Disproportionate Minority Confinement in Secure
Detention and Correctional Facilities (The Deborah Ann Wysinger
Memorial Program)
In FY 1995, under a national discretionary grant initiative, OJJDP
funded eight programs designed to enable States to identify strategies
to eliminate the overrepresentation of minority juveniles in secure
detention or correctional facilities, adult jails and lockups, and
other secure institutional facilities. One of the eight awards was made
to The Academy, Inc., in Columbus, Ohio, which conducted an evaluation
of the Franklin County (Ohio) Juvenile Court's efforts to reduce
minority overrepresentation.
The evaluation focuses on three areas: (1) Staff issues such as
working conditions, morale, and attitudes toward peers, supervisors,
administrative staff, and jurists; (2) treatment issues related to
reducing minority overrepresentation; and (3) broader implications for
research, particularly studies supported by Federal agencies.
This project is an outgrowth of the research begun in the Franklin
County Juvenile Court. The Academy is concluding the evaluation of a
broad range of policy modifications undertaken by this court to address
minority overrepresentation at intake and in its confinement
facilities. In this project, the research will shift the focus from
juvenile court to a study of similar circumstances surrounding police
policies and decisions to refer some juveniles to the courts, release
others to their parents, and/or divert still others to community-based
programs.
This program will be implemented by The Academy, Inc. No additional
applications will be solicited in FY 1997.
State Justice Statistics Program for Statistical Analysis Centers
Through an interagency agreement with the Bureau of Justice
Statistics (BJS), OJJDP will contribute funds to the BJS State Justice
Statistics Program for Statistical Analysis Centers (SAC). The
supplemental funding will be offered to State SAC's to encourage them
to undertake studies of juvenile transfers to criminal court for
prosecution and youth gang involvement in criminal activity.
Studies of juvenile transfers to criminal court for prosecution
include those studies that monitor the flow of cases involving
juveniles (by reason of age and/or offense and prior history) into the
criminal court and may focus on statewide or high-volume local
processes, outcomes, and impact of the decision to try the case in
criminal court. Preference will be given to those studies that provide
appropriate comparative samples with juveniles retained in the juvenile
justice system (or which have the capability to generate trends) and
those studies that can and are willing to collect data currently being
captured by OJJDP's studies of Juvenile Transfers to Criminal Court.
The second topic area to be supported is youth gang involvement in
violence, drug sales, and weapons use and system response. This area
will support studies that monitor trends in such behavior (violent
crime, drug markets, and weapons use and sales) by youth gangs; its
concentration and migration among different neighborhoods; and the law
enforcement, criminal, and juvenile justice system response to such
behavior. Of particular interest will be studies that demonstrate the
utility of Geographic-Based Information Systems (GIS) to monitor trends
in behavior and system response spatially.
No applications will be solicited by OJJDP in FY 1997. To acquire a
copy of the BJS solicitation, contact Paul White, State Justice
Statistics (SJS) Program Manager, at 202-307-0771. The deadline for the
first cycle of applications to BJS is June 30, 1997.
Juvenile Probation Survey Research
Juvenile probation is one of the most critical areas of the
juvenile justice system. However, there is currently very little
information available on juveniles on probation. We do not know how
many juveniles are on probation, their demographic characteristics,
their offenses, or the conditions of their probation, including length,
residential confinement, electronic monitoring, restitution, etc. In FY
1996, this project conducted survey research and developed a
questionnaire to collect this important information. Because States
operate their juvenile probation systems in very different manners, the
project also examined how these differences affected the information
collected.
Also in FY 1996, OJJDP held a national meeting to assess the needs
and scope of future survey work to be undertaken. The meeting included
probation officers, national experts in juvenile probation, and experts
in the field of survey development.
In FY 1997, the project will develop an interview protocol for
exploratory interviews, conduct interviews in 20
[[Page 35268]]
probation offices around the country, develop an initial data
collection instrument, and provide a plan for testing.
OJJDP will provide second-year funding to complete this research
through an interagency agreement with the Bureau of the Census. No
additional applications will be solicited in FY 1997.
Performance-Based Standards for Juvenile Detention and Correctional
Facilities
There is a need to increase the accountability of detention and
correctional agencies, facilities, and staff in performing their basic
functions. The development of performance-based standards has emerged
as a primary strategy for improving conditions of confinement. This
program supports the development and implementation of performance-
based standards for juvenile detention and corrections. The performance
measures and standards being developed will address both services and
the quality of life for confined juveniles. They will reflect the
consensus of a broadly representative group of national organizations
on the mission, goals, and objectives of juvenile detention and
corrections. OJJDP plans to promote nationwide adoption and
implementation of the measures and standards through a future training
and technical assistance program.
In FY 1995, OJJDP awarded a competitive 18-month cooperative
agreement to the Council of Juvenile Corrections Administrators (CJCA)
to develop national performance-based standards for juvenile detention
and correctional facilities. A National Consortium of major
professional and advocacy organizations provided technical advice and
support in all aspects of the development and implementation of the
standards. The project focused on standards in the areas of: safety;
security; order; programming, treatment, and education; health; and
justice.
During FY 1996, project working groups completed the drafting of
performance criteria and measures and assessment tools for monitoring
performance in all substantive areas. In addition, all materials were
field tested and revised as needed. A plan for implementation was also
completed.
In FY 1997, a complete set of performance-based standards and a
measurement system will be completed, along with plans for an 18-month
period of intensive demonstration and testing of the performance-based
standards and their impact on juvenile corrections and detention
programming.
The program will be implemented in FY 1997 by the current grantee,
CJCA. No additional applications will be solicited in FY 1997.
Technical Assistance to Juvenile Corrections and Detention (The James
E. Gould Memorial Program)
The primary purpose of the Technical Assistance to Juvenile
Corrections and Detention project is to provide specialized technical
assistance to juvenile corrections, detention, and community
residential service providers. The grantee, the American Correctional
Association (ACA), also plans and convenes an annual Juvenile
Corrections and Detention Forum. The Forum provides an opportunity for
juvenile corrections and detention leaders to meet and discuss issues,
problems, and solutions to emerging corrections and detention problems.
The ACA also provides workshops and conferences on current and emerging
national issues in the field of juvenile corrections and detention,
writes and solicits articles for professional publications, conducts
surveys, and offers technical assistance through document
dissemination. OJJDP awarded a FY 1995 competitive grant to the ACA to
provide these services over a 3-year project period.
The project will be implemented by the current grantee, ACA. No
additional applications will be solicited in FY 1997.
Training for Juvenile Corrections and Detention Management Staff
In FY 1997, OJJDP will continue its support for the development and
implementation of a comprehensive training program for juvenile
corrections and detention management staff through a new interagency
agreement with the National Institute of Corrections (NIC). Initiated
in 1991, the program is designed to offer a core curriculum for
juvenile corrections and detention administrators and midlevel
management personnel in such areas as leadership development,
management, training of trainers, legal issues, cultural diversity, the
role of the victim in juvenile corrections, juvenile programming for
special needs offenders, and management of the violent or disruptive
offender. In FY 1996, NIC conducted 8 training seminars, 5 workshops,
and 1 video conference and made 10 technical assistance awards,
reaching 3,302 participants.
In FY 1997, it is anticipated that the project will provide 8
seminars, 2 workshops at national conferences, and 1 national video
conference to reach a total of 6,000 practitioners. The training will
be conducted at the NIC Academy and regionally. No additional
applications will be solicited in FY 1997.
Training for Line Staff in Juvenile Detention and Corrections
In FY 1994, the National Juvenile Detention Association (NJDA) was
awarded a competitive 3-year project period grant to establish a
training program to meet the needs of the more than 38,000 line staff
of juvenile detention and corrections facilities. In FY 1996, NJDA
developed and pilot tested the 40-hour Corrections Careworker
Curriculum, developed the 24-hour Train-the-Trainer for the Corrections
Careworker Curriculum, conducted 42 separate trainings for 2,700
participants, developed 2 new lesson plans in safety and conflict
resolution, and provided technical assistance to 37 agencies.
In FY 1997, the third year of funding, NJDA will continue to offer
training to practitioners, including the new Corrections Careworker
Curriculum for juvenile corrections line staff. Additionally, NJDA will
deliver selected training programs for juvenile detention and
corrections line staff on current issues.
This project will be implemented by the current grantee, NJDA. No
additional applications will be solicited in FY 1997.
Training and Technical Support for State and Local Jurisdictional Teams
To Focus on Juvenile Corrections and Detention Overcrowding
The Conditions of Confinement: Juvenile Detention and Correctional
Facilities Research Report (1994), completed by Abt Associates under an
OJJDP grant, identified overcrowding as the most urgent problem facing
juvenile corrections and detention facilities. Overcrowding in juvenile
facilities is a function of decisions and policies made at the State
and local levels. The trend toward increased use of detention and
commitment to State facilities, which has been seen in many
jurisdictions, has been reversed when key decisionmakers, such as the
chief judge, chief of police, director of the local detention facility,
head of the State juvenile correctional agency, and others who affect
the flow of juveniles through the system, agree to make decisions
collaboratively and modify existing practices and policies. In some
instances, modification has occurred in response to court orders.
Compliance
[[Page 35269]]
with court orders can be improved with the support of enhanced
interagency communication and planning among those agencies affecting
the flow of juveniles through the system.
In addressing the problem of overcrowded facilities, OJJDP
considered the recommendations of the Conditions of Confinement study
regarding overcrowding, the data on overrepresentation of minority
youth in confinement, and other information that suggests crowding in
juvenile facilities is a national problem. Policymakers can address
this issue by increasing capacity, where necessary, or by taking other
steps to control crowding.
This project, competitively awarded to the National Juvenile
Detention Association (NJDA) (in partnership with the San Francisco
Youth Law Center) in FY 1994 for a 3-year project period, provides
training and technical assistance materials for use by State and local
jurisdictional teams. In FY 1995, the project collected information on
strategies to control crowding and prepared training and technical
assistance materials. Based on the demonstrated need for assistance and
related criteria, NJDA selected three jurisdictions in FY 1996 (Camden,
New Jersey; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; and the Rhode Island Juvenile
Corrections System) for onsite development, implementation, and testing
of procedures to reduce crowding. In FY 1997, the third year of
funding, the project will continue to provide training and technical
assistance to these sites, complete the development of technical
assistance materials, and assess the procedures used to control
overcrowding.
This project will be implemented by the current grantee, NJDA. No
additional applications will be solicited in FY 1997.
National Program Directory
In FY 1995, OJJDP initiated the development of a National Program
Directory, a national list of all juvenile justice offices, facilities,
and programs in the United States, through the Bureau of the Census.
The Census Bureau developed a directory format for juvenile detention
and correctional facilities, which contains the addresses and phone
numbers of localities, names and titles of directors, and important
classification information, classifies facilities by the agency or firm
that operates them, and lists the functions of the facility. This
structure was developed specifically to provide OJJDP with the ability
to conduct surveys and censuses of juvenile custody facilities. The
effort placed into developing this structure also translated to other
areas, such as a list of juvenile probation offices.
Beyond developing the computer structure, this project developed,
in FY 1996, the actual sampling frame or address list. The development
of complete frames for any segment of the juvenile justice system
required many different approaches. The Census Bureau used contacts
with professional organizations to compile a preliminary list of
juvenile facilities, courts, probation offices, and programs. The
Census Bureau will seek contacts in each State for further
clarification of the lists, following up until a complete list of all
programs of interest has been compiled.
This program will be continued in FY 1997 through an existing
interagency agreement with the Census Bureau. No additional
applications will be solicited in FY 1997.
A Comprehensive Juvenile Sex Offender Typology
The criminal justice system has struggled to address issues related
to juvenile sex offenders' dangerousness, the most appropriate level of
placement restrictiveness, the potential for rehabilitation, assessment
requirements, and intervention needs. Efforts to address these issues
effectively have been hampered by the lack of an empirically-based
system for classifying this heterogeneous population into meaningful
subgroups. OJJDP, in collaboration with other Federal agencies, will
support a competitive research project to generate an empirically
validated typology of the juvenile sex offender that will provide both
the scientific basis for understanding differences between groups of
juvenile sex offenders and direction to guide judicial decisionmaking.
KidsPeace-The National Centers for Kids in Crisis, North America*
The purpose of this program is to provide children in crisis,
specifically seriously disturbed children and adolescents, with
Individual Foster Care (IFC) in a therapeutic family setting. Fiscal
year 1996 accomplishments include opening up family training sessions
to New Jersey foster parents and implementing outreach efforts that
resulted in several hundred calls from individuals interested in
working as foster parents. At present, five families are licensed and
approved. Another 10 families are in various stages of the 10-week
training and approval process. In the near future, a local television
station will broadcast a show featuring the services being offered
through this newly established program in Union, New Jersey.
KidsPeace will expand the program in FY 1997 to additional sites
providing social, emotional, and educational growth and development in
the children served; initial out-of-home placement, community
reintegration from more restrictive residential programs, or an
alternative to failed foster family placements; and intensive family
treatment with professional training, supervision, and ongoing support
to enhance families' abilities to meet the needs of their IFC children.
The program also involves and challenges the family of origin to become
active participants in their child's treatment program (whenever deemed
appropriate by the courts). In FY 1997, KidsPeace will develop an
outcome-based research component to better define the types of children
who are best served in the IFC program, improve the services being
offered, and track the progress of children following discharge from
care.
The program will be implemented by the current grantee, KidsPeace-
The National Centers for Kids in Crisis, North America. No additional
applications will be solicited in FY 1997.
The Bethesda Day Treatment Program
Bethesda Day Treatment is a program of the Bethesda Family Services
Foundation. OJJDP began funding the program in FY 1993 to establish a
program in Philadelphia for serious juvenile offenders. The program was
expanded in FY 1995 to replicate the Bethesda model in 10 national
jurisdictions. Since the original grant was made, the Foundation has
established programs in 17 localities. There are programs currently
operating in Arizona, Florida, Maryland, New Mexico, New York,
Oklahoma, and Pennsylvania.
The Bethesda Day Treatment Program consists of comprehensive
community-based activities designed to safely reduce overcrowding in
secure facilities, provide treatment prior to adjudication, continue
treatment after adjudication or after release from secure treatment,
and provide a continuum of care.
Replication sites receive technical assistance in the development
of six distinct units of program service: day treatment services, a
prep-school, drug and alcohol abuse treatment, foster care, family
systems counseling, and parenting. Accepting juveniles between ages 10
and 17, the program uses 18 different treatment modalities, intensively
penetrating the home, the school, the job site, and the peer group
[[Page 35270]]
in order to interrupt antisocial behavior patterns.
The site replication aspect of this program will be continued in FY
1997 with a continuation award to enable the Bethesda Family Services
Foundation to complete technical assistance delivery to selected sites.
No additional applications will be solicited in FY 1997.
Interagency Programs on Mental Health and Juvenile Justice
In October 1996, OJJDP convened a Mental Health/Juvenile Justice
Working Group to discuss the mental health needs of juveniles and to
suggest funding priorities for OJJDP. The Mental Health/Juvenile
Justice Initiative addresses four of the eight ideas generated by the
working group. These areas include: (1) Assessing screening instruments
and screening procedures to identify multi-needs children, adjudicative
competency, and other mental health issues; (2) examining the
effectiveness of organizational structure and how organizations deal
with providing mental health services on both a short-term and long-
term basis; (3) examining the relationship between mental health and
violence and co-occurring disorders; and (4) looking at best practices
such as the use of common funding streams.
In the Proposed Program Plan, OJJDP expressed interest in providing
support in one or more of these areas in FY 1997 and requested input
from the field on suggested priorities, activities, and program
support. The program was identified as a potential competitive program.
Since the proposed plan was released, OJJDP has reassessed this program
and determined that with the minimal resources available it would be
more cost effective to support several ongoing programs funded by other
Federal agencies. Consequently, OJJDP will not be issuing a competitive
solicitation for a mental health program in FY 1997. Instead, it will
transfer funds to three other agencies to support the enhancement of
juvenile justice components or research on at-risk youth in the mental
health area.
OJJDP will transfer funds to the Center for Mental Health Services
(CMHS), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, to support
technical assistance to the 22 existing CMHS Service Sites and sites
that will be awarded in FY 1997. These funds will be used to strengthen
the capacity of the existing Service Sites to provide technical
assistance on mental health services for juveniles in the juvenile
justice system and to include them in the continuum of care that is
being created in the sites.
OJJDP will also provide funding to CMHS to support the ongoing
development of Guidelines for Psychiatric Systems of Care for
Adolescents in the Juvenile Justice System. These guidelines, which are
being prepared by the American Academy of Child Psychiatry, will
reflect the experiences of the 22 CMHS Service Sites and document the
best principles for systems of care for youth with serious emotional
disturbances involved in the juvenile justice system. Early
identification protocols, models of diversion, and outcomes that
reflect increases in early identification and reduced recidivism will
be highlighted.
OJJDP will also transfer funds to the National Institute of
Corrections (NIC), which, along with the Substance Abuse and Mental
Health Administration, supports a program to provide technical
assistance with regard to dually diagnosed juvenile offenders. NIC will
supplement the existing technical assistance provider, the GAINS
Center, to enable it to devote technical assistance resources to the
support of programs for dually diagnosed youth in the juvenile justice
system. Currently, the focus of the grant is on the provision of
technical assistance to the adult system.
Additionally, OJJDP will transfer funds to the National Institute
of Mental Health to partially support additional costs associated with
the conduct of an expanded and extended followup study of various
treatment modalities for attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD)
in children. The expanded followup will assess substance abuse, use,
and related factors necessary for evaluating changes in ADHD children's
risk for subsequent substance use and abuse attributable to their
randomly assigned treatment conditions. In addition, the multimodal
treatment study of children with ADHD affords the opportunity to assess
the experience of study participants with the legal system, e.g.,
contacts with the juvenile justice system, acts of delinquency, court
referrals, and other criminal and/or precriminal activities.
Funding will be provided to the existing grantees, and no new
applications will be solicited in FY 1997.
Delinquency Prevention and Intervention
Training in Risk-Focused Prevention Strategies
OJJDP will provide additional training in FY 1997 to communities
interested in developing a risk and protective factor-focused
delinquency prevention strategy. This training supports OJJDP's Title V
Community Prevention Grants Program and the Comprehensive Strategy for
Serious, Violent, and Chronic Juvenile Offenders by providing the
knowledge and skills necessary for State, local, and private agency
officials and citizens to identify and address risk factors that lead
to violent and delinquent behavior in children. In FY's 1994-1996, this
training was offered to all States, territories, and the District of
Columbia that received discretionary grants from OJJDP to implement the
Title V program.
After initiating this training program in FY 1994, OJJDP awarded a
competitive contract with FY 1995 funds and continued the contract in
1996 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)
identification, assessment, and addressing of risk factors; (3)
development and provision of training of trainers in selected States to
provide a statewide capacity to train communities in risk-focused
prevention; and (4) provision of technical assistance to States and
localities for needs identified through implementation of the Title V
program.
These services will be provided in FY 1997 through third-year
funding of the contract awarded to Developmental Research and Programs,
Inc. A new competitive solicitation may be issued late in FY 1997 for
award in FY 1998.
Youth Substance Use Prevention Programs (President's Crime Prevention
Council)
Due to the urgency of the problem of drug use among juveniles and
the importance of having Federal agencies undertake collaborative
efforts to make the most efficient and effective use of resources,
OJJDP joined with the President's Crime Prevention Council (PCPC) and
early this year issued a Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) for the
Youth Substance Use Prevention Program and the evaluation of that
program. The program will assist community-based, youth-led, and
grassroots organizations that sponsor activities designed to combat
youth drug and alcohol use and provide an evaluation of the funded
programs. Up to $1 million is being made available from PCPC funds.
OJJDP will administer the program under an interagency agreement with
PCPC.
OJJDP also issued a separate, competitive solicitation to evaluate
the
[[Page 35271]]
Youth Substance Use Prevention Program. The substance use prevention
evaluation strategy used by the selected grantee must be theory driven
and based on sound research principles. Both a process and an outcome
evaluation will be performed. The outcome evaluation will determine
whether youth-led prevention programs are effective. The process
evaluation will define the critical elements of implementing a
successful youth-led prevention program.
The deadlines for applications for the Youth Substance Use
Prevention Program and for its evaluation have passed, and the
selection process for both awards is now under way.
Survey of School-Based Gang Prevention and Intervention Programs
This program will assess school-based gang prevention and
intervention programs to identify promising or successful models for
national demonstration and evaluation or replication and dissemination.
For example, one type of program of interest is a youth gang unit in
the school. The school youth gang unit serves as the first line of
defense against the problem of gangs. Some units address gang crimes
and school rule violations citywide. Another program of interest would
be entrepreneurial skills programs for youth to prevent them from
staying in gangs. Examples of this type of program are found in schools
that develop stores or gardens and train young people in marketable
skills, giving them high school or college credit for successfully
participating in the training.
OJJDP will issue a competitive solicitation for this initiative in
FY 1997.
Youth-Centered Conflict Resolution
Increasing levels of juvenile violence have become a national
concern. Violence in and around school campuses and conflict among
juveniles in both schools and neighborhoods are problems for school
administrators, teachers, parents, community leaders, and the public.
Although experts may debate the merits and impact of the varied
contributing factors, they would agree that most school curriculums do
not provide for the systematic teaching of problem-and conflict-
resolving skills.
To address this issue, OJJDP awarded a competitive cooperative
agreement in FY 1995 for a 3-year project period to the Illinois
Institute for Dispute Resolution (IIDR) to develop, in concert with
other established conflict resolution (CR) organizations, a national
strategy for broad-based education and training in the use of conflict
resolution skills. In support of this task, IIDR conducted three
regional conferences based on a joint publication developed by the
Departments of Justice and Education. IIDR also provided technical
assistance and disseminated information about CR programs to
individuals, organizations, and communities.
In FY 1997, the project will conduct additional training sessions
as part of, or in conjunction with, established meetings or conferences
of national educational, justice, and youth-serving organizations. IIDR
will also develop a training manual and provide training in CR
education to administrators; school staff; and youth, parents, and
staff associated with arts-based programs for at-risk youth. The arts
component is funded by the National Endowment for the Arts.
The project will be implemented by the current grantee, IIDR. No
additional applications will be solicited in FY 1997.
Teens, Crime, and the Community: Teens in Action in the 90s*
This continuation program is conducted by the National Crime
Prevention Council (NCPC) in partnership with the National Institute
for Citizen Education in the Law (NICEL). Teens in Action in the 90s is
a special application of the Teens, Crime, and Community (TCC) program
that operates on the premise that teens, who are disproportionately the
victims of crimes, can contribute to improving their schools and
communities through a broad array of activities.
During FY 1996, the TCC Program expanded through five regional
expansion centers located in New England, the Mid-Atlantic States, the
Mid-South, the Deep South, and the Pacific Northwest Coast. These TCC
projects utilized Boys and Girls Clubs of America and their affiliates
to become partners in TCC efforts in these regions.
More than 5,000 teachers, social service providers, juvenile
justice professionals, law enforcement officers, and other community
leaders participated in intensive training to help sites implement the
TCC curriculum in their communities. More than 1,000 individuals
benefited from technical assistance, materials, and consultation
regarding TCC in areas of program implementation, fund development, and
networking opportunities. In addition, NCPC and NICEL initiated the
implementation of the National Teens, Crime, and the Community Program
in the six SafeFutures sites. In FY 1997, TCC will be implemented in
additional sites throughout the country.
The program will be implemented by the current grantee, NCPC. No
additional applications will be solicited in FY 1997.
Law-Related Education (LRE)*
The national Law-Related Education (LRE) Program, Youth for
Justice, includes 5 coordinated LRE projects and programs operating in
48 States and 4 non-State jurisdictions. Youth for Justice provides
training and technical assistance to State and local school
jurisdictions that are designed to achieve the institutionalization of
quality LRE programs for at-risk juveniles. The major components of the
program are coordination and management, training and technical
assistance, assistance to local program sites, public information, and
program development and assessment. In 1996, the Youth for Justice
program continued to provide materials, training, and technical
assistance to its national network of statewide LRE centers and
sponsored youth summits in more than 40 States. The focus of the
program during FY 1997 will be to continue linking LRE to violence
reduction efforts and to involve program participants in finding
solutions to juvenile violence. Planned activities for FY 1997 include
a national teleconference and dissemination of information about
special applications of LRE developed for high-risk segments of the
population (middle school students and teen parents). Youth for Justice
will also produce and disseminate a technical assistance compendium of
LRE research and best practices.
This program will be implemented by the current grantees, the
American Bar Association, the Center for Civic Education, the
Constitutional Rights Foundation, the National Institute for Citizen
Education in the Law, and Phi Alpha Delta. No additional applications
will be solicited in FY 1997.
Communities in Schools--Federal Interagency Partnership
This program is a continuation of a national school dropout
prevention model developed and implemented by Communities In Schools,
Inc. (CIS). CIS, Inc., provides training and technical assistance to
CIS programs in States and local communities, enabling them to adapt
and implement the CIS model. The model brings social, employment,
mental health, drug prevention, entrepreneurship, and other resources
to high-risk youth and their families in the school setting. Where CIS
State organizations are established, they assume primary responsibility
for local
[[Page 35272]]
program replication during the Federal Interagency Partnership.
The Federal Interagency Partnership program is based on the
following strategies: (1) To enhance CIS, Inc., training and technical
assistance capabilities; (2) to enhance the organization's capability
to introduce selected initiatives to CIS youth at the local level; (3)
to enhance the CIS, Inc., information dissemination network capability;
and (4) to enhance the CIS, Inc., capability to network with Federal
agencies on behalf of State and local CIS programs.
Fiscal year 1996 accomplishments under the Federal Interagency
Partnership include the following: (1) Continued support and expansion
of the CIS Youth Entrepreneurial Project, including 16 student-run
entrepreneurship programs; (2) expansion of a consulting program
consisting of a pool of CIS State and local program directors and other
experts to support programs that include community collaboration,
strategic planning, and working with at-risk youth; (3) production and
distribution of two issues of Facts You Can Use: Seeds of Help, a
technical publication concentrating on functional areas of importance
to local CIS programs and the sponsors of the Federal Interagency
Partnership; and (4) a 3-day training session featuring presentations
from Federal agencies on the financial and programmatic resources
available through their Departments.
Fiscal year 1997 activities under consideration include: (1)
Provide continuing training and technical assistance on family
strengthening and parent participation initiatives that will expand and
enhance CIS family service activities; (2) offer and provide training
and technical assistance, as requested, to the six SafeFutures sites;
(3) work with groups identified by the U.S. Department of Commerce to
continue to support the development of a CIS program serving a Native
American community in Rapid City, South Dakota; (4)support the
continued expansion of the CIS Youth Entrepreneurship initiative; (5)
update and produce the publication CIS: A History of Partnership and
produce and distribute the CIS Facts You Can Use technical bulletin
quarterly; (6) continue to identify violence prevention and gang
prevention programs appropriate for use by the CIS network; and (7)
continue to incorporate evaluated family strengthening programs in the
Facts You Can Use technical bulletin and the Federal Products Showcase.
The Federal Interagency Partnership program is jointly funded by
OJJDP and the Department of Commerce under an OJJDP grant. The program
will be implemented by the current grantee, Communities In Schools,
Inc. No additional applications will be solicited in FY 1997.
The Congress of National Black Churches: National Anti-Drug Abuse/
Violence Campaign (NADVC)
OJJDP will continue to fund the Congress of National Black
Churches' (CNBC) national public awareness and mobilization strategy to
address the problem of juvenile drug abuse and violence in targeted
communities. The goal of the CNBC national strategy is to summon,
focus, and coordinate the leadership of the black religious community,
in cooperation with the Department of Justice and other Federal
agencies and organizations, to mobilize groups of community residents
to combat juvenile drug abuse and drug-related violence.
The campaign now operates in 37 city alliances, having grown from 5
original target cities. The smallest of these alliances consists of 6
churches and the largest has 135 churches. The NADVC program involves
approximately 2,220 clergy and affects 1.5 million youth and the adults
who influence their lives. NADVC also provides technical support to
four statewide religious coalitions.
As a result of NADVC's technical assistance and training workshops,
project sites have been able to leverage more than $2 million in
private and government funding.
NADVC has contributed to the planning and presentation of numerous
technical assistance and training conferences on violence and substance
abuse prevention and produced a National Training and Site Development
Guide and a video to assist sites in implementing the NADVC model.
In addition, in FY 1996, NADVC became a partner in the Education
Development Center's (EDC) Juvenile Hate Crime Initiative. NADVC used
EDC's hate crime curriculum to focus on prevention through the networks
and resources in the faith community to address the impact and roles of
juveniles and youth in engaging in and preventing hate crimes. NADVC is
currently providing training and technical assistance in South
Carolina, the location of the majority of the recent church burnings in
the United States.
The expansion of activities in FY 1997 will be accomplished through
NADVC's Regional Hate Crime Prevention Initiative, the Campaign's model
for anti-drug/violence strategies, and NADVC's faith community network.
The program, which will continue to expand to new sites in FY 1997
and enhance efforts to address hate crime and family violence
intervention issues, will be implemented by the current grantee, CNBC.
No additional applications will be solicited in FY 1997.
Risk Reduction Via Promotion of Youth Development
Risk Reduction Via Promotion of Youth Development, located in South
Carolina, is a large-scale prevention trial involving hundreds of
children and several elementary schools located in lower socioeconomic
neighborhoods of Columbia, South Carolina. This program is the result
of an interagency agreement with the National Institute of Mental
Health (NIMH). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the
National Institute on Drug Abuse have also provided funding for the
program.
The trial involves a large-scale project designed to promote
coping-competence and reduce risk for conduct problems, substance use,
and school failure beginning in early elementary school. Interventions
include a classroom program, a schoolwide conflict management program,
peer social skills training, and home-based family programming. The
sample includes African American and Caucasian children attending
schools located in lower income neighborhoods. There is a sample of
high-risk children (showing early aggressive behavior at school entry)
and a second sample of lower risk children (residing in
socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods). The interventions begin
in first grade, and children are followed longitudinally throughout the
5 years of the project. A major goal is to reduce the development of
conduct problems, aggression, and subsequent delinquency and violence.
The project also seeks to alter home and school climates in order to
reduce risk for adverse outcomes and to promote positive youth
development.
This program will be implemented through a fund transfer to NIMH
under an interagency agreement. No additional applications will be
solicited in FY 1997.
Community Anti-Drug Abuse Technical Assistance Voucher Project
Through the Community Anti-Drug Abuse Technical Assistance Voucher
Project, the National Center for Neighborhood Enterprise (NCNE) awards
vouchers to grassroots organizations to purchase technical assistance
and training to effectively
[[Page 35273]]
address the problem of juvenile drug abuse.
As a result of a large number of incoming applications, NCNE has
established a clearinghouse featuring 1,224 promising and proven anti-
drug programs. They are part of the NCNE National Clearinghouse of
Youth Anti-Drug Abuse Programs. Twenty-nine organizations received
voucher awards totaling $62,000 in FY 1996. Awards ranged from $1,000
to $10,000 per site.
The impact of technical assistance vouchers includes enhanced
organizational visibility, larger grant awards for indigenous groups,
and expanded and increased services resulting from technical assistance
in program development and staff training. In addition to awarding
vouchers for technical assistance, NCNE provides technical assistance
to applicants regarding the development of their mission, goals, and
objectives.
The Community Anti-Drug Abuse Technical Assistance Voucher Project
will be implemented by the current grantee, NCNE. No additional
applications will be solicited in FY 1997.
Training and Technical Assistance for Family Strengthening Programs
Prevention, early intervention, and effective crisis intervention
are critical elements in a community's family support system. In many
communities, one or more of these elements may be missing or programs
may not be coordinated. In addition, technical assistance and training
are often not available to community organizations and agencies
providing family strengthening services. In response, OJJDP awarded a
3-year competitive cooperative agreement in FY 1995 to the University
of Utah's Department of Health and Education to provide training and
technical assistance to communities interested in establishing or
enhancing a continuum of family strengthening efforts. In the first
program year, the grantee drafted a literature review and summaries of
exemplary programs; conducted a national search for, rated, and
selected family strengthening models; planned 2 regional training
conferences to showcase the selected exemplary and promising family
strengthening programs; convened the first conference for 250 attendees
in Salt Lake City, Utah; and developed an application process for sites
to receive followup training on specific program models. In FY 1997,
the grantee will complete the literature review and model program
summaries; convene the second regional conference in Washington, D.C.;
conduct program-specific workshops; produce user and training-of-
trainers guides; and distribute videos of several family strengthening
workshops.
This program will continue to be implemented by the current
grantee, the University of Utah's Department of Health and Education.
No additional applications will be solicited in FY 1997.
Training and Technical Assistance To Promote Teen Court Programs
OJJDP considers teen courts, also called peer courts, to be a
promising mechanism for holding juvenile offenders accountable for
their actions while promoting avenues for positive youth development.
Teen courts are included as a promising early intervention program in
OJJDP's Comprehensive Strategy for Serious, Violent, and Chronic
Juvenile Offenders.
To encourage the use of teen court programs to address problems
associated with delinquency, substance abuse, and traffic safety, OJJDP
provided funding in FY 1996 to supplement the existing Teen Court
Programs Project of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
(NHTSA) of the U.S. Department of Transportation. The NHTSA grant was
awarded in FY 1994 for a 3-year project period to the American
Probation and Parole Association (APPA) to develop a teen court guide
and provide training and technical assistance to develop or enhance
teen court programs. This existing NHTSA grant and OJJDP's FY 1996
funds supported the development of the joint publication Peer Justice
and Youth Empowerment: An Implementation Guide for Teen Court Programs
and additional technical assistance to three selected sites. Technical
assistance to develop or enhance teen courts was provided to Lane and
Deschuttes Counties in Oregon; Minnesota Planning, Inc., in St. Paul,
Minnesota; and the Orange County Teen Court Program in Orlando,
Florida. The additional funds from OJJDP enabled APPA to provide more
onsite assistance to each of the three agencies in the areas of
identifying problems and overcoming barriers.
The national response to the training and technical assistance and
to the Guide has been enthusiastic. NHTSA and OJJDP have received
numerous requests to provide additional training seminars and technical
assistance based on the Guide. In FY 1997, OJJDP will provide funding
to NHTSA through an interagency agreement to supplement the existing
grant with APPA. This will enable APPA to provide six intensive
training seminars and site-specific technical assistance to three
additional sites in FY 1997. The seminars will each cover 2\1/2\ days
of intensive training that is accredited by APPA for 1\1/2\ continuing
education units to help maintain certification or for employment or
school requirements. Technical assistance will be provided to three
selected jurisdictions with site-specific strategic planning for the
program organizers on developing, implementing, or enhancing teen court
programs. To be eligible for technical assistance, recipients need to
have completed an APPA teen court training seminar. A request for
proposals will be sent to the six training seminar participants and to
participants who completed earlier teen court training seminars held by
APPA. Site selection for the training and technical assistance will be
determined by APPA project staff with input and approval from OJJDP and
NHTSA.
This project will be implemented by the current NHTSA grantee,
APPA. No additional applications will be solicited in FY 1997.
Evaluation of Teen Courts
Teen courts constitute one approach to reducing underage drinking,
impaired driving, and other problem behaviors of youth such as
shoplifting and vandalism. Teen courts emphasize concepts such as
accountability, positive peer influence, competency development, and
youth empowerment and involvement. Teen court programs offer
jurisdictions a potential means for holding youthful offenders
accountable for problem behaviors, including those for which they
previously may have received little or no intervention.
In FY 1997, OJJDP will begin an evaluation of teen court programs
currently underway in communities across the country. During this
initial phase, OJJDP will award a competitive grant to conduct an
inventory of as many teen courts and teen court models as can be found
in operation and to develop a strategy for selecting programs that have
a sound theoretical foundation and are structured to support a rigorous
evaluation that will help to refine that program model. This program
will encourage a collaborative research approach between practitioners
and researchers. Upon determination of the evaluation potential of the
identified sites, OJJDP will support a full process and impact
evaluation of these programs in subsequent fiscal years.
Henry Ford Health System
The Henry Ford Health System (HFHS) Center has developed and
initiated a program in Detroit with FY
[[Page 35274]]
1995 and FY 1996 OJJDP funds that serves the Northern High School
attendance area, including seven elementary schools and two middle
schools that serve as feeder schools for Northern High School. Michigan
Formula Grants Program funds assisted in this effort. The underlying
objective of the program is the reduction of gang and community
violence among children attending these Detroit schools. The program is
designed to identify individuals at moderate to high risk of violence,
assess the needs of the target population of youth and the resources
available in the community to deal with those needs, coordinate
community resources to create comprehensive violence reduction
programs, and evaluate the efficacy of component programs and the
initiative as a whole. Evaluation will be based on the project's effect
on reducing the incidence of specific violent acts, in both school and
community settings.
Five health centers were opened in 1996. The staff include a
physician assistant, nurse practitioners, social workers, medical
assistants, and receptionists. Along with analysis of crime and health
data from the past 2 years in the target area, surveys were conducted
in six of the school's areas. The health education programs were
created in direct response to needs identified by community surveys and
an overall evaluation of community resources. In FY 1997, this program
will implement centers in the remaining school sites and strengthen the
multiple component activities in each school such as community patrols,
tutoring, drama, peer education, and substance abuse prevention.
This program will be implemented by the current grantee, HFHS. No
new applications will be solicited in FY 1997.
Angel Gate Academy*
In FY 1997, OJJDP will fund the Angel Gate Academy, a 4-week
residential program jointly developed by the California National Guard
(CNG), which runs the program, and the Los Angeles Unified School
District (LAUSD), which recruits and refers high-risk youth and
provides both teachers for the camp and reintegration support when the
youth return to their respective schools.
Targeted youth are between 11 and 14 years of age and are referred
to the program by the LAUSD because they are exhibiting various high-
risk behaviors. Their participation is voluntary, and parents are
actively involved in the referral decision and in participating with
staff during the reintegration program. All of the children are part of
the IMPACT counseling program that is supported by Drug-Free Schools
and Communities funding from the U.S. Department of Education.
The camp is located on a National Guard facility near San Luis
Obispo, California. At the camp, the youth learn discipline and
leadership skills and participate in an educational program at nearby
Cuesta College. The youth spend most of the day in the education
program, where they participate in a curriculum that teaches critical
thinking skills, science, and math. Additional educational experiences
in writing and literacy are provided by the assigned LAUSD teachers.
Other modules provided under the curriculum jointly developed by the
CNG and LAUSD include physical fitness training, leadership training
through drill and ceremony, self-discipline, team building, IMPACT
counseling, and enrichment activities.
It is anticipated that up to 460 youth will participate in the 7
camps during this 9- to 10-month program. When they return to their
schools, they will again engage in the intensive IMPACT counseling
program and their parents will be provided the opportunity to
participate in parenting classes by the LAUSD.
No additional applications will be solicited in FY 1997.
Suffolk County PAL (Police Athletic League)*
The Suffolk County Police Athletic League Program provides
recreational and athletic programs to hundreds of children in Suffolk
County, New York. The youth are coached by police volunteers from the
surrounding area. With this OJJDP grant, the Suffolk County PAL will
expand its program over a 2-year period to increase the number of youth
who participate; add a mentoring/tutoring component that will recruit
law enforcement, business, and community leaders to mentor the youth;
and fund an impact evaluation of the program. This 2-year effort will
result in serving at least 400 new children each year.
This program will be implemented by Suffolk County PAL. No
additional applications will be solicited in FY 1997.
Do the Write Thing
A program of the National Campaign to Stop Violence, the Do The
Write Thing program was founded in 1994. The program approach is to
encourage at-risk youth to write about the violence and drugs in their
neighborhoods and lives, to identify solutions, and commit to a
personal course of action to reduce violence. The program focuses on
youth ages 12-14, offering them a therapeutic way to deal with the
violence that surrounds them.
Do The Write Thing began as a local project in Washington, D.C. In
1996, the program expanded to 10 cities, with 300 middle schools and
5,000 children participating. Participating cities are Washington,
D.C.; Atlanta, Georgia; Chicago, Illinois; Detroit, Michigan; Houston,
Texas; Los Angeles, California; Las Vegas, Nevada; Miami, Florida; New
York, New York; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The program received
solid support from mayors, police chiefs, judges, prosecutors, school
superintendents, and other community leaders. With corporate and
government support, including OJJDP, Do The Write Thing was able to
compile and distribute a publication of winning essays and sponsor a
national recognition ceremony in Washington, D.C.
In FY 1997, OJJDP will assist the program to expand the project
within the ten existing sites and begin the process of expanding to new
sites for the 1997-98 school year. The Do The Write Thing program will
be implemented by the National Campaign to Stop Violence. No additional
applications will be solicited in FY 1997.
Child Abuse and Neglect and Dependency Courts
Permanent Families for Abused and Neglected Children*
This is a national project to prevent unnecessary foster care
placement of abused and neglected children, reunify the families of
children in care, and provide permanent adoptive homes when
reunification is impossible. The purpose is to ensure that foster care
is used only as a last resort and as a temporary solution. Accordingly,
the project is designed to make certain that government's
responsibility to children in foster care is acknowledged by
appropriate disciplines. Project activities include national training
programs for judges, social service personnel, citizen volunteers, and
others under the ``reasonable efforts'' provision of the Social
Security Act, as amended, 42 U.S.C. 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). Under this project, NCJFCJ also provides
technical assistance to help communities improve handling of child
abuse and neglect
[[Page 35275]]
cases and supports replication of the model court improvement program
in selected jurisdictions.
During the past project year, 31 State and national training
programs were held. NCJFCJ also implemented a new program to divert
families from the court system through arbitration under court
supervision in a number of courts, using private funding sources. The
court diversion project and efforts to improve dependency court
administration, documented in the publication Resource Guidelines:
Improving Court Practice in Abuse and Neglect Cases, were incorporated
into training under this project. NCJFCJ also worked closely with
allied national organizations, including the National Association of
Public Child Welfare Administrators, the Association of Interstate
Compact Administrators, and the National Court Appointed Special
Advocate Association, to coordinate and leverage efforts to improve
permanency planning for children. A key activity was the development of
a curriculum to train judges and compact administrators on the new
regulations regarding interstate placement.
With FY 1997 funds, NCJFCJ will continue and expand its training
and technical assistance efforts, update the permanency planning
curriculum, and strengthen and establish new linkages with allied
organizations. The project's purpose remains focused on improving the
ability of the dependency courts and related systems to make timely and
informed decisions on placement for children and adolescents.
The Permanent Families for Abused and Neglected Children program
will be implemented by the current grantee, NCJFCJ. No additional
applications will be solicited in FY 1997.
Parents Anonymous, Inc.*
Parents Anonymous, Inc. (PA) establishes groups and adjunct
programs that respond to the needs of families through a mutual support
model of parents and professionals sharing their expertise and their
belief in each individual's ability to grow and change in ways that
create caring and safe environments for themselves and their children.
In FY 1994, OJJDP supported PA to enhance its mission to prevent child
abuse and neglect by developing a new capability within the PA network
to address the needs of high-risk, inner-city, and Native American
populations.
As a result of OJJDP funding, PA has developed and maintained 40
new groups serving families of color in high-risk neighborhoods and on
reservations in 12 States. In FY 1996, PA produced extensive technical
assistance materials through two national teleconferences for several
hundred participants on Successful Parents Anonymous Groups in Prisons
and Promoting Effective Parent Leadership and conducted two regional
conferences in Phoenix and Atlanta providing training to develop and
maintain PA programs. PA also published and distributed nationwide
16,000 copies of Innovations, the PA, Inc., newsletter, with focused
articles on the needs of Latino families and cultural responsiveness,
and 30,000 copies of The Parent Networker, the PA, Inc., newsletter by
and for parents. PA produced two program bulletins, Parent Leadership
Is a Powerful Tool for Outreach, Public Awareness and Advocacy and
Parents Anonymous as Parent Education: A Model for Success Based on
Adult Learning Styles, and developed a manual for the PA National
Network providing concrete methods for implementing PA programs in
high-risk communities. PA also produced a brochure for judges,
probation officers, and other professionals serving youth with
delinquency problems and began information sharing to plan technical
assistance for SafeFutures sites.
During FY 1997, PA, Inc., plans to (1) expand program sites for
families of color with a specific focus on Minnesota, New Jersey,
Oregon, and Texas; (2) provide technical assistance and training to PA
groups with a focus on targeted populations and/or groups held in
specialized settings such as local jails, State prisons, and Federal
penitentiaries for incarcerated mothers and fathers; (3) develop a
special national fathers' initiative in sites across the United States;
(4) develop new program materials to address the needs of families of
color; (5) expand PA's emphasis on parent leadership; and (6) create
media opportunities for outreach, public awareness, and education on PA
for professionals and families.
The project will be implemented by the current grantee, PA, Inc. No
additional applications will be solicited in FY 1997.
Missing and Exploited Children
Jimmy Ryce Law Enforcement Training Center*
This program establishes the Jimmy Ryce Law Enforcement Training
Center (JRLETC) at the National Center for Missing and Exploited
Children (NCMEC). The purpose of JRLETC is to enhance the overall
response to nonparental abductions by providing training and technical
assistance to Federal, State, and local law enforcement personnel.
Fiscal year 1997 funds will be expended as follows:
NCMEC will expand its national Chief Executive Officer (CEO)
training seminar into a 3-day course. The seminar will highlight the
most current research and practices and provide information pertaining
to comprehensive response protocols and NCMEC and Federal resources to
assist State and local law enforcement.
Fox Valley Technical College (FVTC), OJJDP's missing children
training contractor, will accelerate delivery of the Response to
Missing and Exploited Children training course. This course targets
State and local law enforcement and contains modules providing
investigative information on all aspects of missing children cases.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) Criminal Justice
Information Services Division will provide training for National Crime
Information Center (NCIC) Control Terminal Officers in the new NCIC
flagging system, Federal resources to assist State and local law
enforcement investigating missing children cases, and NCIC Missing
Person File definitions.
The FBI Child Abduction Serial Killer Unit (CASKU) will provide
training and technical assistance to State and local law enforcement
investigating difficult missing children cases. CASKU and the Hardiman
Task Force will assess incident response for the purposes of curriculum
development and will assist in the CEO training at JRLETC.
Fiscal year 1997 funds will be awarded by grant or transferred via
interagency agreement to the organizations carrying out the activities
outlined above. No additional applications will be solicited in FY
1997.
Dated: June 24, 1997.
Shay Bilchik,
Administrator, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
[FR Doc. 97-16858 Filed 6-27-97; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4410-18-P