OARS funding Criminal Justice

Currently, crime and forensics labs across the country are overwhelmed. This backup can often lead to delays in forensic lab testing and analysis, leading to a ripple effect of delayed prosecution and adjudication throughout the system. While some forensic analysis must be conducted in a laboratory environment, other methods are emerging, like rapid drug testing, that can be performed in the field. Currently, a lack of training and technical assistance related to the development and implementation of these technologies and techniques at the local level exists. This program seeks to fill that void. Under this program, BJA will select an applicant to establish a pilot program to develop a nationwide training model, led by an accredited institution of higher learning, pertaining to available rapid identification technology and scientifically sound field collection and testing methods which can be used when drugs are discovered in the field. The training should support evidence collection and testing technologies and methods that are reliable within State and Local court system.

The Supporting Small and Rural Law Enforcement Agency Body-Worn Camera Policy and Implementation Program (SRA-BWC) directly supports key priorities of the Department of Justice by promoting the safety of law enforcement officers and citizens by strengthening the means for evidence capture and by contributing to improved justice outcomes. Both formal research publications and testimonials by law enforcement executives have shown that BWCs, when properly implemented, contribute myriad benefits to law enforcement organizations, their personnel, and the communities they serve. BWC use can have a moderating effect on citizens' behavior; has been shown to reduce use-of-force incidents and citizen complaints; and can help strengthen mutual respect and civility in citizen police interactions. Digital footage from BWCs can provide critical visual and audio records of interactions. The benefits of BWCs can be optimized when properly implemented as part of a deliberate program of carefully thought-out policies and practices in coordination with broader agency missions, including officer safety, accountability, increased disparity, training, and efficiency.

OVC is seeking applications to implement projects intended to improve outcomes, minimize additional trauma, and restore safety and security to older adult victims of abuse and financial exploitation. OVC anticipates making up to 12 awards up to $500,000. OVC expects to make awards for a 36-month period of performance, to begin on October 1, 2020. OVC expects to make awards for a 36-month period of performance, to begin on October 1, 2020. OVC will conduct a pre-application webinar on Thursday, March 26, 2020, from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. e.t. Register at www.ovc.gov/grants/webinars.html. Apply by May 5, 2020.

The Louisiana State University Special Collections department invites applications to our 2020-2021 research travel grant program. Grants of at least $1,000 are available to support travel, lodging, and additional expenses during a research visit to Baton Rouge, LA. Collection strengths include the Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley Collections (LLMVC), comprised of over 10 million manuscript items, 50,000 published materials, and 250,000 photographs documenting the region's social, economic, political, cultural, literary, environmental, and military history. Additional collection strengths can be found online: https://lib.lsu.edu/special/CC.

The goal of this program is to deliver programming to address and help stop the practice of female genital mutilation and cutting (FGM) under two purpose areas (PAs). PA 1: a training and technical assistance provider will educate law enforcement, public health professionals, educators, and other professionals on detecting at-risk girls and provide support to the project sites. PA 2: project sites will develop services to deliver to victims of FGM and work to increase education, detection, and local partner engagement to address and help stop victimization through FGM. OVC anticipates making one award under PA 1 of up to $1.2 million and up to eight awards under PA 2 of up to $300,000 each. OVC expects to make awards for a 36-month period of performance, to begin on October 1, 2020. Apply by April 30, 2020.

This initiative is intended to support or expand on federal, state, local, and tribal efforts to enforce crime victims’ rights. Applicants may apply under the following purpose areas: victims’ rights legal clinics that will provide legal representation to victims and train allied professionals in an effort to enforce victims’ rights in the criminal justice process (Purpose Area 1), and one training and technical assistance provider to provide support to the selected legal clinics (Purpose Area 2). OVC anticipates making up to eight awards under purpose area 1 and one award under purpose 2 of up to $1 million each. OVC expects to make awards for a 36-month period of performance, to begin on October 1, 2020. OVC will conduct a pre-application webinar on Thursday, March 12, 2020, from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. e.t. Register at www.ovc.gov/grants/webinars.html. Apply by April 27, 2020.

The National Domestic Violence Homicide Prevention Training and Technical Assistance Resource Center (NDVHP TARC) will provide customized and intensive training and technical assistance to jurisdictions interested in implementing a domestic violence homicide prevention (DVHP) intervention. This project may develop and/or enhance a community assessment tool that will be used to assess a jurisdiction's capacity to implement a DVHP intervention, maintain a resource center about existing and new DVHP interventions, and provide training, technical assistance, and resources for each of the professions, to include law enforcement, domestic violence victim service providers, prosecutors, judges and other court staff, involved in implementing a DVHP intervention.

The National Violence Against Women Law Enforcement Training and Technical Assistance Consortium (NLETC) to support the training and technical assistance (TTA) needs of state, tribal, territorial, and local law enforcement agencies, sworn officers, and civilian staff that will enhance and strengthen law enforcement responses to domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking. The NLETC will also provide targeted TTA to tribal law enforcement on sex trafficking. The NLETC reflects OVW's commitment to ensuring that law enforcement responses to and investigations of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking are victim-centered, can aid in successful prosecution, and empower victims to heal and achieve safety and justice.

The U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (DRL) announces an open competition for organizations interested in submitting applications for projects that promote the rule of law for the protection and realization of human rights; create the necessary conditions for accountability; improve access to justice in Libya; promote gender equality; and combat gender-based violence (GBV).

SCA funding helps jurisdictions around the country develop, implement, and test strategies and programs to assist youth and adults as they transition out of detention and incarceration and reenter their communities. Using SCA appropriations, BJA and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) award grants directly to state and local governments, federally recognized Indian tribes, and nonprofit organizations to provide and improve reentry services with the goal of reducing recidivism.

The Reducing Injury and Death of Missing Individuals with Dementia and Developmental Disabilities Program supports local jurisdictions’ efforts to reduce the number of deaths and injuries of individuals with forms of dementia such as Alzheimer’s disease or developmental disabilities such as autism who, due to their condition, wander from safe environments. It provides funding to law enforcement and public safety agencies to implement locative technologies to track missing individuals; and to such agencies and partnering nonprofit organizations to develop or operate programs to prevent wandering, increase individuals’ safety, and facilitate rescues.

In 2012, the Ministry of Public Security of Costa Rica designed a model of the police service implemented by quadrant, which aimed to improve the quality of service provided to citizens by assigning specific responsibilities to police officers who serve in a small geographical area, called a quadrant. However, seven years later the police service model is not being implemented in all police stations in the country and, where it is being implemented, there is no evidence that the model has achieved its main objective. For this reason, the Directorate of Public Force has expressed the need to optimize this police service model by incorporating the principles of the problem-oriented policing (POP) and evidence-based policing. This will enable evidence with targeting and scientific methods to improve the quality of police services, reducing crime rates and increasing the confidence and perception of security in Costa Rica. The specific problem is that the current management model for the police force is ambiguous, inadequate and has no scientific basis, which makes the model urgent to be optimized in order to improve the police force's response to the population's security needs.

The justice system is an important target for HIV prevention and treatment, as an estimated 25% of all people living with HIV will pass through the justice system each year. As well, a high proportion of people with opioid use disorder (OUD) and people who inject drugs (PWID) pass through the justice system each year. OUD and injection drug use elevate HIV risk. Community re-entry from incarceration is a time of heightened risk for substance use relapse, opioid-related mortality, HIV risk behaviors, and discontinuation of HIV treatment. Justice involved people who have HIV, or who are at elevated risk for HIV, should have the opportunity to receive evidence-based HIV services appropriate to their level of risk. These include screening, initiation on Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) or highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), and engagement in related substance use disorder treatment services. HIV treatment-as-prevention can help reach the goal of ending the HIV epidemic in the United States. This initiative aligns with the NIH-OAR priority of reducing the incidence of HIV, and with the President's objective to End the HIV Epidemic by 2030.

In collaboration with OVC, NIJ seeks proposals for formative evaluations, evaluability assessments, and/or evaluations of victims of crime service programs. NIJ is interested in evaluations of different types of victim services including, but not limited to, programs embedded in hospitals/trauma centers; umbrella/network organizations; one-stop victim services programs; and/or programs embedded in criminal justice agencies. NIJ recognizes that many victim services programs may not be ready to support rigorous outcome evaluations, and as such, a phased approach is needed. Applicants should plan to conduct a formative evaluation, as well as, an evaluability assessment to determine whether an outcome evaluation of the program or model is possible. Applicants should consider the diverse array of victim service programs.

This solicitation seeks applications for funding for research and evaluation projects that expand understanding of the phenomena of elder abuse, in its many forms, and the effectiveness of strategies to prevent such abuse. NIJ anticipates at least $2 million will be available to fund multiple grant awards, with potential funding from the Office of Victims of Crime (OVC) and the USDOJ Civil Division.

NIDA is interested in research that addresses research gaps related to the delivery of integrated treatment services for HIV and opioid use disorder (OUD) among the justice-involved population in the US, with a goal of improving treatment management and implementation. A quarter of people with HIV pass through the justice system each year, making it an important system for HIV prevention and treatment. Community re-entry from incarceration is a time of heightened risk for opioid relapse, mortality, HIV risk behaviors, and discontinuation of HIV treatment. Given these elevated levels of risk, justice-involved PWID should be prioritized for screening and linkage to the full continuum of HIV prevention and treatment services, including Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). There is a need to better understand the effectiveness of the clinical interventions as received in this population, as well as the methods by which those interventions are delivered (navigation/mobile services).

The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) seeks an applicant to conduct the collection, analysis, and dissemination activities for the Annual Surveys of Probation and Parole (ASPP) for the collection years 2020 through 2024. The current funding is for the first 3 years of the award; the final 2 years will be funded upon successful completion of 2020-2022 data. The ASPP are two separate data collections, independently referred to as the Annual Probation Survey and Annual Parole Survey. Since 1980, the ASPP have collected aggregate data on the number of persons supervised on probation or parole (i.e., post-custody community supervision), together referred to as the community supervision population. The ASPP obtain aggregated data from administrative records maintained by state probation and/or parole agencies; local agencies (municipal, county, or court); and the federal system. The ASPP are core BJS data collections and are the only national data collections that describe the size, change, movements, outcomes, and characteristics of the community supervision populations at the national, federal, and state levels. Together with data from the National Prisoner Statistics (NPS) Program, which collects counts of persons incarcerated in federal and state prisons, and data from the Annual Survey of Jails, which collects counts of persons held in local jails, ASPP data are used to estimate the total number of persons supervised by the adult correctional systems in the United States. Collectively, these data collections are also critical for tracking the level and change in the correctional populations over time and enhancing the understanding of the flow of offenders through and eventually out of the criminal justice system.

The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) seeks an agent to conduct data collection and related activities for the National Prisoner Statistics program (NPS) and the National Corrections Reporting Program (NCRP). This award covers the four collection cycles for reporting years 2020 through 2024. The project period is October 1 2020, through September 30, 2025.These two programs were first competed together for the RY 2014-2019 award. The current funding is for the first 3 years of the award; the final 2 years will be funded upon successful completion of 2020-2022 data. The NPS and NCRP are BJS's flagship data collections measuring the size and composition of state and federal prison populations on an annual basis. The two collections complement each other by obtaining aggregate and detailed individual-level information on prisoners, which is used to describe and compare the prison population over time. The NPS collects aggregate counts of the male and female custody and jurisdictional prison populations as of December 31 each year. State departments of corrections (DOCs) and the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) use their administrative records to tally their prison populations by jurisdiction, types of prison admissions and releases during the past year, race/Hispanic origin, and capacity of the facilities that hold prisoners in their custody. NPS also provides annual information on the number of confirmed cases of HIV/AIDS and current testing policies for these conditions. NPS has been collected annually since 1926, and these data are used in BJS's Prisoners series and Corrections Populations in the United States series bulletins.

The Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) directs DOJ to provide grants to jurisdictions and agencies nationwide to "protect inmates (particularly from prison rape) and to safeguard the communities to which inmates return." 34 USC 30305(a). Federal funds awarded to grantees may be used to protect inmates by "undertaking efforts to more effectively prevent prison rape; investigating incidents of prison rape; or prosecuting incidents of prison rape." 34 USC 30305 (b)(1).

The Intellectual Property Enforcement Program (IPEP), administered by BJA, is designed to provide national support and improve the capacity of state, local, and tribal criminal justice systems to address IP enforcement, including prosecution, prevention, training, and technical assistance. Awards will be made by BJA to support law enforcement agencies in coordinating the goals, objectives, and activities of their IP enforcement task forces in close collaboration with the relevant state, local, tribal, and federal agencies, to include local U.S. Attorney's Offices (USAOs).