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/ 2002
/ June
/ Wednesday, June 05, 2002
[Federal Register: June 5, 2002 (Volume 67, Number 108)]
[Notices]
[Page 38819-38840]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr05jn02-87]
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Part V
Department of Justice
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Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
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Final Program Plan for Fiscal Year 2002; Notice
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DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
[OJP (OJJDP)-1337F]
Final Program Plan for Fiscal Year 2002
AGENCY: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Office
of Justice Programs, Justice.
ACTION: Notice of Final Program Plan for fiscal year 2002.
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SUMMARY: The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention is
publishing this notice of its Final Program Plan for fiscal year (FY)
2002.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: The Office of Juvenile Justice and
Delinquency Prevention at 202-307-5911. [This is not a toll-free
number.]
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Office of Juvenile Justice and
Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) is a component of the Office of Justice
Programs in the U.S. Department of Justice. Pursuant to the provisions
of Section 204 (b)(5)(A) of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
Prevention Act of 1974, as amended, 42 U.S.C. 5601 et seq. (JJDP Act),
the Acting Administrator of OJJDP published for public comment a
Proposed Plan describing the program activities that OJJDP proposed to
carry out during fiscal year (FY) 2002 under Parts C and D of Title II
of the JJDP Act, codified at 42 U.S.C. 5651-5665a, 5667, 5667a. The
public was invited to comment on OJJDP's Proposed Program Plan for
fiscal year 2002, which was published in the Federal Register on
October 23, 2001 (66 FR 53692-710). The deadline for submitting
comments on the Proposed Plan was December 7, 2001.
During that time period, however, mail delivery to OJJDP was
temporarily halted as a result of the extraordinary circumstances
arising from the September 11 terrorist acts and subsequent anthrax
attacks involving the U.S. mail.
All incoming U.S. Department of Justice mail was quarantined until
the threat could be analyzed and screening and safety precautions could
be instituted. Consequently, in order to properly review, consider, and
respond to any comments submitted by the public on its Proposed Plan,
OJJDP temporarily delayed publication of the FY 2002 Final Program
Plan. OJJDP has only recently begun to receive its backlogged mail.
However, in order to move ahead with publication of the Final Program
Plan, OJJDP determined to publicly respond to those comments received
by March 1, 2002.
The Acting Administrator analyzed the public comments received, and
the comments and OJJDP's responses are provided later in this document.
The Acting Administrator took these comments into consideration in
developing this Final Plan, which describes the particular program
activities that OJJDP intends to fund during FY 2002, using in whole or
in part funds appropriated under Parts C and D of Title II of the JJDP
Act.
Notice of the official solicitation of grant or cooperative
agreement applications for competitive programs to be funded under the
Final Plan will be published at a later date in the Federal Register.
No proposals, concept papers, or other forms of application should be
submitted at this time.
Background
In 1974, the JJDP Act established OJJDP as the Federal agency
responsible for providing national leadership, coordination, and
resources to develop and implement effective methods to prevent and
reduce juvenile delinquency and improve the quality of juvenile justice
in the United States. OJJDP performs its role of national leadership in
juvenile justice and delinquency prevention through a cycle of
activities. These include the following:
Collecting data and statistics to determine the extent and
nature of issues affecting juveniles.
Supporting research studies that can lead to program
demonstrations; testing and evaluating demonstration projects; and
sharing lessons learned from the field with practitioners through a
range of information dissemination vehicles.
Providing seed money to States and local governments
through formula and block grants to implement programs, projects, or
reform efforts.
Providing training and technical assistance to assist
States and local governments to implement programs effectively and to
maintain the integrity of model programs as they are being replicated.
OJJDP administers State Formula Grants under Part B of Title II,
State Challenge Grants under Part E of Title II, and Community
Prevention Grants under Title V of the JJDP Act to assist States and
territories to fund a range of delinquency prevention, control, and
juvenile justice system improvement activities. OJJDP provides support
activities for these programs under statutory set-asides that are used
to provide related research, evaluation, statistics, demonstration, and
training and technical assistance services.
Under Part C of Title II of the JJDP Act, OJJDP funds Special
Emphasis programs and--through its National Institute for Juvenile
Justice and Delinquency Prevention--numerous research, evaluation,
statistics, demonstration, training and technical assistance, and
information dissemination activities. OJJDP funds school- and
community-based gang prevention, intervention, and suppression programs
under Part D and funds mentoring programs under Part G of Title II of
the JJDP Act. OJJDP also coordinates Federal activities related to
juvenile justice and delinquency prevention through the Concentration
of Federal Efforts Program and serves as the staff agency for the
Coordinating Council on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
Both of these activities are authorized in Part A of Title II of the
JJDP Act. Under Title IV, OJJDP administers the Missing and Exploited
Children's Program.
Other programs administered by OJJDP include the following:
Drug Prevention Program.
Enforcing Underage Drinking Laws Program.
Safe Schools Initiative.
Tribal Youth Program.
Safe Start: Children Exposed to Violence Initiative.
Juvenile Accountability Incentive Block Grants program.
Programs under the Victims of Child Abuse Act of 1990, as
amended, 42 U.S.C. 13001 et seq.
In this Final Plan, OJJDP describes its priorities for funding
activities authorized under Part C (National Programs) and Part D
(Gang-Free Schools and Communities; Community-Based Gang Intervention)
of Title II of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (JJDP)
Act. The only projects described in this Final Program Plan are those
that are eligible to receive Part C or Part D FY 2002 continuation
funding under project period or discretionary continuation assistance
awards.
Fiscal Year 2002 Program Planning Activities
The OJJDP program planning process for FY 2002 was coordinated with
the Assistant Attorney General, Office of Justice Programs, and all OJP
components. 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.
[[Page 38821]]
Review of information and data from OJJDP grantees and
contractors.
Review of information contained in State comprehensive
plans.
Review of comments from youth service providers, juvenile
justice practitioners, and researchers who provide 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 Plan.
FY 2002 Program Priorities
During FY 2002, OJJDP will focus its efforts on programs that help
prevent or intervene in delinquent behavior by funding activities that
provide youth with the skills and values necessary to make choices that
lead to positive outcomes. OJJDP also will focus on programs that hold
youth accountable for their delinquent actions and on initiatives that
prepare serious and violent juvenile offenders to successfully return
home to their communities after they leave correctional institutions
and training schools.
In response to statutory reforms (most notably the Government
Performance and Results Act of 1993, Publ. L. 103-62), OJP has
implemented the concepts of performance-based management, which allow
OJP to focus on mission, agree on goals, and report on key results that
improve government performance and public accountability. As part of
OJP's overall efforts, OJJDP is formulating strategic and annual
performance plans, setting annual performance targets, and requiring
its applicants to provide performance measures based on individual
grant program objectives and anticipated results and outcomes.
OJJDP program priorities in FY 2002 include the following:
Youth reentry programs. OJJDP is participating in the
Serious and Violent Offender Reentry Initiative ``Going Home'', which
was developed by the Office of Justice Programs (OJP), in conjunction
with other Federal agencies, including the National Institute of
Corrections and Federal partners (the U.S. Departments of Education,
Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, and Labor).
The Reentry Initiative is a comprehensive effort that addresses both
juvenile and adult populations of serious, high-risk offenders. It will
provide funding to develop, implement, enhance, and evaluate reentry
strategies to ensure the safety of the community and the reduction of
serious, violent crime. The initiative seeks to assist targeted
offenders in successfully returning to their communities after having
served a significant period of secure confinement in a State training
school, juvenile or adult correctional facility, or other secure
institution. (The ``Going Home'' initiative was announced January 31,
2002, and applications are due May 15, 2002. For more information, see
OJP's Web site at www.ojp.usdoj.gov/reentry.)
Capacity building in community- and faith-based
organizations. The White House Office of Faith-Based and Community
Initiatives and OJP/OJJDP will seek to establish a public/private
partnership that will leverage the financial and human resources of
faith-based and community-based organizations to meet the human
services needs of their surrounding neighborhoods. The value of
building such partnerships is exemplified by OJJDP's Juvenile Mentoring
Program (JUMP), which supports one-to-one mentoring projects for youth
at risk of failing in school, dropping out of school, or becoming
involved in delinquent behavior, including gang activity and substance
abuse. Since 1994, Congress has appropriated more than $56 million to
support one-to-one mentoring programs and OJJDP has funded 203 JUMP
sites in 47 States and 2 territories. More than 9,200 youth have
received one-to-one mentoring, and mentors have been recruited from
both the public and private sectors, including faith-based institutions
(churches, church-operated charitable organizations and outreach
programs, and tribal groups), community-based organizations, American
Indian communities and Alaska Native villages, schools, police and fire
departments, hospitals, and banks and local businesses. (A notice about
the most recent JUMP program announcement was published in the Federal
Register on February 8, 2002 [67 FR 6053]. Applications were due March
25, 2002.)
Juvenile drug use prevention programs. Recognizing the
importance of breaking the cycle of juvenile drug abuse and the serious
delinquent behavior that often results, OJJDP will develop a
demonstration program to help communities select and replicate
promising and model drug prevention programs. The initiative also will
include a national evaluation.
School violence prevention programs. OJJDP's efforts in
this area include a program to help communities address youth gang
problems both in schools and in the community and a program that
provides intensive training and technical assistance and collects data
to strengthen state and local safe school initiatives.
Primary Program Goals
In addition to the above priorities, the discretionary programs
OJJDP administers under Parts C and D of Title II typically address one
or more of the four goals that OJJDP has identified as necessary to
ensure public safety and security while establishing effective juvenile
justice and delinquency prevention programs. Achieving these goals,
which are discussed below, is vital to protecting the long-term safety
of the public from juvenile delinquency and violence.
OJJDP promotes 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. Although
removing serious and violent juvenile offenders from the street serves
to protect the public, the real goal is to take aggressive steps to
stop delinquency before it starts or becomes a pattern of behavior.
OJJDP seeks to improve the juvenile justice system and the
response of the system to juvenile delinquents, status offenders, and
dependent, neglected, and abused children.
OJJDP supports corrections, detention, and community- and
faith-based alternatives which protect the public, incorporate
appropriate secure detention and corrections options, and foster the
use of community-based programs for juvenile offenders.
OJJDP supports law enforcement, public safety, and other
justice agency efforts to prevent juvenile delinquency, intervene in
the development of chronic delinquent careers, and collaborate with the
juvenile justice system to meet the needs of dependent, neglected, and
abused children.
Fiscal Year 2002 Programs
OJJDP has organized its programs under four broad categories that
reflect these four program goals. These categories are Public Safety
and Law Enforcement, Delinquency Prevention and Intervention,
Strengthening the Juvenile Justice System, and Child Abuse and Neglect
and Dependency Cases. An Overarching fifth category contains programs
with significant elements common to more than one of the other four
categories. The programs that OJJDP expects to support in FY 2002 with
Parts C and D funds (based on funding availability, grantee
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performance, and other factors) are listed alphabetically and
summarized later in this document.
As part of the FY 2002 appropriations process, Congress also
identified a number of programs for funding consideration with regard
to the grantee(s), the amount of funds, or both.
Continuation Discretionary Grants
The continuation projects listed in this program plan are those
currently funded in whole or in part with Part C and Part D funds and
eligible for continuation funding in FY 2002, either as part of an
existing project period or through an extension for an additional
project or budget 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 the
availability of funds.
OJJDP will base consideration for continuation funding for an
additional project period for previously funded discretionary grant
programs on several factors, including the following:
The extent to which the project meets the applicable
requirements of the JJDP Act.
Responsiveness to OJJDP and Department of Justice FY 2002
program priorities and goals.
Compliance with performance requirements of prior grant
years.
Compliance with fiscal and regulatory requirements.
Compliance with any special conditions of the award.
Availability of funds (based on appropriations and program
priority determinations).
In accordance with Section 262 (d)(1)(B) of the JJDP Act, as
amended, 42 U.S.C. 5665a, the competitive process for the award of Part
C funds is not required if the (Acting) Administrator makes a written
determination waiving the competitive process:
``(i). With respect to programs to be carried out in areas with
respect to which the President declares under the Robert T. Stafford
Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act codified at 42 U.S.C. 5121
et seq. that a major disaster or emergency exists, or
(ii). With respect to a particular program described in Part C that
is uniquely qualified.''
Summary of Public Comments on the Proposed Program Plan for Fiscal
Year 2002
OJJDP published its Proposed Program Plan for FY 2002 in the
Federal Register (Vol. 66, No. 205) on October 23, 2001, for a 45-day
public comment period. OJJDP received 21 letters commenting on the
Proposed Plan. All comments have been considered in the development of
OJJDP's Final Program Plan for Fiscal Year 2002.
The comments received are summarized below together with OJJDP's
responses. To avoid needless repetition, all comments on a particular
program or area of programming are summarized in one comment paragraph
and followed by a single OJJDP response, which applies to all the
comments on that topic.
Comment: Six letters from five public interest and civil rights
groups and a private citizen suggested that OJJDP should include the
Building Blocks for Youth Initiative in its Final Program Plan. By
creating an alliance of children's advocates, researchers, law
enforcement professionals, and community organizers, the Building
Blocks for Youth Initiative seeks to protect minority youth in the
justice system and promote rational and effective justice policies.
Response: OJJDP recognizes the great contributions the Building
Blocks for Youth initiative has offered in the past. However, competing
priorities and fiscal realities have precluded continued funding at
this time. Although the juvenile justice system has traditionally
maintained responsibility for providing services to juvenile offenders,
it is clear that existing resources in communities often go unused. It
is these unused resources that OJJDP desires to tap.
Comment: Two writers, an official with a State Juvenile
Rehabilitation Administration and an official with the National Mental
Health Association (NMHA), commented on the issue of mental health as
it pertains to OJJDP's Proposed Plan. The first writer also emphasized
the important role OJJDP plays in providing that State with the tools
to identify, plan, and train staff to implement best practices programs
for juvenile offenders. In recent years, the author wrote, these
programs have shown significant evidence of reducing repetitive
criminal behavior. However, the writer pointed out, the existence of
such programs is currently limited. The writer suggested that a
continued opportunity for flexible grant funding (i.e., funding that
encourages careful evaluation of outcomes) would lead to a greater
number of effective services and programs, which could then be
replicated across juvenile justice systems. After remarking that the
involvement of faith-based organizations in the Proposed Plan presents
an exciting opportunity to expand the State's existing mentoring
programs, the writer concluded by discussing that State's unresolved
needs (both in terms of staff training and development monies)
regarding the growing population of mentally ill youth involved in the
juvenile justice system.
Writing in support of the five priorities of the Proposed Plan, the
second writer stated that ``each of these areas is of interest to
NMHA.'' The writer, however, suggested revisions to four of the five
program priorities. The NMHA recommendations include: (1) The list of
services to be offered under the initiative to build capacity in
community- and faith-based organizations should be amended to read
``mentoring and counseling at-risk youth and children of prisoners, and
shelter and counseling for abused and neglected children.'' NMHA also
recommended that ``national funding be available to support technical
assistance to community and faith-based partners, to assist them in
more effectively participating in and initiating faith-based
partnerships in communities.'' (2) Regarding the Reentry Initiative,
NMHA was ``pleased to see substance abuse and mental health
intervention and treatment included among the array of services to
which the reentry programs will direct sources.'' (3) * * * ``mental
health intervention and treatment [should] be specifically included
among promising and model drug prevention programs to be replicated.''
(4) NMHA took ``serious exception'' to programs designed to prevent
school violence that are ``limited in scope to `zero tolerance' of
seriously disruptive students and recommend[ed] that a mental health
component be specifically included in the program plan and that a
specific reference be provided to the provision of alternative
education for any disruptive students who may be removed from class as
a result of programs funded by OJJDP under this priority area.'' In
addition, NMHA recommended that OJJDP make national technical
assistance available to schools that ``focus on mental health as part
of the formula for creating safe schools and healthy students.''
In addition to commenting on four of the program priorities, NMHA
also proposed a supplement to OJJDP's FY 2002 Proposed Plan. NMHA
suggested that OJJDP include in its Final Plan a
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new priority and demonstration program that would expand the use of
professional mental health screening and indepth assessment for all
juveniles upon their entry into the juvenile justice system. The writer
added that implementing such a program would address each of the areas
set out under the FY 2002 Primary Program Goals. NMHA also suggested
modifications to some of the programs eligible for continuation
discretionary grants in FY 2002. NMHA's recommended program
modifications include: (1) The National Resource Center and the Safe
Schools/Healthy Students Action Center should be required to
collaborate to help the Resource Center in the area of school mental
health and to provide appropriate training, technical assistance, and
data collection. (2) ``OJJDP [should] specifically require in FY 2002
that products and trainings provided by the project include those that
help law enforcement personnel recognize juveniles with mental health
problems and disorders.'' (3) The Multisite, Multimodal Treatment Study
of Children With Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder should be
made ``a specific area of investigation * * * [and should] address how
to help law enforcement, court, detention, and corrections personnel
recognize and provide appropriate treatment for juveniles with mental
health problems and disorders.'' (4) OJJDP should provide technical
assistance to the National Juvenile Detention Association (or order it
to secure through contract) that emphasizes mental health to help shape
its suicide prevention and management curriculum.
Response: For the past 10 years, OJJDP has been committed to
addressing the mental health needs of youth involved with the juvenile
justice system. The agency recognizes that at the State and local
level, juvenile justice agencies, facilities, and professionals
struggle to meet the needs of increasing numbers of mentally ill youth.
As the writer points out, staff training is a critical part of the
system's response to these youth, as is the development and
implementation of appropriate assessment and treatment services.
Although this year's Program Plan contains no new funding in the
area of mental health, the agency continues to sponsor a number of
ongoing research projects in this area. Last year, OJJDP began funding
a large, multifaceted research project related to mental health and
juvenile justice. The ultimate goal of the project is to develop a
model for meeting the mental health needs of youth at every point in
the juvenile justice system, from arrest to aftercare. As part of this
effort, researchers are collecting data on the prevalence of mental
illness in different correctional settings and on the availability of
appropriate services in those settings.
The first writer notes that there is an ongoing lack of program
development dollars for diversion and treatment programs for mentally
ill youth. Although OJJDP may not be dedicating discretionary dollars
to mental health programming at this time, States may still use the
funding they receive from OJJDP through Formula Grants and State
Challenge Grants for this purpose. OJJDP encourages the writer to work
with the appropriate State Advisory Group to ensure that a portion of
these grant funds are used to meet the needs of mentally ill youth in
the juvenile justice system or who are at risk of entering it.
In response to the second writer's recommendation that OJJDP focus
on screening and assessing juveniles upon their first entry into the
juvenile justice system (i.e., prior to confinement), OJJDP would like
to point out two ongoing efforts that address this issue. OJJDP-funded
Community Assessment Centers (CACs) provide a 24-hour centralized point
of intake and assessment for juveniles entering the juvenile justice
system. As the writer points out, early identification of mental health
and substance abuse disorders can enhance placement and treatment
decisions for youth at the ``front end'' of the juvenile justice
system. In addition, the OJJDP project Screening and Assessment:
Instruments and Models is designed to help juvenile justice
professionals identify and understand the kinds of mental health
screening and assessment tools and protocols available for use with
youth in the juvenile justice system. The project, when completed, will
provide recommendations regarding how these instruments and protocols
can be used to better identify and respond to the treatment needs of
youth in the juvenile justice system.
OJJDP appreciates the writers' suggestions and comments on the
proposed program areas, the supplement to the Proposed Plan, and
program modifications. OJJDP will consider these suggestions as it
continues to develop and implement its FY 2002 activities.
Comment: Two writers, the president and the director of research of
a company that produces educational and training products for at-risk
youth, wrote to describe the unique opportunities that advances in Web-
based technologies offer local juvenile justice and other youth service
providers of youth training. They noted that such Web-based approaches
to distance learning could be high quality, cost-effective, and easily
customized. They also emphasized the benefits of the interactive nature
of this medium.
Response: Although local providers are in the best position to
determine the most cost-effective and efficient mix of media used to
train youth in their communities, such decisions should be subject to
ongoing review. As the information provided by the writers evidences,
Web-based technologies should be included among the media explored in
such analyses.
Comment: One writer, the director of a State Department of Juvenile
Justice, wrote to support OJJDP's five broad program priorities for FY
2002. The writer stated that the proposed involvement of community- and
faith-based organizations in the juvenile justice system will be well
received and has great potential to tap resources that have been
historically underutilized. Regarding reentry, the writer commented
that virtually every practitioner agrees that reentry is a long-
neglected area, with the result being that some of the most high-risk
youth return to the community with inadequate planning, resources, and
supervision for the transition. The writer also suggested that, should
funding become available, the Proposed Plan or subsequent planning
processes include two areas previously mentioned in the FY 2001
Proposed Plan: (1) Advocacy for families involved in the juvenile
justice system and (2) increasing the capacity and effectiveness of
juvenile probation.
Response: Although the juvenile justice system has traditionally
provided services to juvenile offenders, it is clear that there are
resources available in local communities that go unused. It is these
unused resources, such as those in community- and faith-based
organizations, that OJJDP desires to leverage for prevention,
intervention, and reentry programs.
Comment: One writer, an official with the Council of Juvenile
Correctional Administrators (CJCA), provided a series of comments and
recommendations concerning OJJDP's Reentry Initiative. The comments and
recommendations were the result of CJCA members' responses to 16
questions based on past OJJDP conferences and meetings. In crafting
their responses, CJCA members addressed such topics as the overall
purpose of the initiative, the principles that should be incorporated
into the initiative, the ways in which OJJDP should define the target
population of reentry programs, and the key
[[Page 38824]]
components that should be included in such programs.
Response: In developing the core components of the Serious and
Violent Juvenile Offender Reentry Initiative, OJJDP has made great
efforts to elicit input from professionals across the juvenile justice
field. In doing so, it is clear that the Reentry Initiative must be
comprehensive to meet the needs of the returning offender, while
maintaining public safety. The CJCA comments are consistent with the
seven essential elements of OJJDP's comprehensive approach. This
approach includes:
Establishment of a clear and present authority from
immediate return throughout the entire transition process.
Implementation of a detailed assessment process (forensic,
educational, vocational, mental health, and substance abuse).
Development of a reintegration plan that clearly addresses
all issues identified in the assessment phase and becomes the guide by
which offenders must manage their reentry into the community.
Use of existing community resources to implement the plan,
which will afford continuity and availability of service delivery and
ensure familiarity by the offender with the service system and will
also increase the potential for sustaining the program and the offender
in the community.
Application of graduated levels of supervision and
sanctions to offenders, including highly structured housing, electronic
monitoring, team supervision, and consistent and equitable responses to
a lack of compliance and reoffending.
Involvement of local law enforcement, probation, parole,
and the community in tracking the activities and behaviors of
offenders.
Use of faith- and community-based service systems to
mentor and provide services to the offenders.
Comment: One writer, commenting on behalf of a nonprofit
organization that promotes government accountability and citizen
participation in public issues, supported the proposal to build the
capacity of community- and faith-based organization to address the
needs of at-risk youth. However, the writer stressed the importance of
having adequate safeguards in place to protect against proselytizing
directed at program participants and their families. As an example of
this concern, the writer explains that if a grant program favors
religious organizations over secular ones, or if some religions benefit
more from the program than others, this bias may divide a community
rather than unite it. The writer suggests several ways that OJJDP could
involve faith-based organizations in its programs without subsidizing
religious activity. In addition, the writer notes that OJJDP must do
more than ``discourage'' proselytizing; it must prohibit it. Finally,
the writer expresses hope that the Final Program Plan will provide more
specific details about what grant programs can do to involve all
organizations in a community without subsidizing religious activity of
proselytizing participating youth. That way, the writer affirms, ``the
Centers will be a real asset for communities with high levels of
juvenile crime.''
Response: OJJDP is committed to ensuring that any faith-based
program will comply with constitutional and statutory protections. In
designing and implementing the faith-based program, OJJDP will ensure
that federal funds are not used for religious services,
proselytization, or indoctrination.
Comment: One writer, an official with the Juvenile Justice
Coalition of Ohio, wrote to support the general focus of the Proposed
Plan but stated that ``we believe the focus and the program priorities
are too narrowly defined to have the positive impact all of us hope
that [OJJDP's] activities will have on juvenile delinquency.'' Based on
this perception, the writer offered three modifications to the Proposed
Plan: (1) Including the Comprehensive Strategy for Serious, Violent,
and Chronic Juvenile Offenders as an OJJDP priority, (2) prioritizing
efforts to reduce disproportionate confinement or overrepresentation of
minorities in the juvenile justice system, and (3) broadening the scope
of prevention priorities.
Response: OJJDP's State and Tribal Assistance Division (STAD),
through its administration of formula and block grant programs,
supported the Comprehensive Strategy for Serious, Violent, and Chronic
Juvenile Offenders to help communities identify and prioritize their
delinquency prevention and juvenile justice needs. Based on STAD's
experiences and the information gathered during the national evaluation
of the Comprehensive Strategy Training and Technical Assistance
Initiative, STAD has streamlined the community planning process. This
abbreviated, results-oriented approach (the Targeted Community Action
Planning [TCAP] program) will allow OJJDP to support more local
communities interested in developing targeted responses to their most
pressing juvenile justice needs.
In response to the writer's comment that ``efforts to reduce
disproportionate confinement or overrepresentation of minorities in the
juvenile justice system should be a priority,'' OJJDP recognizes that
addressing disproportionate minority confinement (DMC) requires long-
term coordinated efforts at the Federal, State, and local levels. OJJDP
plans to continue Federal research and targeted training and technical
assistance to States and local communities to help them meet these
challenges. OJJDP is committed to assisting States in their adoption of
a comprehensive approach to reduce DMC and ensuring fair and equal
treatment for every youth involved in the juvenile justice system.
In response to the writer's comment that ``the scope of prevention
priorities should be broadened,'' OJJDP agrees that prevention models,
such as the one prescribed by OJJDP's Title V Community Prevention
Grants Program, provide guidance for communities' risk- and protective-
focused prevention efforts. OJJDP strives to improve and broaden the
delinquency prevention efforts of both States and communities,
particularly those efforts that (1) emphasize promising or effective
programs and (2) provide proactive assistance to help communities
access additional funding sources to implement their comprehensive
community delinquency plans.
Comment: One writer, the director of corrections for a faith-based
organization, wrote in support of the FY 2002 Proposed Plan and offered
to assist with future implementation efforts regarding the Proposed
Plan.
Response: OJJDP is pleased to know that the Faith- and Community-
based and Reentry Initiatives have generated so much support. We
welcome and will encourage participation in the implementation of these
initiatives as we continue to develop them.
Comment: One writer, the family services director for a nonprofit
community action agency, asserted that OJJDP should ``prioritize
earlier intervention for effective prevention.'' The writer emphasized
that prevention should play a larger part in the Proposed Plan and
stated that ``holding youth accountable and preparing offenders to
return home after leaving institutions is not delinquency prevention.''
Response: OJJDP agrees that early intervention and prevention
efforts are critical to addressing potential risk factors that may lead
to juvenile delinquency. Over the years, OJJDP has supported many
intervention and prevention programs, such as the Drug-Free Communities
Support Program and the Juvenile Mentoring Program. OJJDP's commitment
to developing and sustaining such programs remains strong. Nonetheless,
the success of
[[Page 38825]]
intervention and prevention programs should not forestall the
development of new approaches to curtailing delinquency. By focusing on
programs that hold youth accountable for their delinquent actions and
on initiatives that prepare serious and violent juvenile offenders to
successfully return home to their communities after they leave
correctional institutions and training schools, OJJDP is building its
capacity to meet the needs of both our Nation's youth and the
communities in which they live.
Comment: One writer, a member of the Gender Specific Services Work
Group for Ohio, commented that the Proposed Plan should prioritize and
fund (1) the mandate to reduce disproportionate minority confinement of
juveniles; (2) the Comprehensive Strategy for Serious, Violent, and
Chronic Juvenile Offenders; and (3) gender-specific services. In
addition, the writer stated disappointment that OJJDP ``has dropped the
National Girls Institute from program funding.''
Response: OJJDP is committed to preventing and reducing juvenile
delinquency. In addition, OJJDP's commitment to addressing the mandate
to reduce disproportionate minority confinement of juveniles and
gender-specific programs for girls remains strong. We are currently
reviewing our efforts in these areas and evaluating the effectiveness
of the Comprehensive Strategy program. As we move forward, we will do
so in a manner that focuses on outcome measures and builds on lessons
we have already learned in all of these areas.
Comment: Two writers, an official with the National Sheriff's
Association (NSA) and an official with the American Correctional
Association (ACA), commended OJJDP's efforts in helping to improve the
future of America's youth. Commenting on behalf of NSA, one writer
suggested promoting a program that would assist ``rural law enforcement
in dealing with and assisting juveniles in trouble.'' Commenting on
behalf of ACA, the second writer expressed an interest in ``ensuring
that when and if juveniles are placed in incarceration situations,
proper training, resources, and assistance is afforded to the
facilities and their officers.'' Both writers stated an interest in
promoting proper reentry strategies and partnerships to ensure that all
youth receive the assistance they need.
Response: It is often difficult to address issues regarding the
lack of resources and services in remote, very rural areas. However,
OJJDP is aware of these difficulties and has taken steps to assist
sparsely populated jurisdictions that do not have some essential
services. OJJDP has directed the National Juvenile Detention
Association (NJDA) to address the issue of detention services in rural
areas. NJDA, along with the Annie E. Casey Foundation, is looking at
what can be done to provide alternatives to incarceration that still
provide a degree of security and protection to both the delinquent
youth and the community.
In addition, OJJDP is sponsoring a Juvenile Sanctions Project,
through the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, to
assist jurisdictions that want to develop new, or enhance existing,
accountability-based juvenile sanctions programs. Such a system of
graduated sanctions would help communities develop alternatives to
secure detention, identify needed services for juveniles, and help
implement services in rural communities.
Comment: One writer, a juvenile justice specialist from a State
Division of Criminal Justice, offered three comments. First, OJJDP
should solicit input from juvenile justice specialists and State
Advisory Groups who oversee and administer the funds available through
the State and Tribal Assistance Division of OJJDP. Soliciting this
input prior to and during the implementation process of the proposed
programs will, according to the writer, broaden the working knowledge
of the needs and existing State programs and initiatives. OJJDP should
also solicit input from other Federal agencies and foundations that
share a similar focus. Second, the current grantee of the Juvenile
Justice Telecommunications Assistance Project should continue to
develop ways to include more participants in the Internet
videoconferences. Third, the Building Blocks initiative and the
Disproportionate Minority Confinement initiative should be ``supported
at a level to provide assistance to States in their efforts to address
minority overrepresentation through the Formula Grant Program.''
Response: The Juvenile Justice Telecommunications Assistance
Project (JJTAP) continues to recognize the importance of using the
Internet to disseminate information to the field. Since 1999, JJTAP has
used the evolving technology of streaming video and has seen it become
more watchable and viewer-friendly with each passing year. In FY 2002,
JJTAP committed to cybercast all OJJDP videoconferences and has
proposed to do the same in FY 2003. All past videoconferences are
available for viewing online at www.juvenilenet.org/jjtap/archives. As
for the writer's comment about providing assistance to states to
address disproportionate minority confinement issues, training and
technical assistance are available through OJJDP to all states to help
them address this issue.
Comment: One writer, an official of Americans United for Separation
of Church and State, wrote to express concern that OJJDP's plan for
implementing community- and faith-based initiatives ``may have the
deleterious effect of eroding the civil rights of the beneficiaries and
others.'' The writer advised that the Final Plan explicitly mention a
commitment to the Constitutional protections regarding the separation
of church and State. In addition, the writer urged that OJJDP ``ensure
the availability of secular alternatives for the beneficiary youth in
each location [where] funds are used to assist faith-based
organizations.''
Response: OJJDP is committed to ensuring that any faith-based
initiative will comply with constitutional and statutory protections.
In designing and implementing the faith-based program, OJJDP will seek
to ensure that federal funds are not used for worship services,
proselytization, or indoctrination.
Comment: One writer, the executive director of an educational
technology network that serves juvenile and youthful offenders, wrote
to recommend that the guidelines for all OJJDP grants include the use
of technology, as appropriate. The writer asked that OJJDP consider
designating some portion of reentry program funds for the development
of multimedia products that can be used nationwide to help youthful
offenders establish a plan for success. The writer also suggested that
OJJDP use something like the following language in its guidelines for
reentry program applications:
``Funding will be made available, on a competitive basis, for the
development of multimedia products that prepare juveniles and youthful
offenders for reentry into the community, prior to their release
date.''
Response: The ability to share information across agencies in an
efficient and effective manner is a critical component to many justice
programs. OJJDP encourages juvenile justice agencies to develop and
implement management information systems that can collect data and
analyze and disseminate information. Sites participating in OJJDP's
Serious and Violent Offender Reentry Initiative may choose to enhance
their programs through the use of technology, both with multimedia
products and the above-mentioned information systems.
Comment: One writer, commenting on behalf of the Research Triangle
Institute,
[[Page 38826]]
recommended that OJJDP implement a new area of investigation for
developing effective interventions for at-risk juveniles. The writer
suggested that a new approach should advance a more comprehensive
understanding of the many factors that influence behavioral outcomes.
To this end, the writer asserted that interventions should target the
precursors that affect behavioral outcomes (e.g., drug abuse or
violence) rather than the behavioral outcomes alone.
Response: Over the past several years, OJJDP has become aware of
research that indicates a link between learning disabilities and higher
risk for delinquency. This research indicates that neurological
conditions can impact a child's cognitive and emotional regulatory
functions. Children with these functional impairments may be more
likely to engage in behavior that can have negative outcomes. For
example, they may be more vulnerable to the influences of negative
peers or may be less likely to achieve academically and therefore start
to skip classes. Without appropriate intervention, these children may
engage in delinquent behavior, such as drug use and violence, and end
up in juvenile court or incarcerated.
As the writer indicates, very few prevention studies take into
account precursors, such as functional impairments, when studying the
effectiveness of any given program or curriculum. Yet, since children
with these functional impairments are less likely to benefit from
traditional prevention program delivery methods (i.e., a classroom
setting), research needs to consider these factors if we are to develop
programs that truly respond to the needs of at-risk youth.
In recent years, OJJDP has worked to increase collaboration with
other federal agencies that support research in this field. The purpose
of these collaborations has been two-fold: first, to learn more about
the precursors that may make youth more vulnerable to delinquent
behavior, and second, to encourage researchers to measure predelinquent
and delinquent behavior as part of the outcomes they use in measuring
the impact of different interventions. The Multisite, Multimodal
Treatment Study of Children With Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity
Disorder is one current collaborative effort. This study, funded
primarily by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), is
examining the long-term efficacy of stimulant medication and intensive
behavioral and educational treatment for children with attention
deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Another project for which OJJDP has provided support (through an
Interagency Agreement with NIMH) is Risk Reduction Via Promotion of
Youth Development. This project (also known as Early Alliance) is a
large-scale prevention study involving hundreds of children in several
elementary schools in lower socioeconomic neighborhoods of Columbia,
SC. The project is designed to promote coping competence and reduce
risk for conduct problems, aggression, substance use, delinquency and
violence, and school failure beginning in early elementary school.
In addition to these studies, OJJDP participates in the Interagency
Coordinating Committee on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (ICCFAS) group. Fetal
Alcohol Syndrome and Fetal Alcohol Effects (FAS/FAE) are associated
with a specific set of neurobehavioral deficits that predispose
affected individuals to delinquent and other high-risk behaviors. A
primary objective of the ICCFAS is to promote and facilitate the
development of collaborative projects and cooperative programs among
member agencies. This includes improving communication among basic
research, clinical research, education, and service-provider
communities, and facilitating evaluation of FAS intervention programs.
The ICCFAS group is coordinated by the National Institute on Alcohol
Abuse and Alcoholism and includes members from several federal agencies
and national organizations. OJJDP has served on the group since 1999.
Although these efforts are an important step, they are just the
beginning. OJJDP will continue to seek opportunities to collaborate
with other agencies in supporting research in this field and to share
the results with juvenile justice practitioners nationwide.
Fiscal Year 2002 Program Listing
Overarching
American Statistical Association Crime and Justice Committee
Coalition for Juvenile Justice
Insular Area Support
Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse
Juvenile Justice Telecommunications Assistance Project
National Reporting System for Formula Grants Program
National Resource Center for Safe Schools
National Training and Technical Assistance Center
OJJDP Management Evaluation Contract
OJJDP Technical Assistance Support Contract--Juvenile Justice Resource
Center
Program of Research on the Causes and Correlates of Delinquency
Technical Assistance for State Legislatures
Understanding and Monitoring the ``Whys'' Behind Juvenile Crime Trends
Public Safety and Law Enforcement
Evaluation of the Comprehensive Community-Wide Approach to Gang
Prevention, Intervention, and Suppression Program
Evaluation of the Comprehensive Gang Model: An Enhanced School Approach
Gang-Free Schools and Communities Initiative
Gang Prevention Through Targeted Outreach (Boys & Girls Clubs)
Law Enforcement Training and Technical Assistance Program
National Youth Gang Center
Technical Assistance to the Gang-Free Schools and Communities
Initiative
Delinquency Prevention and Intervention
Assessing Alcohol, Drug, and Mental Disorders Among Juvenile Detainees
Comprehensive Children and Families Mental Health Training and
Technical Assistance
Evaluation of the Truancy Reduction Demonstration Program
Integrated Information Sharing To Prevent Juvenile Delinquency: A
Training and Technical Assistance Approach
Intergenerational Transmission of Antisocial Behavior
Juvenile Defender Training, Technical Assistance, and Resource Center
Multisite, Multimodal Treatment Study of Children With Attention
Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder
National Youth Court Center
Pathways to Desistance: A Prospective Study of Serious Adolescent
Offenders
Technical Assistance for the Title V Community Prevention Programs
Truancy Reduction Demonstration Program
Strengthening the Juvenile Justice System
Accountability-Based Training for Staff in Juvenile Confinement
Facilities
Balanced and Restorative Justice
Census of Juveniles in Residential Placement
Center for Students With Disabilities in the Juvenile Justice System
Improving Juvenile Sanctioning: An Intensive Training and Technical
Assistance Delivery Program
[[Page 38827]]
Intensive Community-Based Juvenile Aftercare Dissemination and
Technical Assistance Program
James E. Gould Memorial Program for Training and Technical Assistance
for Juvenile Corrections and Detention
Juvenile Justice Prosecution Unit
Juvenile Residential Facility Census
Longitudinal Study To Examine the Development of Conduct Disorder in
Girls
Meta-Analysis Project
National Census and Survey of Juvenile Probation
National Evaluation of the Performance-based Standards Project
National Juvenile Justice Data Analysis Project
National Juvenile Justice Program Directory
National Juvenile Sex Offenders Training Project
National Longitudinal Survey of Youth
National Training and Technical Assistance for Effective Juvenile
Detention and Corrections Practices
Performance-based Standards Project
Survey of Youth in Residential Placement
Systems Improvement Training and Technical Assistance
Training Programs for Juvenile Justice Professionals in Corrections and
Detention
Training and Technical Assistance for National Innovations To Reduce
Disproportionate Minority Confinement
Tribal Youth Training and Technical Assistance Program
Child Abuse and Neglect and Dependency Courts
Evaluation of the Parents Anonymous' Program
National Evaluation of the Safe Kids/Safe Streets Program
Research on Child Neglect
Safe Kids/Safe Streets: Community Approaches to Reducing Abuse and
Neglect and Preventing Delinquency
Overarching
American Statistical Association Crime and Justice Committee
In 2001, OJJDP, through an intra-agency agreement with the Bureau
of Justice Statistics (BJS), began funding the American Statistical
Association (ASA) Committee on Crime and Justice Statistics to support
the committee's work and to sponsor a methodology and statistics grant
program. ASA-sponsored grants and activities seek to improve the
quality and utility of juvenile-related Federal Bureau of Investigation
(FBI) data, in particular county-level arrest and homicide data. A
specific research agenda for these funds will be developed jointly by
OJJDP, BJS, the FBI, and the ASA Law and Justice Statistics Committee.
This joint OJJDP and BJS activity should improve the processing of
these files and make the two offices' public presentation of the final
data more consistent. Funds in FY 2002 will support the further
development of the research agenda and the continued improvement of the
juvenile justice data.
This project will be implemented by the current grantee, the
American Statistical Association. No additional applications will be
solicited in FY 2002.
Coalition for Juvenile Justice
This project supports the Coalition for Juvenile Justice, an
organization composed of member representatives of State Advisory
Groups appointed by State Governors under section 223(a)(3) of the JJDP
Act. Pursuant to statutory requirements, the Coalition will conduct an
annual conference of member representatives; disseminate information on
data, standards, advanced techniques, and program models developed and
funded by OJJDP; and review Federal policies regarding juvenile justice
and delinquency prevention. The Coalition also advises the OJJDP
Administrator with respect to the work of OJJDP and advises the
President and Congress with regard to State perspectives on the
operation of OJJDP and on Federal legislation pertaining to juvenile
justice and delinquency prevention.
This project will be implemented by the current grantee, the
Coalition for Juvenile Justice. No additional applications will be
solicited in FY 2002.
Insular Area Support
The purpose of this statutorily required program is to provide
support to the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the
Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Funds are available to
address the special needs and problems of juvenile delinquency in these
insular areas, as specified by section 261(e) of the JJDP Act of 1974,
as amended, 42 U.S.C. 5665(e).
Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse
A component of the National Criminal Justice Reference Service
(NCJRS), the Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse (JJC) collects,
synthesizes, and disseminates information on all aspects of juvenile
justice. OJJDP established the Clearinghouse in 1979 to serve the
information needs of the juvenile justice community, policymakers, the
media, and the public. JJC offers toll-free telephone access to
information; prepares specialized responses to information requests;
produces, warehouses, and distributes OJJDP publications; exhibits at
national conferences; maintains a comprehensive juvenile justice
library and database; and operates several electronic information
resources, including OJJDP's Web site. NCJRS is administered by the
National Institute of Justice (NIJ) under a competitively awarded
contract to Aspen Systems Corporation. FY 2002 is the fourth year of a
4-year project period.
This project will be implemented by the current contractor, Aspen
Systems Corporation. No additional applications will be solicited in FY
2002.
Juvenile Justice Telecommunications Assistance Project
The Juvenile Justice Telecommunications Assistance Project (JJTAP)
has been funded by OJJDP since 1995. The grantee, Eastern Kentucky
University (EKU), provides OJJDP with the technical expertise and
necessary equipment to conduct national satellite videoconferences and
technical assistance for training and information dissemination
purposes. Through the use of live videoconferences and Internet
technology, OJJDP has reached thousands of juvenile justice
professionals simultaneously to inform the field of the latest
developments in research, best practices, and promising programs in an
expeditious and relatively inexpensive manner. These videoconferences
are designed to address specific issues and allow interaction between
experts and the viewing audience during call-in segments.
In addition to satellite technology, this project has used the
Internet since 1999 to reach an even greater audience. Five of the
videoconferences have been Webcast live on the Internet, and all past
videoconferences are available for viewing, in their entirety, on the
project's Web site archive. Written materials accompanying each
broadcast are sent to each downlink site and are available to anyone to
download from the Internet. Videotapes and associated written materials
for all past videoconferences are available for purchase through the
Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse. JJTAP has provided technical assistance
on satellite videoconferencing to a large number of organizations and
has published the Satellite Teleconferencing Resource Manual, a
resource document for
[[Page 38828]]
agencies interested in delivering training via satellite.
In FY 2002, all videoconferences will be available via satellite
and the Internet. Four new videoconferences will be developed and
marketed through the National Criminal Justice Reference Service. EKU
also will continue providing limited technical assistance in the use of
telecommunications technology to other juvenile justice agencies.
This project will be implemented by the current grantee, Eastern
Kentucky University. No additional applications will be solicited in FY
2002.
National Performance Reporting System for Formula Grants Program
The National Performance Reporting System will allow OJJDP to
continue assisting States in reporting program information as required
for participation in the Title II, Part B State Formula Grants Program.
Under this project, States gain the capacity to efficiently submit
program information to OJJDP. In this second year of the cooperative
agreement, a new data collection tool will be piloted and subsequently
refined. The data obtained using this new collection tool will provide
a comprehensive picture of the implementation of the Formula Grants
Program in the States.
This project will be implemented by the current grantee, the
Justice Research and Statistics Association. No additional applications
will be solicited in FY 2002.
National Resource Center for Safe Schools
OJJDP established the National Resource Center for Safe Schools
(NRCSS) in 1998 by funding, along with the U.S. Department of
Education's Safe and Drug-Free Schools Program, the Northwest Regional
Educational Laboratory (NWREL) to provide intensive training, technical
assistance, and data collection to strengthen statewide and local safe
school initiatives. The mission of NRCSS is to implement a training and
technical assistance program that helps schools and communities create
and maintain safe learning environments that are free of crime and
violence. NRCSS's approach assumes that the development of a safe
school environment cannot be isolated from an overall school
improvement plan that includes community services agencies. This
approach provides safe schools programs with a solid foundation that
embraces diversity, builds resiliency, and provides educational
programming such as anger management, peer mediation, and conflict
resolution. (However, such programming is not appropriate in cases
involving dating violence or sexual harassment.)
NRCSS's accomplishments to date include developing a database and
services to support crisis response referrals; holding 3 advisory
committee meetings; publishing 8 newsletters, 12 fact sheets, and 1
case study; establishing a training and technical assistance calendar,
a pool of providers, and a toll-free phone number; and developing a
training curriculum protocol and a curriculum manual for the project.
In FY 2002, NRCSS will identify and focus on the 10 areas of
concern that are most important to creating safer schools. NRCSS will
take a consolidated approach to these 10 areas of concern and will
support schools in their efforts to implement other effective OJJDP
initiatives such as mentoring, youth courts, bullying, and conflict
resolution.
This project will be implemented by the current grantee, the
Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory. No additional applications
will be solicited in FY 2002.
National Training and Technical Assistance Center
The National Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Training
and Technical Assistance Center (NTTAC) was established in FY 1995
under a competitive 3-year project period award. In FY 2000, a
competitive 1-year contract was awarded to Caliber Associates to
continue implementation of the Center; a second contract was awarded to
Caliber through a competitive process in FY 2001. Renewal of this
contract for project implementation is anticipated annually over a 3-
year period, based on availability of funds and satisfactory
performance.
NTTAC serves as a national training and technical assistance
repository, inventorying and coordinating the integrated delivery of
juvenile justice training and technical assistance resources and
establishing a database of these resources. Past NTTAC activities
included convening the first in a series of annual OJJDP training and
technical assistance grantee-contractor meetings, finalizing the
jurisdictional team training and technical assistance packages on
critical needs in the juvenile justice system, developing a bimonthly
newsletter (NTTAC News), and responding to training and technical
assistance requests from the field.
NTTAC also brokered more than 500 training and technical assistance
requests in FY 2001 and revamped its marketing and outreach strategy to
include a redesign of its marketing materials, indicating ``a family-
of-products'' look. NTTAC expanded and enhanced its Web site,
increasing its usership by approximately 40 percent. In addition, NTTAC
developed the OJJDP Core Performance Standards, which serve as minimum
expectations for training and technical assistance providers in the
planning, delivery, and evaluation of their services.
During FY 2002, NTTAC will disseminate the Core Performance
Standards and a toolkit series of fact sheets and bulletins to
facilitate the implementation of the Standards. NTTAC will continue to
develop an Information Resource Management System (IRMS). NTTAC will
complete development of its training and technical assistance product
and curriculum review process and will endeavor to complete the Office
of Management and Budget clearance process for its User Feedback Form.
The Center will also provide assistance to State juvenile corrections
training academies in facilitating the reoccurring revisions and
updates of basic job descriptions and will serve as a repository of
training materials developed by juvenile corrections training
academies.
This project will be implemented by the current grantee, Caliber
Associates. No additional applications will be solicited in FY 2002.
OJJDP Management Evaluation Contract
This contract was competitively awarded in FY 1999 to Caliber
Associates for a period of 4 years to provide OJJDP with an expert
resource to perform independent program evaluations and assist in
implementing evaluation activities. The contractor provides assistance
to OJJDP staff in determining the evaluation needs of programs and
develops evaluation designs that OJJDP can use in defining the
requirements for a grant or contract to implement the evaluation.
Caliber is currently conducting two full-scale program evaluations for
OJJDP. One is a national evaluation to examine the viability and
effectiveness of Title V Community Prevention Grants for Local
Delinquency Prevention Programs. The contractor also is completing a
process evaluation of the implementation of OJJDP's Comprehensive
Strategy for Serious, Violent, and Chronic Juvenile Offenders. The
contractor also may provide training to OJJDP program managers and
other staff on evaluation-related topics.
[[Page 38829]]
This contract will be implemented by the current contractor,
Caliber Associates. No additional applications will be solicited in FY
2002.
OJJDP Technical Assistance Support Contract--Juvenile Justice Resource
Center
The Juvenile Justice Resource Center (JJRC) 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. With
assistance from expert consultants, JJRC coordinates product reviews,
conducts research and prepares reports on current juvenile justice
issues, plans meetings and conferences, and provides administrative
support to various Federal councils and boards. FY 2002 is the fourth
year of a 4-year project period.
This project will be implemented by the current contractor, Aspen
Systems Corporation. No additional applications will be solicited in FY
2002. Since this is the final year of funding, a new solicitation will
be issued and a contract awarded through a competitive contract action
so there will not be a break in services.
Program of Research on the Causes and Correlates of Delinquency
Since 1986, this longitudinal study has addressed a variety of
issues related to juvenile violence and delinquency and has produced a
massive amount of information on the causes and correlates of
delinquent behavior. Three project sites participate: The Institute of
Behavioral Science, University of Colorado at Boulder; the Western
Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, University of Pittsburgh; and
Hindelang Criminal Justice Research Center, University at Albany, State
University of New York. These projects are designed to improve the
understanding of serious juvenile delinquency, violence, and drug use
by examining how youth develop within the context of family, school,
peers, and community. The three sites engage in both collaborative and
site-specific research. The three research teams worked together to
ensure that certain core measures were identical across the sites. This
approach strengthens the findings from these projects by allowing for
replications of findings in individual sites and enabling cross-site
analyses.
In the upcoming year, the Causes and Correlates projects will
continue collaborative and site-specific analyses of the data. Future
reports will address such topics as mental health problems and
interventions, gangs, and the transition from school to work. In
addition, researchers at the three sites will provide greater access to
the study data. Confidentiality concerns prohibit the release of the
data sets to the general public. However, OJJDP and the researchers
have been exploring alternative methods of making the data more
accessible to other researchers, the most promising being a remote
access system. Plans for the next year include developing and testing a
remote access system at one of the sites.
This program will be implemented by the current grantees, The
Institute of Behavioral Science, University of Colorado at Boulder; The
Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, University of Pittsburgh; and
Hindelang Criminal Justice Research Center, University at Albany, State
University of New York. No additional applications will be solicited in
FY 2002.
Technical Assistance for State Legislatures
The Technical Assistance for State Legislatures project was
established in FY 1995, when OJJDP awarded funds to the National
Conference of State Legislators (NCSL) to provide juvenile justice
information on recent research, legislation, reform options, and
innovative program models and to provide customized technical
assistance for State legislatures. NCSL also aids State legislators in
the improvement of State juvenile justice systems by exploring causes
and crafting comprehensive responses to youth crime and violence. The
NCSL project provides State legislatures with extensive consultation
and technical assistance on key juvenile justice reform issues.
The project's accomplishments since FY 1995 include provision of
onsite assistance by NCSL on 25 occasions to 14 State legislatures,
with 4 occurring in FY 2001. Technical assistance is being planned in
Louisiana and is ongoing in Vermont and Wyoming. The project has
produced a 38-minute audiotape based on Comprehensive Juvenile Justice:
A Legislator's Guide and distributed 600 copies of the tape to new
lawmakers. Eleven lawmakers from five States (Hawaii, Kansas, Michigan,
Mississippi, and Texas) participated in two juvenile justice study
tours to learn how communities planned and implemented OJJDP's
Comprehensive Strategy for Serious, Violent, and Chronic Juvenile
Offenders.
During FY 2001, NCSL information services responded to 1,500
information requests. The grant has improved capacity for delivery of
information services to State legislatures. The project also supports
increased communication between State legislators and other State and
local leaders who make decisions about juvenile justice issues.
In FY 2002, the Technical Assistance for State Legislatures project
will continue to provide technical assistance to State legislatures;
hold an invitational ``Leadership Forum'' on comprehensive juvenile
justice in January 2002; and develop, prepare, and distribute
publications to highlight current trends, juvenile justice approaches,
and issues in the States. Two topics will be researched, prepared, and
distributed as part of the NCSL LegisBriefs (fact sheets) series.
Research/information clearinghouse activities will continue to inform
State legislatures on juvenile justice issues, enactments, and
research.
This project will be implemented by the current grantee, the
National Conference of State Legislators. No additional applications
will be solicited in FY 2002.
Understanding and Monitoring the ``Whys'' Behind Juvenile Crime Trends
The purpose of this research project is to identify and understand
the principal reasons behind the trends in juvenile crime and violence.
As national rates of youth violence have dropped substantially in
recent years, a number of theories have been advanced to explain this
trend. However, the lack of empirical evidence to fully support various
theories enables proponents of vastly different policy orientations to
claim victory for the recent declines and continue to assert their
policy objectives. Not all localities experienced the same trends in
juvenile violent crime during either the increases in the late 1980s or
the subsequent declines that began in the early 1990s, and there is
considerable variation in local juvenile crime rates across the
country. In FY 2001, under a competitive award, the University of
Pennsylvania's Jerry Lee Center on Criminology began a 5-year study to
address these issues. The Center recruited six ``developmental sites''
and produced a report addressing the trends, theories discarded and
remaining, feasibility of testing these theories, and limitations of
various designs. In FY 2002, the University of Pennsylvania will begin
testing these theories and will issue additional reports on the onsite
testing process, experience, and feasibility.
This program will be implemented by the current grantee, the
University of Pennsylvania. No additional applications will be
solicited in FY 2002.
[[Page 38830]]
Public Safety and Law Enforcement
Evaluation of the Comprehensive Community-Wide Approach to Gang
Prevention, Intervention, and Suppression Program
OJJDP will continue funding this evaluation in FY 2002. Under a
competitive cooperative agreement awarded in FY 1995, the evaluation
grantee helped the five program sites (Bloomington, IL; Mesa, AZ;
Riverside, CA; San Antonio, TX; and Tucson, AZ) establish realistic and
measurable objectives, document program implementation, and measure the
impact of this comprehensive approach. The grantee has trained the
local site interviewers and also provided interim feedback to the
program implementors. The grantee will continue to analyze data
required to evaluate the program, monitor and oversee the quality
control of data, and prepare final reports for the full evaluation.
This project will be implemented by the current grantee, the
University of Chicago, School of Social Service Administration. No
additional applications will be solicited in FY 2002.
Evaluation of the Comprehensive Gang Model: An Enhanced School Approach
This initiative is a continuation of ongoing efforts to test
OJJDP's Comprehensive Gang Model. In FY 2000, four sites were
competitively selected to conduct comprehensive assessments of their
local gang problem and develop programs to implement the Comprehensive
Gang Model. Program designs will be communitywide but will emphasize
school-based responses. The four sites are Dade County, FL; East
Cleveland, OH; Houston, TX; and Pittsburgh, PA. The evaluation grantee,
COSMOS Corporation, is conducting case studies to document and analyze
the four sites' 1-year community assessment and program planning
efforts. COSMOS is also developing an outcome evaluation design for the
sites that will be funded to implement the model.
This program will be implemented by the current grantee, COSMOS
Corporation. No additional applications will be solicited in FY 2002.
Gang-Free Schools and Communities Initiative
In FY 2000, OJJDP launched a multisite effort to continue to
demonstrate, test, and replicate the implementation of the OJJDP
Comprehensive Gang Model in as many as 16 sites around the country. In
response to a competitive solicitation, 10 new sites were selected to
participate in this initiative, which consists of the 2 separate
programs described below.
The Comprehensive Gang Model: An Enhanced School/Community Approach
to Reducing Youth Gang Crime is a program designed to demonstrate and
test the Model's ability to assist communities in addressing youth gang
problems in both the school setting and in the community, through a
tightly coordinated approach, including antiviolence efforts. The four
participating communities are East Cleveland, OH; Houston, TX;
Pittsburgh, PA; and Miami-Dade, FL. In FY 2001, these sites received
initial training in conducting an assessment of the youth gang problem
and began collecting data. In FY 2002, these sites will be eligible for
funding to begin implementing the OJJDP Comprehensive Gang Model to
address the problems identified. The COSMOS Corporation is conducting
an independent evaluation of this effort.
The Gang-Free Communities program is designed to offer ``seed''
support to communities selected to replicate the OJJDP Comprehensive
Gang Model. The communities selected to participate are Broward County,
FL; East Los Angeles, CA; Jefferson County, KY; Lakewood, WA; San
Francisco, CA; and Washington, DC. The goal of this program is to
reduce youth gang violence in the community. In FY 2001, these sites
also received initial training in conducting an assessment of the youth
gang problem and began collecting the necessary data. In FY 2002, these
sites will be eligible for funding to begin implementing the OJJDP
Comprehensive Gang Model to address the problems identified.
The National Youth Gang Center is providing training and technical
assistance for communities participating in both programs.
These two programs will be implemented by the current grantees:
East Cleveland, Houston, Miami-Dade, and Pittsburgh for the
comprehensive Gang Model: An Enhanced School/Community Approach to
Reducing Youth Gang Crime and Broward County, FL; East Los Angeles, CA;
Jefferson County, KY; the City of Lakewood, WA; San Francisco, CA; and
Washington, DC, for the Gang-Free Communities program. No new
applications will be solicited in FY 2002 for these programs.
Gang Prevention Through Targeted Outreach (Boys & Girls Clubs)
The purpose of this program is to enable local Boys & Girls Clubs
to prevent youth from entering gangs, intervene with gang members in
the early stages of gang involvement, and divert youth from gang
activities into more constructive programs. The Boys & Girls Clubs of
America provides training and technical assistance to local gang
prevention and intervention sites, including some at OJJDP's gang
program demonstration sites, and to other clubs and organizations
through regional trainings and national conferences. In FY 2000, the
Boys & Girls Clubs added new gang prevention sites, gang intervention
sites, and ``Targeted Reintegration'' sites where clubs work to provide
services to youth returning to the community from juvenile correctional
facilities to prevent them from returning to gangs and violence. A
national evaluation of the Gang Prevention Through Targeted Outreach
Program was completed in FY 2001. The evaluation, conducted by Public/
Private Ventures, Inc., concluded in part that ``participants
demonstrated positive change'' and that ``the clubs were successful in
reaching an underserved, high-risk population through direct outreach
and referral-network-building activities.'' In FY 2002, the Boys &
Girls Clubs of America will identify and support up to 30 new gang
prevention sites. Evaluation of the Targeted Reintegration program
component may also begin in FY 2002. In addition, the Boys & Girls
Clubs will jointly sponsor OJJDP's National Youth Gang Symposium in
June 2002, in partnership with the National Youth Gang Center.
This program will be implemented by the current grantee, the Boys &
Girls Clubs of America. No additional applications will be solicited in
FY 2002.
Law Enforcement Training and Technical Assistance Program
The Law Enforcement Training and Technical Assistance Program was
initially funded through a competitive award in 1999 to the
International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) for a 3-year
project period. The purpose of the program is to increase the capacity
of law enforcement and allied professions to address juvenile crime,
delinquency, and victimization through multiagency system responses to
school violence; juvenile gang, gun, and drug activity; and serious,
violent, and chronic juvenile crime. Training workshops and technical
assistance strengthen existing multiagency collaboration and facilitate
creation of new partnerships.
In FY 2001, program activities included 19 workshops for more than
1,000 participants from 600 jurisdictions in 12 States. In addition, a
marketing database was developed that allows the program to promote
each
[[Page 38831]]
individual product by State, via fax, directly to police, sheriffs,
school administrators, school resource officers, juvenile probation and
corrections agencies, juvenile mental health service officials, and
other juvenile justice stakeholders. An OJJDP/IACP Training and
Technical Assistance Web page was created for the IACP Web site. The
page includes the training schedule and registration forms for specific
training sessions and onsite technical assistance.
In FY 2002, the following deliverables will be provided under this
program: 18 workshops, 12 onsite technical assistance projects, and 8
Chief Executive Officer Exchange Forums. Additionally, 1,500 CD-ROMs
with relevant OJJDP literature and reference materials will be created
and disseminated among training attendees; a Fact Sheet for OJJDP
distribution and an article for a professional periodical will be
written.
The program will be implemented by the current grantee, the
International Association of Chiefs of Police. No additional
applications will be solicited in FY 2002.
National Youth Gang Center
The proliferation of gang problems over the past two decades led
OJJDP to develop a comprehensive, coordinated response that involved
five program components, one of which was implementation and operation
of the National Youth Gang Center (NYGC). Competitively funded in 1994
to expand and maintain the body of critical knowledge about youth gangs
and effective responses to them, NYGC provides support services to the
National Youth Gang Consortium, composed of Federal agencies with
responsibilities in this area. NYGC also provides technical assistance
for OJJDP's Gang-Free Communities Program, Gang-Free Schools Program,
and Rural Gang Initiative. In FY 2001, NYGC (1) conducted indepth
analyses of the National Youth Gang Survey results, which track changes
in gang membership and activity; (2) developed and administered a
survey of youth gangs in American Indian communities; (3) produced
timely information on the nature and scope of the youth gang problem;
(4) continued tracking gang-related legislation at both the State and
Federal levels; and (5) continued to provide training and technical
assistance for OJJDP's Gang-Free Communities Program, Gang-Free Schools
Program, and Rural Gang Initiative.
With FY 2002 funds, the Center will continue to collect, analyze,
and disseminate current and comprehensive national-level gang-related
information. It will continue to assist State and local jurisdictions
in the collection, analysis, and exchange of information on gang-
related demographics, legislation, literature, research, and promising
program strategies. The Center will also continue to provide indepth
technical assistance to grantees of OJJDP gang programs.
This program will be implemented by the current grantee, the
Institute for Intergovernmental Research. No additional applications
will be solicited in FY 2002.
Technical Assistance to the Gang-Free Schools and Communities
Initiative
In FY 2000, OJJDP launched a multisite replication of the OJJDP
Comprehensive Gang Model and a four-site demonstration program to
implement the Model and further enhance the Model's school component.
In FY 2001, the National Youth Gang Center (NYGC) developed a manual to
assist these communities in conducting the assessment, developed and
provided these sites with tools and instruments for data collection,
developed Web-based technical assistance resources for these
communities, and provided initial gang problem assessment training to
10 participating sites and followup technical assistance and training
to 5 of these sites. NYGC also developed a Web page to enable
unsuccessful applicants to access technical assistance in conducting an
assessment of the OJJDP Model. In FY 2002, OJJDP will fund NYGC to
provide training and technical assistance during the implementation
stages of this initiative in selected communities across the country.
The National Youth Gang Center is currently providing technical
assistance on OJJDP's Model to communities involved in OJJDP's Rural
Gang Initiative and to other OJJDP grantees.
OJJDP will provide a supplemental award to the National Youth Gang
Center to provide the technical assistance. No additional applications
will be solicited in FY 2002.
Delinquency Prevention and Intervention
Assessing Alcohol, Drug, and Mental Disorders Among Juvenile Detainees
This project, which was funded competitively in 1999, is a major
longitudinal study assessing alcohol, drug, and mental disorders among
juveniles in the Cook County Detention Center in Chicago, IL. The
project has three primary goals: (1) To determine how alcohol, drug,
and mental disorders develop over time among juvenile detainees; (2) to
investigate whether juvenile detainees receive needed psychiatric
services after their cases reach disposition (whether they return to
the community or are incarcerated); and (3) to study the development
and interrelationship of dangerous and risky behaviors related to
violence, substance use, and HIV/AIDS. This project is unique because
the sample is so large: it includes 1,829 youth from Chicago who were
arrested and originally interviewed between 1995 and 1998. The sample
is stratified by gender, race (African American, Hispanic, non-Hispanic
white), and age. Initial interviews have been completed, and extensive
archival data (e.g., arrest and incarceration history, health and
mental health treatment) have been collected on each subject. The
investigators have been tracking the subjects, and they have completed
several sets of followup interviews. A significant number of subject
deaths, virtually all of them linked to violence (e.g., gunshot
wounds), have already occurred. The large sample size has provided
sufficient statistical power to study the prevalence of co-occurring
disorders. Researchers are preparing an OJJDP Bulletin that compares
subjects' self-reported substance use with the results of urine screens
conducted shortly after arrest.
This project will be implemented by the current grantee,
Northwestern University. No additional applications will be solicited
in FY 2002.
Comprehensive Children and Families Mental Health Training and
Technical Assistance
OJJDP has entered into an interagency agreement with the Center for
Mental Health Services (CMHS) of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health
Services Administration to support the CMHS-funded Comprehensive Mental
Health sites. CMHS currently funds 45 sites, a technical assistance
provider, and an evaluation. OJJDP funds are used to support the
juvenile justice specialist member of the technical assistance team,
which also includes child welfare, mental health, education, and parent
specialists. This team oversees technical assistance to the sites and
coordinates technical assistance to meet their needs. The juvenile
justice specialist responsibilities include efforts to assist with the
development of increased coordination between the juvenile justice and
mental health systems in the 45 sites.
This initiative will be implemented through an interagency
agreement with CMHS. No additional applications will be solicited in FY
2002.
[[Page 38832]]
Evaluation of the Truancy Reduction Demonstration Program
OJJDP currently funds seven sites that are implementing truancy
reduction programs. Grantees include Contra Costa, CA; Honolulu, HI;
Houston, TX; Jacksonville, FL; King County, WA; Suffolk County, NY; and
Tacoma, WA. OJJDP also funds the Colorado Foundation for Families and
Children (CFFC) to conduct the national evaluation of the Truancy
Reduction Demonstration Program. As part of the evaluation, CFFC is
working with the sites to (1) determine how community collaboration can
reduce truancy and lead to systemic reform and (2) assist OJJDP in
developing a community collaborative truancy reduction program model
and identifying the essential elements of that model. To that end, CFFC
continues to assist project sites to identify and document the nature
of the truancy problem in their communities, enhance effective truancy
reduction planning and collaboration, and incorporate that process into
the implementation of the Truancy Reduction Demonstration Program at
each site. In addition, CFFC is assisting sites in collecting
information on truant youth and documenting services.
This project will be implemented by the current grantee, the
Colorado Foundation for Families and Children. No additional
applications will be solicited in FY 2002.
Integrated Information Sharing To Prevent Juvenile Delinquency: A
Training and Technical Assistance Approach
The Integrated Information Sharing To Prevent Juvenile Delinquency:
A Training and Technical Assistance Approach project was established in
FY 2001 under a competitive 2-year cooperative agreement between OJJDP
and the Center for Non-Profit Development/Center for Network
Development (CND). The project is designed to launch OJJDP's integrated
information-sharing (IIS) effort. CND works to increase the capacity of
State and local collaboratives to establish and manage effective
multidisciplinary, multiagency information-sharing systems; support
proactive solutions to juvenile delinquency; and improve coordination,
decisionmaking, and services to at-risk youth and their families.
Under this cooperative agreement, CND has completed several key
tasks to accomplish the project's goals. The results of a national
training needs assessment survey and focus group meeting influenced the
content of instructional materials for regional training workshops
scheduled for FY 2001 and FY 2002. Similarly, a curriculum design team
has outlined particular training modules and engaged practitioners at
various levels of experience with IIS systems to critique the designs
and discuss the challenges, barriers, and solutions to building
effective partnerships and planning and implementing IIS systems.
In FY 2001, CND collected lists of collaborative groups interested
in enhancing IIS efforts from OJJDP program managers and added these
lists to the IIS database. The national training needs assessment was
developed and mailed to 953 youth-focused collaborative practitioners
interested in developing and/or enhancing an IIS system.
In FY 2002, the final year of this 2-year project, CND will
continue developing, marketing, and piloting level 1 and level 2
trainings, providing followup assistance, and evaluating the
application of knowledge and skills gained in the trainings to improve
IIS's collaborative performance.
This project will be implemented by the current grantee, the Center
for Non-Profit Development/Center for Network Development. No
additional applications will be solicited in FY 2002.
Intergenerational Transmission of Antisocial Behavior
The purpose of the Intergenerational Transmission of Antisocial
Behavior study is to examine the development of childhood antisocial
behavior in a three-generation prospective panel study by making the
children of the current participants in the OJJDP-sponsored Rochester
(NY) Youth Development Study the focal subjects of a new long-term
study. Forty percent of the original Rochester participants were
parents by age 21. The Youth Development Study began in 1986. The new
study is being funded under an FY 1998 interagency agreement with the
National Institute of Mental Health. The grantee will combine data on
the original study's participants and their parents with new data on
the children of the original participants. The combined data will
enable researchers to examine and track the development of delinquent
behavior across three generations in a particularly high-risk sample.
The results of the study should provide useful findings that will have
policy implications for prevention programs. In FY 2002, the program
will continue data collection.
The project will be implemented by the current grantee, the
University at Albany, State University of New York. No additional
applications will be solicited in FY 2002.
Juvenile Defender Training, Technical Assistance, and Resource Center
The Juvenile Defender Training, Technical Assistance, and Resource
Center (Juvenile Defender Center), now in its third year of funding
under a 5-year project period grant, was competitively awarded to the
American Bar Association (ABA) in FY 1999. The Juvenile Defender Center
fills a major gap in resources and support for juvenile defenders in
the United States by providing training and technical assistance
services. Nationally focused training and technical assistance for
juvenile defenders did not exist before OJJDP funded the original Due
Process Advocacy project from 1993 to 1999. Building on that project,
the Juvenile Defender Center project is designed to facilitate the
development of a permanent training and technical assistance capability
for juvenile defenders. Improving the capabilities and skills of
juvenile defenders strengthens the juvenile justice system and provides
greater assurance that juveniles charged with delinquency will receive
the due process and adequate representation they are guaranteed under
the U.S. Constitution.
The ABA has competitively selected eight regional centers to
provide training and technical assistance in their regions. Each year,
the ABA organizes and holds a National Juvenile Defender Summit that
brings together juvenile defenders and related practitioners to address
key issues in juvenile defense work. The ABA operates under a unique
incentive funding scheme that enables it to receive additional funds
over a base amount if it raises money in the private sector or obtains
in-kind services. The ABA has been very successful in raising private
funds and obtaining donated resources.
This project will be implemented by the current grantee, the
American Bar Association. No additional applications will be solicited
in FY 2002.
Multisite, Multimodal Treatment Study of Children With Attention
Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder
In 1992, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' National
Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) began a study of the long-term
efficacy of stimulant medication and intensive behavioral and
educational treatment for children with attention deficit/hyperactivity
disorder (ADHD). Although ADHD is classified as a childhood disorder,
up to 70 percent of affected children continue to experience
[[Page 38833]]
symptoms in adolescence and adulthood. Researchers at six primary study
sites and three subcontractor sites are following children in the three
treatment groups (medication management only, behavioral treatment, and
a combination of medication and behavioral treatment) and a control
group (community care).
OJJDP's participation in the study, which began in FY 1998,
supports continued investigation into the subjects' aggressive and
delinquent behavior and contact with the legal system, including
arrest, detention, and incarceration. In FY 2002, OJJDP will transfer
funds to NIMH through an interagency agreement that will support the
collection of data related to subjects' delinquent and criminal
behavior and contact with the juvenile justice system.
This program will be implemented through an interagency agreement
with the National Institute of Mental Health. No additional
applications will be solicited in FY 2002.
National Youth Court Center
OJJDP established the National Youth Court Center (NYCC) in 1999 to
provide intensive training, technical assistance, data collection, and
considerable programmatic resources to strengthen statewide and local
youth court initiatives. NYCC supports the establishment of youth
courts consistent with effective design elements for the purposes of
preventing delinquency and holding young people accountable for their
delinquent and criminal behavior within the context of constructive
peer group community sanctions. Youth courts are programs where
juvenile offenders are adjudicated and sentenced by their peers. These
programs are rapidly becoming an integral component of the juvenile
justice system in communities across America.
OJJDP is the lead Federal agency responsible for supporting the
national youth court movement, with the U.S. Department of
Transportation providing a small amount of support through an annual
interagency agreement. With more than 800 programs currently operating
and hundreds of jurisdictions planning to develop programs, youth
courts have experienced tremendous growth in the past few years.
Accomplishments of the project to date include publication of
National Youth Court Guidelines, which provides programmatic blueprints
for operating effective youth court programs; National Youth Court
Directory, which provides the largest and most accurate listing of
youth court programs in the United States; and A Street Law Curriculum
for Youth Courts. NYCC also has (1) developed a comprehensive youth
court Web site and a national youth court center newsletter that offer
the most comprehensive and up-to-date information on youth courts, (2)
provided onsite technical assistance to jurisdictions in support of
local or statewide youth court development efforts, (3) launched a
national lawyer/law student recruitment campaign (a nationwide
initiative linking lawyers and law students with local youth court
programs), and (4) published Youth Court and Balanced and Restorative
Justice.
In FY 2002, NYCC will produce three instructional videos about
youth court benefits, responsibilities, and training for volunteer
jurors. NYCC will also develop a training Web site to aid youth
volunteers in preparing for their cases online. New documents will
include a manual for a 10-week training program for youth volunteers;
instructor's guides for adult volunteers who train volunteer youth; a
daily operations handbook that will serve as a resource guide for
coordinators of youth court programs; a ``road map to youth court,''
designed to teach those in the legal community about youth court; and a
community service workbook that will teach program coordinators to set
up task- and service-oriented community service projects for youthful
offenders. Educational community service modules for youthful offenders
will be designed around the most common victim issues and alcohol and
marijuana offenses handled in youth court.
Training events for FY 2002 include a national youth court
conference and a ``train the trainers'' session that will prepare one
person from each State as the key State trainer for both the community
service education and student membership training programs. Public
education campaigns also will be developed and launched in FY 2002.
This project will be implemented by the current grantee, the
American Probation and Parole Association with a subgrant to the
American Bar Association. No additional applications will be solicited
in FY 2002.
Pathways to Desistance: A Prospective Study of Serious Adolescent
Offenders
In FY 2001, OJJDP, along with the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention and several private foundations, provided funding for the
first year of data collection for the Pathways to Desistance study.
This multisite, longitudinal, collaborative research project follows
approximately 1,200 serious juvenile offenders from adolescence to
young adulthood. Interviews are conducted regularly with these youth
and their family members and friends for several years following their
involvement with the court for felony-level offenses. The aims of the
investigation are to (1) identify initial patterns of desistance from
antisocial activity in serious adolescent offenders, (2) describe the
role of social context and developmental changes in promoting positive
behavioral change, and (3) compare the effects of sanctions and
interventions in promoting positive change and desistance from criminal
behavior. The larger goals of the study are to improve decisionmaking
by court and social services personnel and to clarify policy debate
about dispositional alternatives for serious adolescent offenders. The
project is anticipated to last at least 3 years. In FY 2002, OJJDP, in
conjunction with the U.S. Department of Justice's National Institute of
Justice, the William T. Grant Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson
Foundation, and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, will
support the project's second year of data collection.
This project will be implemented by the current grantee, the
University of Pittsburgh. No additional applications will be solicited
in FY 2002.
Technical Assistance for the Title V Community Prevention Programs
The purpose of this project is to provide OJJDP with the capacity
to provide communities with training and technical assistance support
for implementation of the Title V Community Prevention Grants program.
The contract was awarded in FY 2000 through a competitive process. The
contractor will continue to provide nationwide training and technical
assistance for State and local jurisdictions on developing and
implementing comprehensive communitywide, data-based delinquency
prevention strategies. Through training and technical assistance,
community leaders develop the knowledge and skills necessary to assess
local risk factors for and protective factors against delinquency and
to address risk factors using community resources. To build training
capacity within States and national regions, instruction on data-based,
risk- and protection-focused prevention will be provided for trainers.
This project will be implemented by the current contractor,
Development Services Group, Inc. No additional applications will be
solicited in FY 2002.
[[Page 38834]]
Truancy Reduction Demonstration Program
In FY 1998, OJJDP, the Executive Office for Weed and Seed, and the
U.S. Department of Education supported a grant program to reduce
truancy. The Truancy Reduction Demonstration Program is a comprehensive
program designed to combine education, justice and law enforcement,
social services, and community resources to identify and track truant
youth and cooperatively design and implement comprehensive systemwide
programs to meet the needs of these youth. The four components of the
Truancy Reduction Program are (1) system reform and accountability, (2)
a service continuum to address the needs of truant children and
adolescents, (3) data collection and evaluation, and (4) a community
prevention education and awareness program for kindergarten through
grade 12. OJJDP has awarded grants to seven sites to implement the
comprehensive truancy program. Three were non-Weed and Seed (Honolulu,
HI; Jacksonville, FL; and King County, WA), and four were Weed and Seed
sites (Houston, TX; Martinez, CA; Tacoma, WA; and Yaphank, NY).
Operation Weed and Seed is a two-pronged strategy within the Office of
Justice Programs (OJP) that seeks to prevent, control, and reduce
violent crime, drug abuse, and gang activity in targeted high-crime
neighborhoods.
All the truancy reduction sites are in the implementation phase of
the program. Examples of the program strategies include the following:
case managers conducting home visits, attendance monitoring, tutoring,
and case management referral of youth and families to community
agencies for needed services. In FY 2001, the Truancy Reduction Program
served approximately 2,085 students and 1,180 families. The Colorado
Foundation for Families and Children is conducting a process evaluation
that will help to identify key elements of an effective truancy
program.
The current grantees (Honolulu, HI; Houston, TX; Jacksonville, FL;
King County, WA; Martinez, CA; Tacoma, WA; and Yaphank, NY) will
continue to carry out the truancy activities. No additional
applications will be solicited in FY 2002.
Strengthening the Juvenile Justice System
Accountability-Based Training for Staff in Juvenile Confinement
Facilities
The Accountability-Based Training for Staff in Juvenile Confinement
Facilities program, provided through the National Juvenile Detention
Association's (NJDA's) Center for Research and Professional Development
(CRPD), offers extensive training that enhances the ability of staff in
juvenile confinement facilities around the country to handle and care
for confined youth. OJJDP has funded this program for 6 years to enable
staff working in secure facilities to avail themselves of state-of-the-
art training. With OJJDP's support, CRPD has provided more than 101,600
training hours to line staff in juvenile justice facilities and
programs in 33 States. In addition to training through CRPD, NJDA
provides comprehensive technical assistance to State and local juvenile
detention centers that are experiencing problems with their operations.
During FY 2002, CRPD will continue to provide onsite training and
technical assistance to direct care staff in juvenile confinement and
custody facilities with the existing materials and curriculums. CRPD
also will develop and pilot a new 40-hour curriculum, ``BARJ-ing into
Juvenile Confinement: Practical Application of BARJ [Balanced And
Restorative Justice] Principles for Line Staff'; develop advanced
training curriculums in the areas of suicide prevention and management
of mentally ill residents; and revise the curriculum for juvenile
detention careworkers.
This project will be implemented by the current grantee, the
National Juvenile Detention Association, Center for Research and
Professional Development. No additional applications will be solicited
in FY 2002.
Balanced and Restorative Justice
OJJDP established the Balanced and Restorative Justice (BARJ)
training and technical assistance project in FY 1992 by awarding funds
to Florida Atlantic University to provide training, technical
assistance, and guidelines on implementing the BARJ model, which
encourages the juvenile justice system to address three goals equally:
(1) Ensuring community safety, (2) holding offenders accountable to
victims, and (3) promoting competency development for offenders in the
juvenile justice system so they are equipped to pursue noncriminal
lines of work after release. The project is national in scope. However,
to use limited resources efficiently, BARJ technical assistance works
with seven ``special emphasis'' States (California, Florida, Illinois,
Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, and Texas) and with several local
jurisdictions across the Nation to help them plan and implement BARJ.
The project also works with key justice system and community leaders to
clarify BARJ concepts and to seek their help in advancing BARJ goals
and activities.
In FY 2001, the BARJ project developed, helped organize, or
participated in more than 40 major training and technical assistance
events on restorative justice. BARJ roundtables provided training and
technical assistance to teams of juvenile justice managers and
practitioners from the seven special emphasis States. In addition, the
project has updated its instructional materials for the BARJ courses
and produced new reference publications on restorative justice. The
project also publishes a quarterly BARJ newsletter, Kaleidoscope of
Justice.
In FY 2002, the BARJ project will conduct the BARJ Academy
workshops, the introduction to restorative justice and training for
trainers courses, and a graduate BARJ trainers conference. The project
will develop new training courses on restorative justice in schools,
training of trainers for group conferencing, and strategic BARJ
management. One or more specialized workshops on selected BARJ topics
are also planned. The project plans to present workshops at national
and regional conferences sponsored by groups representing judges,
prosecutors, probation and corrections personnel, law enforcement,
victims advocates, child welfare practitioners, and others. Resource
documents will be developed, and the program's existing training
materials and Web site will be updated.
This project will be implemented by the current grantee, the
Florida Atlantic University. No additional applications will be
solicited in FY 2002.
Census of Juveniles in Residential Placement
The Census of Juveniles in Residential Placement (CJRP) collects
individual-level data on all juveniles in residential placement on a
specific reference day (the fourth Wednesday in October). The data
elements collected include each offender's age, sex, race, placing
agency, legal status, and most serious offense. Because this project is
a census, it allows for State-level reporting of juveniles in
residential placement. The census is mailed to all facilities that can
and do hold juvenile offenders for reasons of the offense. Personnel
report on all offenders younger than 21 years old residing in their
facilities on the reference day. The facilities also provide some basic
information on any other persons who do not fit these criteria. CJRP
was first conducted in October 1997 and again in October 1999. In 2002,
the Census Bureau will continue to conduct the work of the 2001 CJRP,
[[Page 38835]]
including data collection, data editing, data inputting, and data file
preparation.
This program will be implemented through an existing interagency
agreement with the Bureau of the Census. No additional applications
will be solicited in FY 2002.
Center for Students With Disabilities in the Juvenile Justice System
During FY 1999, OJJDP undertook a joint initiative with the Office
of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, U.S. Department of
Education, to establish a Center for Students With Disabilities in the
Juvenile Justice System. This project is expected to improve the
juvenile justice system's services for students with disabilities in
the areas of prevention, educational services, and reintegration based
on a combination of research, training, and technical assistance. The
Center guides and assists States, schools, juvenile justice programs,
families, and communities in designing, implementing, and evaluating
comprehensive educational programs, based on research-validated
practices, for students with disabilities in the juvenile justice
system.
This program will be implemented under an existing 5-year
interagency agreement with the U.S. Department of Education by the
current grantee, the University of Maryland. No additional applications
will be solicited in FY 2002.
Improving Juvenile Sanctioning: An Intensive Training and Technical
Assistance Delivery Program
The purpose of this program is to improve the capacity of the
juvenile justice system by providing intensive training and technical
assistance to at least 10 selected jurisdictions to strengthen and
enhance existing juvenile accountability-based sanctioning programs and
to support development of new ones, within the context of community-
based programs that support competency development in youth. The
primary target population for this program is youthful offenders who
could be referred by law enforcement, schools, or juvenile courts to
community-managed alternatives to detention and secure confinement. The
program's goal is to create or improve juvenile accountability-based
programs at the front end of the continuum, while enhancing the
competencies and skills of youth and strengthening the juvenile justice
system's capability to respond appropriately to delinquent behavior.
This project, initially funded in FY 2001 through a competitive
solicitation, is designed as a 5-year project.
This program will be implemented by the current grantee, the
National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges. No additional
applications will be solicited in FY 2002.
Intensive Community-Based Juvenile Aftercare Dissemination and
Technical Assistance Program
This initiative supports replication of, training and technical
assistance for, and information dissemination about the Intensive
Aftercare Program (IAP) model, which was implemented in three
competitively selected demonstration sites. The overall goal of the IAP
model is to identify and assist adjudicated juvenile offenders who are
in secure confinement to make a successful transition to the community
upon release. An independent evaluation of the IAP demonstration is
currently underway, with a final report due in the winter of 2002.
As the demonstration period for the three pilot sites has ended,
the focus of this initiative has shifted to six distinct areas: (1)
Replication of the model with emphasis on specialized youth
populations, (2) linkage with select Performance-Based Standards
correctional sites, (3) provision of technical assistance to DOL's
Youth Offender Demonstration sites, (4) provision of technical
assistance to select Boys & Girls Clubs sites participating in OJJDP's
Gang Prevention Through Targeted Outreach initiative, (5) creation of a
national juvenile reintegration and aftercare center, and (6) creation
of a new Web site.
This initiative will be implemented by the current grantee, the
Johns Hopkins University. No additional applications will be solicited
in FY 2002.
James E. Gould Memorial Program for Training and Technical Assistance
for Juvenile Corrections and Detention
OJJDP established the Training and Technical Assistance Program for
Juvenile Corrections and Detention staff 16 years ago by funding the
American Correctional Association (ACA) to provide leadership to the
juvenile justice field through training and technical assistance to
staff working in juvenile corrections, detention, community
residential, and nonresidential facilities. ACA conducts an annual
National Juvenile Corrections and Detention Forum on behalf of OJJDP.
In addition to the forums, ACA developed a curriculum addressing
increased privatization in the field of juvenile justice and conducted
three regional privatization workshops on writing requests for
proposals, writing good contracts, and monitoring contracts. ACA
publishes articles on juvenile justice topics in each issue of its
Corrections Today magazine and recently published a monograph and a
curriculum on privatization. ACA also provides technical assistance to
juvenile justice professionals concerning detention and corrections
issues.
In FY 2002, the project will continue to coordinate with other
national juvenile justice organizations to provide technical assistance
to juvenile justice agencies and will hold the 17th annual National
Juvenile Corrections and Detention Forum. ACA will update mailing lists
of both public and private juvenile facilities and develop a listserv
and Internet service to enhance knowledge and facilitate sharing of
information among juvenile justice detention and corrections
professionals. Texts, papers, monographs, and related juvenile
corrections and detention resource materials will be developed and
disseminated to the juvenile justice community. Three 3-day regional
workshops on issues related to privatization and two 1-day national
workshops that address needs and trends in juvenile corrections and
detention will be held.
This project will be implemented by the current grantee, the
American Correctional Association. No additional applications will be
solicited in FY 2002.
Juvenile Justice Prosecution Unit
OJJDP supports the Juvenile Justice Prosecution Unit's (JJPU's)
training and technical assistance program for prosecutors under a grant
to the American Prosecutors Research Institute (APRI), which was first
awarded in FY 1995. JJPU develops and presents training workshops to
chief prosecutors, juvenile unit chiefs, and deputy district attorneys
assigned to juvenile courts. The training deals with leadership roles
of prosecutors in the juvenile justice system, handling of juvenile
delinquency cases, and significant juvenile justice issues that are of
concern to prosecutors. Approximately six training workshops are held
annually, and curriculums and appropriate reference materials are
developed for each training event.
In FY 2001, APRI developed and presented two workshops on
disproportionate minority confinement (DMC); conducted five JUMPSTART
courses for newly assigned juvenile prosecutors, several short
workshops at the National Juvenile Justice Conference, a course on
juvenile justice prosecution for prosecutor coordinators,
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and a serious and violent offender workshop; and created two new
workshops for prosecutors on balanced and restorative justice and
interdisciplinary issues. The training and technical assistance
materials developed by APRI include curriculums and topical resource
guides for the courses offered. In addition, APRI developed a Web page,
continued updating the Compendium of Juvenile Programs for Prosecutors,
and produced four In Re newsletters.
In FY 2002, APRI will provide training (including two new courses)
and technical assistance to new groups of prosecutors. APRI will
provide a Webcast for prosecutors, conduct five JUMPSTART courses, and
present a juvenile justice prosecution track at the National Juvenile
Justice Conference. The project will continue updating its training
curriculums and materials, including its Web page, and preparing new
training and resource documents. The project also will keep prosecutors
informed on developments in restorative justice and expand the
Compendium of Juvenile Programs for Prosecutors as new programs are
reported from the field.
This project will be implemented by the current grantee, the
American Prosecutors Research Institute. No additional applications
will be solicited in FY 2002.
Juvenile Residential Facility Census
OJJDP designed the Juvenile Residential Facility Census (JRFC) to
collect important information on facility characteristics, services
provided to residents in the facility, and the conditions within the
facility. Similar to the Census of Juveniles in Residential Placement,
JRFC is a biennial census of residential facilities used by the
juvenile justice system to hold youth accused of or adjudicated for an
offense. The data collection forms are mailed to each facility for
personnel to complete. The JRFC collects information on the
availability of health care services, mental health counseling or
treatment, substance abuse treatment, and education and on youth's
access to the particular services they need. The JRFC also asks
specific questions about the nature of the facility itself,
specifically about the conditions of confinement, the number of beds
used (including makeshift beds), and the use of isolation or
restraints. Finally, the JRFC collects information on any deaths in
custody, a subject on which OJJDP must report annually. The first full
JRFC was conducted in October 2000. In FY 2002, the Census Bureau will
prepare for the second full implementation of the JRFC, mail out the
necessary forms, and begin full data collection.
This project will be conducted through an interagency agreement
with the Bureau of the Census, Governments Division and Statistical
Research Division. No additional applications will be solicited in FY
2002.
Longitudinal Study To Examine the Development of Conduct Disorder in
Girls
The purpose of this project, which is being funded under an FY 1999
interagency agreement between OJJDP and the National Institute of
Mental Health, is to examine the development of conduct disorder in a
sample of 2,500 inner-city girls who are ages 6-8 at the beginning of
the study. The study will follow the girls annually for 5 years and
will provide information that is critical to the understanding of the
etiology, comorbidity, and prognosis of conduct disorder in girls.
Delinquency in girls has been steadily increasing over the past decade,
and a better understanding of developmental processes in girls will
help identify effective means of prevention and provide direction for
juvenile justice responses to delinquent girls. In FY 2002, the program
will continue data collection.
The project will be implemented by the current grantee, the
University of Pittsburgh. No additional applications will be solicited
in FY 2002.
Meta-Analysis Project
In FY 2001, Vanderbilt University began a program to update a
significant existing database of juvenile justice program evaluations
and to provide various meta-analyses of the data for OJJDP. Meta-
analysis is defined as ``a statistical analysis that combines or
integrates the results of several independent clinical trials
considered by the analyst to be combinable.''\1\ This technique creates
a larger research framework to make broad generalizations about, for
example, the impact of specific types of interventions on different
types of outcomes. Meta-analysis allows for the results of small, weak,
and/or methodologically flawed studies to be combined and reanalyzed.
Vanderbilt University has created a database that contains data from
more than 500 published and unpublished studies of programs involving a
wide range of treatments and services. Each study is codified using 156
variables, including characteristics of the study, types of
interventions, and measures of outcomes.
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\1\ Huque, M.F. 1988. Experiences with meta-analysis in NDA
submissions. Proceedings of the Biopharmaceutical Section of the
American Statistical Association 2:28-33.
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In FY 2001, the project was updated to include approximately 100
new studies that were completed in the past several years. In FY 2002,
the study will expand the analysis to include different measures of
outcomes and recidivism. The resulting series of reports will be made
available to juvenile justice practitioners and policymakers.
This program will be implemented by the current grantee, Vanderbilt
University. No additional applications will be solicited in FY 2002.
National Census and Survey of Juvenile Probation
In FY 2001, OJJDP entered into an interagency agreement with George
Mason University (GMU) to develop and test a new survey and census of
juvenile probation. OJJDP worked with the U.S. Bureau of the Census's
Center for Survey Methods Research to develop this project; the GMU
team will complete the work. The project consists of developing
questionnaires for both a census and a survey of juvenile probation.
GMU will also fully test the questionnaires in cooperation with the
data collection agency, the U.S. Bureau of the Census.
This project will be conducted through an interagency agreement
with George Mason University. No additional applications will be
solicited in FY 2002.
National Evaluation of the Performance-based Standards Project
OJJDP funded the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA)
to conduct an independent evaluation of OJJDP's Performance-based
Standards (PbS) Project. This formative evaluation provides feedback to
the PbS project development team on how to improve the program design
and implementation supports to the sites. The evaluation is collecting
both quantitative and qualitative data describing the processes used to
implement the PbS model in 80 juvenile detention and correctional
facilities across the country. To date, the evaluator has completed a
chronicle that tracks major program decisions and improvements. In
addition to conducting two all-site surveys, the evaluator also has
contributed to the conceptualization and design of key program
elements, including the Program Monitoring System, the expansion of the
program to reintegration outcomes, and the migration of the project to
integrate with agencies' management information systems (MISs), and has
developed materials for meeting privacy and
[[Page 38837]]
human subjects issues. A new focus of the evaluation is to develop six
case studies to capture in depth the process of a facility's journey
from initiation to institutionalization of PbS in its day-to-day
operations.
As the PbS project expands in FY 2002 to include community-based
correctional functions and deals with the launching of an MIS
integrated system, it will be necessary to continue to independently
review the work, both to chronicle its development and to capture,
through the case studies and surveys, how the innovations are being
carried out in the field.
This project will be implemented by the current grantee, the
National Academy of Public Administration. No additional applications
will be solicited in FY 2002.
National Juvenile Justice Data Analysis Project
First funded in FY 1999 under a competitive process, the National
Juvenile Justice Data Analysis Project (NJJDAP) provides research into
and analysis of a wide variety of juvenile justice issues, including
juvenile placement, custody, arrests, victimization, and juvenile
offending. However, the topics of interest to juvenile professionals
are not limited to these issues. As research expands, the field learns
more about the intersections of delinquency and other problems, such as
mental health disorders, education needs, and physical injury.
Attention to these problems can help the field design effective
prevention or intervention measures and identify what problems the
juvenile justice system will face in dealing with delinquent youth.
NJJDAP will examine such issues of concern through cooperation with
experts in the fields of interest and with data collected in those
fields. This project produces quick, unique analyses of these issues
for publication by OJJDP.
In FY 2002, NJJDAP will expand its roster of available consultants
who can provide either expertise in data analysis or knowledge of
particular aspects of adolescent development, juvenile delinquency, or
the juvenile justice system. NJJDAP will also investigate innovative
data sets at the State and local levels.
This project will be implemented by the current grantee, the
National Center for Juvenile Justice. No additional applications will
be solicited in FY 2002.
National Juvenile Justice Program Directory
To conduct statistical projects, OJJDP and the Census Bureau
require a support infrastructure that enables both to perform the
necessary survey tasks efficiently and effectively. T |
