Justice Reinvestment Initiative: Reducing Violent Crime by Improving Justice System Performance CFDA # 16.827

**This funding opportunity (Category 1) may be a good opportunity for jurisdictions who are equipped to partner with researchers and system stakeholders to address a specific challenge within the system and identify opportunities to improve or address it.**

Every justice agency has a role to play in simultaneously preventing crime, apprehending and prosecuting perpetrators, facilitating appropriate sentencing and treatment, and preserving communities’ security. BJA offers this grant program, Justice Reinvestment Initiative: Reducing Violent Crime by Improving Justice System Performance, for sites to apply and expand the Justice Reinvestment approach to identify and respond to crime and other public safety problems, explore innovative and cost-saving strategies, and to reinvest in strategies that can decrease crime and reduce recidivism. This approach will help build the capacity of state and local jurisdictions to analyze, identify, and respond to drivers of both violent crime and high costs (Category 1) and to test innovative tools to facilitate coordinated information sharing and analysis among justice partners (Category 2). The Justice Reinvestment approach involves five steps to build capacity and implement sustainable change: 1) engage stakeholders, 2) analyze data and drivers of crime problems, 3) develop innovative or research-based responses, 4) implement responses, and 5) measure outcomes. 3 Through this program, applicants may address a challenge directly or remove impediments to addressing a challenge (e.g., improve homicide clearance rates or revise spending so that resources may be redirected to directly reducing violent crime and break down information silos so that information is shared seamlessly across systems and intelligence gathering efforts are not duplicated). Award recipients will receive technical assistance from subject experts. 

Category 1: State, Local, and Tribal Justice Systems. Competition ID: BJA-2018-14883

BJA seeks applicants to address persistent or emerging crime and public safety problems, or to remove impediments to directly addressing them.6 Applicants should review the entire criminal justice system spectrum – from event to reentry – to identify opportunities for improvement that align with holding violent offenders accountable, addressing the opioid epidemic, supporting law enforcement and correctional institutions, and supporting victims of violent crime.

Objectives and Deliverables

BJA will make awards for sites to pursue the following objectives:

• Collect and analyze data, and identify and respond to crime and cost drivers, including crime and costs associated with investigating, prosecuting, and detaining individuals who have committed crimes and are in the U.S. without legal immigration status. For example, by reducing gang violence and time to deportation.
• Engage stakeholders across the justice system (e.g., law enforcement, jails, treatment providers) to diagnose and develop coordinated responses. For example, improve data collection and training about types of victimization, trauma, and related needs in order to develop policies and procedures to maximize benefits (e.g., accessing federal resources to aid victims of violent crime, use of databases to track restitution orders and collection, increasing the amount inmates pay toward victim restitution), and to reduce the collateral effects of violence.
• Test, establish, and/or expand innovative ideas and evidence-based strategies to prevent and respond to crime. For example, assess the correctional population to ensure appropriate bed space usage and, if needed, seek strategies to correct the inmate mix to prioritize bed space for serious, chronic, violent offenders. Focus state probation and parole agency resources on identifying offenders’ risks for general and violent recidivism, and related substance use and mental health needs, and mitigating their risk for engaging in violent behavior or being the victims of violent crime.
• Foster effective and consistent collaboration with justice system agencies to improve strategic and tactical system operations. For example, implement and test approaches to consistently gather and validate intelligence collected in jails and prisons (e.g., about security threat groups); and develop and implement plans to respond to intelligence behind and outside the walls.
• Use data, technology, and intelligence to focus resources on the problems, people, and places associated with concentrations of crime and cost drivers. For example, review existing violent crime and opiate reduction strategies to determine whether they are having the intended effects, and improve performance if they are not. Develop analytic capacity to inform more targeted and effective strategies to address specific crime problems.