Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention

The following excerpt comes from “JJ Today”, the juvenile justice blog of Youth Today.

***Day number 809 without a nominee from the Obama Administration to serve as administrator of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. When the administration decides on an appointee, according to David Baumann of Main Justice, it could result in a quick movement from nominee to administrator.

Update on Federal Funding in Juvenile Justice

The following post originally appeared in “JJ Today”, the juvenile justice blog of Youth Today.

UPDATED Weekly Notes: White House stands down on juvenile justice overhaul; new trainings; and more

April 01, 2011 by John Kelly

[Note: The first entry in this column was updated after additional information was announced by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevetion].

***The big news: Veteran juvenile justice reporter Ted Gest broke the story on The Crime Report today that the Obama administration has backed off its proposal to change the way the Justice Department would offer funds to states for juvenile justice purposes.

Traditionally, a sizable amount of the juvenile justice funds from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention goes directly to states, partially in a formula grant and partially in a block grant. The formula funds are to a large extent contingent upon compliance with the four core requirements of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act; the block grant is given out each year to every state, regardless of how good or lousy they are on juvenile justice.

Obama’s initial proposal was to take all of that money ($120 million for 2012), make it a competitive grant process, and make compliance with JJDPA the criteria just to compete for some of it.

Gest reported this morning: “Assistant Attorney General Laurie Robinson told the House subcommittee that funds the Justice Department on Wednesday that the White House would come up with a new plan that allocates 90 percent of federal aid to improve juvenile justice by formula to the states.”

OJJDP clarified the revisions in a statement on its website this afternoon:

“The Administration has developed an alternative to its original Race to the Top-style incentive grants program and is now proposing that the $120 million in the budget could be allocated in the following fashion:

• $110 million as formula funding
  • $80 million under Title II, Part B of the JJDP Act–Formula Grants program
  • $30 million under the Juvenile Accountability Block Grants (JABG) program
• $10 million in a demonstration program to encourage innovation and juvenile justice system improvements.

Amazing turn of events. About a month ago, there was panic that attention to JJDPA compliance would wither. Now, compliance might become more important than it was before the proposal.