FY 2005 Juvenile Accountability Block Grant Program

In Fiscal Year (FY) 2002, Public Law 107-273, Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act, instituted into legislation the Juvenile Accountability Block Grants (JABG) program. The overarching goal of the Juvenile Accountability Block Grants (JABG) program is to provide States and units of local government with funds to develop programs for the purposes of strengthening the juvenile justice system. To that end, the program provides support, both financial and programmatic, to improve juvenile justice system infrastructure and operations at the State and local levels. JABG funds are allocated to States based on each State's relative population of youth under age 18. JABG is based on the Juvenile Accountability Block Grants Program (JAIBG), which was first appropriated in FY 1998.

The underlying premise of juvenile accountability programming is that young people who violate the law should be held accountable for their offenses through the swift, consistent application of sanctions that are proportionate to the offenses'both as matter of basic justice and as a way to combat delinquency and improve the quality of life in the nation's communities. The more specific goals of the program are to reduce juvenile offending through accountability-based initiatives focused on both the offender and the juvenile justice system.
NCA/NCF