Gang Prevention and Intervention Services

The OJJDP FY 10 Earmarks Program furthers the Department's mission by providing grants, cooperative agreements, and other assistance authorized by the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974, as amended, to organizations identified in the Conference Report to accompany the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2010 (P.L. 111-117), H.R. Conf. Rep. No. 111-366 at 702-714.

The Maryland Department of Juvenile Services' Gang Prevention & Intervention Services: Violence Prevention Initiative (VPI) addresses the need to supervise and provide services for youth at the highest risk of being perpetrators or victims of crimes of violence. Requested funds will improve the existing program design of VPI by adding three Rapid Response Workers (RRW) and increasing electronic surveillance capabilities by twenty Global Positioning System (GPS) units in targeted areas to include monitoring of gang-involved youth. The project will provide supervision of over 100 juveniles for a 36 month project period. The VPI is aligned with the State's effort to prevent juvenile homicides, non-fatal shootings and victimization of youth under the supervision of the juvenile justice system. Recent strategic efforts associated with regionalization of the Department into six service areas and workload management plans have determined that caseloads are increasing and require staff support to provide intensive supervision, safety plans and service linkages for participants. The OJJDP earmark grant provides the support needed to augment the type of intervention provided, with rapid response teams, to court-involved youth who are under electronic monitoring surveillance. NCA/NCF