The Department of Justice's Office of Justice Programs (OJP) announced awards of nearly $103 million to support youth and equity in juvenile justice systems.
"Reforming our juvenile justice systems, mentoring our youth and helping young people find a path forward to a safe and bright future are central to our mission at the Office of Justice Programs and remain top priorities of this administration," said OJP’s Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Amy L. Solomon.
OJJDP and the National Institute of Justice awarded millions of dollars to state, local, and Tribal jurisdictions to prevent delinquency, improve outcomes for youth and address racial and ethnic disparities in juvenile justice systems. The awards will support mentoring programs for youth, help develop research-based approaches to reduce recidivism, and ensure system-involved youth have access to high-quality legal representation.
The grants include:
- Nearly $71 million to fund national and multi-state mentoring programs and services to youth. An additional $2.85 million will support OJJDP's National Mentoring Resource Center.
- Over $9.7 million to support delinquency prevention programs that address the needs of youth who have had or who are likely to have juvenile justice system involvement.
- Almost $8 million to help states reform juvenile justice systems, implement recidivism reduction policies, practices and programming and to strategically reinvest cost savings into effective prevention and intervention programs.
- $5.2 million to support juvenile justice research and data collection.
- More than $4.6 million to promote protective factors for girls who come in contact with juvenile justice systems.
- Over $2.2 million to improve juvenile indigent defense.
- Approximately $300,000 to support emergency planning activities for state, local, county, and Tribal juvenile justice residential facilities.
These awards are in addition to more than $80 million in grants that target specific youth populations and support youth reentry initiatives, juvenile and family drug courts, family-based alternative sentencing programs and training for prosecutors in the juvenile justice system.
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