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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEBJA
TUESDAY, MARCH 17, 1998202/307-0703

$3 MILLION AVAILABLE FOR STATE AND LOCAL TRAINING AND EDUCATION

WASHINGTON, D.C.-- To help state and local criminal justice agencies obtain additional funds to train and educate their personnel, the Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) has announced that it will provide over $3.1 million to states and eligible territories for this purpose. The pilot program is being funded under the Local Law Enforcement Block Grants (LLEBG) program technical assistance initiative, which BJA administers.

"In the course of interacting with LLEBG grantees and the various constituent groups who have benefitted from the LLEBG program, we have learned that many agencies at the state and local level desperately need funds to train and educate their personnel," said BJA Director Nancy Gist. "We hope these grants help to fill that void for practitioners from across the criminal justice system."

The states can use these funds to pay for training or education expenses for professionals in the following disciplines or criminal justice-related systems: law enforcement, prosecution, courts, probation, parole, indigent defense, pretrial services, and corrections. States can distribute the funds to pay for outside training and education courses, in-service refresher courses, and training travel expenses for state or local personnel working in any of the disciplines listed above. States can also sponsor training courses at the local or state level for eligible groups or pay for course fees charged by organizations to provide training.

Funds will be distributed to each state and eligible territory in the form of block grants ranging from $30,000 to $100,000. BJA devised a formula to divide the funds that considered the number of criminal justice employees in each state, the total square mileage of the state, and the number of UCR Part 1 violent crimes each state reported.

States have 24 months to spend the funds they receive through this program. No state can use more than 33 percent of the entire amount it receives towards one particular system or discipline. Each state has 45 days to submit a plan outlining how it will administer the program and make funding decisions. Any training or education the state pays for must benefit the organization or department for which the individual receiving the training or education works.

A chart is attached that includes the agency within each state receiving the funds, the amount for which each state is eligible and contact information for each grant. For additional information about BJA or its programs, visit its Internet web site at: https://ojp.gov/bja. For information on OJP and its programs, visit its web site at: https://ojp.gov.

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BJA 98-060

For additional information, contact Doug Johnson at 202/616-3559