FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE??????????? ??????????? Contact:??????????? Office of Communications???????????
TUESDAY, APRIL 22, 2003??????????? ??????????? ??????????? ??????????? ??????????? Office of Justice Programs
www.ojp.usdoj.gov
Linda Mansour 202-616-3534??????????? ??????????? ??????????? ??????????? ???????????
Main Office: 202-307-0703
COPS Office
www.cops.usdoj.gov
Maria Carolina Rozas 202-616-1728
ARKANSAS RECEIVED MORE THAN $47 MILLION
FROM JUSTICE DEPARTMENT LAST YEAR
WASHINGTON, D.C. ? The State of Arkansas received more than $47.25
million from the Justice Department in Fiscal Year 2002 to assist with criminal
justice activities, according to a report released by the Department
today.? For the second consecutive year,
the Justice Department is providing an annual report detailing all funding the
Department?s Office of Justice Programs (OJP) and Community Oriented Policing
Services (COPS) Office have awarded to each state and territory.? The report is available online at: www.ojp.usdoj.gov/fy2002grants and www.cops.usdoj.gov
?We are committed to making federal funding information available to
federal, state, and local officials so they can make informed decisions about
allocating resources to their programs,? said Attorney General John
Ashcroft.? ?By partnering with Arkansas?
state and local policymakers, we can invest our funds wisely to ensure public
safety.?
Arkansas? funding was part of a total of more than $5.47 billion that
the Justice Department awarded to every state and territory.? The Justice Department awarded states and
territories $249.77 million more in Fiscal Year 2002 than in Fiscal Year
2001.? The majority of states received
increased funding.? Arkansas received an
additional $8.73 million in Fiscal Year 2002.
?
The majority of funds a state receives usually come from larger grants
awarded to states based on population, so heavily populated states received
more funding than less populated states.
The funding report also includes discretionary grants that are awarded
competitively to communities or nonprofit agencies including faith-based
organizations.
Arkansas? largest funding category was law enforcement. Nearly $21
million of the total amount was awarded for initiatives such as hiring and
training police officers, training emergency first responders and purchasing
equipment.? Funds awarded by the COPS
(Community Oriented Policing Services) Office are included in this category as
are the Bulletproof Vest Program grants, which are new to the report this
year.? The COPS Office provides grant
funding to advance community policing in jurisdictions across the country.
The next largest category, at $9.73 million, was substance abuse.? Funds were awarded for interdiction and
enforcement efforts and prevention and drug treatment programs, including? drug courts.? Counterterrorism activities, a new functional area added to the
report this year, received $6.03 million and $4.48 million went to juvenile
justice.? The counterterrorism category
includes money for training emergency first responders and purchasing
equipment, as well as research and development of counterterrorism
technology.? Juvenile justice funds
include money for delinquency prevention programs such as mentoring and
reducing gang violence.? The majority of
funding in the victims category ($4.48 million) goes directly to the state to
provide compensation and assistance for crime victims and to combat domestic
violence and sexual assault.
A large portion of the community-based category funding, $1.64 million
last year, is provided through the Weed and Seed program.? Weed and Seed is a strategy that aims to
prevent, control and reduce violent crime, drug abuse and gang activity in
targeted high-crime neighborhoods.
The Justice Department report lists specific grantees within the state
alphabetically by city within six functional areas and summary information for
each city.? There is also a separate
listing of all grants to the state alphabetically by city.
Arkansas? Fiscal Year 2002 funding report and the reports for other
states are available only on the OJP and COPS Office Web sites at www.ojp.usdoj.gov/fy2002grants and www.cops.usdoj.gov, respectively.? For more information about Arkansas? funding
contact the Arkansas State Administering Agencies located on OJP?s Website at www.ojp.usdoj.gov/state.htm? Information about the COPS Office and its programs can be found
at www.cops.usdoj.gov
The Office of Justice Programs provides federal leadership in
developing the nation?s capacity to prevent and control crime, administer
justice, and assist victims.? OJP is
headed by an Assistant Attorney General and comprises 5 component bureaus and 2
offices: the Bureau of Justice Assistance; the Bureau of Justice Statistics;
the National Institute of Justice; the Office of Juvenile Justice and
Delinquency Prevention; and the Office for Victims of Crime, as well as the
Executive Office for Weed and Seed, and the Office of the Police Corps and Law
Enforcement Education.? Information
about OJP programs, publications, and conferences is available on the OJP Web
site, www.ojp.usdoj.gov
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