This report provides an overview of the U.S. Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Assistance's (BJA's) Justice Reinvestment Initiative (JRI) and its plans for fiscal year (FY) 2018.
The JRI is an intensive, data-driven approach that assists state, local, and tribal justice stakeholders identify the drivers of crime and understand how they use resources to address those issues. For FY 2018, BJA is providing support for system-wide improvements in policies and practices at the state, local, and tribal levels by funding two grant programs. One program invites sites to apply directly for financial assistance, and the second is a solicitation for technical assistance or subject-matter experts who can support the JRI approach in states and communities. The training and technical assistance solicitation (TTA) will provide funding for training and technical assistance providers to work with state, local, and tribal governments as they implement their JRI engagements. The JRI site-based solicitation is a new competitive solicitation that invites applications directly from state, local, and tribal governments that want to use the JRI approach in developing, implementing, and testing innovative and research-based responses to the high-cost drivers of public-safety challenges. The JRI solicitation has two categories. In addition to improving the efficacy of state, local, and tribal justice systems, the solicitation focuses on applications for developing and testing innovative and responsible tools and practices that facilitate information-sharing and the coordination of community corrections, law enforcement, prosecutions, and other system stakeholders.