NCJ Number
69924
Journal
Corrections Magazine Volume: 6 Issue: 4 Dated: (August 1980) Pages: 34-35
Date Published
1980
Length
2 pages
Annotation
In the Carter Administration's drive to balance the Federal budget, criminal justice assistance programs are in especially dire straits; corrections have a great deal invested in LEAA and are lobbying for its survival.
Abstract
Senate strategies to preempt a House appropriation bill, which cut funding to LEAA's 'block' or 'discretionary' grants, have attempted to preserve a small LEAA discretionary grant program to support State, local, and nonprofit agency projects of proven effectiveness. This Senate legislation appears to be just good enough to act as a survival plan for 1 year in hopes that LEAA's budgetary luck will change for the better. Fortunately, no matter what happens to the 1981 appropriation bill, many programs in operation will have enough funds to extend for a year or two. Yet corrections have great stakes in LEAA's survival. In 1978, LEAA formula grants contributed some $140 million to adult and juvenile corrections programs. Other LEAA programs have included $3.6 million for correctional standards and accreditation programs, $2.4 million to help bring prison and jail services up to national standards, and $1.8 million to help communities reduce jail overcrowding. The American Correctional Association (ACA) depends on LEAA for its national corrections standards compliance program. The loss of LEAA would also cause many community corrections programs to be dropped, which many argue help to save the country money by reducing extremely expensive incarceration. Thus the ACA, along with at least two dozen other criminal justice interest groups are fighting as a coalition to blunt the budget axe, the most intense and widespread support LEAA has ever seen.