Statement of William J Landers Before the House Subcommittee on Crime Committee on the Judiciary Concerning Reauthorization of the Office of Justice Programs, on September 30, 1987

• NCJ Number: 107630
• Author(s): W J Landers
• Date Published: 1987
• Length: 7 pages
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/; NCJRS Photocopy Services
• Publication Type: Presentation
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

The unification of the Office of Justice Programs (OJP) would help streamline management; conserve scarce financial and staff resources; and provide more continuity, focus, and coordination on criminal justice research and development having national priority.

Abstract

Currently, grant-making authority for criminal justice research and development resides not only in OJP but also in the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP). The Justice Department is tentatively proposing that the programmatic, grant-making, and personnel authorities now residing in BJA, BJS, NIJ, and OJJDP be transferred to the Assistant Attorney General for OJP. The Assistant Attorney General would be more accountable to the Congress by exercising direct control over OJP. OJP could address pressing problems by focusing on issues of national priority. Unnecessary administrative layers within OJP would be eliminated, as would duplication of expertise among OJP components, and coordination among the criminal justice research and development arms of OJP would be easier and less costly to achieve. The scholarly integrity of research work products would be more easily ensured by the stricter accountability.