Department of Justice Awards More Than $3 Million to Fight Crime in Kansas

According to the United States Department of Justice, Kansas will be one of many recipients to receive awards to help fight crime. The Department of Justice has recently awarded Kansas $3 million for this cause.

Known as the JAG program, which stands for Justice Assistance Grant, United States territories and states will receive a total of $300 million this year from this program as well as additional funding being sent to local governments also to help fight and prevent crime. This awarded money will be used by recipients for many crime related aspects including improving, preventing, and controlling the criminal justice system in their jurisdiction.

Along other uses for the funds distributed by the Justice Assistant Grant include the needs and priorities of the local, state, or tribe that the money is being donated to. These priorities can be a variety of different things including personnel, equipment, training, or even information systems for law programs. Other uses also include corrections programs, prosecution and court programs, technology, and drug treatment/ Rehabilitation programs. The money can mostly be used to help basically whatever legit part of each criminal system that is just lacking stability because of the low amount of cash available.

"These funds will provide state and local governments with the resources they need to partner with the Justice Department in combating crime and protecting communities," Assistant Attorney General Regina B. Schofield said.

So how does the Justice Department decide who should be awarded these grants? Everything is calculated by a formula. This formula is based on the minimum allocation to each state, as well as the state's crime statistics and population. Though each state will receive a certain amount of money based on this formula, the money does not all go to the state police. Some of the money must be set aside out of the state's awarded money for cities, towns, townships, counties, and even faith-based organizations who also need some extra money to improve their crime rates. It works straight down the line. The state's can not use the money to improve their crime without all the towns in the states improving their crime rate.

The most surprising fact is that this program is very new. JAG actually only began in the year 2005 as a way to give money to the states for them to use it to where they felt in was needed and necessary. Previous methods held specific uses the money could be used for and this did not help many communities with their crime problems because the money was useless for what they needed.

SOURCE

Department of Justice