Juvenile Justice System Reform Initiative

Cooperative agreements to USA and territories nonprofit organizations, agencies, IHEs, and for-profit organizations to help state governments reduce recidivism amongst youth. Applicants are advised that required registrations may take several weeks to complete. Projects may fall into one of the following categories: Juvenile Justice System Reform Grants and Juvenile Justice System Reform Initiative Training and Technical Assistance.
The Juvenile Justice System Reform Initiative will support states to implement sustainable, research-based, and data-informed recidivism-reduction policies, practices, and programming, and the strategic reinvestment of cost savings into effective prevention and intervention programs.Category 1: Juvenile Justice System Reform GrantsGoals:The goal of Category 1 is to support states to develop and implement sustainable, research-based, and data-informed recidivism-reduction policies, practices, and programming, and the strategic reinvestment of cost savings into effective prevention and intervention programs. Research indicates that juvenile justice systems should put more emphasis on encouraging offender accountability through restorative justice, engaging in community service, and helping youth take responsibility and make amends for their actions. Juvenile justice systems should help prevent reoffending through structured risk and needs assessments and using interventions rooted in knowledge about adolescent development. States should identify their own priorities for juvenile justice system reform within the justice reinvestment framework. Grant activities may focus on reducing trial delays, ensuring speedy bond consideration, guaranteeing that a juvenile’s ability to pay is considered in setting any bond amount, providing mental health and trauma-informed services for youth who are incarcerated, and helping to ensure ending the use of solitary confinement for youth, among other reforms.Category 2: Juvenile Justice System Reform Initiative Training and Technical AssistanceGoals:The goal of Category 2 is to support a training and technical assistance (TTA) provider to assist up to seven selected states under Category 1and states that have recently (within the past 2 years) enacted policy changes intended to reform the state’s juvenile justice system and areseeking TTA that focuses on implementing juvenile justice reforms. Additionally, states that are not OJJDP awardees will have to demonstratethat they meet the aforementioned requirement in order to receive training and technical assistance.For more information about program objectives and deliverables, see the following link:https://ojjdp.ojp.gov/funding/fy2021/O-OJJDP-2021-113002#page=5