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• Mental health programs and related law enforcement and corrections programs,
<br />including behavioral programs and crisis intervention teams
<br />Note that the statute defines "criminal justice" as "activities pertaining to crime prevention,
<br />control, or reduction, or the enforcement of the criminal law, including, but not limited to, police
<br />efforts to prevent, control, or reduce crime or to apprehend criminals, including juveniles,
<br />activities of courts having criminal jurisdiction, and related agencies (including but not limited to
<br />prosecutorial and defender services, juvenile delinquency agencies, and pretrial service or
<br />release agencies), activities of corrections, probation, or parole authorities and related agencies
<br />assisting in the rehabilitation, supervision, and care of criminal offenders, and programs relating
<br />to the prevention, control, or reduction of narcotic addiction and juvenile delinquency."
<br />BJA Areas of Emphasis
<br />BJA recognizes that many state and local criminal justice systems currently face challenging
<br />fiscal environments and that an important, cost-effective way to relieve those pressures is to
<br />share or leverage resources through cooperation among federal, state, and local law
<br />enforcement. BJA intends to focus much of its work on: Restoring Justice — Support for State,
<br />Local, Tribal, and Territorial Administration (SLTT) of Criminal Justice; Community Violence
<br />Intervention; Law Enforcement Accreditation, Policy Development, and Training; Technologies
<br />to Support Transparency and Information Sharing between Law Enforcement and Communities;
<br />Sustaining COVID-19 Criminal Justice Innovations; and Innovative Forensic Technologies such
<br />as Rapid DNA for Booking Stations. BJA encourages each state recipient of an FY 2021 JAG
<br />award to join federal law enforcement agencies across the board in addressing these
<br />challenges. Additional details on the BJA areas of emphasis can be found below:
<br />• Restoring Justice — Support for SLTT Administration of Criminal Justice
<br />In March 2020, SLTT governments began implementing various community mitigation
<br />policies to prevent and reduce the spread of COVID-19. As a part of these restrictions,
<br />throughout the country, courts at every level were forced to cancel or significantly scale
<br />back proceedings, which commonly included suspending in -person hearings, granting
<br />extensions of court deadlines and waivers of speedy trials, restricting access to court
<br />buildings, and postponing jury trials. This created a backlog of cases, which has impacts
<br />on criminal court operations and court staff, victims and witnesses, as well as
<br />defendants. BJA encourages state and local jurisdictions to invest JAG funds in efforts to
<br />restore justice by addressing this backlog. This could include purchase of technology to
<br />enhance the use of virtual tools to conduct outreach to witnesses and defendants, as
<br />well as for hearings and status conferences, staffing, and enhancing access to services;
<br />resources to assist the jurisdiction to develop or enhance its case management system
<br />to assess and work to eliminate the backlog of cases; building tools to support diversion
<br />and alternatives to incarceration as part of the review of backlogged cases; and
<br />technology and equipment to retrofit court houses and staff to mitigate risks to staff and
<br />those coming to court.
<br />• Community Violence Intervention
<br />Cities across the U.S. are experiencing a historic spike in homicides and gun violence
<br />that disproportionately impacts people of color. The recent high -profile mass shootings in
<br />Boulder (taking the lives of 10 individuals) and Atlanta (taking the lives of eight
<br />individuals, including six Asian American women) underscored the relentlessness of this
<br />epidemic. As a result, the Biden-Harris Administration and Department of Justice are
<br />undertaking a number of steps to keep guns out of the hands of criminals, reduce the
<br />risk of gun violence, and prioritize investment in community violence intervention (CVI).
<br />There are proven CVI strategies for reducing gun violence through tools other than
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