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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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