BJA FY 17 Justice Reinvestment Initiative: Maximizing State Reforms | BJA 2017 11362

Opportunity Information: Apply for BJA 2017 11362

The BJA FY 17 Justice Reinvestment Initiative: Maximizing State Reforms grant opportunity (BJA-2017-11362) is a discretionary federal grant from the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance, under CFDA 16.827, aimed at helping states (and federally recognized tribal governments) strengthen and expand justice reinvestment reforms. The opportunity is grounded in the problem of persistently high incarceration levels and the fiscal pressure created by corrections spending. It points to the scale of incarceration in the United States (about 2.2 million people in prisons and jails in 2014, roughly 1 out of every 110 adults) and highlights how, over the past few decades, state corrections budgets ballooned from about $12 billion in 1988 to an estimated $55 billion in 2014, even after accounting for inflation. Against that backdrop, the grant is positioned as a way to support reforms that can reduce unnecessary incarceration, control corrections costs, and redirect resources into strategies that improve public safety.

The opportunity builds on the Justice Reinvestment Initiative (JRI), launched in 2010 as a public-private partnership between BJA and The Pew Charitable Trusts. JRI is described as a multi-stage, data-driven approach where a jurisdiction studies what is driving prison and jail growth, designs targeted policy changes, and then reinvests savings into high-performing programs that reduce recidivism and strengthen community safety. A central feature of the JRI model is the creation or use of a governmental working group with bipartisan and interbranch representation. This group is expected to analyze corrections population trends and cost drivers, develop practical and cost-effective policy options, and support implementation of reforms that manage correctional populations while maintaining or improving public safety outcomes. Beyond population reduction, JRI is framed as a way to change how systems operate by promoting collaboration across agencies and branches of government, increasing routine use of data in decisionmaking, and expanding evidence-based practices.

The grant narrative draws support from the JRI State Assessment Report (funded by BJA and authored by the Urban Institute), which found that assessed JRI states were making steady progress toward the initiative's core goals: reducing correctional spending and reinvesting in strategies that lower reoffending. Among 17 states evaluated in the report, 8 had policies in effect for at least one year, and all eight saw meaningful reductions in prison population, with five meeting or exceeding their reduction targets. While it acknowledges that the full long-term impact was not yet known at the time, the opportunity emphasizes that early results suggest enacted policies can reduce prison populations, generate substantial savings, and help avoid future growth. It also notes that the Urban Institute continues tracking outcomes in these states and additional states that have started justice reinvestment efforts since the report.

A major theme in the opportunity is that every state system is different, but many states face similar drivers of incarceration and spending. Common problems include high parole and probation revocation rates, sentencing policies and practices that steer low-risk people toward incarceration instead of community-based alternatives, and long lengths of stay. It also highlights weaknesses in community supervision and service delivery (either insufficient capacity or inefficient practices), along with parole processing delays and denials that can keep people incarcerated longer than necessary. The opportunity suggests that "maximizing state reforms" means taking these recurring challenges seriously, using detailed analysis to identify the most influential drivers in a particular jurisdiction, and then implementing reforms that measurably shift outcomes.

The policy responses described in the opportunity largely cluster around evidence-based, performance-oriented approaches. These include using validated risk and needs assessments to guide decisions, building accountability through performance and outcome measurement and reporting, and creating earned credit mechanisms that reward compliance with supervision conditions. Other strategies referenced include sentencing changes, adopting swift, certain, and fair responses to technical probation and parole violations (to reduce unnecessary revocations), and implementing mandatory post-incarceration supervision requirements where appropriate. The opportunity also points to problem-solving courts, efforts to streamline parole processes and expand parole eligibility, and strengthened reentry programming as ways to reduce recidivism and improve system efficiency. Taken together, the reforms emphasized are designed to reserve incarceration for people who pose higher risk, while improving supervision practices, treatment and support access, and decisionmaking quality for people better served in the community.

From an administrative standpoint, the opportunity was created December 13, 2016, with an original closing date of February 7, 2017. It anticipated making about three awards, with an award ceiling of $1,750,000. Eligible applicants were state governments and federally recognized tribal governments. Overall, the grant is best understood as targeted support for jurisdictions that are already engaged in justice reinvestment or are positioned to deepen and institutionalize reforms, with the goal of translating analysis and policy change into sustained reductions in incarceration, smarter spending, and improved public safety results.

• The Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance in the law, justice and legal services sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "BJA FY 17 Justice Reinvestment Initiative: Maximizing State Reforms" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 16.827.
• This funding opportunity was created on Dec 13, 2016.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Feb 07, 2017. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $1,750,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 3 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized).

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