Justice Department Announces $290 Million Juvenile Justice Grants

WASHINGTON — Attorney General Michael Mukasey announced more than $293 million in federal grant awards to improve juvenile justice systems and at-risk youth initiatives throughout the United States.

The grants, which are administered by the Justice Department’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, will support community crime-prevention and public safety efforts that provide juveniles with alternatives to gang-related activities and criminal behavior.

“The department is committed to fighting gangs and gang violence through both enforcement and prevention,” Mukasey says.

The OJJDP awarded more than $125 million in direct grant assistance to states to implement community programs designed to reduce juvenile offending and strengthen juvenile justice systems. Grants will support delinquency prevention activities, efforts to enforce minimum-age drinking laws and accountability-based programs.

Delinquency prevention and child protection activities received more than $167 million in discretionary grants.

The OJJDP also distributed more than $70 million to support the development, provision and improvement of community mentoring services for at-risk youth and anti-gang strategies.

“OJJDP has long been a leading supporter of mentoring programs as an effective way to prevent at-risk youth from becoming involved in delinquency and to help already delinquent youth change their lives for the better,” says Jeffrey Sedgwick, assistant attorney general of the Office of Justice Programs.

In fiscal year 2008, the OJP awarded more than $1.6 billion in grants to assist crime prevention efforts and support criminal justice systems in more than 3,000 state, local and tribal law enforcement and criminal justice agencies and organizations.