[Federal Register Volume 63, Number 25 (Friday, February 6, 1998)]
[Notices]
[Pages 6338-6368]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 98-2729]



[[Page 6337]]

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Part III





Department of Justice





_______________________________________________________________________



Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention



_______________________________________________________________________



Proposed Comprehensive Plan for Fiscal Year 1998; Notice

  Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 25 / Friday, February 6, 1998 / 
Notices  

[[Page 6338]]



DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
[OJP(OJJDP)-1149]


Proposed Comprehensive Plan for Fiscal Year 1998

AGENCY: Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and 
Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), Justice.

ACTION: Notice of proposed program plan for fiscal year 1998.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention is 
publishing this notice of its Proposed Comprehensive Plan for fiscal 
year (FY) 1998.

DATES: Comments must be received on or before March 23, 1998.

ADDRESSES: Comments may be mailed to Shay Bilchik, Administrator, 
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Room 8413, 810 
Seventh Street, NW., Washington, DC 20531.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Eileen M. Garry, Acting Director, 
Information Dissemination Unit, at 202-307-5911. [This is not a toll-
free number.]

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Office of Juvenile Justice and 
Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) is a component of the Office of Justice 
Programs in the U.S. Department of Justice. Pursuant to the provisions 
of Section 204(b)(5)(A) of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency 
Prevention Act of 1974, as amended, 42 U.S.C. 5601 et seq. (JJDP Act), 
the Administrator of OJJDP is publishing for public comment a Proposed 
Comprehensive Plan describing the program activities that OJJDP 
proposes to carry out during FY 1998. The Proposed Comprehensive Plan 
includes activities authorized in Parts C and D of Title II of the JJDP 
Act, codified at 42 U.S.C. 5651-5665a, 5667, 5667a. Taking into 
consideration comments received on this Proposed Comprehensive Plan, 
the Administrator will develop and publish a Final Comprehensive Plan 
describing the particular program activities that OJJDP intends to fund 
during FY 1998, using in whole or in part funds appropriated under 
Parts C and D of Title II of the JJDP Act.
    Notice of the official solicitation of grant or cooperative 
agreement applications under the Final Comprehensive Plan will be 
published at a later date in the Federal Register. No proposals, 
concept papers, or other forms of application should be submitted at 
this time.

Overview

    After a decade of steady increases in juvenile crime and violence, 
the trend is being reversed. The United States has experienced a 
downturn in juvenile violent crime arrests for 2 straight years (3 
years for murder arrests). Figures released in 1997 show that juvenile 
arrests for murder declined 14 percent 2 years in a row--and 3 percent 
the year before that. From 1995 to 1996, juvenile arrests for robbery 
declined 8 percent; for the previous year, they decreased 1 percent. 
The overall Violent Crime Index arrests of juveniles declined 6 percent 
in 1996, following a 3-percent drop in 1995.
    The decreases in juvenile Violent Crime Index arrests must be kept 
in perspective, however. Even with the 2-year decline, the 1996 number 
was 60 percent above the 1987 level. In comparison, adult Violent Crime 
Index offense arrests rose 24 percent over the same period.
    In the area of drug use violations, juveniles were involved in 14 
percent of all drug arrests in 1996 (compared with 13 percent in 1995). 
However, arrests of juveniles for drug abuse violations increased 6 
percent from 1995 to 1996, a smaller increase than the previous year's 
18 percent. In addition, between 1992 and 1996, juvenile arrests for 
drug abuse violations increased 120 percent, compared with a 138-
percent increase between 1991 and 1995.
    Thus, in the second half of the 1990's, juvenile violent crime and 
drug use are still significantly higher than in the late 1980's but 
beginning to show signs of trending downward. The juvenile justice 
system needs to build on the positive momentum of these recent 
decreases by continuing to focus on programs and strategies that work. 
This requires a concerted effort on the part of Federal, State, and 
local government, in partnership with private organizations and 
community agencies, to ensure that available resources are used in a 
way that maximizes their impact; decreases juvenile crime, violence, 
and victimization; and increases community safety.
    Federal leadership in responding to the problems confronting the 
Nation's juvenile justice system is vested in OJJDP. Established in 
1974 by the JJDP Act, OJJDP is the Federal agency responsible for 
providing a comprehensive, coordinated approach to preventing and 
controlling juvenile crime and improving the juvenile justice system. 
OJJDP administers State Formula Grants, State Challenge Grants, and the 
Title V Community Prevention Grants programs in States and territories; 
funds gang and mentoring programs under Parts D and G of the JJDP Act; 
funds numerous projects through its Special Emphasis Discretionary 
Grant Program and its National Institute for Juvenile Justice and 
Delinquency Prevention; and coordinates Federal activities related to 
juvenile justice and delinquency prevention.
    OJJDP also serves as the staff agency for the Coordinating Council 
on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, coordinates the 
Concentration of Federal Efforts Program, and administers both the 
Title IV Missing and Exploited Children's Program and programs under 
the Victims of Child Abuse Act of 1990, as amended, 42 U.S.C. 
Sec. 13001 et seq.
    In the FY 1998 Appropriations Act, Congress provided funding for 
two new OJJDP programs. These are not funded under Parts C and D of 
Title II of the JJDP Act, which are the focus of this Proposed Program 
Plan. However, mention of these new programs here, along with an 
additional program that OJJDP will administer, may help to alert those 
who work in the juvenile justice field to the existence of these new 
programs. Recognizing that, ``while crime is on the decline in certain 
parts of America, a dangerous precursor to crime, teenage drug use, is 
on the rise and may soon reach a 20-year high,'' Congress provided $5 
million in funds for the development, demonstration, and testing of 
programs designed ``to reduce drug use among juveniles'' and ``to 
increase the perception among children and youth that drug use is 
risky, harmful, and unattractive.'' Funding for the drug prevention 
program is discretionary, and the Appropriations Act directs OJJDP to 
submit a program plan for the drug prevention program by February 1, 
1998. Twenty-five million dollars in funds were also provided for an 
underage drinking program. Much of the funding for the underage 
drinking program will be made available to the States and the District 
of Columbia through formula grants of $360,000 each (total $18.36 
million), with $5 million in discretionary funding, and $1.64 million 
for training and technical assistance to support the program. OJJDP 
will also administer the Juvenile Accountability Incentive Block Grants 
program authorized in the FY 1998 Appropriations Act. Of the $250 
million available under this new block grant program, 3 percent is 
available for research, evaluation, and demonstration activities 
related to the program and 2 percent is available for related training 
and technical assistance activities.

[[Page 6339]]

Further information on these programs will be provided to the field in 
the near future.
    Cognizant of the trends in juvenile crime and violence and of its 
responsibilities and mission, OJJDP has developed a Proposed Program 
Plan for FY 1998 for activities authorized under Parts C and D of Title 
II of the JJDP Act, as described below.

Fiscal Year 1998 Program Planning Activities

    The OJJDP program planning process for FY 1998 is being coordinated 
with the Assistant Attorney General, Office of Justice Programs (OJP), 
and the four other OJP program bureaus: the Bureau of Justice 
Assistance (BJA), the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), the National 
Institute of Justice (NIJ), and the Office for Victims of Crime (OVC). 
The program planning process involves the following steps:
     Internal review of existing programs by OJJDP staff.
     Internal review of proposed programs by OJP bureaus and 
Department of Justice components.
     Review of information and data from OJJDP grantees and 
contractors.
     Review of information contained in State comprehensive 
plans.
     Review of comments made by youth service providers, 
juvenile justice practitioners, and researchers to provide OJJDP with 
input in proposed new program areas.
     Consideration of suggestions made by juvenile justice 
policymakers concerning State and local needs.
     Consideration of all comments received during the period 
of public comment on the Proposed Comprehensive Plan.

Discretionary Program Activities

Discretionary Grant Continuation Policy

    OJJDP has listed on the following pages continuation projects 
currently funded in whole or in part with Part C and Part D funds and 
eligible for continuation funding in FY 1998, either within an existing 
project period or through an extension for an additional project 
period. A grantee's eligibility for continued funding for an additional 
budget period within an existing project period depends on the 
grantee's compliance with funding eligibility requirements and 
achievement of the prior year's objectives. The amount of award is 
based on prior projections, demonstrated need, and fund availability.
    The only projects described in this Proposed Program Plan are those 
that are receiving Part C or Part D FY 1998 continuation funding and 
programs that OJJDP is considering for new awards in FY 1998.
    Consideration for continuation funding for an additional project 
period for previously funded discretionary grant programs will be based 
upon several factors, including the following:
     The extent to which the project responds to the applicable 
requirements of the JJDP Act.
     Responsiveness to OJJDP and Department of Justice FY 1998 
program priorities.
     Compliance with performance requirements of prior grant 
years.
     Compliance with fiscal and regulatory requirements.
     Compliance with any special conditions of the award.
     Availability of funds (based on appropriations and program 
priority determinations).
    In accordance with Section 262(d)(1)(B) of the JJDP Act, as 
amended, 42 U.S.C. Sec. 5665a, the competitive process for the award of 
Part C funds shall not be required if the Administrator makes a written 
determination waiving the competitive process:
    1. With respect to programs to be carried out in areas in which the 
President declares under the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and 
Emergency Assistance Act codified at 42 U.S.C. Sec. 5121 et seq. that a 
major disaster or emergency exists, or
    2. With respect to a particular program described in Part C that is 
uniquely qualified.

Program Goals

    OJJDP seeks to focus its assistance on the development and 
implementation of programs with the greatest potential for reducing 
juvenile delinquency and improving the juvenile justice system by 
establishing partnerships with State and local governments, Native 
American and Native Alaskan jurisdictions, and public and private 
agencies and organizations. To that end, OJJDP has set three goals that 
constitute the major elements of a sound policy that assures public 
safety and security while establishing effective juvenile justice and 
delinquency prevention programs:
     To promote delinquency prevention and early intervention 
efforts that reduce the flow of juvenile offenders into the juvenile 
justice system, the numbers of serious and violent offenders, and the 
development of chronic delinquent careers. While removing serious and 
violent juvenile offenders from the street serves to protect the 
public, long-term solutions lie primarily in taking aggressive steps to 
stop delinquency before it starts or becomes a pattern of behavior.
     To improve the juvenile justice system and the response of 
the system to juvenile delinquents, status offenders, and dependent, 
neglected, and abused children.
     To preserve the public safety in a manner that serves the 
appropriate development and best use of secure detention and 
corrections options, while at the same time fostering the use of 
community-based programs for juvenile offenders.
    Underlying each of the three goals is the overarching premise that 
their achievement is vital to protecting the long-term safety of the 
public from juvenile delinquency and violence. The following discussion 
addresses these three broad goals.

Delinquency Prevention and Early Intervention

    A primary goal of OJJDP is to identify and promote programs that 
prevent or reduce the occurrence of juvenile offenses, both criminal 
and noncriminal, and to intervene immediately and effectively when 
delinquent or status offense conduct first occurs. A sound policy for 
juvenile delinquency prevention seeks to strengthen the most powerful 
contributing factor to socially acceptable behavior--a productive place 
for young people in a law-abiding society. Delinquency prevention 
programs can operate on a broad scale, providing for positive youth 
development, or can target juveniles identified as being at high risk 
for delinquency with programs designed to reduce future juvenile 
offending. OJJDP prevention programs take a risk and protective factor-
based delinquency prevention approach based on public health and social 
development models.
    Early interventions are designed to provide services to juveniles 
whose noncriminal misbehavior indicates that they are on a delinquent 
pathway or to first-time nonviolent delinquent offenders or nonserious 
repeat offenders who do not respond to initial system intervention. 
These interventions are generally nonpunitive but serve to hold a 
juvenile accountable while providing services tailored to the 
individual needs of the juvenile and the juvenile's family. They are 
designed to both deter future misconduct and reduce the negative or 
enhance the positive factors present in a child's life.

Improvement of the Juvenile Justice System

    A second goal of OJJDP is to promote improvements in the juvenile 
justice

[[Page 6340]]

system and facilitate the most effective allocation of system 
resources. This goal is necessary for holding juveniles who commit 
crimes accountable for their conduct, particularly serious and violent 
offenders who sometimes slip through the cracks of the system or are 
inappropriately diverted. Activities to support this goal include 
assisting law enforcement officers in their efforts to prevent and 
control delinquency and the victimization of children through community 
policing programs and coordination and collaboration with other system 
components and with child caring systems. Meeting this goal involves 
helping juvenile and family courts, and the prosecutors and public 
defenders who practice in those courts, to provide a system of justice 
that maintains due process protections. It requires trying innovative 
programs and carefully evaluating those programs to determine what 
works and what does not work. It includes a commitment to involving 
crime victims in the juvenile justice system and ensuring that their 
rights are considered. In this regard, OJJDP will continue to work 
closely with the Office for Victims of Crime to further cooperative 
programming, including the provision of services to juveniles who are 
crime victims or the provision of victims services that improve the 
operation of the juvenile justice system.
    Improving the juvenile justice system also calls for strengthening 
its juvenile detention and corrections capacity and intensifying 
efforts to use juvenile detention and correctional facilities in 
appropriate circumstances and under conditions that maximize public 
safety, while at the same time providing effective rehabilitation 
services. It requires encouraging States to carefully consider the use 
of expanded transfer authority that sends the most serious, violent, 
and intractable juvenile offenders to the criminal justice system, 
while preserving individualized justice. It necessitates conducting 
research and gathering statistical information in order to understand 
how the juvenile justice system works in serving children and families. 
Finally, the system can only be improved if information and knowledge 
are communicated, understood, and applied for the purpose of juvenile 
justice system improvement.

Corrections, Detention, and Community-Based Alternatives

    A third OJJDP goal is to maintain the public safety through a 
balanced use of secure detention and corrections and community-based 
alternatives. This involves identifying and promoting effective 
community-based programs and services for juveniles who have formal 
contact with the juvenile justice system and emphasizing options that 
maintain the safety of the public, are appropriately restrictive, and 
promote and preserve positive ties with the child's family, school, and 
community. Communities cannot afford to place responsibility for 
juvenile delinquency entirely on publicly operated juvenile justice 
system programs. A sound policy for combating juvenile delinquency and 
reducing the threat of youth violence makes maximum use of a full range 
of public and private programs and services, most of which operate in 
the juvenile's home community, including those provided by the health 
and mental health, child welfare, social service, and educational 
systems.
    Coordination of the development of community-based programs and 
services with the development and use of a secure detention and 
correctional system capability for those juveniles who require a secure 
option is cost effective and will protect the public, reduce facility 
crowding, and result in better services for both institutionalized 
juveniles and those who can be served while remaining in their 
community environment.
    In pursuing these three broad goals, OJJDP divides its programs 
into four broad categories: public safety and law enforcement; 
strengthening the juvenile justice system; delinquency prevention and 
intervention; and child abuse, neglect, and dependency courts. A fifth 
category, overarching programs, contains programs that have significant 
elements common to more than one category. Following the introductory 
section below, the programs that OJJDP proposes to fund in FY 1998 are 
listed and summarized within these five categories.

Introduction to Fiscal Year 1998 Program Plan

    An effective juvenile justice system must implement a sound 
comprehensive strategy and must identify and support programs that work 
to further the objectives of the strategy. These objectives include 
holding the juvenile offender accountable; enabling the juvenile to 
become a capable, productive, and responsible citizen; and ensuring the 
safety of the community.
    For juveniles who come to the attention of police, juvenile courts, 
or social service agencies, a strong juvenile justice system must 
assess the danger they pose, determine what can help put them back on 
the right track, deliver appropriate treatment, and stay with them when 
they return to the community. When necessary, a strong juvenile justice 
system also must appropriately identify those serious, violent, and 
chronic juveniles offenders who are beyond its reach and ensure their 
criminal prosecution and incapacitation.
    Research has shown that what works to reduce juvenile crime and 
violence includes prevention programs that start with the earliest 
stages of life: good prenatal care, home visitation for newborns at 
risk of abuse and neglect, steps to strengthen parenting skills, and 
initiatives to prepare children for school. These programs can build 
the foundation for law-abiding lives for children and interrupt the 
cycle of violence that can turn abused or neglected children into 
delinquents.
    Prevention programs work for older children, too: opportunities for 
youth after school and on weekends, such as Boys and Girls Clubs and 
mentoring programs, reduce juvenile alcohol and drug use, improve 
school performance, and prevent youth from getting involved in crime 
and violent behavior.
    Another focal point for juvenile justice efforts is the community. 
Without healthy communities, young people cannot thrive. The key 
leaders in the community, including representatives from the juvenile 
justice, health and mental health, schools, law enforcement, social 
services, and other systems, as well as leaders from the private 
sector, must be jointly engaged in the planning, development, and 
operation of the juvenile justice system. Attempts to improve the 
juvenile justice system must be part of a broad, comprehensive, 
communitywide effort--both at the leadership and grassroots level--to 
eliminate factors that place juveniles at risk of delinquency and 
victimization, enhance factors that protect them from engaging in 
delinquent behavior, and use the full range of resources and programs 
within the community to meet the varying needs of juveniles. It is also 
important to provide increased public access to the system to ensure an 
appropriate role for victims, a greater understanding of how the system 
operates, and a higher level of system accountability to the public.
    The recent decreases in all measures of juvenile violence known to 
law enforcement (number of arrests, arrest rates, and the percentage of 
violent crimes cleared by juvenile arrests) should encourage 
legislators, juvenile justice policymakers and practitioners, and all 
concerned citizens to support ongoing efforts to address juvenile crime 
and violence through a comprehensive approach.
    Three documents published during the past 5 years provide the 
framework

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for a comprehensive approach to an improved, more effective juvenile 
justice system. OJJDP's Comprehensive Strategy for Serious, Violent, 
and Chronic Juvenile Offenders (1993) and Guide for Implementing the 
Comprehensive Strategy for Serious, Violent, and Chronic Juvenile 
Offenders (1995) were followed in 1996 by the Coordinating Council on 
Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention's Combating Violence and 
Delinquency: The National Juvenile Justice Action Plan. The first of 
these publications defined the elements of the comprehensive strategy. 
The second provided States and communities with a more detailed 
explanation of what would constitute the elements of a comprehensive 
strategy, including strategic and programmatic information on risk and 
protective factor-based prevention and a system of graduated sanctions. 
The third prioritized Federal, State, and local activities and 
resources under eight critical objectives that are central to reducing 
and preventing juvenile violence, delinquency, and victimization.
    The OJJDP FY 1998 Proposed Program Plan is rooted in the principles 
of the Comprehensive Strategy and the objectives of the Action Plan. 
Like the OJJDP Program Plans for FY's 1996 and 1997, the FY 1998 
Proposed Program Plan supports a balanced approach to aggressively 
addressing juvenile delinquency and violence through establishing 
graduated sanctions, improving the juvenile justice system's ability to 
respond to juvenile offending, and preventing the onset of delinquency. 
The Proposed Program Plan, therefore, recognizes the need to ensure 
public safety and support children's development into healthy, 
productive citizens through a range of prevention, early intervention, 
and graduated sanctions programs.
    Proposed new program areas were identified for FY 1998 through a 
process of engaging OJJDP staff, other Federal agencies, and juvenile 
justice practitioners in an examination of existing programs, research 
findings, and the needs of the field. In a departure from past 
practice, OJJDP is presenting for public comment more proposed programs 
than it expects to be able to fund with the resources available. It is 
OJJDP's intent to stimulate discussion of the best use of its FY 1998 
discretionary funding and to seek guidance from the field as to which 
programs, among the many described here, would most effectively advance 
the goals of promoting delinquency prevention and early intervention, 
improving the juvenile justice system, and preserving the public 
safety.
    OJJDP is considering providing funding for a wide variety of new 
programs, including technical assistance to promote teen court 
programs, training and technical assistance coordination for the 
SafeFutures initiative, and training and technical assistance for the 
Blueprints for Violence Prevention project and for a school safety 
program. New proposals also involve OJJDP collaboration with other 
agencies to address problems such as truancy, develop arts programs 
directed toward at-risk youth and youth held in juvenile detention 
centers, support the planning and development of systems of care for 
Native American and Alaskan Native youth with mental health and 
substance abuse needs, develop and implement a teambuilding project 
designed to facilitate coordination and foster innovative solutions to 
problems facing juvenile courts, and support demonstration projects 
designed to intervene early with students with learning disabilities to 
prevent delinquency and also to prevent recidivism by those students in 
correctional settings. In addition, OJJDP is considering providing 
funding for initial planning and implementation of a Juvenile Defender 
Center, coordination of youth-related volunteer services, support for 
programs designed to build infrastructure for programming for female 
juvenile offenders and teen mothers, and support for additional work in 
the area of disproportionate minority confinement in secure juvenile 
facilities and other institutions. Some of the proposed new program 
areas for FY 1998 are specific while others are more general, as can be 
seen in the program descriptions that appear later in the Program Plan.
    In addition, OJJDP has identified for FY 1998 funding a range of 
research and evaluation projects designed to expand knowledge about 
juvenile offenders; the effectiveness of prevention, intervention, and 
treatment programs; and the operation of the juvenile justice system. 
New evaluation initiatives that may be undertaken include the 
Comprehensive Strategy for Serious, Violent, and Chronic Juvenile 
Offenders; the Boys and Girls Clubs of America's TeenSupreme Career 
Preparation Initiative; analysis and interpretation of juvenile 
justice-related data from nontraditional sources; evaluation capacity 
building in States; and field-initiated research and evaluation. 
Combined with new OJJDP programs and programs being continued in FY 
1998, these new demonstration and evaluation programs would form a 
continuum of programming that supports the objectives of the Action 
Plan and mirrors the foundation and framework of the Comprehensive 
Strategy.
    OJJDP's continuation activities and the new FY 1998 programs are at 
the heart of OJJDP's categorical funding efforts. For example, while 
focusing on new areas of programming such as the Juvenile Defender 
Center and the role of the arts for juveniles in detention centers and 
for at-risk youth, continuing to offer training seminars in the 
Comprehensive Strategy, and looking to the SafeFutures program to 
implement a continuum of care system, OJJDP will be supporting programs 
that reduce the likelihood of juvenile involvement in hate crimes, 
reduce juvenile gun violence, promote positive approaches to conflict 
resolution, and explore the mental health needs of juveniles. Together, 
these and other activities provide a comprehensive approach to 
prevention and early intervention programs while enhancing the juvenile 
justice system's capacity to provide immediate and appropriate 
accountability and treatment for juvenile offenders, including those 
with special treatment needs.
    OJJDP's Part D Gang Program is considering development of a rural 
gang prevention and intervention program and will continue to support a 
range of comprehensive prevention, intervention, and suppression 
activities at the local level, evaluate those activities, and inform 
communities about the nature and extent of gang activities and 
effective and innovative programs through OJJDP's National Youth Gang 
Center. Similarly, activities related to the identification of school-
based gang programs and the evaluation of the Boys and Girls Clubs gang 
outreach effort, along with an evaluation of selected youth gun 
violence reduction programs, will complement existing law enforcement 
and prosecutorial training programs by supporting and informing 
grassroots community organizations' efforts to address juvenile gangs 
and juvenile access to, carriage of, and use of guns. This programming 
builds on OJJDP's youth-focused community policing, mentoring, and 
conflict resolution initiatives and programming, including the work of 
the Congress of National Black Churches in supporting local churches to 
address the prevention of drug abuse, youth violence, and hate crime.
    In support of the need to break the cycle of violence, OJJDP's 
SafeKids/Safe Streets demonstration program, currently being 
implemented in

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partnership with other OJP offices and bureaus, will improve linkages 
between the dependency and criminal court systems, child welfare and 
social service providers, and family strengthening programs and will 
complement ongoing support of Court Appointed Special Advocates, Child 
Advocacy Centers, and prosecutor and judicial training in the 
dependency field, funded under the Victims of Child Abuse Act of 1990, 
as amended.
    The Plan's research and evaluation programming will support many of 
the above activities by filling in critical gaps in knowledge about the 
level and seriousness of juvenile crime and victimization, its causes 
and correlates, and effective programs in preventing delinquency and 
violence. At the same time, OJJDP's research efforts will also be 
geared toward efforts that monitor and evaluate the ways juveniles are 
treated by the juvenile and criminal justice systems, particularly in 
relation to juvenile violence and its impact.
    As described below, OJJDP is also utilizing its national 
perspective to disseminate information to those at the grassroots 
level: practitioners, policymakers, community leaders, and service 
providers who are directly responsible for planning and implementing 
policies and programs that impact juvenile crime and violence. An 
additional OJJDP goal is to help practitioners and policymakers 
translate this information into action through its training and 
technical assistance providers as part of its mission to provide 
meaningful assistance for the replication of successful and promising 
strategies and programs.
    OJJDP will continue to fund longitudinal research on the causes and 
correlates of delinquency. Even more important, however, OJJDP will 
regularly share the findings from this research with the field through 
OJJDP's publications, Home Page on the World Wide Web, and JuvJust (an 
electronic newsletter); utilize state-of-the-art technology to provide 
the field with an interactive CD-ROM on promising and effective 
programs designed to prevent delinquency and reduce recidivism; air 
national satellite teleconferences on key topics of relevance to 
practitioners; and publish new reports and documents on timely topics. 
Some examples of these publication topics include youth action to 
prevent delinquency; family strengthening; juvenile substance abuse 
(prevention, intervention, and testing); balanced and restorative 
justice; developmental pathways in delinquent behavior, gang migration, 
capacity building for substance abuse treatment, youth gangs, 
restitution programs, school safety, and conditions of confinement.
    The various contracts, grants, cooperative agreements, and 
interagency fund transfers described in the Program Plan form a 
continuum of activity designed to address youth violence, delinquency, 
and victimization. In isolation, this programming can do little. 
However, the emphasis of OJJDP's programming is on collaboration. It is 
through collaboration that Federal, State, and local agencies; Native 
American tribes; national organizations; private philanthropies; the 
corporate and business sector; health, mental health, and social 
service agencies; schools; youth; families; and clergy can come 
together to form partnerships and leverage additional resources, 
identify needs and priorities, and implement innovative strategies. In 
the past few years, the combined efforts of these varied groups have 
brought about the beginnings of change in the prevalence of juvenile 
crime, violence, and victimization. Now is the time to strengthen old 
partnerships and forge new ones to develop support for a long-term, 
comprehensive approach to a more effective juvenile justice system.

Fiscal Year 1998 Programs

    The following are brief summaries of each of the new and 
continuation programs scheduled to receive funding in FY 1998. As 
indicated above, the program categories are public safety and law 
enforcement; strengthening the juvenile justice system; delinquency 
prevention and intervention; and child abuse and neglect and dependency 
courts. However, because many programs have significant elements of 
more than one of these program categories or generally support all of 
OJJDP's programs, they are listed in an initial program category, 
called overarching programs. The specific program priorities within 
each category are subject to change with regard to their priority 
status, sites for implementation, and other descriptive data and 
information based on grantee performance, application quality, fund 
availability, and other factors.
    A number of OJJDP programs have been identified for funding 
consideration by Congress with regard to the grantee(s), the amount of 
funds, or both. These programs, which are listed below, are not 
included in the program descriptions that follow.

National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges
Teens, Crime, and the Community
Parents Anonymous, Inc.
Juvenile Offender Transition Program
Suffolk University Center for Juvenile Justice
Center for Crimes and Violence Against Children
Crow Creek Alcohol and Drug Program
Metro Denver Gang Coalition

    In addition, OJJDP has been directed to examine each of the 
following proposals, provide grants if warranted, and report to the 
Committees on Appropriations of both the House and the Senate on its 
intention for each proposal:

Coalition for Juvenile Justice
The Hamilton Fish National Institute on School/Community Violence
Low Country Children's Center
Vermont Department of Social and Rehabilitative Services
Grassroots Drug Prevention Program
Dona Ana Camp
Center for Prevention of Juvenile Crime and Delinquency at Prairie View 
University
Project O.A.S.I.S.
KidsPeace--The National Centers for Kids in Crisis, North America
Consortium on Children, Families, and Law
New Mexico Prevention Project
No Hope in Dope Program
Study of the Link Between Child Abuse and Criminal Behavior in Alaska
Gainesville Juvenile Assessment Center
Lincoln Council on Alcohol and Drugs
Hill Renaissance Partnership
National Training and Information Center
Culinary Arts Training Program for At-Risk Youth
Women of Vision Program for Youthful Female Offenders
Violence Institute of New Jersey
Delancy Street Foundation
Law-Related Education

Fiscal Year 1998 Program Listing

Overarching

SafeFutures: Partnerships To Reduce Youth Violence and Delinquency
Evaluation of SafeFutures
Program of Research on the Causes and Correlates of Delinquency
OJJDP Management Evaluation Contract
Juvenile Justice Statistics and Systems Development
Census of Juveniles in Residential Placement
National Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Training and 
Technical Assistance Center
Technical Assistance for State Legislatures
Telecommunications Assistance
OJJDP Technical Assistance Support Contract--Juvenile Justice Resource 
Center
Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse

[[Page 6343]]

Insular Area Support
Community Assessment Centers (CAC's)
Training and Technical Assistance Coordination for SafeFutures 
Initiative

Public Safety and Law Enforcement

Comprehensive Community-Wide Approach to Gang Prevention, Intervention, 
and Suppression Program
Evaluation of the Comprehensive Community-Wide Approach to Gang 
Prevention, Intervention, and Suppression Program
Targeted Outreach With A Gang Prevention and Intervention Component 
(Boys and Girls Clubs)
National Youth Gang Center
Evaluation of the Partnerships To Reduce Juvenile Gun Violence Program
The Chicago Project for Violence Prevention
Safe Start--Child Development-Community-Oriented Policing (CD-CP)
Law Enforcement Training and Technical Assistance Program
Partnerships To Reduce Juvenile Gun Violence
Comprehensive Community-Wide Approach to Gang Prevention, Intervention, 
and Suppression Technical Assistance and Training
Rural Youth Gang Problems--Adapting OJJDP's Comprehensive Approach

Delinquency Prevention and Intervention

Youth-Centered Conflict Resolution
Communities in Schools--Federal Interagency Partnership
The Congress of National Black Churches: National Anti-Drug Abuse/
Violence Campaign (NADVC)
Risk Reduction Via Promotion of Youth Development
Training and Technical Assistance for Family Strengthening Programs
Hate Crime
Strengthening Services for Chemically Involved Children, Youth, and 
Families
Diffusion of State Risk-and Protective-Factor Focused Prevention
Multisite, Multimodal Treatment Study of Children With ADHD
Evaluation of the Juvenile Mentoring Program
Truancy Reduction
Arts and At-Risk Youth
Community Volunteer Coordinator Program
Learning Disabilities Among Juveniles At Risk of Delinquency or in the 
Juvenile Justice System
Advertising Campaign--Investing in Youth for a Safer Future

Strengthening the Juvenile Justice System

Development of the Comprehensive Strategy for Serious, Violent, and 
Chronic Juvenile Offenders
Balanced and Restorative Justice Project (BARJ)
Training and Technical Assistance Program To Promote Gender-Specific 
Programming for Female Juvenile Offenders
Juvenile Transfers to Criminal Court Studies
Replication and Extension of Fagan Transfer Study
The Juvenile Justice Prosecution Unit
Due Process Advocacy Program Development
Quantum Opportunities Program (QOP) Evaluation
Intensive Community-Based Aftercare Demonstration and Technical 
Assistance Program
Evaluation of the Intensive Community-Based Aftercare Program
Training and Technical Assistance for National Innovations To Reduce 
Disproportionate Minority Confinement (The Deborah Ann Wysinger 
Memorial Program)
Juvenile Probation Survey Research
Training for Juvenile Corrections and Detention Management Staff
Training for Line Staff in Juvenile Detention and Corrections
Training and Technical Support for State and Local Jurisdictional Teams 
To Focus on Juvenile Corrections and Detention Overcrowding
National Program Directory
Juvenile Sex Offender Typology
Interagency Programs on Mental Health and Juvenile Justice
Juvenile Residential Facility Census
The National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 97
National Academy of Sciences Study of Juvenile Justice
TeenSupreme Career Preparation Initiative
Technical Assistance to Native Americans
Training and Technical Assistance To Promote Teen Court Programs
Training and Technical Assistance Coordination for SafeFutures 
Initiative
School Safety
Disproportionate Minority Confinement
Arts Programs in Juvenile Detention Centers
``Circles of Care''--A Program To Develop Strategies To Serve Native 
American Youth With Mental Health and Substance Abuse Needs
Juvenile Defender Training, Technical Assistance, and Resource Center
Gender-Specific Programming for Female Juvenile Offenders
Evaluation Capacity Building
Field-Initiated Research
Field-Initiated Evaluation
Analysis of Juvenile Justice Data
Evaluation of the Comprehensive Strategy for Serious, Violent, and 
Chronic Juvenile Offenders
Blueprints for Violence Prevention: Training and Technical Assistance
Teambuilding Project for Courts

Child Abuse and Neglect and Dependency Courts

Safe Kids/Safe Streets: Community Approaches to Reducing Abuse and 
Neglect and Preventing Delinquency
National Evaluation of the Safe Kids/Safe Streets Program
Secondary Analysis of Childhood Victimization
Evaluation of Nurse Home Visitation in Weed and Seed Sites

Overarching

SafeFutures: Partnerships To Reduce Youth Violence and Delinquency

    OJJDP is awarding grants of up to $1.4 million annually to each of 
six communities for a 5-year project period that began in FY 1995, to 
assist in implementing comprehensive community programs designed to 
reduce youth violence and delinquency. Boston, Massachusetts; Contra 
Costa County, California; Seattle, Washington; St. Louis, Missouri; 
Imperial County, California (rural site); and Fort Belknap, Montana 
(tribal site) were competitively selected to receive awards under the 
SafeFutures program on the basis of their substantial planning and 
progress in community assessment and strategic planning to address 
delinquency.
    SafeFutures seeks to prevent and control youth crime and 
victimization through the creation of a continuum of care in 
communities. This continuum enables communities to be responsive to the 
needs of youth at critical stages of their development through 
providing an appropriate range of prevention, intervention, treatment, 
and sanctions programs.
    The goals of SafeFutures are (1): To prevent and control juvenile 
violence and delinquency in targeted communities by reducing risk 
factors and increasing protective factors for delinquency; providing a 
continuum of services for juveniles at risk of delinquency, including 
appropriate immediate interventions for juvenile offenders; and 
developing a full range of graduated sanctions designed to hold 
delinquent youth accountable to the victim and the community, ensure 
community safety, and provide appropriate treatment and rehabilitation

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services; (2) to develop a more efficient, effective, and timely 
service delivery system for at-risk and delinquent juveniles and their 
families that is capable of responding to their needs at any point of 
entry into the juvenile justice system; (3) to build the community's 
capacity to institutionalize and sustain the continuum by expanding and 
diversifying sources of funding; and (4) to determine the success of 
program implementation and the outcomes achieved, including whether a 
comprehensive program involving community-based efforts and program 
resources concentrated on providing a continuum of care has succeeded 
in preventing or reducing juvenile violence and delinquency.
    Each of the six sites will continue to provide a set of services 
that builds on community strengths and existing services and fills in 
gaps within their existing continuum. These services include family 
strengthening; after school activities; mentoring; treatment 
alternatives for juvenile female offenders; mental health services; day 
treatment; graduated sanctions for serious, violent, and chronic 
juvenile offenders; and gang prevention, intervention, and suppression.
    A national evaluation is being conducted by the Urban Institute to 
determine the success of the initiative and track lessons learned at 
each of the six sites. OJJDP has also committed a cadre of training and 
technical assistance (TTA) resources to SafeFutures through a full-time 
TTA coordinator for SafeFutures and a host of partner organizations 
committed to assisting SafeFutures sites. The TTA coordinator also 
assists the communities in brokering and leveraging additional TTA 
resources. In addition, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban 
Development has provided interagency support of $100,000 for training 
and technical assistance targeted to violence and delinquency 
prevention in public housing areas of SafeFutures sites. Thus, 
operations, evaluation, and TTA have been organized together to form a 
joint team at the national level to support local site efforts.
    SafeFutures activities will be carried out by the six current 
grantees. No additional applications will be solicited in FY 1998.

Evaluation of SafeFutures

    In FY 1995, OJJDP funded six communities under the SafeFutures: 
Partnerships To Reduce Youth Violence and Delinquency program. The 
program sites are Boston, Massachusetts; Contra Costa County, 
California; Fort Belknap Indian Community, Harlem, Montana; Imperial 
County, California; Seattle, Washington; St. Louis, Missouri. The 
SafeFutures Program provides support for a comprehensive prevention, 
intervention, and treatment program to meet the needs of at-risk 
juveniles and their families. In total, up to $8.4 million is being 
made available for annual awards over a 5-year project period to 
support the efforts of these jurisdictions to enhance existing 
partnerships, integrate juvenile justice and social services, and 
provide a continuum of care that is designed to reduce the number of 
serious, violent, and chronic juvenile offenders.
    The Urban Institute received a competitive 3-year cooperative 
agreement award with FY 1995 funds to conduct Phase I of the national 
evaluation of the SafeFutures program. OJJDP would consider 2 years of 
additional funding for Phase II. The evaluation addresses the program 
implementation process and measures performance outcomes across the six 
sites. The process evaluation focuses primarily on the development and 
implementation of a strategic plan designed to establish a continuum of 
care and integrated services for young people in high-risk communities. 
The evaluation will identify obstacles and key factors contributing to 
the successful implementation of the SafeFutures program. The evaluator 
is responsible for developing a cross-site report documenting the 
process of program implementation for use by other funding agencies or 
communities that want to develop and implement a comprehensive 
community-based strategy to address serious, violent, and chronic 
delinquency.
    In FY 1996, the Urban Institute developed a logic model that links 
program activities and outputs to desired intermediate and long-term 
outcomes. Their evaluator also held a cross-site cluster meeting and 
conducted site visits at each of the six SafeFutures sites.
    In FY 1997, in addition to continuing its onsite monitoring, the 
Urban Institute, in collaboration with the OJJDP SafeFutures program 
management team, developed the national evaluation plan and introduced 
it to the sites at the cluster meeting on information technology held 
in Oakland, CA, in September 1997.
    In FY 1998, the Urban Institute will continue the process 
evaluation and will conduct interviews with key stakeholders, service 
providers, and youth in order to assess the extent to which a community 
and its policy board have mobilized to implement a continuum of care 
and develop an integrated system of services over the course of 
SafeFutures program implementation. The research team will also 
complete the development of performance measures to be used by all 
sites to monitor the outcomes for targeted populations within and 
across sites. They will compile and process the results of the 
performance outcomes from the sites and provide feedback to both the 
sites and to OJJDP. Beginning in FY 1998, the national evaluator will 
design and conduct sample surveys of youth in the community to assist 
in monitoring community-level changes in the prevalence and incidence 
of certain risk factors as well as developmental and community assets 
on levels of delinquency and violence in the targeted community. In 
addition, longitudinal samples of youth and their families will be 
followed over time to observe the extent to which multiple needs are 
identified and responded to over the course of the SafeFutures program 
interventions.
    The evaluation will be implemented by the current grantee, the 
Urban Institute. No additional applications will be solicited in FY 
1998.

Program of Research on the Causes and Correlates of Delinquency

    Three project sites participate in the Program of Research on the 
Causes and Correlates of Delinquency (Causes and Correlates): The 
University of Colorado at Boulder, the University of Pittsburgh, and 
the University at Albany, State University of New York. Results from 
this longitudinal study have been used extensively in the field of 
juvenile justice and have contributed significantly to the development 
of OJJDP's Comprehensive Strategy for Serious, Violent, and Chronic 
Juvenile Offenders and other OJJDP program initiatives.
    OJJDP began funding this program in 1986 and has invested 
approximately $10.3 million to date. Currently, OJJDP is supporting 
site data analyses under three-year project period grants awarded to 
each site in FY 1996. The Causes and Correlates program has addressed a 
variety of issues related to juvenile violence and delinquency. These 
include developing and testing causal models for chronic violent 
offending and examining interrelationships among gang involvement, drug 
selling, and gun ownership/use. To date, the program has produced a 
massive amount of information on the causes and correlates of 
delinquent behavior.
    Although there is great commonality across the Causes and 
Correlates project sites, each has unique design features. 
Additionally, each project has

[[Page 6345]]

disseminated the results of its research through a broad range of 
publications, reports, and presentations.
    With FY 1996 funding, each site of the Causes and Correlates 
program was provided funds to further analyze the longitudinal data. 
Among the numerous analyses conducted were risk factors for teenage 
fatherhood, patterns of illegal gun carrying among young urban males, 
and factors associated with early sexual activity among urban 
adolescents. Two publications were developed as part of the newly 
launched Youth Development Series of OJJDP Bulletins.
    In FY 1997, the sites continued both their collaborative research 
efforts and site-specific research. The cross site analysis was on the 
early onset and co-occurrence of persistent serious offending. Site 
specific analyses were produced on victimization, over time changes in 
delinquency and drug use, impact of family changes on adolescent 
development, and neighborhood, individual, and social risk factors for 
serious juvenile offending.
    In FY 1998, at least one major cross site analysis will be 
undertaken as well as three site specific analyses per study site.
    This program will be implemented by the current grantees: Institute 
of Behavioral Science, University of Colorado at Boulder; Western 
Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, University of Pittsburgh; and 
Hindelang Criminal Justice Research Center, University at Albany, State 
University of New York. No additional applications will be solicited in 
FY 1998.

OJJDP Management Evaluation Contract

    OJJDP's Management Evaluation Contract was competitively awarded in 
1995 for a period of 3 years. Its purpose is to provide OJJDP with an 
expert resource capable of performing independent program evaluations 
and assisting the Office in implementing evaluation activities. The 
management evaluation contract currently provides the following types 
of assistance to OJJDP: (1) Assists OJJDP staff in the determination of 
evaluation needs of programs, program areas, or projects to assist the 
agency in determining when to invest its evaluation resources; (2) 
develops evaluation designs that OJJDP can use in defining requirements 
for a grant or contract to implement the evaluation; (3) provides 
technical assistance with regard to evaluation techniques to other 
jurisdictions involved in the evaluation of programs to prevent and 
treat juvenile delinquency; (4) responds to the needs of OJJDP by 
providing evaluations based on available data or data that can be 
readily developed to support OJJDP decisionmaking under whatever 
schedule is required by the decisionmaking process. Evaluations under 
this contract are program evaluations, that is, evaluations of either 
individual grants or con tracts or groups of grants or contracts that 
are designed to determine the effectiveness and efficiency of the 
program; (5) conduct a full-scale evaluation research project; and (6) 
provide training to OJJDP program managers and other staff on 
evaluation-related topics such as the different kinds of evaluation 
data and their uses, planning for program or project information 
collection and evaluation, and the role of evaluation in the agency 
planning process.
    Under this contract, evaluations may be conducted on OJJDP-funded 
action programs, including demonstrations, tests, training, and 
technical assistance programs and other programs, not funded by OJJDP, 
designed to prevent and treat juvenile delinquency. Evaluations are 
carried out in accordance with work plans prepared by the contractor 
and approved by OJJDP. Because the evaluations vary in terms of program 
complexity, availability of data, and purpose of the evaluation, the 
time and cost of each varies. Each evaluation is defined by OJJDP and 
costs, method, and time are determined through negotiations between 
OJJDP and the contractor. Because the purpose of many evaluations is to 
inform management decisions, the completion of an evaluation and 
submission of a report may be required in a specific and, often, short 
time period.
    This contract will be implemented by the current contractor, 
Caliber Associates. A new competitive contract solicitation will be 
issued during FY 1998, and a new contract awarded in FY 1999.

Juvenile Justice Statistics and Systems Development

    The Juvenile Justice Statistics and Systems Development (SSD) 
program was competitively awarded in FY 1990 to the National Center for 
Juvenile Justice (NCJJ) to improve national, State, and local 
statistics on juveniles as victims and offenders. Over the last seven 
years, through continuation funding, the project has focused on three 
major tasks: (1) assessing how current information needs are being met 
with existing data collection efforts and recommending options for 
improving national level statistics; (2) analyzing data and 
disseminating information gathered from existing Federal statistical 
series and national studies; and (3) providing training and technical 
assistance for local agencies in developing or enhancing management 
information systems.
    Under the second task, OJJDP released the seminal analysis Juvenile 
Offenders and Victims: A National Report in September 1995, Juvenile 
Offenders and Victims: 1996 Update on Violence in March 1996, and 
Juvenile Offenders and Victims: 1997 Update on Violence in October 
1997. A training curriculum, Improving Information for Rational 
Decisionmaking in Juvenile Justice, was drafted for pilot testing, and 
future documents will be produced based on this effort.
    In FY 1998, NCJJ will: (1) complete a long-term plan for improving 
national statistics on juveniles as victims and offenders, including 
constructing core data elements for a national reporting program for 
juveniles waived or transferred to criminal court; (2) update the 
Compendium of Federal Statistical Programs on juvenile victims and 
offenders and work with the Office of Justice Programs' Crime 
Statistics Working Group and other Federal interagency statistics 
working groups; (3) provide technical support to OJJDP in enhancing the 
availability and accessibility of statistics on the OJJDP web site; (4) 
make recommendations to fill information gaps in the areas of juvenile 
probation, juvenile court and law enforcement responses to juvenile 
delinquency, violent delinquency, and child abuse and neglect; and (5) 
produce a second edition of Juvenile Offenders and Victims: A National 
Report.
    This project will be implemented by the current grantee, NCJJ. No 
additional applications will be solicited in FY 1998.

Census of Juveniles in Residential Placement

    The Census of Juveniles in Residential Placement (CJRP) is 
replacing the biennial Census of Public and Private Juvenile Detention, 
Correctional, and Shelter Facilities, known as the Children in Custody 
census. This newly designed census will collect detailed information on 
the population of juveniles who are in juvenile residential placement 
facilities as a result of contact with the juvenile justice system. 
Over the past 3 years, OJJDP and the Bureau of the Census, with the 
assistance of a Technical Advisory Board, have developed the CJRP to 
more accurately represent the numbers of juveniles in residential 
placement and to describe the reasons for their placement. A new method 
of data collection, tested in FY 1996, involves gathering data in a 
roster-

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type format, often by electronic means. The new methods are expected to 
result in more accurate, timely, and useful data on the juvenile 
population, with less reporting burden for facility respondents.
    In FY 1997, OJJDP funded initial implementation of the CJRP, 
including form preparation, mailout, and processing of census forms. In 
October 1997, the first census using the revised methodology was 
conducted.
    OJJDP proposes to continue funding this project in FY 1998 to clean 
the data files, allowing the production of new data products based on 
the 1997 census.
    This program would be implemented through an existing interagency 
agreement with the Bureau of the Census. No additional applications 
would be solicited in FY 1998.

National Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Training and 
Technical Assistance Center

    The National Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Training 
and Technical Assistance Center (NTTAC) was established in FY 1995 
under a competitive 3-year project period award to Community Research 
Associates. NTTAC serves as a national training and technical 
assistance clearinghouse, inventorying and coordinating the integrated 
delivery of juvenile justice training/technical assistance resources 
and establishing a data base of these resources.
    In FY 1995, work involved organization and staffing of the Center, 
orientation for OJJDP training/technical assistance providers regarding 
their role in the Center's activities, and initial data base 
development.
    NTTAC's funding in FY 1996 provided services in the form of 
coordinated technical assistance support for OJJDP's SafeFutures and 
gang program initiatives, continued promotion of collaboration between 
OJJDP training/technical assistance providers, developed training/
technical assistance materials, and completed and disseminated the 
first OJJDP Training and Technical Assistance Resource Catalog. In 
addition, NTTAC assisted State and local jurisdictions and other OJJDP 
grantees with specialized training, including the development of 
training-of-trainers programs. NTTAC continued to evolve as a central 
source for information pertaining to the availability of OJJDP-
supported training/technical assistance programs and resources.
    In FY 1997, NTTAC completed the first draft of the jurisdictional 
team training/technical assistance packages for gender-specific 
services and juvenile correctional services; provided training/
technical assistance in support of OJJDP's SafeFutures and Gangs 
programs; updated and disseminated the second Training and Technical 
Assistance Resource Catalog; created a Web site for the Center and a 
ListServe for the Children, Youth and Affinity Group; held three focus 
groups on needs assessments; and coordinated and provided 38 instances 
of technical assistance in conjunction with OJJDP's training/technical 
assistance grantees and contractors.
    In FY 1998, NTTAC plans to finalize, field test, and coordinate 
delivery of the jurisdictional team training/technical assistance 
packages on critical needs in the juvenile justice system, update the 
resource catalog, facilitate the annual OJJDP training/TA grantee and 
contractor meeting, continue to update the repository of training/TA 
materials and the electronic data base of training/TA materials, and 
continue to respond to training/TA requests from the field.
    The current grantee, Community Research Associates, will complete 
its work in FY 1998. A new competitive solicitation would be issued in 
FY 1998 for a new project period.

Technical Assistance for State Legislatures

    Since FY 1995, OJJDP has awarded annual grants to the National 
Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) to provide relevant and timely 
information on comprehensive approaches in juvenile justice that are 
geared to the legislative environment. The purpose of this project is 
to aid State legislators in improving State juvenile justice systems 
when crafting legislative responses to youth violence. State 
legislatures have a unique role and responsibility in establishing 
State policy and approaches and appropriating funds for juvenile 
justice. Nearly every State has enacted, or is considering, statutory 
changes affecting the juvenile justice system. Historically, State 
legislatures have lacked the information needed to comprehensively 
address juvenile justice issues. Experience with this project indicates 
that policymakers find it has helped them understand the ramifications 
and nuances of juvenile justice reform.
    Since OJJDP began funding this project, NCSL has conducted three 
invitational Legislator's Leadership Forums; sponsored sessions on 
juvenile justice reform at the NCSL annual meetings; expanded 
clearinghouse and juvenile justice enactment reporting; and produced 
and distributed a publication, Legislator's Guide to Comprehensive 
Juvenile Justice. The invitational meetings were attended by more than 
100 legislators and additional legislative staff from 34 States 
selected as key decisionmakers on juvenile justice reform. Meeting 
sessions and information services reached at least 500 legislators or 
legislative staff in all States. In addition, project publications were 
distributed to more than 2,000 legislative members, staff, and agencies 
to provide for further broad distribution of information central to 
comprehensive strategies in juvenile justice to a State legislative 
audience throughout the States.
    The grant has improved capacity for the delivery of information 
services to legislatures, with the number of information requests 
handled for legislators and staff having increased to about 500 per 
year. It is expected that the Children and Families and Criminal 
Justice programs will respond to another 500 information requests in FY 
1998.
    In FY 1998, NCSL would further identify, analyze, and disseminate 
information to assist State legislatures to make more informed 
decisions about legislation affecting the juvenile justice system. A 
complementary task involves supporting increased communication between 
State legislators and State and local leaders who influence 
decisionmaking regarding juvenile justice issues. NCSL would provide 
intensive technical assistance to four States, continue outreach 
activities, and maintain its clearinghouse function. Additionally, NCSL 
would assist in the production of a live satellite videoconference 
directed primarily to State legislators.
    The project would be implemented by the current grantee, NCSL. No 
additional applications would be solicited in FY 1998.

Telecommunications Assistance

    Developments in information technology and distance training have 
expanded and enhanced OJJDP's capacity to disseminate information and 
provide training and technical assistance. The advantages of these 
technologies include increased access to information and training for 
professionals in the juvenile justice system, reduced travel costs to 
conferences, and reduced time attending meetings away from one's home 
or office. OJJDP uses this cost-effective medium to share with the 
field the salient elements of the most effective or promising 
approaches to various juvenile justice issues. The field has responded 
positively to these live satellite teleconferences and has come to 
expect them at regular intervals.

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    OJJDP selected Eastern Kentucky University (EKU) through a 
competitive program announcement in FY 1992 to conduct a feasibility 
study on using this technology in its programming. In FY 1995, EKU was 
awarded a competitive grant to undertake production of live satellite 
videoconferences. Since the inception of this grant in FY 1995, EKU has 
produced 13 live satellite teleconferences, with an average of 360 
downlink sites participating in each. The project produced four 
teleconferences in FY 1995 (Juvenile Boot Camps, Reducing Youth Gun 
Violence, Youth Out of the Education Mainstream, and Conflict 
Resolution for Youth), four in FY 1996 (Community Collaboration, 
Effective Programs for Serious, Violent, and Chronic Juvenile 
Offenders, Youth-Oriented Community Policing, Leadership Challenges for 
Juvenile Detentions and Corrections), and five in FY 1997 (Has the 
Juvenile Court Outlived Its Usefulness?, Youth Gangs in America, 
Preventing Drug Abuse Among Youth, Mentoring for Youth, and Treating 
Drug-Involved Youth).
    In FY 1998, OJJDP proposes to continue the cooperative agreement 
with EKU in order to provide program support and technical assistance 
for a variety of information technologies, including audioconferences, 
fiber optics, and satellite teleconferences, producing four to five 
additional live national satellite teleconferences. The grantee would 
also continue to provide technical assistance to other grantees 
interested in using this technology and explore linkages with key 
constituent groups to advance mutual information goals and objectives.
    This project would be implemented by the current grantee, EKU. No 
additional applications would be solicited in FY 1998.

OJJDP Technical Assistance Support Contract--Juvenile Justice 
Resource Center

    This contract provides technical assistance and support to OJJDP, 
its grantees, and the Coordinating Council on Juvenile Justice and 
Delinquency Prevention in the areas of program development, evaluation, 
training, and research. OJJDP proposes to extend the current contract 
in FY 1998 until a new contract can be competitively awarded. 
Applications have been solicited, and the new contract is expected to 
be awarded shortly.
    This contract would be implemented by the current contractor, Aspen 
Systems Corporation, until a new contract is awarded.

Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse

    A component of the National Criminal Justice Reference Service 
(NCJRS), the Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse (JJC) is OJJDP's central 
source for the collection, synthesis, and dissemination of information 
on all aspects of juvenile justice, including research and evaluation 
findings; State and local juvenile delinquency prevention and treatment 
programs and plans; availability of resources; training and educational 
programs; and statistics. JJC serves the entire juvenile justice 
community, including researchers, law enforcement officials, judges, 
prosecutors, probation and corrections staff, youth-service personnel, 
legislators, the media, and the public.
    Among its many support services, JJC offers toll-free telephone 
access to information; prepares specialized responses to information 
requests; produces, warehouses, and distributes OJJDP publications; 
exhibits at national conferences; maintains a comprehensive juvenile 
justice library and data base; and administers several electronic 
information resources. Recognizing the critical need to inform juvenile 
justice practitioners and policymakers on promising program approaches, 
JJC continually develops and recommends new products and strategies to 
communicate more effectively the research findings and program 
activities of OJJDP and the field. The entire NCJRS, of which the 
OJJDP-funded JJC is a part, is administered by the National Institute 
of Justice (NIJ) under a competitively awarded contract to Aspen 
Systems Corporation.
    This program would continue to be implemented by the current 
contractor, Aspen Systems Corporation, until the new contract is 
awarded. NIJ will issue a new competitive solicitation in the near 
future, and a new contract will be awarded during FY 1998.

Insular Area Support

    The purpose of this program is to provide support to the U.S. 
Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, the Trust Territory of the 
Pacific Islands (Palau), and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana 
Islands. Funds are available to address the special needs and problems 
of juvenile delinquency in these insular areas, as specified by Section 
261(e) of the JJDP Act of 1974, as amended, 42 U.S.C. 5665(e).

Community Assessment Centers (CAC's)

    The Community Assessment Center (CAC) program is a multicomponent 
demonstration initiative designed to test the efficacy of the Community 
Assessment Center concept. CAC's provide a 24-hour centralized point of 
intake and assessment for juveniles who have or are likely to come into 
contact with the juvenile justice system. The main purpose of a CAC is 
to facilitate earlier and more efficient prevention and intervention 
service delivery at the ``front end'' of the juvenile justice system. 
In FY 1997, OJJDP funded two planning grants and two enhancement grants 
to existing assessment centers for a 1-year project period, a CAC 
evaluation project, and a technical assistance component.
    The planning grants were awarded to the Denver Juvenile Court in 
Denver, Colorado, and to the Lee County Sheriff's Office in Fort Myers, 
Florida, to support a 1-year intensive planning process for the 
development and implementation of a CAC in each community. In Denver, 
community leaders are assessing the feasibility of a CAC and building 
on existing infrastructure developed with support from the Center for 
Substance Abuse Treatment's Juvenile Justice Integrated Treatment 
Network program. In Fort Myers, community leaders are completing an 
initial planning process and are planning to open their CAC in 1998. 
Planning in this site will continue after implementation and will focus 
on enhancing the CAC in Fort Myers to become more consistent with the 
CAC concept and on developing linkages with the community's 
Comprehensive Strategy initiative.
    The enhancement component of the CAC program is designed to 
increase the effectiveness and efficiency of existing assessment 
centers by supporting various and specific program enhancements and to 
provide support to existing assessment centers in an effort to create 
consistency with OJJDP's CAC concept.
    Also in FY 1997, two communities received 1-year awards to help 
existing assessment centers provide enhanced services and to 
demonstrate the effectiveness of the CAC concept overall. Jefferson 
Center for Mental Health in Jefferson County, Colorado, and Human 
Service Associates, Inc., in Orlando, Florida, were competitively 
selected to receive awards under the CAC program on the basis of their 
demonstrated commitment to specifically implement an enhancement that 
makes the existing CAC more consistent with the CAC concept. The 
Jefferson Center for Mental Health is developing an improved ``single 
point of entry'' and an improved management information system and 
other enhancements consistent with the OJJDP CAC concept. Human 
Services

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Associates, Inc., is creating an intensive integrated case management 
system for high-risk youth referred to the CAC, an enhancement also 
consistent with the OJJDP CAC concept.
    In FY 1998, OJJDP proposes to provide an additional year's funding 
to support the full and continued implementation of selected CAC 
enhancements and additional support to the sites awarded planning 
grants in FY 1997. This funding would enable these sites to begin 
implementing the CAC's planned for with OJJDP funding support or to 
enhance existing operations.
    The CAC initiative evaluation component, being conducted by the 
National Council on Crime and Delinquency, and the technical assistance 
component, being delivered by the Florida Alcohol and Drug Abuse 
Association, were funded in FY 1997 for a 2-year project period and 
will not require additional funds in FY 1998.
    These programs would be implemented by the current grantees, 
Jefferson Center for Mental Health, Human Service Associates, Inc., 
Denver Juvenile Court, and Lee County Sheriff's Office. No additional 
applications would be solicited in FY 1998.

Training and Technical Assistance Coordination for SafeFutures 
Initiative

    OJJDP proposes to provide funding for long-term training and 
technical assistance (TA) for the remaining 3 years of the SafeFutures 
initiative. The purpose of this TA effort would be to build local 
capacity for implementing and sustaining effective continuum of care 
and systems change approaches to preventing and controlling juvenile 
violence and delinquency in the six SafeFutures communities. Project 
activities would include assessment, identification, and coordination 
of the implementation of training and TA needs at each SafeFutures site 
and administration of cross-site training.

Public Safety and Law Enforcement

Comprehensive Community-Wide Approach to Gang Prevention, Intervention, 
and Suppression Program

    This program supports the implementation of a comprehensive gang 
program model in five jurisdictions. The program was competitively 
awarded with FY 1994 funds under a 3-year project period. The 
demonstration sites implementing the model, which was developed by the 
University of Chicago with OJJDP funding support, are Bloomington, 
Illinois; Mesa, Arizona; Riverside, California; San Antonio, Texas; and 
Tucson, Arizona. Implementation of the comprehensive gang program model 
requires the mobilization of the community to address gang-related 
violence by making available and coordinating social interventions, 
providing social/academic/vocational and other opportunities, and 
supporting gang suppression through law enforcement, probation, and 
other community control mechanisms.
    During the past year, the demonstration sites began full-scale 
implementation of the program model and began serving gang-involved 
youth in the targeted areas. In each site, a multidisciplinary team has 
been established to coordinate the services that project youth receive. 
Teams are made up of various community institution representatives, 
including police, probation, outreach or street workers, court 
representatives, service providers, and others. The services provided 
through this team--or recommended by them--include social interventions 
such as outreach, case management, counseling, substance abuse 
treatment, anger management, life skills, cultural awareness, 
controlled recreation activities, access to educational, social, and 
economic opportunities such as GED attainment, school reintegration, 
vocational training, and job development and placement. Also included 
in the service mix is accountability or social control. This is 
provided through traditional suppression from law enforcement and 
probation, and also accountability through the schools, community-based 
agencies, parents, families, and community members. The team meets 
regularly to go over progress with each youth, so that each team member 
is aware of prevailing risks and positive developments and can use this 
information to be supportive of the youth when contacted in the field 
by providing additional services, modifying ``treatment plans,'' or 
invoking accountability measures ranging from values clarification and 
general motivational support to arrest and prosecution. In addition to 
core team members, other agencies also support the programs, such as 
the faith community, local Boys and Girls Clubs, and alternative and 
mainstream schools.
    In some sites, prevention components have been established to work 
hand-in-hand with the intervention and suppression program. For 
example, in one site a mentoring program has been established for youth 
who are younger siblings of gang members targeted in the intervention 
components.
    The demonstration sites also participated in training and technical 
assistance activities, including cluster conferences sponsored by OJJDP 
and site-specific consultations on issues such as information sharing 
and outreach activities.
    In FY 1998, OJJDP proposes to provide a fourth year of funding to 
the demonstration sites to target up to 200 youth prone to gang 
violence in each site through continuing implementation of the program 
model and work with the independent evaluator of this demonstration 
program.
    This project would be implemented by the current demonstration 
sites. No additional applications would be solicited in FY 1998.

Evaluation of the Comprehensive Community-Wide Approach to Gang 
Prevention, Intervention, and Suppression Program

    The University of Chicago, School of Social Service Administration, 
received a competitive cooperative agreement award in FY 1995. This 4-
year project period award supports the evaluation of OJJDP's 
Comprehensive Community-Wide Approach to Gang Prevention, Intervention, 
and Suppression Program. The evaluation grantee assisted the five 
program sites (Bloomington, Illinois; Mesa, Arizona; Riverside, 
California; San Antonio, Texas; and Tucson, Arizona) in establishing 
realistic and measurable objectives, documenting program 
implementation, and measuring the impact of a variety of gang program 
strategies. It has also provided interim feedback to the program 
implementors.
    In FY 1997, following two years of program development and 
evaluation design, the grantee trained the local site interviewers; 
gathered and tracked data from police, prosecutor, probation, school, 
and social service agencies; collected individual gang member 
interviews from both the program and comparison areas; provided onsite 
technical assistance to the local sites; consulted with local 
evaluators on development and implementation of local site parent/
community resident surveys; and coordinated ongoing efforts with local 
researchers.
    In FY 1998, the grantee will continue to gather and analyze data 
required to evaluate the program; monitor and oversee the quality 
control of data; provide assistance for completion of interviews; and 
provide ongoing feedback to project sites.
    This project will be implemented by the current grantee, the 
University of Chicago, School of Social Service Administration. No 
additional applications will be solicited in FY 1998.

[[Page 6349]]

Targeted Outreach With a Gang Prevention and Intervention Component 
(Boys and Girls Clubs)

    This program is designed to enable local Boys and Girls Clubs to 
prevent youth from entering gangs, intervene with gang members in the 
early stages of gang involvement, and divert youth from gang activities 
into more constructive programs. In FY 1997, Boys and Girls Clubs of 
America provided training and technical assistance to 30 existing gang 
prevention and 4 intervention sites and expanded the gang prevention 
and intervention program to 23 additional Boys and Girls Clubs, 
including to some of those in the OJJDP SafeFutures sites. A national 
evaluation of this program, through Public/Private Ventures, was also 
started in FY 1997 under this award.
    In FY 1998, Boys and Girls Clubs of America would provide training 
and technical assistance to 20 new gang prevention sites, 3 new 
intervention sites, and 6 SafeFutures sites.
    This program would be implemented by the current grantee, the Boys 
and Girls Clubs of America. No additional applications would be 
solicited in FY 1998.

National Youth Gang Center

    The proliferation of gang problems in large inner cities, smaller 
cities, suburbs, and even rural areas over the past two decades led to 
the development by OJJDP of a comprehensive, coordinated response to 
America's gang problem. This response involved five program components, 
one of which was the implementation and operation of the National Youth 
Gang Center (NYC). The NYGC was competitively awarded in FY 1995 for a 
3-year project period. The NYGC was created to expand and maintain the 
body of critical knowledge about youth gangs and effective responses to 
them.
    In FY 1997, NYGC continued to assist state and local jurisdictions 
to collect, analyze and exchange information on gang-related 
demographics, legislation, literature, research and promising program 
strategies. It also supported the work of the National Gang Consortium, 
a group of federal agencies, gang program representatives and 
researchers. A major activity was a survey of all federal agencies and 
the presentation of data on their programs, planning cycles and other 
resources. It continued to promote the collection and analysis of gang 
related data and published the results of its first National Youth Gang 
Survey of 2,000 law enforcement agencies.
    OJJDP proposes to extend the project an additional year and provide 
FY 1998 funds to NYGC to conduct more indepth analyses of the first and 
second National Youth Gang Survey results that track changes in the 
nature and scope of the youth gang problem. NYGC, through its Focus 
Group on Data Collection and Analysis, will also continue its efforts 
to foster integration of gang-related items into other relevant surveys 
and national data collection efforts.
    Fiscal year 1998 funds would support an additional year of funding 
to the current grantee, the Institute for Intergovernmental Research. 
No additional applications would be solicited in FY 1998.

Evaluation of the Partnerships To Reduce Juvenile Gun Violence Program

    COSMOS Corporation received a competitive award in FY 1997. This 3-
year project period award supports OJJDP's Evaluation of the 
Partnerships To Reduce Juvenile Gun Violence Program. The program will 
document and evaluate the process of community mobilization, planning, 
and collaboration needed to develop a comprehensive, collaborative 
approach to reducing gun violence involving juveniles in four sites. 
The sites are Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Oakland, California; Shreveport, 
Louisiana; and Syracuse, New York.
    In FY 1997, the grantee conducted onsite technical assistance 
workshops with partner organizations and assisted the sites in planning 
and developing local Partnerships To Reduce Juvenile Gun Violence.
    In FY 1998, the grantee will develop data collection protocols, 
conduct a process evaluation, and continue to provide onsite technical 
assistance to the sites. In addition to the four sites listed above, 
the grantee will also identify additional promising/effective programs 
underway in communities across the country and evaluate a select number 
of these programs. With an expanded base of youth gun violence 
programs, there is greater opportunity to identify sites that are 
employing similar strategies with different targeted populations.
    This evaluation will be implemented by the current grantee, COSMOS 
Corporation. No additional applications will be solicited in FY 1998.

The Chicago Project for Violence Prevention

    The Chicago Project for Violence Prevention's primary goal is the 
development of a citywide, accelerated, long-term effort to reduce 
violence in Chicago. In addition, the Chicago Project serves to 
demonstrate a comprehensive, citywide violence prevention model. 
Overall project objectives include reductions in homicide, physical 
injury, disability and emotional harm from assault, domestic abuse, 
sexual abuse and rape, and child abuse and neglect.
    The Chicago Project is a partnership among the Chicago Department 
of Public Health, the Illinois Council for the Prevention of Violence, 
the University of Illinois, and Chicago communities. The project began 
in January 1995 with joint funding from OJJDP and the Centers for 
Disease Control and prevention (CDC), National Center for Injury 
Prevention and Control (NCIPC), the Bureau of Justice Assistance, and 
the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The project currently 
provides technical assistance to a variety of community-based and 
citywide organizations involved in violence prevention planning. The 
majority of the technical assistance supports community level efforts 
and agencies working to directly support the community plan.
    In FY 1996, technical assistance was provided to the central 
planning group for the Austin community-based coalition, leadership and 
staff of the Westside Health Authority in the Austin community, and to 
other selected groups involved in the Austin plan for the development 
of their components (e.g., to Northwest Austin Council for the 
development of the afterschool and drug treatment components of the 
Austin plan). These groups are members of the violence consortium in 
Austin.
    In FY 1997, the Chicago Project further refined the violence 
prevention strategy developed in the Austin community, began 
implementation of the strategy, and continued to provide technical 
assistance to the Logan Square and Grand Boulevard communities as they 
developed their violence prevention strategies.
    In FY 1998, OJJDP proposes to continue funding the project, which 
would complete the strategic planning process with Logan Square and 
Grand Boulevard and continue to work with Austin in implementing its 
strategy.
    The Chicago Project for Violence Prevention would be implemented by 
the current grantee, the University of Illinois, School of Public 
Health. No additional applications would be solicited in FY 1998.

Safe Start--Child Development-Community-Oriented Policing (CD-CP)

    The Child Development-Community-Oriented Policing (CD-CP) program, 
an innovative partnership between the New Haven Department of Police 
Services and the Child Study Center at

[[Page 6350]]

the Yale University School of Medicine, addresses the psychological 
burdens on children, families, and the broader community of increasing 
levels of community violence. In FY 1993, OJJDP provided support to 
document Yale--New Haven's child-centered, community-oriented policing 
model. The program model consists of interrelated training and 
consultation, including a child development fellowship for police 
supervisors; police fellowship for clinicians; seminars on child 
development, human functioning, and policing strategies; a 15-hour 
training course in child development for all new police officers; 
weekly collaborative meetings and case conferences that support 
institutional changes in police practices; and establishment of 
protocols for referral and consultation to ensure that children receive 
the services they need.
    In FY 1994, the Bureau of Justice Assistance, using community 
policing funds, joined with OJJDP to support the first year of a 3-year 
training and technical assistance grant to replicate the CD-CP program 
nationwide. In each of FY's 1995, 1996, and 1997, OJJDP provided grants 
of $300,000 to the Yale Child Study Center to replicate the model 
through training of law enforcement and mental health providers in 
Buffalo, New York; Charlotte, North Carolina; Nashville, Tennessee; and 
Portland, Oregon.
    The CD-CP program has provided a wide range of coordinated police 
and clinical responses in the four replication sites, including round-
the-clock availability of consultation with a clinical professional and 
a police supervisor to patrol officers who assist children exposed to 
violence; weekly case conferences with police officers, educators, and 
child study center staff; open police stations located in neighborhoods 
and accessible to residents for police and related services; community 
liaison and coordination of community response; crisis response; 
clinical referral; interagency collaboration; home-based followup; and 
officer support and neighborhood foot patrols. In the CD-CP program's 
last 4 years of operation in the New Haven site, more than 450 children 
have been referred to the consultation service by officers in the 
field. It is anticipated that these results can be obtained in the 
replication sites.
    In FY 1997, through a partnership between OJJDP, Violence Against 
Women Grants Office, and Office for Victims of Crime (OVC), $700,000 
($300,000 from OJJDP, $300,000 from the Violence Against Women Grants 
Office, and $100,000 from OVC) was allocated to CD-CP to expand the 
program under a new Safe Start Initiative designed to support the 
following activities:
     Development of a training and technical assistance center 
in New Haven consisting of a team of expert practitioners who provide 
training for law enforcement, prosecutors, mental health professionals, 
school personnel, and probation and parole officers to better respond 
to the needs of children exposed to community violence including but 
not limited to family violence, gang violence, and abuse or neglect.
     Plan for expansion of program sites from the original 
four. Future sites, the total number of which are yet to be determined, 
will be selected competitively based upon each site's capacity to 
establish a core police/mental health provider team concerned with 
child victimization.
     Further research, data collection, analysis, and 
evaluation of CD-CP in the program sites.
     The development of a casebook for practitioners, which 
will detail intervention strategies and various aspects of the CD-CP 
collaborative process.
    In order to continue this work in FY 1998, this project will be 
continued by the current grantee, the Yale University School of 
Medicine, in collaboration with the New Haven Department of Police 
Services. No additional applications will be solicited in FY 1998.

Law Enforcement Training and Technical Assistance Program

    Juvenile crime and victimization present major challenges to law 
enforcement and other practitioners who are responsible for prevention, 
intervention, and enforcement efforts. Violent crime committed by 
juveniles, juvenile involvement in gangs and drugs, and decreasing 
fiscal resources are a few of the challenges facing juvenile justice 
practitioners today.
    OJJDP is committed to helping Federal, State, local, and tribal 
agencies, organizations, and individuals face these challenges through 
a comprehensive program of training and technical assistance that is 
designed to enhance the juvenile justice system's ability to respond to 
juvenile crime and delinquency. This assistance targets many audiences, 
including law enforcement representatives, social service workers, 
school staff and administrators, prosecutors, judges, corrections and 
probation personnel, and key community and agency leaders.
    In FY 1997, a 3-year contract period was awarded to John Jay 
College of Criminal Justice (John Jay) for the Law Enforcement Training 
and Technical Assistance program. Since the program's inception in 
March 1997, John Jay has trained approximately 700 State, local, and 
tribal workshop participants and provided requested onsite technical 
assistance to 16 communities.
    Fiscal year 1998 funds will support the continuation of seven 
regional training workshops: the Chief Executive Officer Youth Violence 
Forum; Managing Juvenile Operations (MJO); Gang, Gun, and Drug Policy; 
School Administrators for Effective Operations Leading to Improved 
Children and Youth Services (SAFE Policy); Youth Oriented-Community 
Policing; Tribal Justice Training and Technical Assistance; and the 
Serious Habitual Offender Comprehensive Action Program (SHOCAP). A 
minimum of 10 of these regional trainings are planned in FY 1998, with 
onsite technical assistance provided, upon request. Participants in the 
workshops will have access to followup technical assistance that will 
enable them to devise, implement, modify, and evaluate community 
partnerships and programs in their localities. Online, computer-
assisted training will also be available on OJJDP's Web page, along 
with workshop information.
    This project will be implemented by the current contractor, John 
Jay College of Criminal Justice. No additional applications will be 
solicited in FY 1998.

Partnerships To Reduce Juvenile Gun Violence

    OJJDP will award continuation grants of up to $200,000 to each of 
four competitively selected communities that initially received funds 
in FY 1997 to help them increase the effectiveness of existing youth 
gun violence reduction strategies by enhancing and coordinating 
prevention, intervention, and suppression strategies and strengthening 
linkages between community residents, law enforcement, and the juvenile 
justice system. Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Oakland, California; 
Shreveport, Louisiana; and Syracuse, New York, were competitively 
selected to receive 3-year awards.
    The goals of this initiative are to reduce juveniles' illegal 
access to guns and address the reasons they carry and use guns in 
violence exchanges. Each of the sites is required to address five 
objectives: (1) Reduce illegal gun availability to juveniles; (2) 
reduce the incidence of juveniles' illegally carrying guns; (3) reduce 
juvenile gun-related

[[Page 6351]]

crimes; (4) increase youth awareness of the personal and legal 
consequences of gun violence; and (5) increase participation of 
community residents and organizations in public safety efforts.
    To accomplish the goals and objectives, each site will complete the 
development of a comprehensive plan and incorporate the following seven 
strategies in the target area:
    (1) Positive opportunity strategies for young people, such as 
mentoring, job readiness, and afterschool programs.
    (2) An educational strategy in which students learn how to resolve 
conflicts without violence, resist peer pressure to possess or carry 
guns, and distinguish between real violence and television violence.
    (3) A public information strategy that uses radio, local 
television, and print outlets to broadly communicate to young people 
the dangers and consequences of gun violence and present information on 
positive youth activities taking place in the community.
    (4) A law enforcement/community communication strategy that expands 
neighborhood communication; community policing, such as a program that 
notifies neighborhood residents when particular incidents or concerns 
have been addressed; and community supervision to educate at-risk and 
court-involved juveniles on the legal consequences of their involvement 
in gun violence.
    (5) A grassroots community involvement and mobilization strategy 
that engages neighborhood residents, including youth, in improving the 
community.
    (6) A suppression strategy that reduces juvenile access to illegal 
guns and illegal gun trafficking in communities by developing special 
gun units, using community allies to report illegal gun trade, 
targeting gang members and illegal gun possession cases for 
prosecution, and increasing sanctions.
    (7) A juvenile justice system strategy that applies appropriate 
treatment interventions to respond to the needs of juvenile offenders 
who enter the system on gun-related charges. Interventions may include 
specialized gun courts, family counseling, victim impact awareness 
classes, drug treatment, probation, or intensive community supervision, 
including aftercare. The approach should focus on addressing the 
reasons juveniles had access to, carried, and used guns illegally.
    A national evaluation is being conducted by COSMOS Corporation to 
document and understand the process of community mobilization, 
planning, and collaboration needed to develop a comprehensive, 
collaborative approach to reducing juvenile gun violence.
    The Partnerships To Reduce Juvenile Gun Violence program will be 
carried out by the four current grantees. No additional applications 
will be solicited in FY 1998.

Comprehensive Community-Wide Approach to Gang Prevention, Intervention, 
and Suppression Technical Assistance and Training

    Since 1995, OJJDP has provided funding to five communities to 
implement and test a comprehensive program model for gang prevention, 
intervention and suppression, known as the Spergel model. In 1997, the 
sites were awarded continuation funding for the third year of a 3-year 
project period grant to continue program implementation. OJJDP is 
proposing to provide a fourth year of funding for this program.
    To support the ongoing implementation and a potential fourth year 
of operations (being proposed elsewhere in this Program Plan), OJJDP 
proposes to provide funding to the University of Chicago for enhanced 
technical assistance and training services. This award would be made to 
the University's Gang Research, Evaluation and Technical Assistance 
(GRETA) program, through the School of Social Service Administration. 
Technical assistance and training to be provided through this award may 
include technical assistance and training to law enforcement, 
probation, and parole on their role in the model; technical assistance 
to community and grassroots organizations on their role in the model; 
and technical assistance on team development, information sharing, 
information systems, and data collection and on issues of 
sustainability and organizational and systems change to better deal 
with the community's youth gang problem. Other training and technical 
assistance services to be provided may include the development of 
relevant materials for onsite use, such as a manual on the model being 
implemented (in response to the national evaluation advisory board's 
recommendations), a manual on youth outreach and a ``lessons learned'' 
publication or other materials, including audiovisual and electronic 
media. Training and technical assistance services provided under this 
project would be limited to OJJDP's comprehensive gang demonstration 
sites in Mesa and Tucson, Arizona; Riverside, California; Bloomington, 
Illinois; and San Antonio, Texas.
    This project would be implemented by the current grantee, the 
University of Chicago. No additional applications would be solicited in 
FY 1998.

Rural Youth Gang Problems--Adapting OJJDP's Comprehensive Approach

    In 1996, OJJDP's National Youth Gang Center completed its first 
annual nationwide survey of law enforcement agencies regarding gang 
problems experienced in their jurisdictions. This survey represents the 
largest number of small law enforcement agencies in rural counties ever 
surveyed. Among the findings of this survey is that half of the 2,007 
gang survey respondents reporting youth gang problems in 1995 serve 
populations under 25,000, confirming that youth gangs are not just a 
problem for large cities and metropolitan counties. Youth gangs are 
emerging in new localities, especially smaller and rural communities. 
Many of the agencies in smaller and rural communities had no personnel 
assigned to deal with youth gangs or gang units.
    OJJDP's Comprehensive Approach to Gang Prevention, Intervention, 
and Suppression (Spergel Model) is currently being implemented and 
tested in multiple jurisdictions. The communities implementing the 
model are mainly suburban and urban in nature, with areas of dense 
population within the community.
    In light of the rural gang problems exposed by the nationwide gang 
survey, OJJDP is considering funding a new initiative to assist rural 
communities in implementing the fully adaptable Comprehensive Approach 
in a way that is appropriate to rural community needs, through a 
comprehensive and systematic problem assessment and program design 
process. Upon completion of the problem assessment using law 
enforcement-based gang incident, census, and other data, communities 
would engage in a process of adapting and applying the Comprehensive 
Approach in a way that responds to the gang problems identified.
    OJJDP is considering awarding funds to rural communities to 
implement a rural youth gang program and also awarding funds for 
related evaluation and technical assistance services.

Delinquency Prevention and Intervention

Youth-Centered Conflict Resolution

    In FY 1995, OJJDP funded the Illinois Institute for Dispute 
Resolution (IIDR) to implement the Youth-Centered Conflict Resolution 
(YCCR) program under a competitively awarded 3-year

[[Page 6352]]

cooperative agreement. The purpose of this program, which began in 
October 1995, is to integrate conflict resolution education (CRE) 
programming into all levels of education in the Nation's schools, 
juvenile facilities, and youth-serving organizations.
    During the first 2 years, IIDR provided training and technical 
assistance through a number of mechanisms. In year one, activities 
included participation in the development of a satellite teleconference 
on CRE, a presentation on the YCCR program at the National Institute 
for Dispute Resolution annual conference, and three regional training 
conferences for teams from schools, communities, and juvenile 
facilities. IIDR also completed the project's first major resource 
document, Conflict Resolution Education: A Guide to Implementing 
Programs in Schools, Youth-Serving Organizations, and Community and 
Juvenile Justice Settings. Second-year activities included followup 
training and intensive technical assistance including onsite work with 
the Washington, DC, school system. In the second project year, with 
additional funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, IIDR 
developed a pilot curriculum and conducted a series of 10 training 
sessions to assist arts program staff and administrators in infusing 
conflict resolution skills and principles into art programs for at-risk 
youth.
    Activities planned for FY 1998 include three national training 
conferences, onsite technical assistance to SafeFutures, Weed and Seed, 
and other sites, increased followup support, and a survey of gang 
intervention programs to identify those that use conflict resolution 
techniques as part of their efforts.
    Also, IIDR will expand the level of support that project staff 
provide to schools, communities, and youth-serving organizations, 
including training provided in partnership with national organizations 
such as Boys and Girls Clubs of America and the National Juvenile 
Detention Association. Efforts will also be undertaken to facilitate 
peer-to-peer mentoring among youth education and youth-serving 
organizations. Special emphasis will be placed on disseminating 
information about effective conflict resolution programs and 
implementation issues through print and electronic media. Project staff 
will also work with staff in State departments of education and offices 
of State Attorneys General to promote replication of local conflict 
resolution programs and to partner with State agencies to establish 
``training of trainers'' institutes or programs to build local capacity 
to implement successful CRE programs for youth.
    OJJDP is exploring the possibility of a partnership with the U.S. 
Department of Education to expand this project. The project will be 
implemented by the current grantee, IIDR. No additional applications 
will be solicited in FY 1998.

Communities In Schools--Federal Interagency Partnership

    This program is a continuation of a national school dropout 
prevention model developed and implemented by Communities In Schools 
(CIS), Inc. CIS, Inc., provides training and technical assistance to 
CIS programs in States and local communities, enabling them to adapt 
and implement the CIS model. The model brings social, employment, 
mental health, drug prevention, entrepreneurship, and other resources 
to high-risk youth and their families in the school setting. Where CIS 
State organizations are established, they assume primary responsibility 
for local program replication during the Federal Interagency 
Partnership.
    The Federal Interagency Partnership program is based on the 
following strategies: (1) To enhance CIS, Inc., training and technical 
assistance capabilities; (2) to enhance the organization's capability 
to introduce selected initiatives to CIS youth at the local level; (3) 
to enhance the CIS, Inc., information dissemination network capability; 
and (4) to enhance the CIS, Inc., capability to network with Federal 
agencies on behalf of State and local CIS programs.
    In FY 1997, the CIS--Federal Interagency Partnership: (1) Performed 
extensive research and compilation of conference materials and other 
resources outlining trends and activities related to family 
strengthening and parent participation initiatives; (2) produced a 
quarterly issue of Facts You Can Use; (3) formed a committee 
responsible for developing a description of the Family Service Center 
site strategy; (4) formulated a plan for providing training and 
technical assistance to SafeFutures sites; (5) advanced activities 
under the Youth Entrepreneurship Program by implementing the second 
phase of the minigrant process and by providing technical assistance; 
(6) developed a violence prevention resource directory and offered 
training on violence prevention; (7) provided program-level liaison and 
coordination to facilitate access by State and local CIS organizations 
to Federal agency products; and (8) added new features to the CIS web 
site to increase local and State program access to Federal resources.
    OJJDP proposes to continue funding this project in FY 1998 for 
activities including: (1) Provide continuing training and technical 
assistance on family strengthening and parent participation initiatives 
for the primary benefit of CIS State and local programs; (2) develop a 
report on known family strengthening activities occurring within the 
CIS network of local programs, highlighting best practices; (3) make 
available to the CIS network resources and materials developed by other 
organizations that deal with family-focused issues; (4) offer 
multitrack trainings to SafeFutures sites and, as appropriate, provide 
technical assistance on the CIS process; and (5) produce and distribute 
the CIS Facts You Can Use technical bulletin quarterly.
    The program would be implemented by the current grantee, 
Communities In Schools, Inc. No additional applications would be 
solicited in FY 1998.

The Congress of National Black Churches: National Anti-Drug Abuse/
Violence Campaign (NADVC)

    OJJDP proposes to award continuation funding to the Congress of 
National Black Churches (CNBC) for its national public awareness and 
mobilization strategy to address the problems of juvenile drug abuse, 
violence, and hate crime in targeted communities. The goal of the CNBC 
national strategy is to summon, focus, and coordinate the leadership of 
the black religious community, in cooperation with the Department of 
Justice and other Federal agencies and organizations, to mobilize 
groups of community residents to combat juvenile drug abuse and drug-
related violence.
    The CNBC National Anti-Drug Abuse/Violence Campaign (NADVC) is a 
partner in the Education Development Center's (EDC) Juvenile Hate Crime 
Initiative. NADVC has used EDC's hate crime curriculum to focus on 
prevention through the networks and resources in the faith community to 
address the impact and roles of juveniles and youth in engaging in and 
preventing hate crimes. Two regional conferences were held during the 
past year in Columbus, South Carolina, and Memphis, Tennessee. 
Approximately 80 participants, representing more than 20 burned 
churches from black and white congregations, attended.
    In FY 1997, the program expanded through NADVC's Regional Hate 
Crime Prevention Initiative, the Campaign's model for anti-drug/
violence strategies, and NADVC's faith community network.

[[Page 6353]]

NADVC has assisted in the development of programs in 87 sites, whose 
activities vary depending on their stage of development. The smallest 
of these alliances consists of 6 congregations and the largest has 134. 
The NADVC program involves approximately 2,220 clergy and affects 1.5 
million youth and the adults who influence their lives. NADVC also 
provides technical support to four statewide religious coalitions.
    NADVC's technical assistance, consultations, and training have 
helped sites to leverage more than $15 million in funds from 
corporations, foundations, and Federal, State, and local government. 
CNBC receives frequent requests for its NADVC model for the development 
of prevention programs in the faith community. The model is easily 
tailored to the local community's assessment of its drug, delinquency, 
violence, and hate crime problems.
    NADVC has contributed to many agency conferences, workshops, and 
advisory committees on the issues of violence, substance abuse 
prevention, policing, and high-risk youth services. The Campaign has 
also produced a National Training and Site Development Guide and a 
video to assist sites in implementing the NADVC model.
    NADVC would continue to expand to new sites in FY 1998, seek new 
partnerships, and enhance efforts to address hate crime and family 
violence intervention issues.
    The program would be implemented by the current grantee, the 
Congress of National Black Churches. No additional applications would 
be solicited in FY 1998.

Risk Reduction Via Promotion of Youth Development

    The Risk Reduction Via Promotion of Youth Development program, also 
known as Early Alliance, is a large-scale prevention study involving 
hundreds of children and several elementary schools located in lower 
socioeconomic neighborhoods of Columbia, South Carolina. This program 
is funded through an interagency agreement with the National Institute 
of Mental Health (NIMH). NIMH's grantee is the University of South 
Carolina. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the 
National Institute on Drug Abuse have also provided funding for the 
program.
    This large-scale project is designed to promote coping-competence 
and reduce risk for conduct problems, aggression, substance use, 
delinquency and violence, and school failure beginning in early 
elementary school. The project also seeks to alter home and school 
climates to reduce risk for adverse outcomes and to promote positive 
youth development. Interventions include a classroom program, a 
schoolwide conflict management program, peer social skills training, 
and home-based family programming. The sample includes African American 
and Caucasian children attending schools located in lower income 
neighborhoods. There is a sample of high-risk children (showing early 
aggressive behavior at school entry), and a second sample consisting of 
lower risk children (residing in socioeconomically disadvantaged 
neighborhoods). The interventions begin in first grade, and children 
are being followed longitudinally throughout the 5 years of the 
project.
    Funded initially in FY 1997 through a fund transfer to NIMH under 
an interagency agreement, support will be continued for an additional 4 
years. No additional applications will be solicited in FY 1998.

Training and Technical Assistance for Family Strengthening Programs

    Prevention, early intervention, and effective crisis intervention 
are critical elements in a community's family support system. In many 
communities, one or more of these elements may be missing or programs 
may not be coordinated. In addition, technical assistance and training 
are often not available to community organizations and agencies 
providing family strengthening services. In response to these needs, 
OJJDP awarded a 3-year competitive cooperative agreement in FY 1995 to 
the University of Utah's Department of Health Education (DHE) to 
provide training and technical assistance to communities interested in 
establishing or enhancing a continuum of family strengthening efforts.
    In the first program year, the grantee completed initial drafts of 
a literature review and summaries of exemplary programs; conducted a 
national search for, rated, and selected family strengthening models; 
planned 2 regional training conferences to showcase the selected 
exemplary and promising family strengthening programs; convened the 
first conference for 250 attendees in Salt Lake City, Utah; and 
developed an application process for sites to receive followup training 
on specific program models.
    In the second program year, DHE completed a second draft of the 
literature review and model program summaries; convened a second 
regional conference in Washington, D.C.; conducted program-specific 
workshops; produced user and training-of-trainers guides; and 
distributed videos of several family strengthening workshops.
    In the third program year, DHE will coordinate technical assistance 
and training of agencies that are in the process of implementing the 
identified model programs. In addition, the grantee will establish a 
minigrant supplement program to provide stipends to a minimum of 10 
sites to ensure program implementation. DHE will also update and 
publish its literature review and develop program-specific bulletins to 
be distributed by OJJDP and also made available on the OJJDP Web site. 
The grantee's technical assistance delivery system and the overall 
impact of the project will also be assessed.
    This program will be implemented in FY 1998 by the current grantee, 
the University of Utah's DHE. No additional applications will be 
solicited in FY 1998.

Hate Crime

    In FY 1998, OJJDP would provide continuation funding to the 
Education Development Center (EDC) to expand their hate crime 
prevention efforts. EDC has produced and published a multipurpose 
curriculum, entitled Healing the Hate, for hate crime prevention in 
middle schools and other classroom settings. The curriculum has been 
disseminated to 20,000 law enforcement, juvenile justice professionals, 
and educators throughout the country.
    Because of increased racial, ethnic, and religious tensions and 
hate crimes in various regions of the country, OJJDP expanded this 
grant to allow EDC to provide training and technical assistance to 
youth, educators, juvenile justice and law enforcement professionals 
and representatives of local public/private community agencies and 
organizations and the faith community. The recipients of this training/
technical assistance obtained the knowledge and skills necessary to 
establish prejudice reduction and violence prevention programs to 
decrease bias crimes by youth in their communities. During the past 
year, EDC conducted training/technical assistance at three sites in 
different regions of the country (Boston, Massachusetts; Chicago, 
Illinois; and Miami, Florida). Dissemination of products was achieved 
through national educational, advocacy, and justice networks and at 15 
other national conferences. In FY 1997, additional Hate Crimes project 
activities were funded through an interagency agreement with the U.S. 
Department of Education.

[[Page 6354]]

    In FY 1998, EDC would provide expanded training/technical 
assistance to new sites and further disseminate the products through 
the education and juvenile justice networks. In addition, EDC would 
develop a plan for providing onsite, short-term technical assistance to 
practitioners who are experiencing specific hate crime problems, are 
interested in assessing the extent of these problems in their locales, 
or are developing, implementing, or modifying hate crime prevention 
strategies. EDC would also develop a plan to assist State juvenile 
justice agencies to formulate hate crime prevention components for 
their juvenile delinquency prevention plans.
    Guides to the development of hate crime prevention strategies for 
selected audiences (juvenile justice agencies, schools, communities) 
and hate crime prevention articles and bulletins would be produced and 
disseminated. The grantee would research, analyze, and synthesize 
information on emerging issues such as the juvenile justice system's 
handling of hate crime offenders, alternative dispositions for youth 
who commit hate crimes, and approaches to prevention of gender-related 
hate crimes and those that target other specific populations, such as 
immigrants.
    The project would be implemented, in partnership with the U.S. 
Department of Education, by the current grantee, Education Development 
Center. No additional applications would be solicited in FY 1998.

Strengthening Services for Chemically Involved Children, Youth, and 
Families

    The abuse of alcohol and other drugs (AOD) is inextricably linked 
with both personal and economic adversity and crime in society. Alcohol 
and drug abuse exact a devastating toll, especially on the most 
vulnerable--young children and adolescents. Recognizing that the U.S. 
Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Health and Human 
Services are both servicing the same pool of children affected by 
parental substance use/abuse, the two Departments have initiated a 
joint program.
    OJJDP will administer this training and technical assistance 
program, with FY 1997 funds transferred to OJJDP by the Substance Abuse 
and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) through a 
cooperative agreement to the Child Welfare League of America (CWLA). To 
achieve maximum effectiveness in aiding chemically involved families, 
child welfare professionals must be able to address entrenched family 
problems caused by alcohol and other drug abuse, while simultaneously 
delivering services that protect and promote the health and well-being 
of children. These professionals need information, resource materials, 
and training to increase their knowledge of the link between chemical 
dependency and a host of related conditions that negatively affect 
child and family well-being.
    CWLA, a nonprofit organization, will carry out the required 
activities of this interagency agreement by assisting child welfare 
personnel to provide appropriate intervention services for AOD-impacted 
children and their caregivers. Through collaboration between the CWLA 
program, policy specialists in chemical dependency, child protective 
services, family support services, foster care, kinship care, and a 
cadre of other agencies, CWLA will produce a state-of-the-art 
comprehensive assessment tool and decisionmaking guidelines that 
frontline child welfare workers and supervisors can use in determining: 
(1) How alcohol and drugs are impacting child safety and family 
functioning and (2) the most appropriate intervention options for each 
child victim.
    CWLA will also conduct training for trainers to facilitate 
effective use of this guide by child welfare workers.
    CWLA's assessment instrument and decision-making guidelines for 
chemically-involved children and families will direct the vital first 
steps for child welfare professionals toward achieving increased safety 
to AOD-involved children and families. This instrument will not only 
outline a culturally competent, strengths-based substance abuse 
assessment tool, but also suggest new approaches to engaging families 
and addressing their needs. The casework, placement, and permanency 
planning options outlined in the guidelines will advance participatory 
decisionmaking models that result in family strengthening. Case plans 
that emphasize flexible options, encourage parents as partners in 
decisionmaking, involve extended family in caregiving, can promote the 
best interest of children and families.
    Training and technical assistance to child welfare professionals 
supported by this agreement will help to develop innovative and 
effective approaches to meeting the needs of children in the child 
welfare system whose parents are AOD abusers. The activities funded by 
this agreement will focus on developing, expanding, or enhancing 
initiatives that raise public awareness and educate child welfare 
workers and policymakers on the most appropriate services for children 
of substance abusing parents to prevent these children and youth from 
becoming AOD abusers.
    OJJDP funds would enable CWLA to produce a guidebook for top-level 
officials that describes current practices, models of innovation, and 
the policy choices faced in linking child welfare service agencies and 
their substance abuse counterparts. Also under consideration is 
increasing the number of sites in which CWLA would conduct training-of-
trainer sessions from the four sites and 100 workers approved under the 
cooperative agreement, to eight sites and 200 workers.
    This jointly funded project would be implemented by CWLA. No 
additional applications will be solicited in FY 1998.

Diffusion of State Risk- and Protective-Factor Focused Prevention

    OJJDP is providing funds to the National Institute on Drug Abuse 
(NIDA), through an interagency agreement, to support this 5-year 
evaluation program. Fiscal year 1997 funds were used to begin this 
diffusion study of the natural history of the adoption, implementation, 
and effects of the public health approach to prevention, focusing on 
risk and protective factors for substance abuse at the State and 
community levels. The study seeks to identify phases and factors that 
influence the adoption of the public health approach and assess the 
association between the use of this approach for community prevention 
planning and the levels of risk and protective factors and substance 
abuse among adolescents.
    The study will also examine State substance abuse data gathered 
from 1988 through 2001 and use key informant interviews conducted in 
1997, 1999, and 2001 to identify and describe the process of 
implementing the epidemiological risk- and protective-factor approach 
in seven collaborating States: Colorado, Kansas, Illinois, Maine, 
Oregon, Utah, and Washington.
    This project will be implemented by the current grantee, the Social 
Development Research Group at the University of Washington, School of 
Social Work. No additional applications will be solicited in FY 1998.

Multisite, Multimodal Treatment Study of Children With ADHD

    OJJDP would provide funds under an interagency agreement with the 
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) to fund this study. OJJDP's 
participation in this NIMH-sponsored research is designed to enhance 
and expand the project to include analysis of justice

[[Page 6355]]

system contact on the part of the subjects. The study began in 1992, 
studying the long-term efficacy of stimulant medication and intensive 
behavioral and educational treatment for children with attention 
deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Originally funded for 5 years, 
this new round of funding would continue the six study sites for 
another 5 years, to 2003. Given this continuation, many of the children 
involved in the study will reach the age at which children normally 
begin antisocial behavior. To date, no extensive study has examined the 
relationship between delinquency and ADHD.
    This expanded study, principally funded by NIMH, will follow the 
original study families and include a comparison group. With OJJDP 
support, the project sites are beginning to look at the subjects' 
delinquent behavior and legal system contact. This second funding cycle 
will include studies of substance use and antisocial behavior.
    OJJDP would support this study through an interagency agreement 
with the National Institute of Mental Health. No additional 
applications would be solicited in FY 1998.

Evaluation of the Juvenile Mentoring Program

    The overall goals of the Part G Juvenile Mentoring Program (JUMP) 
are the reduction of delinquency, gang participation, violence, and 
substance abuse and related behavior and the enhancement of educational 
opportunity, academic achievement, investments in school, and 
contribution to one's community. Translating these impact goals to 
outcome goals, the evaluation grantee will assess and measure the 
relative probability that JUMP mentees will reflect reductions in 
delinquency, gang participation, and associated negative behaviors and 
show improvements in school attendance, school completion, and academic 
performance.
    The evaluation objectives include assessing and measuring the 
extent to which the quality of the mentor-mentee relationship generates 
attitudes, values, and intermediary behavior that increase the 
probability of the positive outcomes cited as goals. A second objective 
includes assessing and measuring the attributes of mentor 
characteristics and behaviors that contribute most to the attainment of 
mentee results. Other objectives include ensuring that the evaluation 
instrument is optimally designed, worded, and configured; providing 
ongoing assistance to JUMP program grantees; implementing quality 
assurance for raw data received from JUMP grantees and assuring proper 
entry into the management information data base; preparing appropriate 
data analysis for each JUMP grantee; generating analyses of site-
specific findings; and preparing an aggregate analysis of 
implementation results and outcome data from all sites with special 
focus on attributable program effects and implications for replication.
    This evaluation is being conducted by Information Technology 
International under a two-year grant that was competitively awarded in 
FY 1997. The primary focus of the initial award is the original 41 JUMP 
program sites. OJJDP anticipates extending the project period in FY 
1998 for an additional 2 years in order to expand the ongoing 
evaluation to the 52 JUMP grants awarded to new sites in FY 1997. No 
additional applications will be solicited in FY 1998.

Truancy Reduction

    Truancy often leads to dropping out of school, delinquency, and 
drug abuse. For many youth, truancy may be a first step to a lifetime 
of unemployment, crime, and incarceration.
    OJJDP is considering engaging in a joint funding effort with the 
U.S. Department of Education to award competitive discretionary funds 
for jurisdictions to address the problem of truancy. OJJDP would be 
looking for school districts, under the leadership of their 
superintendents, to apply jointly with law enforcement or other 
juvenile justice system agencies to develop and implement a 
collaborative program designed to reduce truancy in their 
jurisdictions.

Arts and At-Risk Youth

    The need for afterschool programs for youth at risk of delinquency 
is well-known. The opportunity to join an afterschool arts program that 
helps students develop their talents and abilities has been shown to 
help youth stay in school; receive higher grades; develop self-esteem; 
and resist peer pressure to engage in negative behaviors, such as 
substance and alcohol use, and other delinquent acts. Unfortunately, 
juveniles who are at greatest risk of delinquency are the ones who 
often have the least opportunity to join such programs because they are 
not available in their schools, neighborhoods, or communities. These 
youth have limited experiences both in the world of work and in job 
training skills. In addition, lack of conflict resolution skills makes 
it difficult for youth to retain jobs once they are employed because 
they are not well equipped to handle conflicts that may arise.
    OJJDP is considering funding an afterschool and summer arts program 
that combines the arts with job training and conflict resolution 
skills. This project would include summer jobs or paid internships for 
youth so that they would be able to put into practice the job and 
conflict resolution skills they are learning. By combining the arts 
with practical life experiences, at-risk youth are able to gain 
valuable insights into their own abilities and the possibilities that 
await them in the world of work if they continue to attend school, 
study, and graduate.
    OJJDP intends to explore the possibility of collaboration with the 
National Endowment for the Arts and the U.S. Department of Labor for 
this 2-year pilot project. OJJDP would award a competitive grant to 
develop a strategy based on research, provide technical assistance, 
implement an impact evaluation, and create reports on the strengths and 
weaknesses of the pilot program.

Community Volunteer Coordinator Program

    OJJDP is considering funding the establishment of ``volunteer 
coordinators'' in a limited number of ongoing community-based 
initiative sites for the purpose of expanding the quality, 
sustainability, and number of safe and positive activities for young 
people during nonschool hours. Building on the work of the 
``Presidents' Summit for America's Future,'' OJJDP would seek 
partnerships with other Federal agencies to provide grants to 
identified collaboratives that can demonstrate a clearly articulated 
plan for increasing volunteerism and representation from schools, law 
enforcement, city or county government, youth groups, and community-
based organizations. The grants would support the hiring of an 
individual in the community who would be responsible for inventorying 
programs; planning; and recruiting, connecting, and training volunteers 
to participate in a range of programs that provide youth services 
(mentoring, tutoring, neighborhood restoration, counseling, 
recreational activities, mediation services, media outreach, and other 
forms of community service for youth).

Learning Disabilities Among Juveniles At-Risk of Delinquency or in the 
Juvenile Justice System

    Some researchers have concluded that children who have difficulties 
in school often become frustrated because of constant failure. Studies 
have shown

[[Page 6356]]

that youth who have a learning disability (LD) are very likely to 
become truant or drop out of school rather than face the ridicule of 
their peers. The relationship between an LD and juvenile delinquency is 
complex.
    A learning disability is a neurological condition that impedes a 
person's ability to store, process, or produce information. Learning 
disabilities can affect the ability to read, write, speak, or compute 
math and can impair socialization skills. Individuals with LD's are 
generally of average or above average intelligence, but the disability 
creates a gap between ability and performance.
    School failure associated with learning disabilities is an 
important risk factor for juvenile delinquency. Whatever the presenting 
problem (e.g., abuse or neglect, truancy, or delinquency), a large 
percentage of children who come before the court have some specific 
learning disability that may have contributed, either directly or 
indirectly, to the behavior that led to their presence in court. A 
child with an LD is much more likely to come into contact with the 
juvenile justice system than one without an LD. The prevalence of LD in 
a population of juvenile delinquents is extremely high: approximately 
35 percent of all children in the juvenile justice system have an 
identified LD.
    To better address the needs of these youth, greater attention needs 
to be paid at a much younger age to the nature of learning 
disabilities, their impact on learning and the processing of 
information in and out of the classroom setting, and their relationship 
to dropping out and delinquency. Parents, schools, and the juvenile 
courts need to be more aware of this hidden handicap. These children 
could be helped if their disabilities were properly diagnosed and 
treated. Professionals who directly interact with the learning disabled 
need to share knowledge on how to identify and treat learning 
disabilities with juvenile justice system practitioners in order to 
reduce the number of system-involved juveniles who are learning 
disabled and to retain them in the education mainstream.
    To address these critical issues, OJJDP is considering a joint 
initiative with the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Special 
Education and Rehabilitation Services. This initiative would include a 
planning component to develop a systemwide protocol to link appropriate 
agencies and professionals in the fields of education, juvenile and 
family courts, law enforcement, social services, juvenile justice 
system, and other systems that interact with LD youth.
    The goals of this initiative would be: (1) To prevent the 
development of delinquency through early intervention, appropriate 
education, and other community-based services for students with an LD, 
and (2) to prevent recidivism by assuring that students with an LD in 
the juvenile justice system receive appropriate, specially designed 
instructional and social development skills and services that address 
their individual needs and that practitioners receive training on 
working with this population of offender.
    Competitive grants would be awarded to support a planning and 
demonstration project that provides a systemwide protocol to address 
the issues surrounding learning disabilities and the link to 
delinquency both in schools and in the juvenile justice system that 
includes schools, education, juvenile and family courts, law 
enforcement, social services, juvenile justice system, and other 
directly or indirectly related fields. If this initiative is funded, 
OJJDP would also consider funding an evaluation of the demonstration 
project.

Advertising Campaign--Investing in Youth for a Safer Future

    OJJDP proposes to continue its support of the National Crime 
Prevention Council's (NCPC's) ad campaign, ``Investing in Youth for A 
Safer Future,'' through the transfer of funds to the Bureau of Justice 
Assistance (BJA) under an Intra-agency Agreement. OJJDP and BJA are 
working with the NCPC Media Unit to produce, disseminate, and support 
effective public service advertising and related media that are 
designed to inform the public of effective solutions to juvenile crime 
and to motivate young people and adults to get involved and support 
these solutions. The featured solutions include effective prevention 
programs and intervention strategies.
    The program would be administered by BJA through its existing grant 
to NCPC. No additional applications would be solicited in FY 1998.

Strengthening the Juvenile Justice System

Development of the Comprehensive Strategy for Serious, Violent, and 
Chronic Juvenile Offenders

    In FY 1995, the National Council on Crime and Delinquency (NCCD) 
and Developmental Research and Programs, Inc. (DRP), completed Phases I 
and II of a collaborative effort to support the development and 
implementation of OJJDP's Comprehensive Strategy for Serious, Violent, 
and Chronic Juvenile Offenders. This effort involved assessing existing 
and previously researched programs in order to identify effective and 
promising programs that can be used in implementing the Comprehensive 
Strategy. A series of reports were combined into the Guide for 
Implementing the Comprehensive Strategy for Serious, Violent, and 
Chronic Juvenile Offenders. The effort also included convening the 
forum ``Guaranteeing Safe Passage: A National Forum on Youth 
Violence,'' holding two regional training seminars for key leaders on 
implementing the Comprehensive Strategy, and disseminating the Guide at 
national conferences.
    In FY 1996, Phase II work included two regional training seminars; 
the delivery of intensive training and technical assistance to three 
pilot sites--Lee County, Florida; Ducal County, Florida; and San Diego 
County, California; and the delivery of technical assistance to five 
States and selected local jurisdictions implementing the Comprehensive 
Strategy.
    In FY 1997, the project continued its targeted dissemination of 
OJJDP's Comprehensive Strategy for Serious, Violent, and Chronic 
Juvenile Offenders at several national conferences and additional 
regional training seminars and continued providing the five States with 
intensive training for implementing the Comprehensive Strategy, 
providing individualized technical assistance to individual 
jurisdictions interested in implementing the Comprehensive Strategy, 
and continuing developmental work on Comprehensive Strategy training 
materials.
    In FY 1998, this project will continue the implementation efforts 
and expand to up to two additional States. In each of the new States, 
up to six jurisdictions will be identified to receive Comprehensive 
Strategy implementation training and technical assistance.
    This project will be implemented by the current grantees, NCCD and 
DRP. No additional applications will be solicited in FY 1998.

Balanced and Restorative Justice Project (BARJ)

    Based on research showing that properly structured restitution 
programs can reduce recidivism, OJJDP has supported development and 
improvement of juvenile restitution programs since 1977. The BARJ 
project sprang from OJJDP's RESTTA (Restitution, Education, Specialized 
Training, and Technical Assistance)

[[Page 6357]]

Project. In FY 1992, Florida Atlantic University (FAU) was awarded a 
competitive grant to enhance the development of restitution programs as 
part of systemwide juvenile justice improvement using balanced approach 
concepts and restorative justice principles. In subsequent years, the 
project developed a BARJ program model. The model was initially 
described in a 1994 OJJDP Program Summary entitled Balanced and 
Restorative Justice, which became a reference source for BARJ training.
    The BARJ project currently provides intensive training, technical 
assistance, and guideline materials to three selected sites that over 
recent years have been implementing major systemic change in accordance 
with the BARJ model. The three sites are Allegheny County, 
Pennsylvania; Dakota County, Minnesota; and West Palm Beach County, 
Florida. In addition, the BARJ Project has continuously offered 
technical assistance and training to other jurisdictions nationwide. 
Project staff have also provided training at regional roundtables and 
at professional conferences dealing with juvenile justice system 
improvement. In 1997, the project published another reference document 
entitled Balanced and Restorative Justice for Juveniles: A Framework 
for Juvenile Justice in the 21st Century. The project also compiled a 
BARJ Implementation Guide.
    In FY 1998, the BARJ Project will produce additional reference and 
training materials and will offer further training and technical 
assistance.
    This project will be implemented by the current grantee, FAU. No 
additional applications will be solicited in FY 1998.

Training and Technical Assistance Program To Promote Gender-Specific 
Programming for Female Juvenile Offenders

    The 1992 Amendments to the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency 
Prevention Act addressed, for the first time, the issue of gender-
specific services. The Amendments require States participating in the 
JJDP Act's Part B State Formula Grants program to conduct an analysis 
of gender-specific services for the prevention and treatment of 
juvenile delinquency, including the types of services available, the 
need for such services, and a plan for providing needed gender-specific 
services for the prevention and treatment of juvenile delinquency.
    In FY 1995, OJJDP's Gender-Specific Services program focused on 
providing training and technical assistance directly to States and 
promoting the establishment of gender-specific programs at the State 
level. Training and technical assistance were provided to a broad 
spectrum of policymakers and service providers regarding services 
available for juvenile female offenders under direct grants, 
sponsorship of national conferences, and inclusion of a gender-specific 
service component in the OJJDP-funded comprehensive SafeFutures 
program.
    In FY 1996, building upon these past efforts, OJJDP awarded a 3-
year competitive grant to Greene, Peters and Associates (GPA) to 
provide a comprehensive framework for assisting policymakers, service 
providers, educators, parents, and the general public in addressing the 
complex needs of female adolescents who are at risk for delinquent 
behavior. The project's objectives are to develop and test a training 
curriculum for policymakers, advocacy organizations, and community-
based youth-serving organizations that conveys the need for effective 
gender-specific programming for juvenile females and the elements of 
such programs; to develop, test, and deliver a technical assistance 
package on the development of gender-specific programs; to inventory 
female-specific programs, identifying those program models designed to 
build upon the gender-specific needs of girls and preparing a monograph 
suitable for national dissemination; to design and test a curriculum 
for line staff delivering services to juvenile females; to design and 
implement a public education initiative on the need for gender-specific 
programming for girls; and to design and conduct training for trainers. 
In FY 1997, the training curriculum for policymakers, advocacy 
organizations, and community leaders was developed and pilot-tested at 
three sites, and a final draft of the monograph was completed.
    In FY 1998, GPA will develop a needs assessment for State Advisory 
Groups, develop a technical assistance package, and develop and test a 
curriculum for practitioners based on the monograph findings.
    This program will be implemented by the current grantee, GPA. No 
additional applications will be solicited in FY 1998.

Juvenile Transfers to Criminal Court Studies

    In FY 1995, OJJDP competitively awarded two extensive studies of 
the increasing juvenile transfer phenomenon. Most States have passed 
new legislation either permitting or requiring the transfer of alleged 
juvenile offenders to criminal court under certain circumstances. 
However, studies of the impact of criminal court prosecution of 
juveniles have yielded mixed conclusions. Solid research on the 
intended and unintended consequences of transfer of juveniles to 
criminal court will enable policymakers and legislatures to develop 
statutory provisions and policies and improve judicial and 
prosecutorial waiver and transfer decisions. Preliminary findings from 
these two studies (along with other efforts started over the past 2 
years) have provided a wealth of information. The study undertaken in 
Florida has extensively examined the records of juveniles transferred 
to adult court along with similar juveniles who were not transferred, 
including case attribute information. Through this data collection, the 
research is bringing to light the differences in case handling and how 
these differences affect the outcome of the specific case. The 
differences in dispositions will naturally be a concern for many 
interested in the subject.
    In FY 1998, OJJDP proposes to increase the understanding of the 
transfer issues by expanding the Florida study to include a greater 
number of cases and to include some basic recidivism measures. The 
Florida study has relied mainly on paper records for the case 
information. Such records require considerable time and effort to 
review. As such, the number of cases included in the first phase of 
this study was relatively small. Expansion of this study would allow 
the researchers to examine a greater number of cases in the a wider 
range of jurisdictions in Florida resulting in a greater understanding 
of the issue based on how the dynamics of jurisdictions may differ. 
Also, by expanding the tracking of the case subjects to include arrests 
and court cases following transfer to adult court, the researchers 
would provide insight on the recidivism that follows transfer of 
jurisdiction.
    This project would be carried out by the current grantee, the 
Juvenile Justice Advisory Board of the State of Florida. No new 
applications would be solicited in FY 1998.

Replication and Extension of Fagan Transfer Study

    The ``Comparative Impact of Juvenile Versus Criminal Court 
Sanctions on Recidivism Among Adolescent Felony Offenders: A 
Replication and Extension'' project will continue in FY 1998, building 
on the past work of Dr. Jeffrey Fagan. In FY 1997, OJJDP awarded a two-
year project period grant to Columbia University to build on Dr. 
Fagan's seminal study of 1986 transfers

[[Page 6358]]

in New York and New Jersey. The earlier study was the first of its kind 
to compare four contiguous counties with similar social, economic, and 
criminogenic factors and offender cohorts with essentially identical 
offense profiles. It was also the first such study to go beyond 
comparing sentences to studying the deterrent effects of the sanction 
and court jurisdiction on recidivism rates in juvenile versus criminal 
court.
    The replication and extension research project will be able to 
answer questions about how case processing decisions have changed in 
the last decade. The new study will compare case attribute information 
and case dispositional outcomes in 1981-82 with those cases processed 
in 1993-94, a time period following sustained growth in the rates of 
youth violence. In addition, a study component under the direction of 
Dr. Barry Feld will explore whether there are factors being considered 
by prosecutors, judges, and defense attorneys that explain the 
variation in sentences/dispositions and recidivism between groups of 
offenders handled in different systems. This component will provide an 
analysis of the organizational, contextual, or systemic factors 
involved in the decision processes affecting both jurisdiction and 
punishment. The study will also conduct interviews with selected 
offenders processed in different systems to gain a perspective on the 
impact of criminal versus juvenile system handling of such cases on 
further experiences with the justice system. The project will also 
collaborate with the other research conducted under OJJDP's Juvenile 
Transfers to Criminal Court Studies program in sharing data collection 
instruments and in planning appropriate joint analyses.
    This project will be implemented by the current grantee, Columbia 
University. No additional applications will be solicited in FY 1998.

The Juvenile Justice Prosecution Unit

    OJJDP has historically supported prosecutor training through the 
National District Attorneys Association (NDAA). This training has 
increased the involvement and leadership of elected and appointed 
prosecutors in juvenile justice systems issues, programs, and services. 
To continue that progress, OJJDP funded a 3-year project period grant 
in FY 1996 to the American Prosecutors Research Institute (APRI), the 
research and technical assistance affiliate of NDAA, to promote 
prosecutor training. Under this award, APRI established a Juvenile 
Justice Prosecution Unit (JJPU). The JJPU holds workshops on juvenile-
related policy, leadership, and management for chief prosecutors and 
juvenile unit chiefs and also provides prosecutors with background 
information on juvenile justice issues, programs, training, and 
technical assistance.
    The project solicits planning and other advisory input from 
prosecutors familiar with juvenile justice system and prosecutor needs. 
It draws on the expertise of working groups of elected or appointed 
prosecutors and juvenile unit chiefs to support project staff in 
providing technical assistance, juvenile justice-related research, 
program information, and training to practitioners nationwide. In FY 
1997, for example, APRI held two executive seminars for prosecutors and 
sponsored a National Invitational Symposium on Juvenile Justice. The 
Symposium provided a forum for prosecutors to exchange ideas on 
programs, issues, legislation, and practices in juvenile justice. APRI 
has also produced materials focused on juvenile prosecution-related 
issues for the benefit of prosecutors nationally.
    In FY 1998, APRI will present additional workshops and seminars and 
will develop new reference materials for prosecutors. Documents 
expected to be developed include a compendium of juvenile justice 
programs conducted by prosecutors offices, technical assistance 
packages related to significant juvenile justice programs and issues of 
interest to prosecutors, and newsletters updating developments in the 
juvenile prosecution field.
    This project will be implemented by the current grantee, APRI. No 
additional applications will be solicited in FY 1998.

Due Process Advocacy Program Development

    In FY 1993, OJJDP competitively funded the American Bar Association 
(ABA) to determine the status of juvenile defense services in the 
United States, develop a report, and then develop training and 
technical assistance. The ABA-- along with its partners, the Youth Law 
Center of San Francisco, California, and the Juvenile Law Center of 
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania--conducted an extensive survey of public 
defender offices, court-appointed systems, law school clinics, and the 
literature. These data were then analyzed and a report, entitled A Call 
for Justice, was developed and published in December 1995.
    The ABA has also developed and delivered specialized training to 
juvenile defenders in several jurisdictions, such as the State of 
Maryland, the State of Tennessee, Baltimore County, Maryland, and 
several other States and localities, to assist in increasing the 
capacity of juvenile defenders to provide more effective defense 
services. In October 1997, the ABA and its partners organized and 
implemented the first Juvenile Defender Summit at Northwestern 
University in Chicago, Illinois. The Summit brought together public 
defenders, court-appointed lawyers, law school clinic directors, 
juvenile offender services representatives, and others for a 2\1/2\-day 
meeting to examine the issues related to juvenile defense services and 
recommend strategies for improving these services. A report is 
forthcoming on the Summit and the recommendations that emerged from the 
seven working groups.
    OJJDP is proposing to fund a Juvenile Defender Training, Technical 
Assistance, and Resource Center in FY 1998 (discussed under New 
Programs). However, the Center will not be funded until later in FY 
1998 and probably will not be operational until early FY 1999. To 
ensure that training and technical assistance continue in the interim 
and into 1999 and to provide for the transition to the new Juvenile 
Defender Center, OJJDP proposes to continue the Due Process Advocacy 
grant for an additional year.
    This project would be implemented by the current grantee, the 
American Bar Association. No new applications would be solicited in FY 
1998.

Quantum Opportunities Program (QOP) Evaluation

    In FY 1997, OJJDP funded an impact evaluation of the Quantum 
Opportunities Program (QOP)through an interagency fund transfer to the 
U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). QOP was designed by the Ford Foundation 
and Opportunities Industrialization Centers of America as a career 
enrichment program using a model providing basic education. Personal 
and cultural development, community service, and mentoring. The purpose 
of the OJJDP funding for the evaluation is to determine whether QOP 
reduces the likelihood that inner-city youth at educational risk will 
enter the criminal justice system, including the juvenile justice 
system. The QOP impact evaluation is designed to measure the impact of 
QOP participation on such outcomes as high school graduation and 
enrollment in postsecondary education and training. Other student 
outcomes to be examined include academic achievement in high school; 
misbehavior in school; self-esteem and

[[Page 6359]]

sense of control over one's life; educational and career goals; and 
personal decisions such as teenage parenthood, substance abuse, and 
criminal activity. Data on criminal activity is being collected from 
individual student interviews.
    In FY 1998, OJJDP proposes to continue this evaluation enhancement 
to the DOL-funded evaluation to provide for the collection of analogous 
data from the juvenile justice system, thus allowing estimates of the 
impact of the QOP program on the likelihood of program youth becoming 
involved in the criminal justice system. Attention would be focused on 
identifying the appropriate governmental agencies responsible for the 
data, dealing with confidentiality requirements, determining the 
feasibility of collecting such information, preparing data collection 
protocols for each site, and preparing a report outlining the data 
collection design for implementation.
    This program would be implemented through an interagency agreement 
with the U.S. Department of Labor. No additional applications would be 
solicited in FY 1998.

Intensive Community-Based Aftercare Demonstration and Technical 
Assistance Program

    This initiative is designed to support implementation, training and 
technical assistance, and an independent evaluation of an intensive 
community-based aftercare model in four jurisdictions that were 
competitively selected to participate in this demonstration program. 
The overall goal of the intensive aftercare model is to identify and 
assist high-risk juvenile offenders to make a gradual transition from 
secure confinement back into the community. The Intensive Aftercare 
Program (IAP) model can be viewed as having three distinct, yet 
overlapping segments: (1) Prerelease and preparatory planning 
activities during incarceration; (2) structured transitioning involving 
the participation of institutional and aftercare staffs both prior to 
and following community reentry; and (3) long-term reintegrative 
activities to ensure adequate service delivery and the required level 
of social control.
    In FY 1995, the Johns Hopkins University received a competitively 
awarded 3-year grant to test its intensive community-based aftercare 
model in four demonstration sites: Denver (Metro area), Colorado; Clark 
County (Las Vegas), Nevada; Camden and Newark, New Jersey; and Norfolk, 
Virginia.
    The Johns Hopkins University has contracted with California State 
University at Sacramento to assist in the implementation process by 
providing training and technical assistance and by making OJJDP funds 
available through contracts to each of the four demonstration sites.
    Each of the sites developed risk assessment instruments for use in 
selecting high-risk youth who need this type of intensive aftercare, 
hired and trained staff in the intensive aftercare model, identified 
existing and needed community support (intervention) services, and 
identified and collected data necessary for the independent evaluation 
of the intensive community-based aftercare program. In accordance with 
a strong experimental research design, each of the sites uses a system 
of random assignment of clients to the program.
    The Johns Hopkins University and California State University at 
Sacramento have provided continuing training and technical assistance 
to administrators, managers, and line staff at the intensive community-
based aftercare sites. Staff have been fully trained in the theoretical 
underpinnings of the IAP model and in its practical applications, such 
as techniques for identifying juveniles appropriate for the program. 
Training and technical assistance in this model have also been made 
available to other States and OJJDP grantees on a limited basis.
    This effort is the first attempt to implement an intensive, 
integrated approach to aftercare with the necessary transition and 
reentry components. One more year of program operation and data 
collection would provide the information and data needed for analysis 
of the effectiveness of the IAP model. The National Council on Crime 
and Delinquency is performing an evaluation under a separate grant.
    In FY 1998, OJJDP proposes to provide a fourth year of funding to 
the Johns Hopkins University to provide ongoing training and technical 
assistance to the four selected sites and also provide aftercare 
technical assistance services to jurisdictions participating in the 
OJJDP/Department of the Interior Youth Environmental Service (YES) 
initiative, OJJDP's six SafeFutures program sites, and other programs, 
including the New York State Division for Youth's Youth Leadership 
Academy in Albany, New York. In addition, the grantee would work with 
three other States (Arkansas, New York, and Washington) that plan to 
implement the IAP model with State funds.
    The IAP project would be implemented by the current grantee, the 
Johns Hopkins University. No additional applications would be solicited 
in FY 1998.

Evaluation of the Intensive Community-Based Aftercare Program

    In FY 1995, OJJDP competitively awarded a 3-year grant to the 
National Council on Crime and Delinquency (NCCD) to perform a process 
evaluation and design an outcome evaluation of the Intensive Community-
Based Aftercare Demonstration and Technical Assistance program. In FY 
1997, the project was extended an additional year to begin the outcome 
evaluation.
    The purpose of the outcome evaluation is to answer the following 
key research questions: (1) To what extent is the nature of supervision 
and services provided Intensive Community-Based Aftercare Program (IAP) 
youth different from that given to ``regular'' parolees? (2) To what 
extent does IAP have an impact on the subsequent delinquent or criminal 
involvement of program participants? (3) To what extent does the IAP 
have an impact on the specific areas of youth functioning that it 
targets for intervention? These intermediate outcomes include, for 
example, reduction of substance abuse, improved family functioning, 
improved peer relationships, improved self-concept, and reduced 
delinquent or criminal behavior. (4) To what extent is IAP cost-
effective?
    To obtain the answers to these questions, NCCD is (1) Using a true 
experimental design that will involve random assignment of IAP-eligible 
youth to either the experimental or control conditions; (2) using a 
series of measures to compare differences between the two groups in 
terms of services delivered, pre/post changes in selected areas of 
youth functioning, and the extent and nature of recidivism; and (3) 
estimating the per-participant costs for the IAP and control groups.
    Data collection is being accomplished using several methods, 
including use of a series of forms developed to capture data on youth 
and program characteristics and a battery of standardized testing 
instruments administered before and after institutional commitment and 
IAP to measure the changes in youth functioning. The grantee is also 
conducting searches of State agency and State police records to measure 
recidivism and analyzing State agency and juvenile court data to 
estimate costs.
    This project will be implemented by the current grantee, NCCD. No 
additional applications will be solicited in FY 1998.

[[Page 6360]]

Training and Technical Assistance for National Innovations To Reduce 
Disproportionate Minority Confinement (the Deborah Ann Wysinger 
Memorial Program)

    National data and studies have shown that minority children are 
overrepresented in secure juvenile and criminal justice facilities 
across the country. Since the 1988 reauthorization of the JJDP Act, 
State Formula Grants program plans have addressed the disproportionate 
confinement of minority juveniles. This is accomplished by gathering 
and analyzing data to determine whether minority juveniles are 
disproportionately confined and, if so, designing strategies to address 
this issue. A competitive Special Emphasis discretionary grant program 
was developed in FY 1991 to demonstrate model approaches to addressing 
disproportionate minority confinement (DMC) in five State pilot sites 
(Arizona, Florida, Iowa, North Carolina, and Oregon). Funds were also 
awarded to a national contractor to provide technical assistance to 
assist both the pilot sites and other States, evaluate their efforts, 
and share relevant information.
    In FY's 1994 and 1995, OJJDP made additional Special Emphasis 
discretionary funds available to nonpilot States that had completed 
data gathering and assessment in order to provide initial funding for 
innovative projects designed to address DMC.
    These efforts to address DMC have yielded an important lesson: that 
systemic, broad-based interventions are necessary to address the issue. 
In recognition of the continued need to improve the ability of States 
and local jurisdictions to address DMC, OJJDP issued a competitive 
solicitation in FY 1997 for innovative proposals to implement a 3-year 
national training, technical assistance, and information dissemination 
initiative focused on the disproportionate confinement of minority 
youth.
    In FY 1997, through a competitive selection process, OJJDP awarded 
a 3-year contract to implement the DMC training program to Cygnus 
Corporation, Inc. Project objectives for the first year were: (1) To 
disseminate to States, localities, OJJDP staff, and key OJJDP grantees 
a review and synthesis of the existing knowledge base and research on 
DMC that includes State and local practices designed to address DMC; 
(2) to develop a training curriculum for policymakers, decisionmakers, 
and practitioners in the juvenile justice system; (3) to develop and 
deliver technical assistance to OJJDP grantees and to incorporate DMC 
issues, practices, and policies; (4) to develop and begin the process 
of assisting DMC grantees to implement and institutionalize their DMC 
programs; (5) to collaborate with OJJDP's Formula Grants program 
technical assistance contractor, Community Research Associates, and 
OJJDP staff to help States improve their DMC compliance plans and their 
strategic planning as it addresses DMC; (6) to plan, develop, and 
implement a national dissemination and education effort to facilitate 
development of effective DMC efforts at the State and local levels; and 
(7) to convene an advisory group to support the project team on current 
DMC policy, practice and progress.
    This project will be implemented by the current grantee, Cygnus 
Corporation, Inc. No additional applications will be solicited in FY 
1998.

Juvenile Probation Survey Research

    OJJDP will continue its effort to track nonresidential probation. 
This project complements OJJDP's program to statistically track 
juveniles in residential custody. Experience has shown that in order to 
understand fully the dynamics and characteristics of residential 
placement, it is necessary also to understand the dynamics of 
nonresidential sanctions. To that end, the Office began a program to 
monitor the most important, most salient attributes of juvenile 
probation. Work to date has involved enhancing our understanding of the 
structure of juvenile probation and the most important response level. 
The project has tracked the types of juvenile probation offices in 
operation and has to catalog these offices. From this catalog, OJJDP 
will develop an effective and complete frame for conducting either 
surveys or censuses.
    In 1996, OJJDP convened a meeting of probation practitioners and 
researchers in the area of probation to fully discuss the issues of 
probation and the most important statistics a national reporting 
program should provide. The information and ideas from this meeting 
yielded a broad and important set of statistical needs to inform the 
future of juvenile probation. Among the issues identified are the 
effectiveness of probation, the costs of probation, and the most 
appropriate population for probation. Each issue will be explored in 
this project to determine how best to capture the information. The 
combination of statistical and research projects will be determined in 
conjunction with the development of this survey.
    In FY 1997, the project focused on development of a complete list 
of juvenile probation offices, including suboffices and head offices. 
This information will prove vital when determining the specific 
response level that will give the desired level of information. For 
example, should OJJDP determine to gather information on each probation 
officer, a survey of head offices may suffice. However, if OJJDP 
proposes to collect information on each juvenile probationer, a survey 
all suboffices may be necessary. Also in FY 1997, OJJDP and the Bureau 
of the Census continued background work to develop the questionnaire to 
be used for this survey. The specifics of the questionnaire will depend 
upon the resolution of several important methodological aspects.
    The project will be implemented in FY 1998 through an interagency 
agreement with the Bureau of the Census. No additional applications 
will be solicited in FY 1998.

Training for Juvenile Corrections and Detention Management Staff

    This training program for juvenile corrections and detention 
management staff began in FY 1991 under a 3-year interagency agreement 
with the National Institute of Corrections (NIC). The program offers a 
core curriculum for juvenile corrections and detention administrators 
and midlevel management personnel in such areas as leadership 
development, management, training of trainers, legal issues, cultural 
diversity, the role of the victim in juvenile corrections, juvenile 
programming for specialized-need offenders, and managing the violent or 
disruptive offender. Because of the continuing need for the executive 
level training NIC provides, the agreement was renewed for an 
additional 3-year term in FY 1994 and renewed again in FY 1997 for a 2-
year term. In FY 1997, NIC conducted 8 training seminars, 2 workshops, 
1 satellite video conference and made 14 technical assistance awards, 
reaching more than 6,000 participants.
    In FY 1998, OJJDP will continue to support the development and 
implementation of a comprehensive training program for juvenile 
corrections and detention management staff through the interagency 
agreement with NIC. It is anticipated that in FY 1998 the project will 
provide 6 seminars to more than 150 executives and management staff and 
technical assistance related to training to a number of juvenile 
corrections and detention agencies. The training is conducted at the 
NIC Academy and regionally.

[[Page 6361]]

    The program will be implemented by the current grantee, NIC. No 
additional applications will be solicited in FY 1998.

Training for Line Staff in Juvenile Detention and Corrections

    Training is a cost-effective tool for helping to improve conditions 
of confinement and services for youth detained or confined in 
residential facilities. In FY 1994, the National Juvenile Detention 
Association (NJDA) was awarded a competitive 3-year project period 
grant to establish a training program to meet the needs of the more 
than 38,000 line staff serving juvenile detention and corrections 
facilities. In FY 1995 and FY 1996, NJDA developed eight training 
curriculums, including a corrections careworker curriculum and a train-
the-trainer curriculum. In addition, NJDA conducted 42 separate 
trainings, developed lesson plans, and provided technical assistance to 
juvenile justice agencies.
    In FY 1997, NJDA was funded to provide training and technical 
assistance services to State agencies and organizations in 16 States, 
assist regional groups and local organizations, directly train nearly 
700 line staff, and respond to telephone requests for technical 
assistance services. NJDA also established Web site connections with 
OJJDP, the American Correctional Association, and other organizations. 
A community college in Michigan is adapting two of the NJDA 
curriculums, Juvenile Detention Careworker Curriculum and Juvenile 
Corrections Careworker Curriculum, for academic credit.
    In FY 1998, OJJDP proposes to award continuation funding to NJDA. 
In formal partnership with the National Association of Juvenile 
Correctional Agencies, Juvenile Justice Trainers Association, and the 
School of Criminal Justice at Michigan State University, NJDA proposes 
that FY 1998 goals include the continuing delivery of line staff 
training and technical assistance, conducting training evaluation in 
conjunction with the newly developed National Training and Technical 
Assistance Center (NTTAC) protocols, providing pilot training for 
trainers, developing action plans for two new curriculums, drafting 
line staff professional development models, and disseminating training 
materials and services through the NTTAC and the Internet.
    This project would be implemented by the current grantee, NJDA. No 
additional applications would be solicited in FY 1998.

Training and Technical Support for State and Local Jurisdictional Teams 
To Focus on Juvenile Corrections and Detention Overcrowding

    The Conditions of Confinement: Juvenile Detention and Correctional 
Facilities Research Report (1994), completed by Abt Associates under an 
OJJDP grant, identified overcrowding as the most urgent problem facing 
juvenile corrections and detention facilities. Overcrowding in juvenile 
facilities is a function of decisions and policies made at the State 
and local levels. The trend toward increased use of detention and 
commitment to State facilities, which has been seen in many 
jurisdictions, has been reversed when key decisionmakers, such as the 
chief judge, chief of police, director of the local detention facility, 
head of the State juvenile correctional agency, and others who affect 
the flow of juveniles through the system, agree to make decisions 
collaboratively and modify existing practices and policies. In some 
instances, modification has occurred in response to court orders. 
Compliance with court orders can be improved with the support of 
enhanced interagency communication and planning among those agencies 
impacting the flow of juveniles through the system.
    In addressing the problem of overcrowded facilities, OJJDP 
considered the recommendations of the Conditions of Confinement study 
regarding overcrowding, the data on overrepresentation of minority 
youth in confinement, and other information that suggests crowding in 
juvenile facilities is a national problem. Policymakers can address 
this issue by increasing capacity, where necessary, or by taking other 
steps to control crowding.
    This project, competitively awarded to the National Juvenile 
Detention Association (NJDA) (in partnership with the San Francisco 
Youth Law Center) in FY 1994 for a 3-year project period, provides 
training and technical assistance materials for use by State and local 
jurisdictional teams. After information collection and preparation of 
training and technical assistance materials in FY's 1994 and 1995, NJDA 
selected three jurisdictions in FY 1996 for onsite development, 
implementation, and testing of procedures to reduce crowding. The sites 
are Camden, New Jersey; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; and the Rhode Island 
Juvenile Corrections System. In FY 1997, project accomplishments 
included the following: (1) Development of a resource guide, Juvenile 
Detention and Training School Crowding: Court Case Summaries, and a 
training tool, ``Crowding in Juvenile Detention Centers: A Problem-
Solving Manual'' (in draft); (2) delivery of comprehensive technical 
assistance to two detention centers and limited technical assistance to 
two State juvenile corrections systems; and (3) training presentations 
to the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges and other 
groups.
    In FY 1998, OJJDP proposes to award continuation funding to NJDA to 
continue efforts to reduce overcrowding in facilities where juveniles 
are held, through systemic change within local juvenile detention 
systems or statewide juvenile corrections systems. Among the specific 
activities proposed for FY 1998 are: (1) Publication of a special 
edition of the NJDA Journal for Juvenile Justice and Detention focused 
exclusively on jurisdictional teamwork to reduce overcrowding in 
juvenile detention and corrections (jurisdictional teams consist of 
designated NJDA/Youth Law Center project staff working with key 
juvenile justice officials in the sites selected for technical 
assistance); (2) completion of a strategy to deliver comprehensive 
technical assistance to the Nebraska Health and Human Services Agency; 
(3) identification of additional sites for comprehensive training and 
technical assistance; (4) development of a desktop guide on juvenile 
facility overcrowding; (5) further refinement of the jurisdictional 
team training and technical assistance package; (6) development of a 
national videoconference on crowding issues; (7) education and 
information dissemination to the juvenile justice community; and (8) 
exploration of public/private partnerships.
    This project would be implemented by the current grantee, NJDA. No 
additional applications would be solicited in FY 1998.

National Program Directory

    In FY 1998, OJJDP proposes to support the maintenance of this 
directory that identifies and categorizes juvenile justice agencies, 
facilities, and programs in the United States to allow for routine 
statistical data collections covering these agencies and programs. The 
directory project has developed lists of juvenile detention, 
correctional, and shelter facilities. This list, which includes all 
public and private facilities that can hold juveniles who are in the 
juvenile justice system in a residential setting (i.e., with sleeping, 
eating, and other necessary facilities), has served as the frame for 
OJJDP's Census of Juveniles in Residential Placement and would serve as 
the frame for OJJDP's Juvenile Residential Facility Census.

[[Page 6362]]

The directory project has also begun development of a list of juvenile 
probation offices to serve as the frame for OJJDP's Survey of Juvenile 
Probation.
    Beyond developing the computer structure, this project developed 
the actual sampling frame or address list. The development of complete 
frames for any segment of the juvenile justice system required many 
different approaches. The Census Bureau used contacts with professional 
organizations to compile a preliminary list of juvenile facilities, 
courts, probation offices, and programs. The Census Bureau will seek 
contacts in each State for further clarification of the lists, 
following up until a complete list of all programs of interest has been 
compiled.
    This program would be continued in FY 1998 through an interagency 
agreement with the Census Bureau. No additional applications would be 
solicited in FY 1998.

Juvenile Sex Offender Typology

    The juvenile justice system has struggled to address issues related 
to juvenile sex offenders' dangerousness, the most appropriate level of 
placement restrictiveness, the potential for rehabilitation, assessment 
requirements, and intervention needs. Efforts to effectively address 
these issues have been hampered by the lack of an empirically based 
system for classifying this heterogeneous population into meaningful 
subgroups. To respond to this need, OJJDP competitively awarded FY 1997 
funding to two feasibility studies, one being conducted by the 
University of Illinois-Springfield, the other by Health Related 
Research. Each study is designed to determine the specific 
methodologies best suited to generate an empirically validated typology 
of the juvenile sex offender. The work on these grants will begin early 
in FY 1998. Based on the results of these initial studies, OJJDP will 
determine how best to support the development of the typology.
    These studies will be implemented by the current grantees, 
University of Illinois--Springfield and Health Related Research. No 
additional applications will be solicited in FY 1998.

Interagency Programs on Mental Health and Juvenile Justice

    In October 1996, OJJDP convened a Mental Health/Juvenile Justice 
Working Group to discuss the mental health needs of juveniles and to 
suggest funding priorities for OJJDP. In the 1997 program planning 
process, OJJDP determined that with the minimal resources available it 
would be cost effective to support several ongoing programs funded by 
other Federal agencies that were consistent with the recommended areas 
of activity. OJJDP therefore transferred funds to three Federal 
agencies to support the enhancement of juvenile justice components or 
research on at-risk youth in the mental health area.
    First, OJJDP transferred funds to the Center for Mental Health 
Services (CMHS), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, to 
support a 3-year effort to provide technical assistance to the 31 
existing CMHS Child Mental Health sites. The project period began on 
October 1, 1997, and will end on September 30, 2000. These funds will 
be used to strengthen the capacity of the existing sites by providing 
technical assistance on mental health services for juveniles in the 
juvenile justice system and by including them in the continuum of care 
that is being created in the sites.
    OJJDP also transferred funds to the National Institute of 
Corrections (NIC), which, along with the Substance Abuse and Mental 
Health Services Administration, supports a program to provide technical 
assistance with regard to programming and services for juvenile 
offenders with co-occurring disorders. This is also a 3-year project 
period that began on October 1, 1997, and will end on September 30, 
2000. NIC will supplement the existing technical assistance provider, 
the GAINS Center, to enable it to devote technical assistance resources 
to support improved treatment and services programs for juvenile 
offenders with co-occurring disorders in the juvenile justice system. 
Previously, the focus of the grant had been on the provision of 
technical assistance to the adult system.
    Finally, OJJDP transferred funds to the National Institute of 
Mental Health (NIMH) to partially support additional costs associated 
with the conduct of an expanded and extended followup study of various 
treatment modalities for attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD) 
in children. The expanded followup will assess substance abuse and use 
and related factors necessary for evaluating changes in ADHD children's 
risk for subsequent substance use and abuse attributable to their 
randomly assigned treatment conditions. In addition, the multimodal 
treatment study of children with ADHD affords the opportunity to assess 
the experience of study participants with the legal system, e.g., 
contacts with the juvenile justice system, acts of delinquency, court 
referrals, and other criminal and/or precriminal activities.
    In FY 1998, OJJDP will transfer additional funds to support 
continuation of the NIC and CMHS technical assistance and the training 
and research of NIMH. No new applications will be solicited in FY 1998.

Juvenile Residential Facility Census

    In 1998, OJJDP proposes to continue to fund the development and 
testing of a new census of juvenile residential facilities. This census 
would focus on those facilities that are authorized to hold juveniles 
based on contact with the juvenile justice system. During FY 1997, the 
project conducted an extensive series of interviews with facility 
administrators and facility staff onsite at 20 locations. The subjects 
covered in these interviews included education, mental health and 
substance abuse treatment, health services, conditions of custody, 
staffing, and facility capacity. From these interviews, the project 
staff have produced an extensive and detailed report for OJJDP 
discussing how best to capture information on these topics and has 
produced a draft questionnaire based on these results.
    In FY 1998, the project staff would refine the draft instrument and 
test it through a series of cognitive interviews onsite at 
approximately 25 facilities. After another round of revision and 
comment, the questionnaire would be tested for feasibility by 
conducting a sample survey of 500 facilities. Again, the questionnaire 
would go through a round of revision based on the test results before 
being finalized.
    This project would be conducted through an interagency agreement 
with the Bureau of the Census, Governments Division and Statistical 
Research Division. No new applications would be solicited in FY 1998.

The National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 97

    OJJDP proposes to support the second round of data collection under 
the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 97 (NLSY97) through an 
interagency agreement with the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). In 
1994, BLS began its design and development work for a new National 
Longitudinal Survey of Youth, similar to the ongoing National 
Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979. Under the NLSY97, a nationally 
representative sample of 10,000 youth ages 12 to 17 years old was 
selected in order to study the school-to-work transition. However, BLS 
has acknowledged the importance of collecting additional data on the 
involvement of these youth in antisocial and other behavior that may 
affect their

[[Page 6363]]

successful transition to productive work careers.
    The breadth of topics covered by this survey provides a rich and 
complementary source of information about risk and protective factors 
that are also related to the initiation, persistence and desistance of 
delinquent and criminal behavior. This interagency agreement 
supplements the data collection by asking questions about delinquency, 
guns, drug sales, and violent behavior. In addition to generating the 
first national, cross sectional, estimates of self-reported delinquency 
since the late National Youth Survey of the early 1980's, this new 
longitudinal survey would also provide an opportunity to determine the 
generalizability of the findings from OJJDP's Program of Research on 
the Causes and Correlates of Delinquency and other city-specific 
longitudinal studies across a nationally representative population of 
youth.
    The program would be implemented by the BLS under an interagency 
agreement. No additional applications would be solicited in FY 1998.

National Academy of Sciences Study of Juvenile Justice

    The growth of violent juvenile crime from the latter half of the 
1980's to the mid-1990's created public anxiety and fueled debate about 
the viability and effectiveness of this Nation's juvenile justice 
system. This growing concern has led many States in recent years to 
move away from rehabilitation and move toward deterrence and punishment 
as primary objectives of their juvenile justice systems.
    In FY 1997, OJJDP initiated support for a 2-year study by the 
National Academy of Sciences to examine research on the functioning of 
the juvenile justice system over the past 10 years in the areas of 
delinquency prevention and control. The purpose of this extensive 
review is to provide a scientifically sound basis for planning a 
multidisciplinary, multiagency agenda for research that not only 
informs policymakers and practitioners about the nature and extent of 
juvenile delinquency and violence but also identifies the most 
effective strategies for preventing and reducing youth crime and 
violence.
    Issues of interest to the study include: (1) An assessment of the 
status of research into youth violence, methodological approaches to 
evaluate the effectiveness of youth violence prevention efforts, and 
the efficacy of Federal, State, and local efforts to control youth 
violence; (2) a review of research literature and data on juvenile 
court practices during this period, including the experience with 
Federal requirements regarding status offenders, detention practices, 
and the impact of diversion strategies and waivers to criminal court 
for certain offenders and offenses; (3) a review of research literature 
and data on clients in the juvenile justice system including concerns 
regarding disproportionate minority confinement and gender equity; (4) 
an assessment of available evaluation literature on system programs and 
prevention strategies and programs including identification of gaps in 
the research and recommendations to strengthen it; and (5) the 
relationship between the research on the causes and correlates of 
juvenile delinquency and normal adolescent growth and development.
    A project report, synthesizing materials gathered from discussions 
and papers presented at workshops and expert panel meetings, will 
provide an overview of the critical issues confronting the juvenile 
justice field, gaps in current knowledge base, and future directions 
for research and program development.
    This program will be implemented by the current grantee, the 
National Academy of Sciences. No additional applications will be 
solicited in FY 1998.

TeenSupreme Career Preparation Initiative

    In FY 1998, OJJDP, in partnership with the U.S. Department of 
Labor's (DOL's) Employment and Training Administration, will provide 
funding support to the Boys and Girls Clubs of America for 
demonstration and evaluation of the TeenSupreme Career Preparation 
Initiative. DOL will provide $2.5 million to support the program, and 
OJJDP would provide $250,000 to support the initial costs of the 
evaluation. This initiative will provide employment training and other 
related services to at-risk youth through local Boys and Girls Clubs 
with TeenSupreme Centers. The Boys and Girls Clubs of America currently 
has 41 TeenSupreme Centers in local clubs around the country and may 
consider expanding the number of centers in 1998. DOL funds will 
support program staffing in the existing 41 TeenSupreme Centers and 
provide intensive training and technical assistance to each site. These 
funds will also be used by the Boys and Girls Clubs of America to 
provide administrative and staffing support to this program from the 
national office. OJJDP funds would be used to support the evaluation 
component of the program. Boys and Girls Clubs of America would 
contract with an independent evaluator to evaluate the program.
    This jointly funded Department of Labor and OJJDP initiative would 
be implemented by the Boys and Girls Clubs of America. No additional 
applications would be solicited in FY 1998.

Technical Assistance to Native Americans

    Native American programs for juveniles are facing increasing 
pressures because of the growing number of youth who are involved in 
drug abuse, gang activity, and delinquency. Many reservations are 
experiencing the problems that plague communities nationwide: gang 
activity, violent crime, use of weapons, and increasing drug and 
alcohol abuse.
    From FY 1992 to FY 1995, OJJDP funded four Native American sites to 
support the development of community-based programs to deal with these 
problems. These sites were the Gila River Indian Community in Arizona; 
the Navajo Nation Chinle District in Arizona; the Red Lake Ojibwe in 
Minnesota; and the Pueblo of Jemez in New Mexico. Each of these 
communities implemented programs specifically designed to meet the 
needs of the tribe. For example, in Gila River, an alternative school 
was developed and implemented. The Navajo Nation expanded the Peace 
Maker program to accommodate additional delinquent offenders, an 
approach that was adopted by the Red Lake and Pueblo Jemez communities. 
Additional programming, such as job skills development, was also 
initiated in some of these communities to meet the needs of tribal 
youth. Although these programs were well received, the sites also 
needed to expand programming options such as gang and drug prevention 
and intervention programs.
    In FY 1997, American Indian Development Associates (AIDA) was 
selected to implement OJJDP's national technical assistance program for 
tribes and urban tribal programs across the country. This 3-year 
program will support the development of additional program options for 
the four tribes previously funded and extend technical assistance to 
tribal communities and urban tribal programs nationwide. AIDA initially 
developed a needs assessment instrument and provided other technical 
assistance to Juvenile Detention Facilities in Indian Country under an 
agreement to support the Office of Justice Programs (OJP) Corrections 
Program Office's project with the Gila River and Yankton Tribes. AIDA 
also

[[Page 6364]]

facilitated team learning activities during the Arizona Indian Youth 
Gang Prevention Conference, coordinated the First Native American 
Juvenile Justice Summit, and provided technical assistance to Indian 
tribes on behalf of OJJDP, the Office of Tribal Justice, and the OJP 
Indian Desk.
    In FY 1998, AIDA will continue to provide technical assistance to 
Native American and Alaskan Native communities. Technical assistance 
will enable the tribes to further develop alternatives to detention, 
specifically targeting juveniles who are first or nonviolent offenders; 
design guidebooks for the tribal peacemaking process to be used in 
addressing juvenile delinquency issues that are reported to Family 
District Court systems; design and implement juvenile justice needs 
assessments to assist tribes in responding to juvenile detention and 
alternatives to detention needs; develop protocols to implement State 
Children's Code provisions that affect Native American Children; 
establish sustainable, comprehensive community-based planning processes 
that focus on the needs of tribal youth; plan and conduct juvenile 
justice training seminars; and assist John Jay College of Criminal 
Justice to design and develop a Tribal Justice Training and Technical 
Assistance Workshop under OJJDP's Law Enforcement Training Contract. 
The workshop will emphasize juvenile probation, serious habitual 
offenders, and tribal youth gangs.
    This program will be implemented by the current grantee, American 
Indian Development Associates. No additional applications will be 
solicited in FY 1998.

Training and Technical Assistance To Promote Teen Court Programs

    OJJDP considers teen courts, also called peer or youth courts, to 
be a promising mechanism for holding juvenile offenders accountable for 
their actions while promoting avenues for positive youth development. 
Teen courts are included as a promising early intervention program in 
OJJDP's Comprehensive Strategy for Serious, Violent, and Chronic 
Juvenile Offenders.
    To encourage the use of teen court programs to address problems 
associated with delinquency, substance abuse, and traffic safety, OJJDP 
provided funding in FY 1996 to supplement the existing Teen Court 
Program of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), 
of the U.S. Department of Transportation. The NHTSA grant was awarded 
in FY 1994 for a 3-year project period to the American Probation and 
Parole Association (APPA) to develop a teen court guide and provide 
training and technical assistance to develop or enhance teen court 
programs. This NHTSA grant was supplemented with OJJDP FY 1996 and FY 
1997 funds to support the development of the joint publication Peer 
Justice and Youth Empowerment: An Implementation Guide for Teen Court 
Programs and to provide an expanded technical assistance capacity.
    The national response to APPA's training and technical assistance 
and to the Guide has been very enthusiastic. A second printing of the 
Guide will be available by April 1998. NHTSA and OJJDP have received 
numerous requests to provide additional training seminars and technical 
assistance based on the Guide.
    In FY 1998, OJJDP is considering further collaboration with NHTSA, 
HHS, and other interested agencies, to enhance the training seminars 
with information on the possibility of teen courts being used as an 
integral part of balanced and restorative justice initiatives and to 
help address the growing problem of children who are being suspended 
and expelled from school because of misbehavior, including misbehavior 
related to learning problems. These activities would complement current 
training on the use of teen courts to address youth possession and use 
of alcohol and marijuana, issues of particular interest to these 
agencies. Technical assistance would be provided to selected 
jurisdictions with site-specific strategic planning for the program 
organizers on developing, implementing, or enhancing teen court 
programs, particularly in school-related areas. To be eligible for 
technical assistance, recipients would need to have completed a teen 
court training seminar. OJJDP would award a competitive grant to 
implement a 3-year program.

Training and Technical Assistance Coordination for SafeFutures 
Initiative

    OJJDP is considering providing funding for long-term training and 
technical assistance (TA) for the remaining 3 years of the SafeFutures 
initiative. The purpose of this TA effort would be to build local 
capacity for implementing and sustaining effective continuum of care 
and systems change approaches to preventing and controlling juvenile 
violence and delinquency in the six SafeFutures communities.
    Project activities would include assessment, identification, and 
coordination of the implementation of training and TA needs at each 
SafeFutures site and administration of cross-site training.

School Safety

    Since 1984, OJJDP and the U.S. Department of Education have 
provided joint funding to a national organization to promote safe 
schools--free of crime and violence through training and technical 
assistance and the dissemination of information. This initiative has 
focused national attention on cooperative solutions to problems that 
disrupt the educational process. Because an estimated 3 million 
incidents of crime occur in America's schools each year, it is clear 
that this problem continues to plague many schools, threatening 
students' safety and undermining the learning environment. OJJDP is 
considering continuing this partnership with the Department of 
Education by issuing a competitive solicitation for a cooperative 
agreement with a private nonprofit organization to provide training and 
technical assistance to communities and school districts across the 
country. It is expected that these activities would be closely 
coordinated with the ongoing review of literature, research, and 
evaluation of school-based demonstration efforts being undertaken by 
the Hamilton Fish National Institute on School and Community Violence 
with OJJDP FY 1998 funding support.

Disproportionate Minority Confinement

    OJJDP is interested in exploring additional work in the area of 
disproportionate minority confinement in secure detention or 
correctional facilities, adult jails and lockups, and other secure 
institutional facilities. The proposed work would include a variety of 
activities, including--but not limited to--demonstration programs, 
national education efforts, and local program evaluations.
    Disproportionate minority representation in secure juvenile 
facilities and other institutions is a major problem facing the 
juvenile justice system. While minorities represent 32 percent of the 
juvenile population ages 12 to 17, they represent 68 percent of the 
confined juvenile population.
    OJJDP has previously funded programs designed to assist and enable 
States to identify strategies to address the overrepresentation of 
minority juveniles, including an evaluation of a county juvenile 
court's efforts to reduce minority overrepresentation. Similar efforts, 
particularly those that offer conceptual, indepth, capacity-building 
approaches, would help to ensure that minority juvenile offenders 
receive

[[Page 6365]]

appropriate treatment at all stages of the juvenile justice system 
process. OJJDP would seek public/private partnerships and would 
coordinate any new program efforts with the current training/technical 
assistance provider, Cygnus Corporation (see the program descriptor for 
the Training and Technical Assistance for National Innovations To 
Reduce Disproportionate Minority Confinement).

Arts Programs in Juvenile Detention Centers

    OJJDP is considering providing support for mentoring and skill 
development for youth in juvenile detention centers through the 
establishment of artist-in-residence programs. This initiative would 
increase awareness of opportunities to establish visual, performing, 
media, and literacy artist-in-residence programs in juvenile detention 
centers.
    OJJDP would encourage the development of these programs by 
convening interested arts organizations and juvenile justice agencies 
for the purpose of providing training in program development and 
exposure to ``best practices'' among existing programs.
    OJJDP is also interested in the development and dissemination of 
technical assistance materials to support the establishment of artist-
in-residence programs in juvenile detention facilities.
    If OJJDP funds this initiative, it would explore the possibility of 
partnerships with other Federal agencies and would issue a competitive 
solicitation in FY 1998.

``Circles of Care''--A Program To Develop Strategies To Serve Native 
American Youth With Mental Health and Substance Abuse Needs

    The Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS) of the Substance Abuse 
and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is developing a 
Guidance for Federal Applicants that will result in the funding of a 3-
year program to 6-8 sites to plan and develop systems of care for 
Native American youth who are seriously emotionally disturbed and/or 
substance abusers. The grantees will engage in a structured process to 
plan, develop, and test a system of care that achieves the outcomes 
developed by American Indian, Alaskan Native, or urban nonprofit 
organizations serving populations of American Indian or Alaskan Native 
youth.
    OJJDP is considering providing resources, including grant funds and 
technical assistance, where appropriate, to assure that American 
Indian/Alaskan Native youth who are in the juvenile justice system and 
who are seriously emotionally disturbed or substance abusers are 
planned for and made part of the service system. OJJDP would transfer 
funds to CMHS/SAMHSA to assist with the development and implementation 
of this program.

Juvenile Defender Training, Technical Assistance, and Resource Center

    In FY 1993, OJJDP competitively funded the American Bar Association 
(ABA) to determine the status of juvenile defense services in the 
United States, develop a report, and provide training and technical 
assistance. The ABA--along with its partners, the Youth Law Center of 
San Francisco, California, and the Juvenile Law Center of Philadelphia, 
Pennsylvania--conducted an extensive survey of public defender offices, 
court-appointed systems, law school clinics, and the literature. These 
data were then analyzed and a report, entitled A Call for Justice, was 
developed and published in December 1995.
    The ABA has also developed and delivered specialized training to 
juvenile defenders in several jurisdictions, such as the State of 
Maryland, the State of Tennessee, Baltimore County, Maryland, and 
several other States and localities, to assist in increasing the 
capacity of juvenile defenders to provide more effective defense 
services. In October 1997, the ABA and its partners organized and 
implemented the first Juvenile Defender Summit at Northwestern 
University in Chicago, Illinois. The Summit brought together public 
defenders, court-appointed lawyers, law school clinic directors, 
juvenile offender services representatives, and others for a 2\1/2\-day 
meeting to examine the issues related to juvenile defense services and 
recommend strategies for improving these services.
    This work has served as a backdrop for an ABA recommendation to 
develop a more permanent structure to support training and technical 
assistance and to serve as a clearinghouse and resource center for 
juvenile defenders in this country. Recognizing that a lack of 
training, technical assistance, and resources for juvenile defenders 
weakens the juvenile justice system and results in a lack of due 
process for juvenile offenders, OJJDP is considering providing seed 
money in FY 1998 to fund the initial planning and implementation of a 
Juvenile Defender Center. In addition, OJJDP would, either directly or 
through a competitively selected grantee, seek partners in the public 
and private sector to help fund and sustain this effort. The Center 
would be designed to provide both general and specialized training and 
technical assistance to juvenile defenders in the United States. The 
design would also incorporate a resource center for purposes such as 
serving as a repository for the most recent litigation on key issues, a 
brief bank, and information on expert witnesses. OJJDP anticipates 
that, if funded, this program would be a 5-year effort.

Gender-Specific Programming for Female Juvenile Offenders

    In 1996, one in four juvenile arrests was of a female, and 
increases in arrests between 1992 and 1996 were greater for juvenile 
females than juvenile males in most offense categories. Yet programs to 
address the unique needs of female delinquents have been and remain 
inadequate in many jurisdictions. The risk factors that females face 
are not identical with those facing males. Major risk factors for girls 
include abuse and exploitation, substance abuse, teen pregnancy and 
parenting, low or damaged self-esteem, and truancy or dropping out of 
school. Communities and their juvenile justice systems need to develop 
programs designed to help female offenders overcome these risk factors.
    OJJDP is considering funding programming in the area of gender-
specific services for female offenders to continue supporting efforts 
modeled on the OJJDP-funded program in Cook County, Illinois, and 
gender-specific components of the SafeFutures program sites.
    Cook County, for example, used an FY 1995 competitive grant to 
build a network of support for juvenile female offenders in Cook 
County. The County's work in this area involved developing a gender-
specific needs and strengths assessment instrument and a risk 
assessment instrument for juvenile female offenders, providing training 
in implementing gender-appropriate programming, and designing a pilot 
program that includes a community-based continuum of care with a unique 
case management system.
    OJJDP is considering supporting programs designed to build 
infrastructure for programming for female juvenile offenders and to 
move from development of basic tools through the provision of training 
and technical assistance to the support of a program demonstration 
including a focus on teen pregnancy issues. If funded, an evaluation of 
this demonstration program would also be undertaken

[[Page 6366]]

through a competitive process in FY 1998.

Evaluation Capacity Building

    The question of ``what works'' pervades discussions of juvenile 
justice. To find answers, program administrators and agency personnel 
need to conduct rigorous evaluations of programs of interest. OJJDP has 
determined that a strong, cooperative arrangement between OJJDP and 
State agencies responsible for juvenile justice and delinquency 
prevention programming can most effectively provide answers to this 
question. To that end, OJJDP is considering initiating a grant program 
to build the capacity of State Formula Grants program agencies to 
conduct rigorous evaluations of juvenile justice programs and projects 
funded in their States with JJDP Act funds. OJJDP would then take the 
lead in disseminating evaluation results and information to the field.
    The intent of these awards would be to build capacity for 
developing and sustaining such evaluations and to supplement State 
funding to support the evaluation of programs and projects. OJJDP would 
award funds to qualifying States that agreed to enhance their existing 
evaluation capacity and that were able to demonstrate an evaluation 
program that effectively combines State Formula Grants program funds 
and OJJDP discretionary funds and that would produce solid evaluation 
results over a 2-year period.

Field-Initiated Research

    OJJDP's efforts to address the problems of juvenile offending are 
enriched most through the thoughtful and dedicated efforts of 
researchers in the field. Through the work of agencies, individuals, 
and organizations, OJJDP has benefited from innovative thinking and new 
directions. To encourage such innovative research in juvenile offending 
and juvenile justice, OJJDP is considering offering grants in FY 1998 
for research initiated by researchers in the field. Through this series 
of grants, OJJDP would expect to learn new alternatives and options for 
various problems facing the juvenile justice system.
    OJJDP is particularly interested in research that addresses: (1) 
The mental health needs of youth in custody, (2) the mental health 
needs of youth at-risk for entering the juvenile justice system, (3) 
the development of risk and needs assessments for use in the juvenile 
justice system, (4) the reduction of substance abuse by juveniles, and 
(5) the circumstances and needs of youth on probation.

Field-Initiated Evaluation

    OJJDP's evaluation efforts have traditionally focused on the 
evaluation of OJJDP-funded programs. However, to expand the base of 
knowledge of effective programs, OJJDP is considering funding 
evaluations of programs, including those not funded by OJJDP. With 
scarce dollars going generally for program delivery and administration, 
knowledge of what works best, and for whom, generally rests on 
anecdotal evidence. Rigorous scientific evaluations can provide more 
information about specific programs and alternatives that hold promise.
    OJJDP is particularly interested in evaluations that examine (1) 
Child Advocacy Centers, (2) youth recreation programs, and (3) gender-
specific programming.

Analysis of Juvenile Justice Data

    Funding for this new program is being considered as a means of 
providing for the analysis and interpretation of diverse sources of 
data and information on juvenile offending and the juvenile justice 
system, beyond that currently funded for the analysis of OJJDP data 
sets. This project would provide a source for identifying and reporting 
important information from nontraditional sources. The project would 
develop OJJDP's capacity to use and analyze data collections covering 
such related areas as health, education, and employment. It would 
provide a means for routinely publishing specialized reports that 
assimilate such data sources. It would also support the management and 
direction of OJJDP efforts through the contribution of analyses 
directed towards the Office's priorities and initiatives.

Evaluation of the Comprehensive Strategy for Serious, Violent, and 
Chronic Juvenile Offenders

    In FY 1998, OJJDP is considering beginning a multiyear, multisite 
evaluation of the Comprehensive Strategy for Serious, Violent, and 
Chronic Juvenile Offenders. The evaluation would first look at the 
lessons learned from the Comprehensive Strategy training and technical 
assistance process that was provided in three pilot communities: Fort 
Myers and Jacksonville, Florida, and San Diego, California. The 
evaluation would then look at the effect of the 2-year training and 
technical assistance process that is currently being provided in 5 
States and 26 local jurisdictions and is about to commence in up to two 
additional States. The training and technical assistance process is 
designed to transfer the knowledge, skills, tools, and practices 
necessary to develop a comprehensive strategic plan in each community. 
The evaluation would document the effectiveness of the training and 
technical assistance process in a sample of communities. The evaluation 
would also look at the crime and delinquency outcomes and the level of 
services being provided in each of the jurisdictions that have 
successfully completed the training and technical assistance process 
and are implementing their comprehensive strategic plan. In the first 
year, the evaluation would also document baseline data in the States 
and local communities.

Blueprints for Violence Prevention: Training and Technical Assistance

    In a 1994 survey, more than half of the respondents identified 
crime and violence as the most important problem facing this country, 
and violence was unanimously identified as the ``biggest problem'' 
facing the Nation's public schools. Many communities are ready to take 
meaningful action to combat these problems, but are struggling in 
determining both ``what works'' and how to implement those effective 
strategies and programs. As a result, many jurisdictions are moving 
forward with insufficient knowledge on how to be successful in both of 
these areas of focus.
    To address this issue, OJJDP proposes to award a cooperative 
agreement to the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence (CSPV) 
at the University of Colorado. CSPV has completed a study, begun in 
1996, of 10 violence prevention programs that met a rigorous scientific 
standard of program effectiveness and replicability--programs that 
could be documented in ``blueprints'' that could be utilized for 
further replication. Under this grant, CSPV would provide technical 
assistance to community organizations and program providers to ensure 
quality implementation of Blueprint model programs that have been 
demonstrated to be effective in reducing adolescent violence, crime, 
and substance abuse.
    The specific goal of this project will be to assist in the 
replication of these blueprint programs by: (1) Determining the 
feasibility of program development for each community or agency request 
for technical assistance in terms of a needs assessment and the 
capacity for the community/agency to implement the program with 
integrity and (2) providing training and technical assistance to 
communities/agencies that are ready to begin the implementation 
process. CSPV would both monitor and

[[Page 6367]]

assist the program during its first year of operation.
    This project would be implemented by the Center for the Study and 
Prevention of Violence because of its unique status as the developer of 
the Blueprints for Violence Prevention project and previous research in 
this specific area. No additional applications would be solicited in FY 
1998.

Teambuilding Project for Courts

    OJJDP, in conjunction with the State Justice Institute (SJI), is 
interested in supporting projects to: (1) Explore emerging issues that 
will affect juvenile courts as they enter the 21st century, and (2) 
develop and test innovative approaches for managing juvenile courts, 
securing resources required to fully meet the responsibilities of the 
judicial branch, and institutionalizing long-range planning processes 
across the multiple disciplines in the juvenile justice system. This 
joint effort would test innovative programs and procedures for 
providing clear and open communications between the judiciary, other 
branches of government, and juvenile justice practitioners.
    The primary goal would be to develop and implement a teambuilding 
project designed to facilitate better coordination and information 
sharing and foster innovative, efficient solutions to problems facing 
juvenile courts. Activities may include: (1) Preparing and presenting 
educational programs to foster development of effective 
multidisciplinary teams; (2) delivering onsite technical assistance to 
develop a team or enhance an existing partnership; (3) providing 
information on teambuilding through a national resource center; and (4) 
preparing manuals, guides, and other written and visual products to 
assist in the development and operation of effective teams.
    Competitive grants would be awarded to support demonstration 
projects. Funds would be transferred to SJI to administer the program 
through a cooperative agreement.

Child Abuse and Neglect and Dependency Courts

Safe Kids/Safe Streets: Community Approaches To Reducing Abuse and 
Neglect and Preventing Delinquency

    Reports of child victimization, abuse, and neglect in the United 
States continue to be alarming. For example, in 1996 alone, an 
estimated 3.1 million children were reported to public welfare agencies 
for abuse or neglect. Nearly 1 million of those children were 
substantiated as victims. Usually, abuse is inflicted by someone the 
child knows, frequently a family member.
    Numerous studies cite the connection between abuse or neglect of a 
child and later development of violent and delinquent behavior. 
Acknowledging this correlation and the need to both improve system 
response and foster strong, nurturing families, several offices and 
bureaus of the Office of Justice Programs joined in FY 1996 to develop 
a coordinated program response. The resulting initiative, a 5\1/2\ year 
demonstration program designed to foster coordinated community 
responses to child abuse and neglect, was titled Safe Kids/Safe 
Streets: Community Approaches to Reducing Abuse and Neglect and 
Preventing Delinquency. (An accompanying evaluation program, Evaluation 
of the Safe Kids/Safe Streets Program, was also developed.)
    The purpose of the Safe Kids/Safe Streets program is to break the 
cycle of early childhood victimization and later juvenile or adult 
criminality and to reduce child and adolescent abuse and neglect and 
resulting child fatalities. It strives to do this by providing fiscal 
and technical support for efforts to restructure and strengthen State 
and local criminal and juvenile justice systems to be more 
comprehensive and proactive in helping children and adolescents and 
their families. The program also has as a goal to implement or 
strengthen coordinated management of abuse and neglect cases by 
improving the policy and practice of the criminal and juvenile justice 
systems and the child welfare, family services, and related systems. 
These goals require communities to develop, implement, and/or expand 
cross-agency strategies.
    OJJDP, the administering agency for the Safe Kids/Safe Streets 
program, awarded competitive cooperative agreements in FY 1997 to five 
demonstration sites and to a national evaluator. Funds are provided by 
OJJDP, the Office of Victims of Crime (OVC) and the Violence Against 
Women Grants Office (VAWGO). Recipients of the awards are the National 
Children's Advocacy Center, Huntsville, Alabama; the Sault Ste. Marie 
Tribe of Chippewa Indians in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan; Heart of 
America United Way of Kansas City, Missouri; Toledo Hospital Children's 
Medical Center in Toledo, Ohio; and the Community Network for Children, 
Youth and Family Services of Chittenden County, Vermont. The national 
evaluator is Westat, Inc., of Rockville, Maryland.
    Four of the five funded demonstration sites are in the process of 
developing implementation plans. The fifth is in the initial stages of 
implementing its plans to improve the coordination of prevention, 
intervention, and treatment services and to improve cross-agency 
coordination. The national evaluator has begun the process of assessing 
site needs and developing measurement variables. Each award has been 
made under a 5\1/2\ year project period.
    In FY 1998, Safe Kids/Safe Streets grantees will continue to 
implement their plans. Continuation awards will be made to each of the 
current demonstration sites. No additional applications will be 
solicited in FY 1998.

National Evaluation of the Safe Kids/Safe Streets Program

    To evaluate the Safe Kids/Safe Streets grant program, OJJDP 
competitively awarded a grant to Westat, Inc. in FY 1997. The purpose 
of the evaluation is to document and explicate the process of community 
mobilization, planning, and collaboration that has taken place before 
and during the Safe Kids/Safe Streets awards; to inform program staff 
of performance levels on an ongoing basis; and to determine the 
effectiveness of the implemented programs in achieving the goals of the 
Safe Kids/Safe Streets program. The initial 18-month grant will begin a 
process evaluation and determine the feasibility of an impact 
evaluation. If it is determined that an impact evaluation is feasible, 
additional funds may be awarded to implement such an evaluation in FY 
1998.
    The goals for Phase I of the Evaluation of the Safe Kids/Safe 
Streets program are: (1) To understand the process of implementation of 
the Safe Kids/Safe Streets program in order to strengthen and refine 
the program for future replication; (2) to identify factors that 
contribute to or impede the successful implementation of the program; 
(3) to help develop or improve the capability and utility of local data 
systems that track at-risk youth, including victims of child neglect or 
abuse; (4) to build an understanding of the general effectiveness of 
the Safe Kids/Safe Streets program approach and its program components; 
and (5) to help develop the capacity of Safe Kids/Safe Streets sites to 
evaluate what works in their communities.
    The objectives of this initial phase of the evaluation are: (1) To 
develop a detailed design, including data collection instruments, for a 
process evaluation of the Safe Kids/Safe Streets program for 
implementation in collaboration with all sites; (2) to develop 
templates for capturing the data necessary for the national process 
evaluation and to make those templates

[[Page 6368]]

available for implementation at the sites; and (3) to provide 
evaluation training and technical assistance for, and to collaborate 
with, grantees at each of the sites in implementing a process 
evaluation of the development and implementation of each Safe Kids/Safe 
Streets program site.
    This evaluation will be implemented by the current grantee, Westat, 
Inc. No additional applications will be solicited in FY 1998.

Secondary Analysis of Childhood Victimization

    In FY 1997, OJJDP awarded a two-year grant to the University at 
Albany, State University of New York, to support secondary analysis of 
data that were collected on 1,200 individuals as part of a National 
Institute of Justice research project that began in 1986. The data set 
includes extensive information on psychiatric, cognitive, intellectual, 
social, and behavioral functioning. It also contains information on 
documented and self-reported criminal and runaway behavior in a large 
sample of unsubstantiated cases of early childhood physical and sexual 
abuse and neglect and matched controls. The data base includes 
information from archival juvenile court and probation department 
records and law enforcement records and interview information on a 
range of topics, including psychiatric assessment, intelligence, and 
reading ability.
    The initial set of secondary analyses, during the first year of the 
OJJDP award, focused on childhood victimization as a precursor to 
running away and subsequent delinquency. Initial research questions 
focused on whether running away puts a child at increased risk for 
becoming a violent offender and repeat violent offender as a juvenile 
and whether abused and neglected children who run away are at greater 
risk than children who have not been abused.
    In FY 1998, the research will look at several other outcomes such 
as out-of-home placements and drug use by children who run away. Gender 
differences will also be explored. This research will also explore the 
differential impact of childhood victimization by race/ethnicity.
    This project is being conducted by Cathy Spatz Widom, principal 
researcher, under a grant to the University at Albany, State University 
of New York. No additional applications will be solicited in FY 1998.

Evaluation of Nurse Home Visitation in Weed and Seed Sites

    OJJDP will administer the evaluation program of Nurse Home 
Visitation programs in six Weed and Seed sites across the Nation with 
FY 1997 funds transferred to OJJDP from the U.S. Department of Health 
and Human Services. Six Weed and Seed sites, one of which is a 
SafeFutures site, are providing nurse home visitation services. These 
sites have been designated for evaluation in order to determine the 
impact of the specific program model of nurse home visitation 
implemented within normal operating environments in communities. Nurse 
home visitation has been found to be effective in reducing welfare 
dependency, increasing employment, decreasing or delaying repeat 
childbearing, reducing the incidence of child maltreatment, and 
reducing crime and delinquency within the context of randomized 
clinical trials.
    OJJDP is considering supplementing this evaluation in FY 1998 to 
enhance data collection and analysis.
    The project would be implemented by the University of Colorado 
Prevention Research Center. No additional applications would be 
solicited in FY 1998.

    Dated: January 30, 1998.
Shay Bilchik,
Administrator, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
[FR Doc. 98-2729 Filed 2-5-98; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4410-18-P