Byrne Bytes

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Byrne Bytes

NCJA, with support from the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance, is proud to launch the Byrne Bytes social media campaign. Byrne Bytes highlights important programs and services funded by the Byrne Justice Assistance Grant (Byrne JAG) program.

States, tribes and local jurisdictions use Byrne JAG funding across the criminal justice system to improve the administration of justice, reduce incarceration, enhance fairness, improve outcomes for the justice-involved, and save taxpayer money. These funds support programming in prevention, diversion, enforcement, courts, prosecution and defense, corrections, victim assistance, mental health and substance use disorder treatment, state crisis intervention programs, and other community-based supports.

Byrne Bytes are brief factoids about the Byrne JAG program as well as highlights of successful programs and practices in states around the country.

To find Byrne Bytes on social media, follow us or look for #ByrneBytes on NCJA’s Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Click on a topic category to view the related #ByrneBytes and to learn more about Byrne JAG and successful programs across the country.

Behavioral Health Response

Preventing Suicide in Correctional Settings

About two in five people who are incarcerated have a history of mental illness. As such, ensuring that individuals in prisons and jails have access to appropriate mental health treatment is critical. The National Alliance on Mental Illness Kansas provides inmates access to mental health resources that help to prevent suicide and self-harm. The Justice Involved Project (JIP), supported by Byrne JAG, began at the Butler County Jail and quickly expanded to additional facilities, bringing 94 groups serving 578 inmates in the Wyandotte County Jail, Topeka Correctional Facility, Hutchinson Correctional Facility, Norton Correctional Facility and Riley County Jail. In the 12-month award period, NAMI data confirmed a decrease in suicide-related incidents and deaths.

Supporting Innovation

One of the hallmarks of the Byrne JAG program is its capacity for supporting innovative programs that later find alternative funding sources. The New Hampshire Manchester Safe Station Initiative was started with Byrne JAG funds during the opioid crisis, allowing individuals struggling with substance misuse to walk into a Manchester fire station seeking help. First responders checked vitals, referred the individual to a local hospital or provided care, if needed, and connected the person with recovery and support services. As of late 2021, after 8,000 walk-ins, services transitioned to Doorway of Greater Manchester. Doorway receives funding from a State Opioid Response (SOR) grant.

Helping Ohio Find Hope

Byrne JAG can fund promising and innovative ways to combat the opioid epidemic and rising rates of substance misuse. In Ohio, Byrne JAG seed money was used to launch the Ross County Hope Partnership Project, a collaborative effort of over 60 community partners to advocate for SUD prevention, early intervention, treatment and recovery services.

Byrne JAG Can Help Reduce Recidivism

Byrne JAG funds innovative partnerships like the It Takes a Library (ITAL) project in Denver, Colorado. A partnership between Denver Human Services, Denver Public Library (DPL), and Colorado Mental Wellness Network, ITAL increases access to mental health/human services and supports the reduction of crime, delinquency and recidivism using evidence-based best practices of peer support and library social work models for customers traditionally at risk of entering or re-entering the criminal/juvenile justice system either as victims or perpetrators, based on factors such as income level, homelessness and mental health.

Byrne JAG Factoids

What is Byrne JAG?

The Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program (Byrne JAG) is the nation’s cornerstone crimefighting program, supporting the federal government’s crucial role in spurring innovation, as well as testing and replication evidence-informed practices in crime control and prevention nationwide. Learn more about the impact of Byrne JAG on the criminal justice system.

Who is Your SAA?

Want to apply for funding? Not sure what an SAA is? Byrne JAG funding is administered by the State Administering Agencies, or SAAs, in all 56 states and territories. Learn more about what the SAA does, visit our primer on the role of the SAA. To find your SAA, visit our Agency Directory.

Byrne JAG Can Maximize Impact

Byrne JAG can be used to maximize impact. State Administering Agencies often use Byrne JAG funds in conjunction with other federal and/or state funds, braiding funding to maximize a program’s impact on the criminal justice system. For example, Byrne JAG funds can be braided with Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) funding to increase a project’s capacity to respond quickly and efficiently to the needs of survivors.

Byrne JAG is Collaborative

Byrne JAG funding is informed by a strategic plan that engages stakeholders from across the justice system, including law enforcement, courts, prosecutors, public defenders, corrections officials, treatment providers and others. State Administering Agencies use the planning process to articulate priorities, identify gaps and determine how to leverage and coordinate Byrne JAG funding with other resources.

How Does Byrne JAG Help States Innovate

Nearly every state uses a significant portion of its Byrne JAG award to test new approaches, replicate what works and strengthen the community-based institutions that provide these services.

Meet your State Administering Agency

Byrne JAG funding is administered by the State Administering Agencies, or SAAs, in all 56 states and territories. Learn more about the role of the SAA or to find the SAA in your state visit NCJA’s website. Find your SAA.

The Justice System

Byrne JAG is supported by a broad cross-section of the criminal and juvenile justice systems, including representatives from impacted communities, who recognize the central role Byrne JAG plays in preventing victimization, supporting innovative law enforcement practices, advancing the fair administration of and access to justice, serving and protecting crime victims, improving outcomes for the justice-involved, interrupting the cycle of crime, and leveraging other federal, state, local and private dollars in the balanced functioning of the criminal justice system.

Strategic Planning

Byrne JAG funding requires states to undertake a strategic planning process that guides the use of these funds. The strategic planning process is a systematic way for an organization to set priorities, focus resources, ensure all stakeholders are working toward common goals, establish a process for evaluating planning processes and priority outcomes, adjust direction, and adapt within a changing environment. Byrne JAG strategic plans are required every five years and outline each state’s planning process and identify key priorities and goals for the funding. To learn more about strategic planning, listen to the strategic planning episode of The NCJA Podcast, which discusses the who, what, how and why of strategic planning and highlights the basic steps for creating an effective plan.

What is the Funding For?

Byrne JAG funding supports programs and practices in every state and a broad cross-section of local communities, from large urban areas to smaller townships and rural counties. Funds are awarded by a formula based on each state’s population and crime rate. 60% of a state’s allocation is awarded to the state criminal justice planning agency (known as the State Administering Agency, or SAA) which, in turn, makes the funding available to local governments and non-profit service providers. The remaining 40% of the state’s allocation is awarded by the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) directly to over 1,000 eligible units of local government based on crime data.

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Helping States Innovate

Nearly every state uses significant portion of its Byrne JAG award to test new approaches, replicate what works, and strengthen the community-based institutions that provide these services.

Responding to Violence

Byrne JAG is a critical resource for preventing and responding to gun violence and other forms of violent crime in urban and rural communities. The funds provide law enforcement agencies, prosecutors and public defenders with resources to implement innovative approaches to violence prevention and intervention, to improve the criminal justice system and build trust within their communities. The grants also allow law enforcement and prosecutor collaboration within communities and across states to target regional drug trafficking organizations and other cross-boundary crimes.

Nine Program Areas

Named in honor of Officer Edward Byrne who was killed in the line of duty, the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program (Byrne JAG) provides states, tribes, and local governments with critical funding necessary to support a range of program areas including law enforcement, prosecution, indigent defense, courts, crime prevention and education, corrections and community corrections, drug treatment and enforcement, planning, evaluation, technology improvement, crime victim and witness initiatives, mental health programs and related law enforcement and corrections programs, including behavioral programs and crisis intervention teams, and implementation of state crisis intervention programs or initiatives.

Promoting Public Safety

States, localities and tribal nations deploy Byrne JAG funding against their most pressing public safety challenges. This flexible funding stream allows communities to design complete programs or fill gaps, to leverage other resources, and work across city, county and state lines. Learn more about how states use Byrne JAG to address public safety.

Promoting Public Safety

Byrne JAG is Collaborative

Byrne JAG funding is informed by a strategic plan that engages stakeholders from across the justice system including law enforcement, courts, prosecutors, public defenders, corrections officials, treatment providers and others. SAAs use the planning process to articulate priorities, identify gaps and determine how to leverage and coordinate Byrne JAG funding with other resources. Learn more about Byrne JAG and Strategic Planning.

Supporting Communities

Byrne JAG is an effective tool to facilitate community engagement and bring a broad range of stakeholders and voices to the justice planning table. Iowa uses Byrne JAG funds for the Iowa Alliance of Coalitions for Change, or AC4C, a statewide network of coalitions. Check out NCJA’s podcast to learn how the successful use of community coalitions can lead to sustainable, inclusive efforts.

Funding Criminal Justice Reform

Byrne JAG funds can be used across the criminal justice system – for prevention, diversion, enforcement, courts, prosecution and defense, corrections, victim assistance, mental health and substance use disorder treatment, and other community-based support to improve the administration of justice, reduce incarceration, enhance fairness, improve outcomes for the justice-involved and save taxpayer money.

Byrne JAG is Local

States and local communities use Byrne JAG funds to address needs and fill gaps across the entire justice system. In this way, Byrne JAG-funded investments touch cities, towns and counties all across America. Learn more about how state and local governments are investing.

Community Violence Intervention

Byrne JAG and Crime Prevention

Jurisdictions experiencing high rates of violent and drug-related crime turn to evidence-based and data-driven crime prevention strategies. Tennessee used Byrne JAG funds to launch its Targeted Community Crime Reduction Project which identifies systemic problems in high crime areas and employs strategies of prevention, enforcement, offender intervention and neighborhood revitalization to reduce crime in these specific targeted hot spots. Due to its success, the offender intervention component is now supported with state funding in multiple locations throughout the state.

Curbing Gun Violence

Cure Violence is a public health approach to stopping gun violence. The model has been replicated in jurisdictions across the country including New York which uses Byrne JAG funds to support its version, the SNUG Street Outreach Program, in 12 communities across the state. SNUG curbs violence and saves lives by identifying the source of the violence, interrupting the transmission and offering services and support to those who wish to change their behavior. Byrne JAG awards have funded a Program Director and a Training Director to provide program oversight and management, a critical contributor to SNUG’s success.

Corrections and Reentry

Comprehensive Reentry Reduces Recidivism

Reentry services span beyond a focus on recidivism reduction, with effective programs taking a comprehensive approach to ensure returning citizens are set up for success. Career Resources, Inc. (CRI) in Connecticut is a workforce development nonprofit agency that is a statewide leader in supporting the reentry population and helping returning citizens successfully reintegrate into their communities. Byrne JAG funds support Entry Point Staffing, a workforce training and temporary staffing agency launched by CRI in 2020 to support returning citizens and other system-impacted individuals in their efforts to secure steady employment, financial self-sufficiency and successful community reintegration.

Support for Holistic Probation Services

Holistic wraparound support for individuals on probation is necessary to encourage successful reentry and prevent further interaction with the criminal justice system. The Butte County, California Probation Department utilizes Byrne JAG funding to continue the Community Alliance Program, which provides substance use disorder treatment, placement in sober living environments to support continued sobriety, and educational opportunities and employment support to probationers with the highest criminogenic needs.

Reducing Incarceration

Pennsylvania is home to the country's first Stepping Up Technical Assistance Center. Originally funded by Byrne JAG, this TA Center helps counties participating in the Stepping Up Initiative with obtaining accurate baseline data on the number of people with mental illness in county jails, develops customized implementation plans and strategies, sets progress goals and assists in achieving results in reducing disproportionate incarceration of individuals with mental illness. In addition to direct technical assistance, the center provides counties with peer-to-peer interactions and offers resources and opportunities to connect with national experts on promising practices.

Supporting Reentry

Targeting reentry services with an age and gender-responsive focus reduces recidivism rates. Connecticut used Byrne JAG funding to implement WORTH (Women Overcoming Recidivism Through Hard Work), a first-of-its-kind unit in the York Correctional Institution, Connecticut’s sole female-only prison. WORTH is an innovative housing unit designed to meet the unique needs of young adult women aged 18 to 25. The progressive curriculum was largely developed by the program’s founding members and is designed to help women acquire and maintain the necessary skills to become successful following their release. The program has a restorative justice focus and a strong emphasis on family engagement and community involvement. Participants live alongside older mentors where they benefit from supportive staff and specialized services. The WORTH unit was featured on The NCJA Podcast.

Paving the Way for Reentry

Job training programs reduce recidivism and help pave the transition for individuals returning to their communities. States use Byrne JAG to support programs and partnerships that provide vocational training and job skills. One such program, the J. F. Ingram State Technical College’s Education to Employment initiative in Alabama helps incarcerated students overcome barriers to employment. ISTC job placement specialists match graduates to available jobs, building a network of employment opportunities for those workers who have traditionally been viewed as hard to place. The program is essential to help reducing high recidivism rates in Alabama and removing barriers to successful reentry.

Supporting Reentry

Proper support and services are integral to ensuring these individuals returning to the community can live productive and fruitful lives. For individuals released from state prisons, recidivism rates average 68% within the first 3 years of release and 83% at 9 years post-release. Byrne JAG funds the Unlocking Doors program in Dallas, Texas which functions as a statewide reentry brokerage network to help individuals released from incarceration or living within the community on probation. Clients, who can be referred through the Texas Department of Criminal Justice receive an individualized action plan and risk/needs assessment during the intake phase of the process; after intake, clients are referred to needed services and resources. The program collects data from clients as they work through their reentry plans to ascertain primary challenges and needs.

Reducing Recidivism in Nebraska

Stable housing is the cornerstone of successful reentry. Most states use Byrne JAG to support reentry initiatives that reduce recidivism, including a program from the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services that provides housing vouchers to parolees leaving institutions so they can obtain appropriate and stable housing to assist them in transitioning from prison back to the community.

Courts and Public Defense

Supporting Culturally Specific Programming

Minnesota’s Regional Native Public Defense Corporation seeks to increase regional cross-collaboration and response for criminal defense, mental health, and substance use disorder assessment and treatment to decrease the likelihood of Anishinaabe/American Indians’ future involvement in the criminal justice system. Three Byrne JAG funded programs use connections to community, traditional teachings and practices as the foundation for their work. Holistic approaches to care, particularly comprehensive approaches that are culturally specific and relevant, can be extremely effective at reducing recidivism, increasing individual agency and best supporting both individuals and their communities.

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Byrne JAG and Speciality Courts

The nation’s first drug court in Dade County, Florida was established using Byrne JAG. Since then, Byrne JAG funding supports specialty courts like domestic violence, mental health, reentry, DUI, community, gun courts, and over 300 veteran’s treatment courts. Harnett County, North Carolina, is home to the state’s first veterans treatment court, which offers individualized and comprehensive treatment to veterans charged with misdemeanors or nonviolent felonies. Court personnel collaborate with the VA medical center, local providers, peer mentors, educational providers and other community agencies for treatment.

Improving Systems and Technology

Promoting Technical Assistance and Evaluation

Byrne JAG funds can be leveraged to support both technical assistance initiatives and evaluation efforts. Byrne JAG funding complements New York state funding for the technical assistance and evaluation of its 55alternatives to incarceration programs and 20 county reentry task forces that provide dedicated case management, care coordination and stabilization services in partnership with local government agencies and community-based organizations. Byrne JAG funding is used to evaluate the program models and support new, innovative programming.

Improving State Crime Labs

Byrne JAG supports state crime labs and evidence processing. Byrne JAG helps the Wyoming State Crime Laboratory, the state’s only accredited laboratory, support agencies across the state with evidence processing, analysis, transport, expert testimony and a 24/7 on-call Crime Scene Response Team.

Using Technology to Fight Crime

Byrne JAG funds can be utilized to support, pilot or expand technology-based projects across the criminal justice system. In Indiana, Byrne JAG funding supports the Cyber Crime Task Force based in southern Indiana. Utilizing advances in the field of digital intelligence, the task force serves more than 29 law enforcement agencies across multiple states. It achieved a 91 percent success rate in extracting data and intelligence from 1,100 confiscated electronic devices. The team has become a valuable resource for local, state and federal agencies.

Information Sharing

Byrne JAG funding is crucial to supporting information sharing and improving data systems, particularly for cross-agency collaboration. When it comes to gang-related investigations and prosecution, many law enforcement agencies work in silos, with little knowledge of gang activity outside of their jurisdiction. One program, funded in part by Byrne JAG, aims to track gang members and their crimes, and overall, to track any movement by the organizations and ensure connections can be made between and across cases. Georgia developed a gang intelligence platform using Byrne JAG funding that allows law enforcement to input elements of crimes. On the backend, prosecutors and law enforcement can search and identify other crimes, both locally and statewide, that have similar characteristics. The platform is available in 15-20 counties with a goal to expand. As of 2018, 25,000 connections had been made across case files.

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Protecting Public Safety

Improving criminal justice records enhances public safety while protecting individual privacy. In Arizona the Criminal Justice Commission sets aside 5% of its Byrne JAG funds to support criminal history records improvement and information sharing guided by an approved strategic plan.

Juvenile Justice

Rural Mentoring for Youth Can Save Lives

Mentoring is a widely used intervention and prevention strategy for youth involved in or at risk of being involved in the juvenile justice system. In Iowa, Byrne JAG funds a rural mentoring program for system-involved youth whose parents are involved in the criminal justice and/or social services system and direct services to educate youth on drug and crime issues.

Restorative Justice in Schools

Restorative justice practices effectively reduce out-of-school suspensions and student arrests in and out of school. These practices can increase student perceptions of safety and school climate. In Lancaster County, Nebraska Project RESTORE, uses Byrne JAG funding to disrupt the classroom-to-courtroom pathway through restorative justice programming.

Preventing Youth Violence

Preventing and responding to violence among young people requires a comprehensive and collaborative approach. In response to rising community and youth violence in Eastern Washington, the Safe Communities Partnership has provided more than 130 youth (ages 13-17) with gang and group violence intervention and prevention services throughout Spokane County. Byrne JAG funds will support the expansion of intervention and prevention programming to include additional efforts throughout the city of Spokane and mentorship to incarcerated young people.

At-Risk Youth

Promoting positive interactions between at-risk youth and law enforcement prevents at-risk juveniles from entering or further penetrating the justice system. These prevention and early intervention efforts can include gang prevention and juvenile-focused community engagement programs, anti-bullying, counseling and mentoring initiatives, life skills and job development trainings and safe streets programming. In Michigan, Byrne JAG funding supports the Westland K-12 Jefferson Barns Learning Lab. The Learning Lab offers after-school and summer tutoring for kids in an at-risk neighborhood. The lab is equipped with tablets, computers, 3D printers, robots and a hydroponics lab and is housed in a space originally allocated for Westland Police Department. It is staffed with certified educators via a partnership with Brain Media Technology and mentors from a local high school and local college’s engineering department. Officers from the Westland PD participate in the lab and interact with the kids. Often the students teach the police what they learn, providing confidence and pride in their technology education.

Law Enforcement

Funding Co-Responder Programs

The success of Co-responder programs relies on impactful relationships between law enforcement and behavioral health professionals, with teams seeking to engage, assess and assist individuals in crisis and direct them to needed services. An embedded social worker has been the key to helping Northville Township, Michigan’s Behavioral Health Consortium forge connections, increase positive interactions, provide resources and assist those of all ages who need mental health assistance. These social workers sustain and build the capacity of this important Byrne JAG funded public safety co-responder program, which supports Northville Township and neighbors Northville and Plymouth.

Byrne JAG and Crime Mapping

Ohio uses Byrne JAG funding to offer crime mapping training to law enforcement agencies free of charge through the University of Cincinnati. Crime mapping is an evidence-based crime reduction tool that has been proven effective for place-based models of policing. This technology allows agencies to visualize and analyze crime-based trends and patterns and identify hot spots.

Obtaining Law Enforcement Accreditation

The law enforcement accreditation process can be difficult, cumbersome and costly for many agencies. In North Carolina, Byrne JAG funds help small and large law enforcement agencies attain accreditation, either to the National Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement or to the North Carolina Statewide Accreditation standards, which are administered by the North Carolina Training and Standards Commission. In the past two years, three large state agencies have received accreditation grants as well as five sheriffs’ offices and 11 police departments.

Byrne JAG and Crisis Intervention Teams

Crisis Intervention Teams (CITs) create impactful collaborative opportunities between law enforcement and mental health providers to ensure individuals in crisis receive the proper behavioral health and crisis support they need. The Richland County, South Carolina Sheriff’s Department’s Crisis Intervention Team consists of deputies and mental health counselors trained in de-escalation techniques. The team responded to more than 62 calls for service from October 2022 through March 2023, with only two resulting in arrest. The project has recently been expanded through Byrne SCIP funding in FY24.

Byrne JAG Support for Officer Health and Wellness

First responders, including law enforcement, experience higher rates of mental health symptoms than the general population, likely due to higher levels of stress, reoccurring exposure to trauma and a lack of access to services and support. Virginia is addressing officer/first responder wellness using Byrne JAG funding to expand their resources, training and awareness, including creating public service announcements that will be distributed to the public and first responder communities, and making available website resources, training and other information regarding wellness to the first responder community.

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Saving Lives in Kentucky

Byrne JAG is an important source of funding for Multijurisdictional Drug Task Forces who are fighting the scourge of fentanyl and other illegal substances. This funding allows these task forces to continue enforcement efforts and stem the flow of dangerous drugs while saving lives from overdoses and keeping families and communities safe and healthy. For example, in Kentucky, the Byrne JAG-funded Bowling Green-Warren County Drug Task Force has made a number of fentanyl arrests while investigating overdoses, leading to a 5 percent decline in overdose deaths across Kentucky. The number of overdose deaths declined for the first time in four years, making Kentucky one of only eight states to see decreases.

Byrne JAG Funds Diversion

There are over 50 Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) programs in place across the country including in Baltimore, Maryland where Byrne JAG funds were used to pilot Behavioral Health System Baltimore’s LEAD program which works in collaboration with law enforcement to connect participants, who have substance-use disorders and mental health conditions, with intensive treatment. The program helps to decrease criminal justice system utilization and improve relations between law enforcement and community members.

Law Enforcement Training

Law enforcement training is just one of the many ways Byrne JAG supports policing reform efforts. Oregon used Byrne JAG funding for the Department of Public Safety Standards and Training’s establishment of a Center for Policing Excellence. This training center develops and delivers TTA to local law enforcement on evidence-based policing and community supervision practices. The Center for Policing Excellence helps state law enforcement officers enhance the use of evidence-based deterrence, enforcement and interdiction strategies. The Center partners with the Oregon SAA on a number of projects including the collection and analysis of traffic stop data and provides technical assistance to police departments with identified disparities in the treatment of stopped individuals.

Funding Deflection

Deflection programs aim to help reach people in need before a potential crisis. Illinois relies on Byrne JAG funding to support two local police deflection programs where individuals suffering from substance misuse or mental health issues can either voluntarily contact a police department or are put into direct contact via out-reach efforts where they can be referred for treatment without fear of arrest. Law enforcement officials provide participants with referrals and transportation to treatment facilities.

Supporting Victims of Crime

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Byrne JAG and Restorative Justice

Victims Voices Heard is a Delaware based restorative justice program which provides victims of violent crime with the opportunity to communicate face-to-face with their perpetrator and allows perpetrators the opportunity to take responsibility for their actions, giving survivors an active role in the justice process. Restorative justice programs are just one example of the victims programs funded by Byrne JAG.

This series was created with the support of Grant No. 2019-YA-BX-K002 awarded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance. The Bureau of Justice Assistance is a component of the Office of Justice Programs, which also includes the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the National Institute of Justice, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the SMART Office, and the Office for Victims of Crime. Points of view or opinions are those of the authors.