Please describe how your agency is structured

The New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) is an executive, multi-function support agency that advances all aspects of the State’s criminal justice system from crime prevention through re-entry. The Division’s more than 450 employees and $850 million budget help our law enforcement and community partners keep New Yorkers safe and ensure a justice system that works for all. 

The DCJS mission is to build safe and strong communities by convening, facilitating, and supporting public safety and criminal justice stakeholders with the resources, expertise, and information they need. For the last three years, DCJS has worked to fulfill New York State Governor Kathy Hochul’s public safety commitment by delivering evidence-informed programs and policies that address crime, its causes, and its consequences. 

Since the agency was established in 1972, DCJS has worked to enhanced public safety by providing services that inform decision making and improve the quality of the criminal justice system, including but not limited to: 

• Collection and analysis of statewide crime data

• Maintenance of criminal history information and fingerprint files

• Research, analysis, and technical assistance for criminal justice stakeholders

• Training for law enforcement and other criminal justice professionals

• Management of state and federal criminal justice funds and grants

• Oversight and support for probation and community correction programs, such as alternatives to incarceration (ATI) and re-entry assistance

• Administration of the state’s sex offender registry, missing persons clearinghouse, and DNA databank in cooperation with the New York State Police

• Maintenance of breathalyzer and speed enforcement equipment used by local law enforcement; and

• Support for several commissions and councils, including the Law Enforcement Agency Accreditation Council (LEAAC), Commission on Forensic Science (CFS), Municipal Police Training Council (MPTC), and Juvenile Justice Advisory Group (JJAG), as well as their related functions

Please list the federal and state grants your agency administers.

DCJS has delivered historic investment in the State’s justice system. Since 2021, DCJS has provided significant increases in direct funding to criminal justice practitioners, including prosecutors, public defenders, police, probation, and community organizations. These investments reflected dramatic changes in the field from recruitment and retention challenges and pandemic disruptions to justice reforms and greater needs among justice-involved people. DCJS has recently distributed:

Priority State Grants

• Crime Analysis Center (CAC) Network and Resources to Address Organized Retail Theft

• Gun Involved Violence Elimination (GIVE) Initiative to Support Evidence-Based Policing Strategies

• Law Enforcement Technology and Equipment

• Pretrial Services and Alternatives to Incarceration (ATI)

• Project RISE Community Empowerment Grants

• Prosecution Aid and Discovery Support

• Public Legal Defense and Discovery Support

• Re-Entry Support

• Securing Communities Against Hate Crimes (SCAHC) Grants for Community Organizations

• SNUG Street Outreach and Social Work Program to Disrupt Community Violenc

• Statewide Targeted Reductions in Intimate Violence (STRIVE) Program

Federal Grants

• Byrne Justice Assistance Grant (JAG)

• Byrne State Crisis Intervention Program Grant (SCIP)

• National Crime History Improvement Program (NCHIP)

• National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) Act Record Improvement Program (NARIP)

• Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) Program

• OJJDP Title II (Formula)

• Paul Coverdell Forensics Sciences Improvement Grant (Coverdell)

• Residential Substance Abuse Treatment for State Prisoners Program Grant (RSAT)

• Sexual Assault Services Program (SASP)

• State Justice Statistics Program for Statistical Analysis Centers (SACs)

• Violence Against Women Act (VAWA)

Please list your top three current priority or focus areas.

Community Engagement and Empowerment.  Crime remains a concern for many New Yorkers. To help guide our investments and initiatives, the DCJS executive team continues an ongoing tour of New York’s communities, particularly those most impacted by violence. These tours bring together law enforcement and community stakeholders to share their local priorities, programs, and areas of unmet need. Each tour stop has: 

• Built deeper relationships and provided important local context to the work 

• Revealed structural concerns about the growing intersection of the justice system and health, mental health, substance use treatment, and youth services 

• Highlighted community conditions that give rise to crime (e.g., poverty, family distress) 

• Showed that we need to pilot and innovate at the state-level, replicating working models, and

• Emphasized coordinated efforts and investments among state and local government agencies 

Collaboration. DCJS works with all stakeholders to bring the resources, expertise, and information needed for a more fair, equitable, and efficient justice system. Last year, DCJS, in partnership with the Governor’s Office, launched the New York State Council on Community Justice, an advisory group of state and local stakeholders to recommend measures to further improve the effectiveness and fairness of the state's criminal justice system.

Justice Lab. DCJS partners with national experts to develop timely, relevant, objective and research-based evidence on justice programs, policies, and strategies.  Our distinguished research office excels at showing “what is happening” in the justice system but cannot always tell us “why” it is happening. To be able to answer the most pressing questions, we recently launched the DCJS Justice Lab. This lab seeks to leverage our expertise, in partnership with national researchers, to generate relevant, objective evidence on justice programs and strategies, as well as to provide meaningful, actionable information for policymakers and criminal justice practitioners.

What is the main thing you would like other NCJA members to know about your agency? 

DCJS works best when we are a “copilot” to our local partners, helping to empower and equip them with what they need to make their communities safer and stronger. This approach takes time, trust, and resources, but it also takes teamwork. DCJS is fortunate to have a tremendously talented workforce of more than 450 employees, led by an incredible executive team. 

In just the last three years, nearly two-thirds of the agency’s executive team is new or in new roles, which presented an unprecedented opportunity to reorient the agency’s culture.  Through a series of retreats, we have spent time understanding each other’s leadership strengths, weaknesses, stories, and skills, which we leveraged to bring humanity and a more holistic focus to our work of justice and safety.  Together, we are learning that justice can be the objective and the organizing principle of government.