How your agency is structured?

The Tennessee Office of Criminal Justice Programs (OCJP) is a division of the Department of Finance and Administration, a centralized administrative and financial department within state government.

Please list the federal and state grants your agency administers.

In FY 2024, OCJP is administering 45 different state and federal fund sources. Our federal funding includes the following:

• Byrne Justice Assistance Grant Program (JAG)

• Victims of Crime Act, Victim’s Assistance or VOCA

• STOP (Services, Training, Officers, Prosecutors) Violence Against Women Grant Program

• Sexual Assault Services Formula Grant Program (SASP)

• Project Safe Neighborhood (Western, Middle, and Eastern divisions)

• Family Violence Prevention and Services Assistance (FVPSA)

• Residential Substance Abuse Treatment for State Prisoners (RSAT)

• National Criminal Histories Improvement Program (NCHIP)

• NICS Act Record Improvement Program (NARIP)

• JAG Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA)

• Paul Coverdell Forensic Science Improvement Grants (Coverdell)

• Byrne State Crisis Intervention Program (SCIP)

• COVID-19-related funding

~ Coronavirus Emergency Supplemental Funding (CESF)

~ American Rescue Plan I and II through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

(HHS) for Domestic Violence Programs

~ American Rescue Plan III through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for Sexual Assault Programs

• Discretionary Funding:

~ OVW Improving Criminal Justice Response (ICJR)

~ Connect and Protect: Law Enforcement Behavioral Health Response Program

~ Emergency Federal Law Enforcement Assistance (EFLEA)

~ Antiterrorism and Emergency Assistance Program (AEAP)

~ OVC Services for Victims of Human Trafficking

~ OVC State Victim Liaison Project

State funding includes 25 funding sources in total, appropriations (some are singular, and others are re-occurring) and dedicated reserves through various fines, fees and forfeitures. These include various sources of state funding for victim service needs such as domestic violence, child abuse, sexual assault, human trafficking, victim service training academy, and victim notification system. Others support various components of the criminal justice system such as Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC), Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS), Mental Health Transportation, Domestic Violence State Coordinating Council, Pre-trial Services, Criminal Court Notification, Evidence-Based Programming for local Jails, Violent Crime Intervention Program for Law Enforcement, Electronic Monitoring Indigency Fund, Higher Education School Safety funding and Halfway House funding.

What are your top three current priorities or focus areas?

Tennessee continues to struggle with the methamphetamine, opioid and fentanyl crisis and the violent crime and substance use disorders that plague our families. To address these issues, OCJP utilizes a multipronged approach to violent crime through our targeted community crime reduction programs in Memphis and Nashville and statewide through the state violent crime intervention fund. OCJP supports re-entry efforts statewide to provide evidence-based programming within our jails and prisons to ensure those re-entering our communities have skills to earn a living wage, support their families and address the impact of trauma and victimization while incarcerated. OCJP has heard from victims and victim service providers about the importance of law enforcement victim advocates to immediately provide service to victims at violent crime scenes and then continuing that support throughout the court process through the victim witness coordinators.

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

Tennessee understands the dichotomous relationship between victimization and justice involvement; whether that be through experiencing violent crime and subsequent violent acts or the various traumas of adverse childhood experiences that lead to unresolved trauma and justice involvement. Our focus is to provide funding for trauma-informed services that promote public safety while addressing the trauma of victimization. Tennessee encourages, supports, and promotes evidence-based solutions to justice system problems; utilizing a logic model approach to program development to demonstrate sound outcomes for the funded initiatives.