Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program

The Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program is a national, formula-based block grant program administered by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs. Its purpose is to improve the criminal justice system by providing federal funding that can be passed through to state and local criminal justice partners. In Florida, Criminal Justice Grants prepares a comprehensive state application and submits it to the Office of Justice Programs on behalf of the State of Florida. After federal review, approval, acceptance, and satisfaction of applicable award conditions, Criminal Justice Grants administers Florida's allocation through the JAG Countywide and JAG Direct components. JAG funding must support one or more of nine identified program areas. These are Law Enforcement; Prosecution and Courts; Prevention and Education; Corrections and Community Corrections; Drug Treatment and Enforcement; Planning, Evaluation, and Technology Improvement; Crime Victim and Witness; Mental Health; and State Crisis Intervention Proceedings. Florida has also developed the State of Florida Byrne JAG Strategic Plan in response to statewide strategic planning requirements under Section 502 of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act. The plan identifies priorities based on a survey of local agency partners and state agency long-range program plans, and recipients are strongly encouraged to fund projects addressing at least one identified priority. Approximately 85 percent of Florida's total federal JAG award is administered through JAG Countywide. This component is divided between state share and local share funding. State share projects are appropriated to state criminal justice agencies. Local share projects follow the application process established in Chapter 11D-9, Florida Administrative Code. The local share is distributed among Florida's 67 counties using a formula-based funding matrix based on population and crime statistics. Each county is responsible for completing a local strategic planning process and notifying Criminal Justice Grants of its proposed projects. The remaining approximately 15 percent of Florida's total federal award is administered through JAG Direct. JAG Direct funding is passed directly to eligible units of government that do not receive funding through the Office of Justice Programs Local JAG Direct Program. Criminal Justice Grants issues JAG Direct awards ranging from $1,000 to $10,000, with individual allocations determined using the most recent crime statistics reported. The source does not provide a comparable minimum or maximum award for the broader JAG Countywide component and does not state Florida's total federal award amount. The source identifies local and tribal units of government and state criminal justice agencies as participants in the JAG funding structure. Within Florida, the Countywide component specifically involves the state's 67 counties as part of the local-share allocation and planning process, while state-share projects are appropriated to state criminal justice agencies. JAG Direct is limited to otherwise eligible units of government that do not receive funds through the federal Local JAG Direct Program. The supplied material does not state a cost-share or matching requirement, performance period, number of awards, or detailed application-document requirements. The federal state JAG solicitation and funding allocations are released annually in the spring. Criminal Justice Grants then prepares and submits Florida's comprehensive application, after which the Office of Justice Programs reviews the application and issues the federal award. Florida begins administering JAG Countywide and JAG Direct awards after the state award has been approved and accepted and applicable conditions have been met. No specific application opening date, closing date, pre-application deadline, award notification date, contact person, email address, or telephone number is provided in the supplied source. Because the program is expressly described as annual, future funding cycles are expected to recur, but an exact deadline for the next cycle cannot be established from the supplied information.

Recipients are strongly encouraged to fund projects addressing at least one priority identified in the State of Florida Byrne JAG Strategic Plan.