Saturday, October 13, 2012

Federal law enforcement grants may become victims of Congressional budget showdown

According to the Crime Report, federal criminal justice grants to the states might get cut if Congress can't strike a debt ceiling deal include "Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS), Byrne Justice Assistance Grants, Residential Substance Abuse Treatment for State Prisoners, various federal juvenile delinquency prevention initiatives, and the National Instant Criminal Background Check System." Reported Ted Gest,
If sequestration goes into effect next year, which is considered likely, all domestic federal discretionary spending--including for criminal justice purposes--will be cut by 8.2 percent at first. Further reductions are required through fiscal year 2021.

Advocates for federal spending on criminal justice and other domestic issues are trying to convince members of Congress to take a "balanced" approach that does not require continued, large across-the-board cuts in federal aid.

Many argue that while the huge federal deficit makes some spending reductions inevitable, more attention should be given to "entitlements" like Medicare and Social Security payments.
Depending on what's meant by juvenile grants, that could be a big deal. Here's a link to the most recent quarter's worth of federal Byrne grants issued in Texas by the US Justice Department.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Question on the bigger picture... What percent of the total Texas criminal justice system is funded by federal dollars? I know this is no easy question. Could somebody put their thumb in the air and make a WAG?

Scott, are you in a position to make a guess?

Irregardless of who wins the election (Obama, Romney), federal money is tight. People smarter than I say the results of the election will not much affect the flow of money, federal dollars are southbound. Yet it will have a big impact on the US Supreme Court appointments and the direction of controversial issues...

Anonymous said...

Also, mismo 06:59 hombre aqui -

WAY off topic-

What's the news on the court of inquiry, Morton, Bradley, Rusty Hardin, September 2012? This is a major Texas event...

Scuttlebut?

Gritsforbreakfast said...

7:14, it got pushed back to December.

6:59, if I had to guess I'd say in the low single digits for criminal justice overall, which is mostly state and local dollars. But in certain areas it's more, like juvenile, specialty courts, etc..

john said...

"Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) is COMMUNITARIAN STRUCTURE not really for law enforcement, but to accuse your property of faults for which they can tax you, seize it, etc. This was practiced in the NW States for some years, and it is anti-American.
Serious crap of Agenda 21 Local 21 SustainaBULLity. These committees must be stopped.
arrrgh, crapcha-

John C. Key MD said...

I would suggest that these grants are a major reason for the malignant overgrowth of policing and overcriminalization. The more of them that bite the dust, the better off we all will be.

Anonymous said...

The federal grants can be considerable for drug arrests,,it is why the police concentrate on busting marijuana users,,every arrest counts towards more grant money and marijuana users are the lowest fruit on the tree with over 1/3 of our population imbibing on it occasionally and the resulting odor of it's use,,it's like shooting fish in a barrel.
Watch marijuana arrests plummet when the feds no longer pay bounty money for them.

Les Brown said...

Law enforcement is a local and state issue, generally speaking, not federal.

Anonymous said...

@Lee Brown,

Lee,,federal grant money is paid to every police agancy that makes a minimum number of drug busts,,cities now depend on that grant money to outfit their depts with the latest greatest drug warrior gear,,,because all the grant money is SUPPOSED to be spent on overtime for drug busts,,equipment for SWAT raids on peoples homes for a couple of grams of grass.

This policy of paying bounties for drug busts is responsible for the militarization of our police and causing more damage than good all over the country.

The numbers of deaths caused by law enforcement actions now rivals the murder rates.