Title 28

SECTION 33.31

33.31 Eligible purposes and programs.

§ 33.31 Eligible purposes and programs.

(a) Eligible purposes. Block grant funds may be used for the following purposes listed in section 403(a) of the Justice Assistance Act:

(1) Providing community and neighborhood programs that enable citizens and police to undertake initiatives to prevent and control neighborhood crime;

(2) Disrupting illicit commerce in stolen goods and property;

(3) Combating arson;

(4) Effectively investing and bringing to trial white-collar crime, organized crime, public corruption crimes, and fraud against the Government;

(5) Identifying criminal cases involving persons (including juvenile offenders) with a history of serious criminal conduct in order to expedite the processing of such cases and to improve court system management and sentencing practices and procedures in such cases;

(6) Developing and implementing programs which provide assistance to jurors and witnesses, and assistance (other than compensation) to victims of crimes;

(7) Providing alternatives to pretrial detention, jail, and prison for persons who pose no danger to the community;

(8) Providing programs which identify and meet the needs of drug-dependent offenders;

(9) Providing programs which alleviate prison and jail overcrowding and programs which identify existing state and Federal buildings suitable for prison use;

(10) Providing, management, and technical assistance to criminal justice personnel and determining appropriate prosecutorial and judicial personnel needs;

(11) Providing prison industry projects designed to place inmates in a realistic working and training environment in which they will be enabled to acquire marketable skills and to make financial payments for restitution to their victims, for support of their own families, and for support of themselves in the institution;

(12) Providing for operational information systems and workload management systems which improve the effectiveness of criminal justice agencies;

(13) Not more than 10 percent of the state's block grant funds for providing programs of the same types as described in section 501(a)(4) of the Act which:

(i) The Bureau establishes under section 503(a) of the Act as discretionary programs for financial assistance; or

(ii) Are innovative and have been deemed by the Bureau as likely to prove successful;

(14) Implementing programs which address critical problems of crime, such as drug trafficking, which have been certified by the Director of the Bureau of Justice Assistance as having proved successful, after a process of consultation coordinated by the Assistant Attorney General of the Office of Justice Programs with the Director of the National Institute of Justice, Director of the Bureau of Justice Statistics, and Administrator of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention;

(15) Providing programs which address the problem of serious offenses committed by juveniles;

(16) Addressing the problem of crime committed against the elderly;

(17) Providing training, technical assistance, and programs to assist state and local law enforcement authorities in rural areas in combating crime, with particular emphasis on violent crime, juvenile delinquency, and crime prevention; and

(18) Improving the operational effectiveness of law enforcement by integrating and maximizing the effectiveness of police field operations and the use of crime analysis techniques.

(b) Programs. The Bureau of Justice Assistance has certified that specific programs meet these purposes, conform with the program criteria, and are eligible for block grant support. (See § 33.32 of the regulations, Certified Programs). These programs are described in Program Briefs that are available from the Bureau of Justice Assistance. The list of certified programs will be expanded in the future based on the statutory criteria to permit a more complete coverage of each of the purposes. This certification will be done in consultation with state and local governments and published in the Federal Register. States and localities may use block funds to implement one or more of these certified programs, if they agree to comply with the critical elements set forth in § 33.32 of these regulations, and to provide data on the performance indicators listed. States and localities selecting these programs may identify the certified program in their application by name only, without further description. Programs other than those certified by the Bureau of Justice Assistance may be proposed by the state and/or units of local government and approved for funding by the Bureau. To obtain approval to fund a proposed program, the applicant must provide in its application a description of the program and evidence that it meets the statutory program criteria. The application requirements for program approval are contained in Subpart E - Application Requirements.