BJA FY 2022 Reimagining Justice: Testing a New Model of Community Safety

OJP is committed to advancing work that promotes civil rights and racial equity, increases access to justice, supports crime victims and individuals impacted by the justice system, strengthens community safety and protects the public from crime and evolving threats, and builds trust between law enforcement and the community. This program seeks to fill a gap within OJP's current funding plan by seeding the development, implementation, and testing of a new or innovative approach to achieving community safety that is an alternative to a traditional enforcement model for less serious and lower-level crimes. It will provide $3,000,000 in FY 2022 to fund an innovative strategy or model to improve community safety, build trust, limit unnecessary involvement in the justice system, and improve residents' perceptions of law enforcement and procedural fairness and legitimacy. BJA's Reimagining Justice: Testing a New Model of Community Safety Program will invest in a collaborative network of community-based organizations and institutions, as well as local nonlaw-enforcement government agencies, to address these less serious/lower-level crimes through delivery of coordinated programs and services. This new community safety model will address the needs and objectives of community leaders, residents, and other members through a community engagement process that will include coordination with law enforcement entities, where appropriate, in a locality or one or more neighborhoods experiencing a precipitous increase in crime, while avoiding any unnecessary justice system involvement.