BJA FY 20 Innovations in Supervision Initiative: Building Capacity to Create Safer Communities | BJA 2020 17131

Opportunity Information: Apply for BJA 2020 17131

The BJA FY 20 Innovations in Supervision Initiative: Building Capacity to Create Safer Communities is a discretionary federal grant opportunity administered by the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA). It was designed to strengthen probation and parole agencies by helping them improve how community supervision is delivered, with the larger public-safety aim of creating safer communities through better supervision outcomes.

At its core, the initiative focuses on increasing success rates for people on probation or parole and lowering recidivism among those under supervision. The program frames success not just as completing supervision, but as reducing new criminal behavior and improving stability in the community. By supporting agencies in becoming more effective, the initiative seeks to reduce crime and victimization, limit unnecessary admissions to jails and prisons, and ultimately reduce long-term costs to taxpayers. The opportunity emphasizes capacity building, meaning applicants would be expected to use funding to enhance the tools, practices, and organizational ability of supervision agencies to supervise more effectively and consistently.

This funding opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number BJA 2020 17131) uses a cooperative agreement as its funding instrument. A cooperative agreement generally indicates substantial involvement by the funding agency compared with a standard grant, which can include closer collaboration, more active technical support, or additional federal involvement in project direction and performance expectations. The program is associated with CFDA number 16.812 and is categorized within broad federal activity areas that include law, justice, and legal services, along with related areas such as information and statistics and training-oriented categories that align with agency capacity development.

Eligible applicants are governmental entities, including state governments, county governments, city or township governments, special district governments, and federally recognized Native American tribal governments. This eligibility structure reflects the fact that probation and parole functions are commonly housed in state, county, municipal, or tribal justice systems, and the initiative aims to reach agencies that directly manage supervision operations or can coordinate system-wide improvements.

The opportunity was posted with a creation date of February 28, 2020, and an original application closing date of April 28, 2020. BJA anticipated making approximately five awards under this solicitation. The maximum award amount (award ceiling) was set at $1,000,000 per award, signaling support for substantial, multi-faceted efforts rather than small pilot projects. Taken together, the limited number of expected awards and the relatively high ceiling suggest a competitive process intended to fund a select set of jurisdictions capable of implementing meaningful, potentially scalable improvements in community supervision practice and outcomes.

Overall, the Innovations in Supervision Initiative is oriented toward practical, outcome-driven improvements in probation and parole. The federal rationale is straightforward: if supervision agencies can better support compliance, address risk and needs more effectively, and respond to violations in ways that reduce future offending, communities benefit through fewer crimes and fewer victims, correctional populations can be managed more responsibly, and public resources can be used more efficiently.

• The Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance in the education, employment, labor and training, humanities (see cultural affairs in cfda), information and statistics, law, justice and legal services sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "BJA FY 20 Innovations in Supervision Initiative: Building Capacity to Create Safer Communities" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 16.812.
• This funding opportunity was created on Feb 28, 2020.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Apr 28, 2020. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $1,000,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 5 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized).

Apply for BJA 2020 17131

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