The Bureau of Justice Assistance is a federal agency housed within the Department of Justice (DOJ) under the DOJ’s Office of Justice programs. It provides grants, resources, trainings, and other forms of assistance to state and local criminal justice programs.

Most of the grants awarded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance go to local governments, state and local police departments, state prison bureaus, and other government agencies affiliated with state and local criminal justice systems. The bureau operates or supports dozens of programs related to the administration of courts, prisons, and policing, among other issues and supports programs on topics including drug courts, crisis intervention, body cams, cold case investigations, racially motivated crimes, and other topics. While the bureau mostly funds agencies, it sometimes awards grants in partnership with agencies and nonprofit organizations and has provided funding to programs operated by left-of-center criminal justice organization Evident Change. ^{1 2 3 4}

Background

The Bureau of Justice Assistance was formed in 1984 to provide federal support to the national criminal justice system in the United States with the goal of reducing violent crime. The bureau’s website currently states that its goals include preventing crime as well as “[reducing] recidivism and promoting a fair and safe criminal justice system.” ⁵

The BJA mostly provides grants to state and local agencies including police departments, courts, and prisons to provide training and technical assistance to law enforcement, courts, corrections, treatment, reentry, justice information sharing, and community organizations. ⁶

Programs

The Bureau of Justice Assistance operates over 80 programs targeted at a variety of criminal justice topics, including reducing DNA testing backlogs, emergency law enforcement assistance, encouraging responsible gun ownership, mass violence, drug courts, and mental health courts. The bureau also operates programs for hate crimes enforcement and racially motivated cold cases, named for Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. and Emmet Till respectively. ⁷

The Bureau of Justice Assistance is listed as a funder of left-of-center criminal justice think tank Evident Change, formerly the National Council on Crime and Delinquency, an advocacy group opposed to the use of cash bail as a condition of pretrial release, claiming that it places an unfair burden on poor and nonwhite defendants.  Evident Change is funded by left-of-center foundations such as George Soros’s Open Society Foundations and the MacArthur Foundation, among others. ^{8 9}

Evident Change stated that with funding from the Bureau of Justice Assistance, “Evident Change worked with children of immigrant parents to develop youth-led training curriculum that provides law enforcement with strategies for interacting effectively with youth.” ¹⁰

Leadership

Karhlton Moore was appointed as the director of the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) by President Joe Biden in 2022. Moore was previously the executive director of Ohio’s Office of Criminal Justice Services where he oversaw state and federal grants for law enforcement, victim assistance, juvenile justice, crime prevention courts, anti-trafficking efforts, reentry, corrections programs, and traffic safety. He was previously the facilitator for former Ohio Governor John Kasich’s (R) Task Force on Community-Police Relations, worked on the National Criminal Justice Association (NCJA) advisory council and executive committee, and was president of NCJA’s board of directors. He was also on the steering committee of the Justice Counts initiative. ¹¹

1. “Program List.” Bureau of Justice Assistance. Accessed March 15, 2024. https://bja.ojp.gov/program/list?page=1#microsites-block-1-fesp7rjf3mbba79-
2. “Home.” Bureau of Justice Assistance. Accessed March 15, 2024. https://bja.ojp.gov/.
3. “About.” Bureau of Justice Assistance. Accessed March 15, 2024. https://bja.ojp.gov/about
4. “Collaborative Policing Reform.” Evident Change. Accessed March https://evidentchange.org/what-we-do/collaborative-policing-reform/
5. About.” Bureau of Justice Assistance. Accessed March 15, 2024. https://bja.ojp.gov/about
6. “About.” Bureau of Justice Assistance. Accessed March 15, 2024. https://bja.ojp.gov/about
7. “Program List.” Bureau of Justice Assistance. Accessed March 15, 2024. https://bja.ojp.gov/program/list?page=1#microsites-block-1-fesp7rjf3mbba79-
8. “Funding Partners.” Evident Change. Accessed February 5, 2024. https://evidentchange.org/about-evident-change/funding-partners/
9. “Risk, Values, and Pretrial Reform.” Evident Change, September 21, 2018.Accessed March 15, 2024. https://evidentchange.org/blog/risk-values-and-pretrial-reform/
10. “Collaborative Policing Reform.” Evident Change. Accessed March https://evidentchange.org/what-we-do/collaborative-policing-reform/
11. “Home.” Bureau of Justice Assistance. Accessed March 15, 2024. https://bja.ojp.gov/about/director