FOREWORD
As the Department of Justice’s largest grantmaking division, the Office of Justice Programs is a leading source of federal funding, training and technical assistance, statistics and research for safety and justice at the state, local and tribal levels. Each year, OJP invests roughly $5 billion to meet the most pressing challenges facing our nation’s criminal and juvenile justice systems and the communities they serve.
The OJP Fiscal Year 2023–2027 Policy Blueprint is both a statement of values and a roadmap for the design and development of our policies and programs in the years to come. It frames our mission around three overarching priorities: advancing community safety, building community trust and strengthening the community’s role as co-producer of safety and justice. These aims have always been central to our work, but we are reaffirming and reinforcing our commitment to building community capacity and to supporting communities as partners to justice system actors in catalyzing meaningful and lasting change.
To deliver on our mission, we are focused on six goals: promoting safety and strengthening trust, accelerating justice system reforms, making the juvenile justice system more equitable and effective, expanding access to victim services, advancing science and innovation, and achieving organizational excellence across the agency. These goals, as well as the corresponding objectives described in the following pages, are a clear reflection of OJP’s vision for improving public safety and ensuring equal justice for all.
The agenda outlined in this blueprint is ambitious, yet it is within our reach. Through the dedication of OJP’s talented workforce and our invaluable partners in the field, we can create a safer, more just, more equitable nation for all.
Amy L. Solomon
Assistant Attorney General
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABOUT THE OFFICE OF JUSTICE PROGRAMS
FISCAL YEAR 2023 – 2027 POLICY BLUEPRINT
LEARN MORE AND CONNECT WITH OJP
ABOUT THE OFFICE OF JUSTICE PROGRAMS
Vision Mission Values
Tagline |
The Office of Justice Programs is the largest grantmaking component of the Department of Justice and houses the Department’s criminal and juvenile justice-related science, statistics, and programmatic agencies. OJP provides federal leadership, funding, training and technical assistance, research and statistics, and other critical resources to advance work that strengthens community safety, promotes civil rights and equity, increases access to justice, supports crime victims and individuals impacted by the justice system, and builds trust between law enforcement and communities.
OJP administers a broad range of programs that contribute to all five of the Department’s fiscal year 2022 – 2026 strategic goals.[1] Given the agency’s focus on assisting state, local, and tribal criminal, and juvenile justice systems, OJP’s programs particularly contribute to efforts to implement DOJ Strategic Goal 2: Keep Our Country Safe and Goal 3: Protect Civil Rights.
The six goals described below span OJP’s wide-reaching portfolio of resources designed to build solutions that support community safety and advance justice. All of OJP’s goals and strategic objectives will be infused with a culture and practice of data collection, research, and evaluation to ensure that science is interwoven throughout the mission and practice of OJP.
FISCAL YEAR 2023–2027 POLICY BLUEPRINT
Strategic Objective 1.1
Reduce and prevent crime through effective prevention, intervention, strategic enforcement, and reentry programs and strategies.
Strategic Objective 1.2
Promote constitutional, equitable and effective administration of justice, including policing, courts, corrections, and community supervision.
Strategic Objective 1.3
Increase community trust, healing, and engagement, and reduce burden on police by supporting collaborative approaches to crime prevention that build capacity of law enforcement and residents to co-produce community safety.
Strategic Objective 1.4
End hate-motivated violence, crimes, and other incidents through support for communities, law enforcement, and collaborative efforts.
Strategic Objective 1.5
Support rehabilitation during incarceration and facilitate reentry by transforming correctional cultures and environments to promote the well-being of those who are incarcerated, expanding access to high-quality treatment, training, education, and services, and breaking down barriers to opportunity for those with criminal records.
Strategic Objective 1.6
Strengthen the health, safety and well-being of justice system practitioners, including law enforcement and correctional officers.
Strategic Objective 2.1
Advance justice system practices that promote equity and reduce disparate impacts on people of color and other historically marginalized communities.
Strategic Objective 2.2
Strengthen communities by identifying the behaviors and policies that lead to arrest, incarceration, and community supervision, and implementing evidence-informed responses that hold individuals accountable and maintain public safety while reducing the overall number of people who are involved in the justice system.
Strategic Objective 2.3
Increase legal representation and access to legal services and resources, especially for underserved, vulnerable and historically marginalized populations.
Strategic Objective 2.4
Expand opportunities to safely divert people from justice system involvement into community-based interventions, including diversion to treatment for people with behavioral health disorders.
Strategic Objective 2.5
Increase investment in and support for interventions, programming and population specific organizations that serve communities that have been historically underserved, marginalized, adversely affected by inequality, and disproportionately impacted by crime, violence, and victimization.
Strategic Objective 3.1
Expand the use of developmentally appropriate, culturally responsive and evidence-informed prevention programs and strategies that reduce the likelihood of juvenile justice system contact, strengthen protective factors, and advance community safety.
Strategic Objective 3.2
Promote state and local juvenile justice practices that are informed by science and research to ensure that young people are adjudicated fairly and given opportunities to transition into a safe and healthy adulthood.
Strategic Objective 3.3
Support developmentally appropriate interventions that advance community safety and serve system-involved youth at home, with their families, and in their communities whenever possible and consistent with public safety.
Strategic Objective 3.4
Expand educational, employment and other opportunities for success for system-involved youth.
Strategic Objective 4.1
Expand the accessibility and range of high-quality trauma-informed and culturally relevant services, resources, and victims’ rights information available to all victims of crime.
Strategic Objective 4.2
Expand the reach and impact of the crime victim compensation program by reducing barriers to participation among underserved and historically marginalized communities.
Strategic Objective 4.3
Elevate the voices and perspectives of victims, survivors, and victim service providers in public safety policy discussions to ensure they are included in the development and refinement of policies, programs, services, and relevant victim-related research methodologies.
Strategic Objective 4.4
Promote victim-centered, trauma-informed practices that avoid re-traumatization and support victims' rights, dignity, autonomy, and self-determination.
Strategic Objective 5.1
Foster rigorous and inclusive research that informs efforts to promote safer communities and more equitable justice systems.
Strategic Objective 5.2
Strengthen research and data infrastructure to promote continuous accountability and improvement in justice system operations and to inform public policy decisions in real time.
Strategic Objective 5.3
Translate research findings and evidence into actionable guidance to promote implementation in the field.
Strategic Objective 5.4
Build data and research capacity among community-based and culturally specific organizations and promote partnerships and research that are inclusive of historically marginalized and underserved communities and that incorporate the views, perspectives, and expertise of those with lived experience.
Strategic Objective 6.1
Ensure that OJP resources and communications are timely, clear, accessible, responsive to stakeholder needs and aligned with OJP’s mission and goals.
Strategic Objective 6.2
Ensure good stewardship of taxpayer resources by promoting effective management and oversight and equitable access to federal resources.
Strategic Objective 6.3
Foster a culture of equity, inclusion, mutual respect, and accountability across all agency levels in support of OJP’s mission-driven workforce.
Strategic Objective 6.4
Provide secure, modern, and cost-effective technology services that support the mission of the OJP business and program offices.
Strategic Objective 6.5
Strengthen relationships and expand engagement with stakeholders.
LEARN MORE AND CONNECT WITH OJP
- Visit ojp.gov
- Follow @ojpgov
- Like Facebook.com/DOJOJP
- Watch YouTube.com/OJPOCOM
- Connect at LinkedIn.com (search “Office of Justice Programs”)
- Sign up to subscribe for news, updates, and funding opportunities
- Discover open OJP funding opportunities
- Explore the Department of Justice Grants Program Plan
- Access JustGrants Resources for useful application training and tips
