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Justice Programs News & Funding |
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May 15, 2024 - Vol. 30, Issue 10
Twice monthly highlights from the Office of Justice Programs |
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A MESSAGE FROM ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL AMY L. SOLOMON
During National Police Week – May 12-18 – we pay tribute to the hundreds of thousands of law enforcement professionals across the country who serve and protect our communities. We especially honor the brave and selfless officers who made the ultimate sacrifice, giving their lives in the performance of their duties.
During his remarks at the memorial service for fallen Deputy U.S. Marshall Tommy Weeks, Jr. – one of four officers slain while serving a warrant on April 29 – Attorney General Garland spoke of the solemn responsibility assumed by America’s police professionals, and of the sacrifice they share with their loved ones: "Every day our law enforcement officers go to work knowing that day may be their last. Every day their families send them off to work, praying it will not be."
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The Office of Justice Programs joins our colleagues across the Department of Justice and in jurisdictions throughout the nation in honoring our law enforcement partners, who serve with integrity and distinction and strive to make our communities safe. We are proud to support them in the vital work they do, and we are deeply grateful for their service and sacrifice. |
Amy L. Solomon
Assistant Attorney General
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May is Mental Health Awareness Month
OJP serves as a critical source of funding, training and technical assistance, and research to accelerate reform in our nation’s justice system. We support prevention and intervention efforts to improve responses to and outcomes for individuals with mental health needs at every point of the justice continuum.
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New Blog on Enhancing Corrections Spaces and Cultures
The nation's prisons and jails are struggling to recruit and retain staff. Dr. Danielle Rudes, former fellow with the Bureau of Justice Assistance’s Visiting Fellows Program shares her critical outreach, data, and research on enhancing corrections spaces and cultures, concentrating on supporting correctional agencies in developing and transforming jail and prison environments and physical spaces.
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OVC From the Director's Desk
OVC Director Kristina Rose provides updates about OVC funding opportunities, the 18th National Indian Nations Conference, Missing or Murdered Indigenous Persons Awareness Day, and the Crime Victims Fund.
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In honor of the Days of Remembrance
May 5 through May 12, 2024, President Biden stated in a White House proclamation, "During Yom HaShoah and these days of remembrance, we mourn the six million Jews who were systematically targeted and murdered in the Holocaust, one of the darkest chapters in human history."
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GRANTEE SPOTLIGHT
Dr. Natasha Frost, a Professor and Associate Dean at Northeastern University has led National Institute of Justice NIJ-funded research to investigate correctional officer wellness, officer suicidality, and the impact of officer suicide on families, colleagues, and the facility. Frost and her team at Northeastern University initiated this research in response to an unusually high rate of suicide among Massachusetts Department of Correction (MADOC) corrections officers. The researcher-practitioner partnership that Frost and the university have formed with MADOC through NIJ grant funding provided for the study of new recruits to MADOC and how their stress levels, triggers, and resiliency changes over time.
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This pivotal research by Frost on correction officer safety, health, and wellness found about 25 percent of correctional officers in the study self-reported symptoms consistent with at least one psychological distress outcome. The average suicide rate for MADOC corrections officers over this period was approximately 105 per 100,000 — at least seven times higher than the national suicide rate (14 per 100,000), and almost 12 times higher than the suicide rate for the state of Massachusetts (nine per 100,000).
Frost's efforts, along with Dr. Carlos Monteiro, an Assistant Professor at Suffolk University, and Dr. Rhianna Kohl, with the Massachusetts Department of Correction, led to the award of funds in fiscal year 2023 to identify and adopt policy changes in mandatory overtime and disciplinary procedures to improve the overall climate and to address officer and organizational stress that contributed to rates of suicide.
Frost's coverage of this study was featured in Corrections Today.
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DID YOU KNOW?
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On May 14, 2001, President George W. Bush announced Project Safe Neighborhoods, a nationwide effort to reduce gun violence at the local level. The 10 cities participating in the Strategic Approaches to Community Safety Initiative — a forerunner to Project Safe Neighborhoods — were "morphed" into PSN sites. |
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U.S. Department of Justice | Office of Justice Programs | Justice Programs News & Funding
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