FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE JMD
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 1995 (202) 616-2765
TDD (202) 514-1888
JUSTICE DEPARTMENT SEEKS 20 PERCENT INCREASE IN FY 96 BUDGET
TO REDUCE VIOLENT CRIME AND ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Department of Justice today released
a FY96 budget that seeks $16.5 billion, a 20 percent increase, to
fulfill its mission to reduce violent crime. The new resources
will put 20,000 more police on the street, imprison more violent
offenders, provide state and local government with much needed
resources for anti-crime initiatives and reduce the flow of
illegal immigrants into the United States.
"This increase reflects the federal government's
unprecedented commitment to fight crime," Attorney General Janet
Reno said. Today's budget request also helps to fulfill our
pledge to provide crime fighting support and assistance at the
state and local level," she added.
Nearly 25 percent of the budget, $4 billion, will pay for
grants to help states, communities, law enforcement, and citizens
form partnerships to fight crime in their own neighborhoods -- a
67 percent increase over 1995. The majority of these grant funds
will come from the 1994 crime bill trust fund, which is funded by
savings realized by cutting the size of the federal government.
These crime bill grants and other Department funds will
provide resources that are sorely needed to lock up violent
offenders, crack down on gangs and assist local crime-fighting
initiatives, such as:
Assistance to State & Local Governments:
Community Policing: $1.9 billion to add
20,000 more police to the nation's total
police strength and promote community
policing, a 45 percent increase in funding
over 1995. This represents the next
installment on the President's commitment to
put 100,000 more police on the streets.
Nearly 10,000 police have been funded
already, and 40,000 will be funded by the end
of 1996. $20 million will be used for Police
Corps and for scholarships for law
enforcement officers.
Incarceration of Violent Criminals: $500
million in grants to build new state and
local jails and prisons (including facilities
for juvenile offenders), rehabilitate
existing jails and prisons, and build
alternative correctional facilities like boot
camps for non-violent offenders in order to
free space for violent offenders.
Criminal Alien Incarceration: $300 million, an
increase of $170 million over 1995, to reimburse
States for incarcerating illegal criminal aliens.
Byrne Formula grants: $450 million in crime bill funds
and direct appropriations for states to continue to use
funds for more than 20 law enforcement purposes,
including state and local drug task force efforts.
Violent Crime and Drug Prevention initiatives:
$158 million to better investigate, prosecute and
deter perpetrators of violent crimes against
women; $150 million to expand and build on the
successes of the Drug Court Program; $78 million
to target high crime areas with promising crime-
prevention programs.
"Today's budget request also allocates additional funding to
boost federal law enforcement efforts to attack gang-related
violent crime, drug trafficking and international organized
crime," Reno said. These funds will provide the resources to:
Federal Law Enforcement Initiatives:
Build New and Expand Current Federal Prison
Operations: $318 million to build three new
federal prisons and fund the activation of seven
new prisons, of which five will be privatized.
Resources are also included for five expansion
projects and to expand the use of alternatives to
incarceration. New prisons scheduled to open in
1996 will add 9,197 beds, an increase of 13
percent over current levels.
Improve Wiretap Capability -- $135 million to
ensure the government's ability to conduct court-
authorized wiretaps as the nation converts from
analog to digital communications technology. A
proposed 30 percent surcharge on civil monetary
penalties and criminal fines will be used to fund
$100 million to reimburse telecommunications
carriers for modifying equipment, facilities and
services.
Crackdown on Violent Gangs: $5 million to hire 60
personnel, (40 attorneys and 20 support staff) for
U.S. Attorneys' offices to aggressively and
creatively use the full power of federal law
enforcement to target and dismantle violent gangs.
(DOJ)
Crackdown on Heroin Trafficking: $4 million to
enable the DEA to hire 30 new agents to address
recent increases in heroin trafficking. In recent
years heroin purity levels have steadily risen.
Establish Eastern Europe Organized Crime Training
Facility: $2 million for the FBI to establish an
International Training Facility in Budapest,
Hungary, to help stem the flow of, and to prevent
future infusion of organized criminal activity
into the U.S. from Eastern Europe, Russia and the
former Soviet Republics.
Open Beijing Organized Crime Office: $1 million
to open a joint FBI/DEA office in Beijing,
People's Republic of China (PRC), so agents can
work closely with PRC law enforcement to combat
Asian organized crime and drug trafficking.
Expand Drug Treatment Programs: $1.7 million to
add five residential drug treatment programs,
providing additional drug treatment for up to
1,200 inmates in 1996 to ensure that federal
inmates return to society drug-free.
The budget request also includes over $1 billion for the
Department and four other Executive Branch agencies to help
control the border and help resolve the problem of criminal
illegal aliens. These include:
Strengthen control of our nation's borders: $269
million to significantly enhance the border
control activities of the Immigration and
Naturalization Service (INS). In total, almost
1,500 Border Patrol agents, inspectors and other
law enforcement personnel will be assigned to
areas of highest activity along the Southern
border.
Remove thousands of criminal aliens from the
United States: $178 million to implement a
comprehensive detention and removal program -- the
most intensive effort by any Administration to
address a loophole in the immigration control
system. These funds will enable INS to double the
number of deportations, to a total of 111,280 in
1996.
Increase sanctions against employers who hire
illegal aliens: $82 million is requested for the
INS, the U.S. Attorneys, and the Executive Office
of Immigration Review to strengthen enforcement of
immigration laws to reduce the "magnet effect" of
lucrative U.S. jobs by boosting the costs to both
employers and employees if they violate
immigration and employment laws.
"We have taken a fresh look at the functions and programs of
our component organizations and headquarters operations,
identifying many areas where we can restructure activities to
better carry out our mission," Reno noted.
"Office automation has enhanced communications and
information sharing between the FBI and the DEA, eliminating
duplicative investigation efforts in the U.S. and in foreign
countries. All Department components and divisions are reviewing
the size and mission of their operations with a view to
streamlining them wherever possible. The FBI is continuing its
redeployment of agents from headquarters to the field,
supervisory ratios will be increased in all the law enforcement
bureaus to enhance field operations, automation systems in the
litigation components has resulted in reduced support staffing
requirements.
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95-067