Justice Department Awards Over $42 Million to Improve Public Safety and Serve Crime Victims in Alaska Native Communities

Anchorage, Alaska – U.S. Attorney Bryan Schroder announced today that in the past 90 days, the Department of Justice has awarded over $49 million in grants to Alaska Native communities and tribal organizations to improve public safety, serve victims of crime, combat violence against women, and support youth programs.  That amount includes the $42 million recently announced by Attorney General William Barr at the 2019 Alaska Federation of Natives Convention in Fairbanks.  These grants to Alaska were part of $273.4 million in grants that were awarded nationwide to American Indian and Alaska Native communities.

In Alaska, the problems with violent crime in rural areas are so severe that this summer the Attorney General declared a law enforcement emergency, providing additional resources to our state.  At that time, the AG announced $6 million in Emergency Federal Law Enforcement Assistance (EFLEA) grants, and $5 million in grants from the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Tribal Resources Grant Program (TRGP). The $49 million in grants are in addition to the EFLEA and TRGP funding and show the continued commitment of the Department of Justice to the people of rural Alaska, and to the state as a whole.

“Violent crime and domestic abuse in American Indian and Alaska Native communities remain at unacceptably high levels, and they demand a response that is both clear and comprehensive,” said Attorney General William P. Barr. “We will continue to work closely with our tribal partners to guarantee they have the resources they need to curb violence and bring healing to the victims most profoundly affected by it.”  

Nationwide, 236 grants were awarded to 149 American Indian tribes, Alaska Native communities and other tribal designees through the Coordinated Tribal Assistance Solicitation (CTAS), a streamlined application for tribal-specific grant programs. Of the $118 million awarded via CTAS, just over $62.6 million comes from the Office of Justice Programs (OJP), about $33.1 million from the Office on Violence Against Women and more than $23.2 million from the COPS. A portion of the funding will support tribal youth mentoring and intervention services, help native communities implement requirements of the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act, and provide training and technical assistance to tribal communities. Another $5.5 million was funded by OJP’s Bureau of Justice Assistance to provide training and technical assistance to CTAS awardees.

The Department also announced awards and other programming totaling $167.2 million in a set-aside program to serve victims of crime. The awards are intended to help tribes develop, expand and improve services to victims by supporting programming and technical assistance. About $25.6 million of these awards were awarded under CTAS and are included in the $118 million detailed above.

CTAS funding helps tribes develop and strengthen their justice systems’ response to crime, while expanding services to meet their communities’ public safety needs. The awards cover 10 purpose areas: public safety and community policing; justice systems planning; alcohol and substance abuse; corrections and correctional alternatives; children’s justice act partnerships; services for victims of crime; violence against women; juvenile justice; violent crime reduction; and tribal youth programs.

The Department also provided $6.1 million to help tribes to comply with federal law on sex offender registration and notification, $1.7 million in separate funding to assist tribal youth and nearly $500,000 to support tribal research on missing and murdered indigenous women and children and other public safety-related topics.

Alaska’s share of this nationwide grant funding was significant.  Over $20 million of the CTAS grant funding was awarded to Alaska.  In addition, over $22 million of the set-aside funding for victims of crime was also awarded to Alaska Native communities and tribal entities.  Those grant funds alone totaled over $42 million dollars, as the Attorney General announced to the delegates of the Alaska Federation of Natives.  Alaska Native communities and tribal organizations will also have access to an additional $7 million in “micro-grants” through the Denali Commission to help provide victim services, including capacity building and technical assistance.
 

• A listing of CTAS awards is available at: https://www.justice.gov/tribal/awards.
• A listing of all other announced tribal awards are available at: https://go.usa.gov/xVJuE.
  Note: The significance of the number in the left column next to each Alaska Native community refers to the Coordinated Tribal Assistance Solicitation (“CTAS”) purpose area that the tribe identified when applying for the grant, more info here: /media/1116486/download?inline

This announcement is part of the Justice Department’s ongoing initiative to increase engagement, coordination and action on public safety in American Indian and Alaska Native communities.