The following post appears courtesy of the Office of Justice Programs.

In 1987 Paula Beverly Davis went missing from Kansas City, Missouri. She was 21, worked as a store clerk and had a 1-year old son. Later that year, police in Englewood, Ohio, found her remains but could not identify her. They called her Jane Doe, and buried her in a local graveyard.

Jump ahead to October 2009, when Davis’ younger sister, Stephanie Clack, was watching ABC’s “The Forgotten.” At the end of the show, ABC aired a public service announcement about a Justice Department Web site– www.NamUs.gov–designed to match records of missing persons with records from unidentified decedents. (“NamUs” stands for the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System.)

Ms. Clack started surfing www.NamUs.gov and found the record of a woman with tattoos that matched her sister’s tattoos. Authorities used DNA to confirm the match.   Thanks to her sister’s search of NamUs and a television show’s public service announcement, Paula Davis’s remains are now going home. She will be buried next to her mother and grandmother in Kansas City.

NamUs is a free, online system. Medical examiners, coroners, law enforcement officials, the general public, families and loved ones can search www.NamUs.gov any time day or night from anywhere in the country—just as they may have searched newspapers or telephoned morgues looking for information. They are all part of the process, helping one another resolve cases involving missing persons and unidentified decedents.

A Bureau of Justice Statistics survey of the nation’s medical examiner and coroner offices found that in 2004 about half had no policy for retaining records (such as X-rays, DNA, or fingerprints) on unidentified human decedents.

The Department of Justice established NamUs to manage the overwhelming need for a central reporting system for unidentified human remains cases. The Web site was launched in 2007; it became fully operational in 2009. It is estimated that, nationwide, about 100,000 missing persons cases are active on any given day.

Read more about the Paula Beverly Davis case on the Kansas City blog.

Attorney General Holder Congratulates a Graduating Officer. Photo by Lonnie Tague for The Department of Justice.

On July 28, 2009, through money from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, the Department of Justice awarded $1 billion in grants to 1,046 law enforcement agencies to fund the hiring of 4,699 officers.  The positive impact of this funding is being felt throughout the country at the local level as law enforcement agencies that received funding have begun to hire new officers. 

Today, Attorney General Eric Holder personally witnessed these positive results.

At a graduation ceremony in Charlotte, North Carolina, Holder addressed the 158th recruit class for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department.

50 graduating officers in that class were hired through Recovery Act funds. 50 more men and women have jobs for the next four years thanks to the grants. And 50 more cops are on the street protecting the Charlotte-Mecklenburg community because of the Recovery Act.

The Attorney General met with the graduates before the ceremony to shake their hands and welcome them to the beat.

At the ceremony, he told the audience: 

“I’m proud that our administration backs up our commitment to law enforcement not just with words, but with the resources our partners need.”

And praised the officers saying:

“It is an honor for me to share this momentous day with you and your families.  Each one of you has worked hard to get here.  And all of you have proven that you have the ability, the drive, and the determination to succeed.”

The grants were awarded by the Department of Justice under the COPS Hiring Recovery Program (CHRP), which is administered by the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS).  CHRP was an initiative of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, and is intended to create jobs and to help communities effectively fight crime.

The grants provide 100 percent funding for entry-level officer salaries and benefits for three years, and can be used to rehire officers who have been laid off because of local budget cuts.

The following post appears courtesy of the Office of Justice Programs.

One year ago today, President Obama signed into law historic legislation that provided a necessary jumpstart for our economy. Through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act we put a down payment on addressing long-neglected challenges in our county, including challenges within our law enforcement and criminal justice communities.

One such challenge is the successful transition of offenders from prison and jails back into communities. According to the Office of Justice Programs’ (OJP) Bureau of Justice Statistics, there are more than 1 million women under the supervision of the criminal justice system in the United States. Drug and property crimes are the most likely cause of incarceration. In addition, 95 percent of all prisoners incarcerated today will eventually be released and will return to communities.

However, programs across the United States are helping stem the tide of recidivism through reentry programs that provide transitional services for offenders. Today in Knoxville, Tennessee, Federal, state, and local officials are gathering to celebrate the grand opening of The Next Door, a transitional residential program for women returning to communities from incarceration. This 16-bed facility received seed money from OJP’s Byrne Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) Recovery Act Program.

The Knoxville program is modeled after The Next Door in Nashville which, since 2004 has helped over 600 women from the criminal justice system reenter society and rebuild their lives. The Next Door provides important services such as housing, mental health and substance abuse support services, and workforce development. The structured curriculum provides job preparation, readiness, communication skills and conflict management to support retention, and career planning. In 2009, 107 out of 143 clients of The Next Door in Nashville were able to find jobs through assistance provided by the program. A third Next Door location, in Chattanooga, will open in early summer 2010.

Gil Kerlikowske, Director of Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) noted the importance of The Next Door project, saying:

The Recovery Act has stimulated the economy by providing seed money for jobs and funds for programs, like The Next Door. The Next Door model effectively reduces recidivism and drug abuse by approaching the drug problem one woman at a time, from a public health and public safety perspective, and with combined support from law enforcement, the treatment field, faith-based organizations, and the community. Clients of The Next Door receive more than substance abuse treatment and recovery services. They receive dignity, hope, and a second chance to rebuild their lives. Through this process they also learn skills that enable them to become part of the workforce and to make positive contributions to their communities.

Pam S. Hyde, J.D., Administrator of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration noted the important role programs like those offered by The Next Door play in our communities:

Reentry programs help people leaving jails and prisons succeed in the community by avoiding a recurrence of crime and drug abuse. Through programs like the Next Door, we are investing Federal resources in peoples’ success, reducing recidivism and strengthening communities.

Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen noted the impact the Recovery Act has made at the local level:

The place we most often see the real impact of the stimulus funds provided by the Recovery Act is at the individual or local level.  I’m very pleased with this opportunity to replicate a successful program like The Next Door in new locations in Knoxville and Chattanooga with the help of Recovery Act funds.

This Recovery Act grant, administered through OJP’s Bureau of Justice Assistance, will support approximately 45 women per year coming from incarceration in Knoxville and surrounding counties. In addition, the grant is supporting three new jobs at The Next Door Knoxville site, in addition to jobs at the organization’s locations in Chattanooga and Nashville. These programs break the cycle of drug use, crime, and incarceration; reunite families; and make recovery possible for Americans, key focuses of the Obama Administration’s national drug control strategy and the Justice Department’s Second Chance Act Offender Reentry Initiative.

January is National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month. If you suspect an act of human trafficking in your area, you can report a tip to the National Human Trafficking Resource Center Hotline at 1-888-373-7888. This national, toll free hotline is available to answer calls from anywhere in the country, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, every day of the year.

President Barack Obama proclaimed January 2010 as National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month. During January, the President urged all Americans to, “educate themselves about all forms of modern slavery and the signs and consequences of human trafficking.” 

 Attorney General Eric Holder and the U.S. Department of Justice are deeply committed to combating all forms of modern slavery and trafficking in persons. In coordination with federal, state, and local law enforcement partners, as well as and nongovernmental organizations we investigate and prosecute human traffickers and provide comprehensive assistance to victims.

In 2009, the Department’s Civil Rights Division, in partnership with U.S. Attorneys’ Offices, brought a record number of human trafficking cases, including the highest number of labor trafficking cases ever brought in a single year.  These cases involve the use of force, threats of force, or other forms of coercion to compel labor or services, including commercial sex acts, from victims. 

One case involved the trafficking of two young girls, including a 13 year-old, from rural Mexico to Tennessee with the intent of forcing them into prostitution.  In December a woman from Tennessee was sentenced to 190 months in prison on sex trafficking and conspiracy charges.  Her co-defendant was sentenced to 50 years in prison in 2008.  Both pleaded guilty and admitted to fraudulently luring the two young girls.  The multi-agency investigation and federal prosecution resulted in the successful conviction of 11 defendants.

Earlier this month, the Civil Rights Division secured guilty pleas from two defendants in a forced labor case in Hawaii.  Farm co-owners pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit forced labor. The men admitted to conspiring with one another and others to hold 44 Thai agricultural workers in service at their farm through a scheme of debts, threats of harm and restraint.  They each face up to five years in prison for their roles in the labor trafficking scheme.

 Through the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Sections, as well as the U.S. Attorneys’ Office, the Department investigates and prosecutes American citizens who contribute to the sex trafficking of children abroad by engaging in a practice known as “child sex tourism,” where individuals travel abroad and pay to have sex with children. One such child sex tourist admitted that he had repeatedly traveled to the Philippines where he made two young girls sign a contract to be his “sex slave.”

 In another case resulting in a guilty plea, an American child sex tourist admitted he traveled to Thailand each year from 2000 to 2002 to sexually abuse children.  While there, he paid for unfettered access to children, brought items to facilitate their sexual abuse, and then sexually abused the children at will, sometimes photographing and videotaping the activity.

In addition to prosecuting cases that directly involve human trafficking, the Department is continuing its efforts to disrupt trafficking by prosecuting human smuggling rings. The Criminal Division’s Domestic Security Section, working with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), targets human smuggling networks that are known to transport people under dangerous conditions or where patterns of egregious migrant abuse is evident. Dismantling smuggling networks and disrupting the routes used by traffickers contributes to the overall efforts to end the scourge of trafficking.

 Another one of the ways the Department works to combat human trafficking and support victims is through its Office of Justice Programs (OJP). OJP provides funding support, training, and technical assistance to 39 anti-human trafficking law enforcement task forces and 39 nongovernmental victim service organizations throughout the United States. This dual approach entails a victim-centered approach for identifying, rescuing, and providing timely, comprehensive assistance to victims of human trafficking who are foreign nationals—including both female and male victims of sex and labor trafficking.

Since 2003, OJP’s Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) has provided funding to nongovernmental victim service organizations to support the needs of trafficking victims. Those needs often include shelter/housing, sustenance, medical and dental care, mental health treatment, interpretation/translation services, legal and immigration services, literacy education, and more. OVC partnered with OJP’s Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) in 2004 to support the anti-human trafficking task force model around the country. Each task force includes, but is not limited to, representation from local or territorial, state, and federal law enforcement prosecutorial agencies (including the FBI, ICE, and U.S. Attorneys’ Offices), and an OVC-funded trafficking victim service provider organization.

In December 2009, OVC launched a 3-year demonstration project, in three sites, to provide comprehensive services to domestic minor victims of human trafficking in New York, Chicago, and San Francisco. They will develop programs to serve female and male victims of sex and labor trafficking who are U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents. The types of assistance provided to these victims are similar to those provided to victims who are foreign nationals; however, services are geared toward the unique circumstances of U.S. citizens who are under 18 years old.

Also in December 2009, OVC and BJA hosted the first Regional Training Forum in Tampa, Florida, for the South and Southeast regions of the U.S. The Forum provided an opportunity for the BJA task forces and the OVC service providers to receive training, discuss case information, share intelligence, and network with other law enforcement and victim service providers in the region.

According to one attendee, the Forum included “one of the best active intelligence exchanges I have attended with law enforcement in a long time…in part because this was a regional training, where patterns and cases were seen crossing into each other’s backyards.”  Additional forums will take place around the U.S. in 2010.

In May 2010, the Department will host its fourth National Conference on Human Trafficking in Arlington, Virginia. Approximately 600 federal, state, and local law enforcement officers, prosecutors, victim service providers, and other professionals will be invited to attend this event. We will address the complexities of human trafficking, facilitate the sharing of promising practices, and support the development of evidence-based strategies to combat slavery and human trafficking in the U.S.

For more information on both the Department of Justice and the Federal Government’s efforts to combat trafficking, please see the Attorney General’s Annual Report to Congress and Assessment of U.S. Government Activities to Combat Trafficking in Persons, released in June 2009. This report is compiled and released annually.

 As President Obama states in his proclamation, “Together, we can and must end this most serious, ongoing criminal civil rights violation.” 

 January is National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month. If you suspect an act of human trafficking in your area, you can report a tip to the National Human Trafficking Resource Center Hotline at 1-888-373-7888. This national, toll free hotline is available to answer calls from anywhere in the country, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, every day of the year.

Today , the Office of the Federal Environmental Executive announced the winners of the fourth annual Electronics Reuse and Recycling Campaign (ERRC). The Department of Justice is proud to have made that list – receiving the award for Centralized Agency Participation. Between October of 2008 and September of 2009 the Department of Justice recycled or reused 3,264,646 pounds of electronic equipment to earn the award.

 In the 2009 America Recycles Day Presidential Proclamation, President Barack Obama said:

 “Recycling improves our daily lives and helps to protect our planet for the future.  Through recycling, we conserve energy, consume less of our precious natural resources, decrease the amount of waste deposited in landfills, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.” 

 We couldn’t agree more. The Department of Justice recognizes that  Executive Order13514, Federal Leadership in Environmental, Energy, and Economic Performance mandates the responsible disposal of electronic materials, but finding ways to reuse these materials, as well as properly recycle them, reduces waste and protects our environment.   We are committed to serving as an example of environmental stewardship.  

 Electronics disposal is just one part of the Department of Justice’s overall recycling plan. In 2009, the Robert F. Kennedy Main Justice building alone recycled 112 tons of materials. The efforts of the Department are guided by the Environmental Program and Policy Staff. To learn more about these efforts, please visit their Web site at: www.justice.gov/jmd/ep/

 We are grateful to the ERRC for their assistance throughout the competition. For more information about the ERRC visit: http://www.ofee.gov/

This week, the Justice Department, in partnership with the PEW Center on the States, Public Welfare Foundation, and the Council of State Governments (CSG) Justice Center hosted a National Summit on Justice Reinvestment on Capitol Hill.

Justice Reinvestment is a data-driven approach to reduce corrections spending and re-direct savings to other criminal justice strategies that decrease crime and strengthen neighborhoods. At the Summit, speakers discussed the need to address recidivism rates and corrections spending as well as how best to assist localities struggling with unsuccessful and unsustainable prison and corrections policies.

According to the National Association of State Budget Officers, over the past two decades, state spending on corrections has grown at a rate faster than nearly any other state budget item. On a nationwide scale, state spending on corrections has increased from about $12 billion to $52 billion a year.

In spite of mounting expenditures, recidivism rates remain high. Research by the Office of Justice Programs’ (OJP) Bureau of Justice Statistics indicates that half of all offenders released from state prison are sent back within three years. Most of the people released from prison are placed under some form of community supervision. In 2008, the Pew Center on the States reported, 7.3 million people were under correctional supervision, or 1 in every 31 adults.

Families, neighborhoods, communities, and states can no longer afford this costly cycle of incarceration. To help address these issues, OJP’s Bureau of Justice Assistance partnered with CSG’s Justice Center and launched the Justice Reinvestment initiative. Since that time, other funding partners have begun supporting the initiative.

These groups are working closely with state and local policymakers to help design policies that manage the growth of the corrections system. They are finding ways to improve the availability of services, such as housing, substance abuse treatment, employment training, and positive social and family support for offenders returning to communities. They are also looking to reinvest savings generated from reductions in corrections spending to make communities safer, stronger, and healthier.

Justice Reinvestment is already showing results.

• In Kansas, the prison population was expected to increase 22 percent by 2016 at a cost of approximately $500 million in additional construction and operating costs. Analysis by experts from CSG’s Justice Center showed that violations of parole and probation were a significant factor in individuals returning to prison. In response, the state enacted new policies and redirected $7.9 million to strengthen probation and parole operations and expand treatment programs. As a result, the state prison population decreased by 4 percent and recidivism rates declined by more than 20 percent.
• Policymakers in Connecticut, facing an unprecedented budget deficit and a prison population growing faster than any other state, enacted laws that streamlined the parole process for low-risk offenders, addressed the high rate of probation violations, and developed a comprehensive strategy to reduce recidivism. Almost $13 million of the nearly $30 million saved was reinvested in community-based pilot projects. Probation violations dropped from 400 in July 2003 to 200 in September 2005. The decrease in the prison population over a two-year period was steeper than that seen in almost any other state while the crime rate continued to drop.
• Nevada’s prison population has been among the fastest growing in the nation, and was projected to grow faster, increasing 61 percent by 2017. High rates of failure among people on probation as well as the lack of community-based treatment for substance abuse, mental illness, or co-occurring disorders were identified as the key factors driving the growth in the prison population. In response to this growth, the legislature enacted several policy measures to provide incentives for people to successfully complete probation and parole terms in Nevada. As a result, the state expected to save $28 million by 2009. To ensure that the savings are reinvested in expanding community-based behavioral health care services, the state established a Justice Reinvestment fund with $6.3 million.

Despite the progress we’re making, recidivism remains a complicated challenge and there is a lot more to learn in this area. For instance, one preliminary study (PDF) by OJP’s National Institute of Justice found that if first-time arrestees remained “arrest-free” for 3 to 8 years, they were no more likely to be arrested in the future than individuals who had never been arrested. Think about what that could mean for ex-offenders in areas such as employment, housing, and loans. And think of what that means in our efforts to reduce crime and protect communities.

At the Department of Justice, we believe we have a responsibility to be not only tough on crime, but also smart on crime. This means, supporting programs that are backed by evidence of effectiveness. Instead of relying exclusively on punishment, Justice Reinvestment is providing better outcomes for communities and improving public safety.

For more information, please visit www.justicereinvestment.org.