Book Description

OJJDP, within the U.S. Department of Justice, is the primary federal agency responsible for the prevention and control of juvenile delinquency in the United States. This includes preventing, treating and controlling youth gang activity and violence through sponsored research, evaluation, and demonstrating new approaches for communities across the country. The initiatives are carried out by seven components within OJJDP: Research and Program Development Division, Training and Technical Assistance Division, Special Emphasis Division, State Relations and Assistance Division, Information Dissemination Unit, Concentration of Federal Efforts Program, and Child Protection Division. OJJDP annual appropriations have more than tripled from $162 million in fiscal year 1996, with 71 authorized staff positions, to $568 million in fiscal year 2000, with 87 authorized staff positions. In 1996, we reviewed the operations of OJJDP. We found that official grant files for discretionary grants generally contained monitoring plans, but little evidence that monitoring occurred. We reported that none of the grant files had documentation of telephone contacts, site visits, or product reviews. Also, no quarterly program and financial reports were included in 11 of the 78 files for which projects had been ongoing for at least 2 quarters at the time of our review, and one or more reports were missing from another 61 files. In addition, only 6 of the 78 files had program and financial reports for all quarters of work completed. In commenting on our testimony, the OJJDP Deputy Administrator said that the heavy workload of OJJDP staff may have resulted in a lack of monitoring records and that, as a result of the our 1996 review, OJJDP would take the steps necessary to improve records.