Smart Prosecution Initiative | BJA 2016 8991

Opportunity Information: Apply for BJA 2016 8991

The Smart Prosecution Initiative is a discretionary grant program from the U.S. Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) that aims to modernize and strengthen prosecution through data-driven, research-based practices. The core idea is to help prosecutor offices move beyond tradition and intuition alone by using better data, analytical tools, and applied research to design prosecution strategies that are more effective, more efficient, and more fair, with the ultimate goal of improving public safety. The program is framed as a prosecutor-led justice system innovation effort, meaning it expects prosecutor offices to take an active leadership role in diagnosing local problems, testing solutions, and implementing reforms that can be measured and improved over time.

A central feature of the initiative is the pairing of a prosecutor's office with an operational, results-focused researcher. This is not research for research's sake; it is intended to support practical decision-making. The researcher is meant to work alongside practitioners to identify chronic crime or justice system issues, develop strategies grounded in evidence, build performance measures, and evaluate whether the new approaches are actually producing better outcomes. In practice, this can include analyzing case processing patterns, identifying drivers of violence, assessing which interventions reduce reoffending, improving charging and diversion decisions, or finding ways to increase consistency and equity in prosecution outcomes. The expectation is that the partnership produces concrete, testable solutions and uses ongoing measurement to refine what the office does.

Another major emphasis is improving a prosecutor office's ability to access and use data from multiple systems. The opportunity recognizes that prosecutors often sit at the center of a broader ecosystem that includes police, courts, corrections, probation, victim services, and community-based providers, plus relevant non-criminal justice systems where appropriate. By helping offices connect to and draw insights from these various information systems, the program is designed to support a clearer picture of local crime trends, case outcomes, victim and witness needs, and system bottlenecks. This is meant to translate into better targeting of resources, faster and more consistent case resolution, and strategies that can be justified with evidence rather than assumptions.

BJA also positions Smart Prosecution as a learning and dissemination effort for the field. Lessons from funded sites are intended to contribute to a broader evidence base that other prosecutors around the country can use when they collaborate with communities to address persistent problems and violent crime. In other words, the initiative is meant to generate models and findings that can be replicated or adapted nationally, not just create one-off improvements in a single jurisdiction.

In terms of basic grant details, the funding opportunity is titled "Smart Prosecution Initiative" with Funding Opportunity Number BJA 2016 8991. It is a grant (not a contract) under the Law, Justice and Legal Services category and is associated with CFDA 16.825. The award ceiling listed is $400,000, with an expectation of 9 awards. The opportunity was created on February 11, 2016, and the original closing date was March 28, 2016.

Eligibility is limited and specifically focused on prosecution agencies. Eligible applicants include state, local, and tribal prosecutor agencies. The notice also allows a government agency or a nonprofit organization to apply as the fiscal agent on behalf of an eligible prosecutor office, which is useful in cases where a prosecutor office needs administrative support to manage grant funds or to formalize partnerships, but the underlying program work remains centered on the prosecutor-led initiative.

• The Bureau of Justice Assistance in the law, justice and legal services sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Smart Prosecution Initiative" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 16.825.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2016-02-11.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2016-03-28. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $400,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 9 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others.

Apply for BJA 2016 8991

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