WASHINGTON – The Department of Justice today announced
awards totaling nearly $37 million to help state, local and tribal government
agencies improve the response to sexual assault and victim services, and
analyze unsubmitted sexual assault kits in law enforcement custody. The grants
will aid jurisdictions in reducing backlogs of sexual assault evidence and
solving crimes of sexual violence.
“There is no greater
injustice to a victim of sexual assault than a failure on the part of the
system to exhaust its investigative possibilities,” said Alan Hanson, Acting
Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Justice Programs. “These awards
will supply badly needed resources and manpower to our nation’s law enforcement
agencies and prosecutors helping investigators and analysts do the urgent work
of closing out cases and bringing answers to survivors.”
Administered through the National Sexual Assault Kit
Initiative, managed by the Office of Justice Programs’ Bureau of Justice Assistance,
21 grant awards totaling more than $35 million were awarded to improve the
processing of sexual assault kits and strengthen jurisdictions’ capacity to act
on evidence resulting from kit processing. Those awards are available online
at: https://www.bja.gov/funding/FY-2017-National-Sexual-Assault-Kit-Initiative-Funding-Awards.pdf
Solving sex crimes and bringing perpetrators to justice
requires a thorough understanding of the value of sexual assault evidence and a
solid commitment to submitting sexual assault kits for testing. OJP’s resources
help jurisdictions reduce their inventory of unsubmitted kits, bring offenders
to justice, provide answers to victims and restore the safety of our
communities.
The Sexual Assault Kit Initiative provides competitive
grants for teams committed to reforming how their jurisdictions deal with cases
of sexual assault. SAKI helps jurisdictions address the issues that lead to
delayed testing of kits by providing funds to inventory, test and track sexual
assault kits, as well as collect and submit DNA from suspects to the FBI’s
Combined DNA Index System and hire crime analysts. The grants also support the
investigation and prosecution of resulting cases and support the victims of
sexual assault.
In fiscal years 2015 and 2016, SAKI provided funding to 32
jurisdictions across the country. SAKI grantees are currently testing more than
150,000 kits.
Complementing the awards that can be utilized for testing
sexual assault kit evidence, another $1.9 million will be awarded from the
National Institute of Justice to seven jurisdictions for tracking and reporting
the status of sexual assault kits. The Sexual Assault Forensic Evidence –
Inventory, Tracking and Reporting Program awards include: the City of Gautier,
Mississippi ($21,478); City of Lake Mary, Florida ($6,130); City of Miami,
Florida ($264,263); the Highlands County Board of County Commissioners, Florida
($58,771); the Iowa Department of Justice ($796,985); the New York Department
of Corrections and Community Supervision ($483,666); and the Pasco County,
Florida, Sheriff’s Office ($238,608).
Not directly included in the $37 million total is NIJ’s
substantial investment to enhance capacity at DNA processing laboratories
across the country, including processing of sexual assault kits in law
enforcement custody. Grants awarded to 131 jurisdictions through NIJ’s DNA
Capacity Enhancement and Backlog Reduction program may be used to process,
record, screen and analyze DNA evidence and to enhance the ability of crime
laboratories to process that evidence. All recipients have the option to use
the funding to conduct DNA testing on evidence submitted to crime laboratories,
including evidence related to sexual assaults and other violent crimes. A list
of those awards, including award locations, is available here:
https://go.usa.gov/xRhQc
Finally, a new blog by OJP Acting Assistant Attorney General
Alan R. Hanson about the topic is posted online at https://ojp.gov/ojpblog/blog-sakiinitiative.htm
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