Department of Justice (DoJ) Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General Benjamin C. Mizer announced that almost $30 million in grant funding through the Office of Justice Programs (OJP) will be awarded to law enforcement agencies, states, community-based organizations, national civil-rights organizations and other stakeholders to fight the rise in hate and bias crimes and incidents, according to a press release.
“These grants are vital in helping to ensure law enforcement and community members get the support they need as they continue to strive to keep all communities safe,” said Mizer. “Everyone in this country deserves not only to feel safe but to be safe in their communities, and we’re excited about the new grant funding investments made.”
The funding was announced at the inaugural hate crimes grantee conference organized by OJP’s Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA).
In part, the funding includes:
—$12 million in grants under BJA’s Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Program to help local law-enforcement agencies and prosecutors’ offices investigate and prosecute hate and bias crimes, among other goals;
—$2.5 million through Jabara-Heyer NO HATE Act funding for the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ research and analysis project on National Incident-Based Reporting System data and hate-crime reporting patterns;
—$2.5 million in funding from the National Institute of Justice for three research projects on responding to hate crimes with specialized law-enforcement units, including LGTBQI+ liaison units to respond to hate crimes against transgender individuals, and addressing the needs of survivors of hate crimes and their communities; and
—$2.7 million for RTI International as well as to subrecipients the Eradicate Hate Global Summit and the International Association of Chiefs of Police to launch BJA’s new Coordinated Hate Crimes Resource Center.
In addition to these new grant awards, Mizer announced OJP’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Youth Hate Crimes and Identity-Based Bullying Prevention Curriculum to provide resources to address hate crimes, bias incidents and identity-based bullying in the youth demographic.
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