The Governor’s Office of Drug Control Policy (ODCP), under the Byrne-Justice Assistance Grant Program, provides financial assistance to support a broad range of activities to prevent and control crime and to improve the criminal justice system. The JAG program places an emphasis on violent crime, drug offenses, and serious offenders.
The Residential Substance Abuse Treatment (RSAT) program provides funding to units of government in developing and implementing residential substance abuse treatment programs in state and local correctional and detention facilities. RSAT programs provide individual and group treatment activities for offenders and must: last between 6 and 12 months; be provided in residential treatment facilities set apart from the general correctional population; focus on the substance abuse problems of the inmate; and develop the inmate's cognitive, behavioral, social, vocational, and other skills to solve substance abuse and related problems.
Byrne-JAG program purpose areas include:
- Law Enforcement Programs;
- Prosecution and Court Programs;
- Prevention and Education Programs;
- Corrections And Community Corrections Programs;
- Drug Treatment Programs; and
- Planning Evaluation and Technology Improvement Programs
The Iowa Drug Policy Advisory Council has identified the following results areas for which grant funding will be prioritized. Priority funding will be provided to projects which employ strategies that positively affect these broadly targeted areas.
- All Iowans are Healthy and Drug-Free
- Iowa Communities Are Free From Illegal Drugs
- Break the Cycle of Drug Use, Crime, Delinquency, and Incarceration
The Federal administrator for the Byrne Justice Assistance Grant Program (the Bureau of Justice Assistance) is moving toward an evidence-based programs/practices approach for Byrne JAG funded projects. Guidance on the precise meaning and implications of these changes are being developed by BJA and are expected to be available sometime in the near future.