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DOJ Slashes Programs That Stop Crime: The Trump Administration’s Attack on Evidence-Based Violence Prevention

Last week, the Trump Administration abruptly terminated hundreds of active DOJ grants that totaled more than $800 million and funded a wide range of programs, services, and research vital to protecting all Americans. These cuts included community violence intervention programs; services for victims of sex crimes and human trafficking; wellness for law enforcement; and safety programs for crime survivors with disabilities. Organizations relying on those grants have already had to lay off many of their employees.  

The cuts are broad, irresponsible, and evince a total disregard for what works to keep communities safe. They pose such a threat to community safety that there is bipartisan opposition to these cuts.

The grant cuts include:

  • $535 from the Bureau of Justice Assistance;
  • $136 million from the Office Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention;
  • $71 million from the Office for Victims of Crime; and
  • $59 million from the National Institute of Justice.

If the Trump Administration actually cared about safety, they would continue funding programs that are proven to reduce violence. These cuts gut programs that save lives, reduce gun violence, and help victims of crimes.

The Trump Administration’s cuts are wide-ranging. They include programs with bipartisan support that reduce gun violence and support crime victims.
  • These cuts are nonsensical and terminate funding for critical services.
  • These services include legal and housing support for domestic violence victims; funding and training of violence interrupters (neighborhood figures trained to engage with people at the greatest risk of committing gun violence to reduce conflict and save lives); and programs, policies and practices that have been studied and evaluated as effective in safely reducing ballooning jail and prison populations.
  • The director of the Alabama Bureau of Pardon and Parole affirmed the important public safety value of the terminated grants.
  • The cuts are so wide-ranging and indiscriminate that the Administration has already had to backtrack on some of them, such as its rash termination of funding for a national victim’s hotline.
  • The administration terminated community violence intervention funding proposed in 2022 under the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, sponsored by then-Senator, now Secretary of State, Marco Rubio. That legislation centered around reducing gun violence through common-sense gun safety reforms (like expanded background checks for gun purchases and closing loopholes for gun access to people with misdemeanor convictions for domestic violence) and funding for violence prevention and intervention programs.
    • Roca, an anti-violence organization in Baltimore, lost $1M in funding for its work engaging with at-risk young men, including survivors of violence, in mentoring, job training and life coaching. City officials strongly believe such programming has contributed to the drop in homicides in the city.
  • Other cuts include:
    • Domestic violence services. A nonprofit DV shelter in Kansas City has been threatened with 20% funding cuts.
    • Support for victims with disabilities. An Oregon program that provided legal services to crime victims with disabilities was cut. People with disabilities are twice as likely to be victims of crime as people without disabilities. Activating Change, an organization that provides support for crime survivors with disabilities, had to lay off half its staff due to these cuts.
    • Legal and volunteer support for children involved in abuse and neglect cases.
    • Support for organizations working with law enforcement and corrections departments to reduce recidivism and improve justice system responses to behavioral health crises and violent crime.
    • These cuts include funding for law enforcement programs in New Jersey that combat opioid addiction, violence and hate crimes. Cuts to programs that combat hate crimes come at a time of increasing incidents of hate crimes.
    • Data-driven policing initiatives pursued by the Police Executive Research Forum, which works directly with police departments all over the country to strengthen their work, including improving their investigation practices to solve crime and improve relations with communities to make policing more effective.
    • Reentry support. The National Housing Incubator program, which supports local organizations helping people transition from prison back into the community and prevent them from becoming homeless, was terminated.
Our communities are less safe because of these actions.
  • Communities that are seeing a decrease in violence may now experience a reversal of that progress.
  • At-risk youth who were receiving mentorship and support may be vulnerable to gang involvement.
  • People with substance abuse disorder in the middle of treatment will abruptly lose that support, which is dangerous for their physical and mental health.
  • Crime victims relying on advocacy services will have fewer resources to help them recover.
  • Local law enforcement agencies will lose valuable partnerships with community partners who were helping them address the root causes of violence before it occurs.
The Administration is replacing what works with what doesn’t. These are not experimental programs it has cut  – they are proven solutions.
  • Community Violence Intervention (CVI):  Neighborhoods in Baltimore, Chicago, New York City, and Philadelphia that have adopted the Cure Violence model (a CVI method) have seen shootings and killings decrease by more than 30 percent.
  • Hospital-based Violence Intervention Programs (HVIP): These programs identify patients recovering from gunshot wounds or other violent injuries, connect them with resources to address underlying risk factors for violence, prevent re-victimization or retaliation, and interrupt the cycle of violence. They are proven to reduce future violence, especially retaliatory violence.
  • There has been considerable progress in reducing recidivism at the state level over the past twenty years, and it has been because states and cities have adopted more effective practices and policies, with the support of DOJ funding and through the organizations affected by these cuts.
The DOJ cuts eviscerate programs and strategies that help victims and build trust.  
  • The U.S. justice system has a profound legitimacy crisis: for the past 30 years, less than half of violent victimizations have been reported to the police.
  • And yet, the DOJ is cutting programs and services that assist survivors and build trust between communities and law enforcement.
The administration’s actions constitute a public safety crisis and communities may experience more violent crimse:
  • By ending proven violence reduction programs without warning, the Trump administration has prioritized scoring political points over community safety.
  • Despite the administration supposedly prioritizing the reduction of violent crime and providing victim support services, these cuts will have the opposite effect.
  • Organizations doing life-saving work have zero transition time to secure more funding, which creates dangerous gaps in services.
  • Vulnerable people in violence reduction programs and victim services are suddenly left adrift.
  • These cuts go against bipartisan violence prevention strategies and take away money allocated by Congress.
The cuts target vulnerable communities:
We will fight to restore funding for what works:
  • We will demand immediate reinstatement of funding for these programs through the DOJ’s administrative appeals process, where these cuts can be challenged within 30 days of the termination notices.
  • We call on Congress to investigate this reckless termination of bipartisan-supported public safety programs.
  • We urge state and local governments to fill funding gaps for these critical programs while we fight for federal restoration.
  • We will highlight stories and data from communities devastated by these cuts to bring awareness and hold the administration accountable.
  • We will expose the contradiction between the administration’s stated goals of “combating violent crime” and “protecting victims” while taking actions that undermine both.
  • We must organize across sectors and communities to demonstrate the widespread support for these comprehensive public safety approaches.

Resources

  • Reuters has a searchable table of cut grants.
  • Democracy Forward is representing the American Bar Association in its litigation after DOJ abruptly terminated millions in grant funding that supported the ABA’s long-running programs for domestic violence and sexual assault survivors, claiming the grants “no longer effectuate agency priorities.”

Equal Justice USA has launched a campaign to restore funding for these critical programs.