The NCJA Podcast

In this episode, NCJA Program Manager Gillian Caplan speaks with Shakyra Diaz, Chief of Federal Advocacy for the Alliance for Safety and Justice and Stephen Massey, Director of the CitiLookout Trauma Recovery Center in Springfield, Ohio about the innovative and life-changing work of Trauma Recovery Centers and how they are providing critical resources to victims of violent crime. Tr...

Following the release of the Byrne JAG Solicitation, this episode will feature Tarasa Napolitano from the Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) who will discuss the Byrne JAG areas of emphasis and priority areas for this administration and how these should be considered by SAAs as they develop their Byrne JAG strategic plans and applications for potential subawards. This episode...

In this episode, NCJA Program Manager Simone Greene speaks with Spike Bradford, also a program manager at NCJA with subject matter expertise in pretrial justice. Spike provides an overview of some of the most impactful pretrial justice program types, all of which can be funded, in whole or part, with Byrne JAG dollars. The pretrial stage of the criminal justice process is critical because decision...

In this episode, NCJA Program Manager Gillian Caplan speaks with Daina Moran, deputy director of Tennessee’s Office of Criminal Justice Programs , the state administering agency for Tennessee, and Heather Brack, NCJA’s grants accounting manager and former program director of the Johnson City/Washington County (TN) FJC about the FJC programs in their state. FJCs are multiagency, multidisciplinary c...

In this episode NCJA Program Manager Simone Greene speaks with Dr. Abigail Tucker and NCJA’s director of governmental affairs, Elizabeth Pyke about the 988, the new 3-digit phone number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline that will roll out in 2022. Dr. Tucker is a Denver-based psychologist whose work includes working directly with first responders, veterans, criminal and juvenile justice...

The COVID-19 pandemic forced many jurisdictions to create or expand the use of video court proceedings. The practice has many benefits, particularly in minimizing person-to-person contact. It also poses some fundamental challenges that must be considered before or during implementation. People with language impairments—estimated to be at least 35% of adults and 50% of youth that enter the criminal...

States’ Statistical Analysis Centers (SAC) can be valuable resources for State Administering Agencies (SAA) for incorporating data into their Byrne JAG strategic planning efforts. While the SAA understands the state and national criminal justice landscape, the SAC is an expert on data. In this episode, Matt Wade, a program manager at NCJA, talks with Mike Fargen (former SAC director in Nebraska) a...

As State Administering Agencies across the nation look for effective approaches to include diverse stakeholder groups into their planning processes, many have found success engaging their state’s local criminal justice planning boards. In this podcast, we speak with Tom Fitzpatrick (Division Director for Programs and Services for the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services) and Ian Davids...

This podcast episode highlights Maryland Governor Hogan’s New Executive Order to tackle the impacts of Adverse Childhood Effects (ACEs). Glenn Fueston, executive director of the Governor's Office of Crime Prevention, Youth and Victim Services, provides a general overview of ACEs, the impacts on young people and the community at large, and the importance of addressing these impacts head on. This ep...

This podcast episode was produced thanks to the contributions of NCJA members. To learn more about becoming an NCJA member, visit ncja.org/membership . On this episode, NCJA’s director of communications, Bethany Broida, continues her conversation about the Byrne Justice Assistance Grant, with Byrne JAG expert and NCJA’s director of government affairs, Elizabeth Pyke. Elizabeth explains the scale,...

In April 2021, the Biden-Harris Administration announced historic investments in Community Violence Intervention (CVI) programming to combat the gun violence epidemic. In an effort to support communities seeking to implement or expand programs in this area, NCJA has released ‘An Overview: Community Violence Intervention Strategies,’ a fact sheet with tangible examples of four of the main types of...

San Joaquin County District Attorney’s Office’s Project Navigate Constructive Change (PNCC) diverts justice-involved youth away from deeper system involvement and promotes thoughtful life choices with participants engaging in education, counseling, employment assistance and life skills coaching. PNCC was started in 2015 using Byrne Justice Assistance Grant funds and has since relied...

In June 2018, the WORTH (Women Overcoming Recidivism Through Hard Work) unit was founded in the York Correctional Institution, Connecticut’s sole female-only prison. NCJA’s Gillian Caplan interviews Under Secretary Marc Pelka, Warden Trina Sexton and Captain Anna Lussier as they discuss the history, approach and successes of the innovative unit.  Funded initially with Byrne JAG dollars, WORTH...

In this episode, Allison Badger, NCJA’s Byrne JAG Training and Technical Assistance Program Director, discusses the importance of creating a strategic plan to guide each state’s Byrne JAG investments. Topics include the essential components of strategic plans, tips for engaging a diverse group of stakeholders in the process, setting targeted and achievable goals and the ways in which NCJA can supp...

In May 2020, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD) undertook a virtual strategic planning process to create the agency's 2021-2025 Strategic Framework. The effort was a great success. In this episode, NCJA's Allison Badger interviews PCCD's Mike Pennington and Samantha Koch as they discuss the virtual strategic planning process, includin...

Community coalitions provide an opportunity for intentional stakeholder engagement and give a voice to constituents who otherwise may not be heard. In this episode, NCJA’s Gillian Caplan interviews Dale Woolery and Dennis Wiggins of the Iowa Governor’s Office of Drug Control Policy about their relationship with Alliance of Coalitions for Change (AC4C) and other Iowa coalitions and how important th...

An introduction to the fundamentals of Byrne JAG funding from the Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Assistance with NCJA's Director of Government Affairs, Elizabeth Pyke. Elizabeth discusses how the funding works, the many and varied uses of JAG dollars, how states leverage grant dollars to pilot innovative and promising practices, and where Byrne JAG-funded projects fit into the national...