The following post appears courtesy of the Civil Rights Division.

This October, in honor of National Bullying Prevention Month, communities across the country have come together to increase awareness about bullying prevention. The Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division stands firmly behind these efforts, and will continue to make the most of our resources and authority to help stop bullying in schools. We will continue to work to ensure equal educational opportunity for all students.

Bullying is not a rite of passage; the impact of bullying extends far beyond the schoolhouse doors. Bullying can lead to violence, anxiety, depression and even suicide. School bullies become tomorrow’s hate crimes defendants, while victims of bullying are more likely to drop out of school, struggle in class, engage in illegal drug use or become involved in the criminal justice system. It is simply unacceptable, moreover, that any child should fear going to school because of harassment.

The Civil Rights Division is responsible for enforcing federal civil rights laws that protect young people who are targeted because of their race, national origin, religion, sex or disability. This includes students who are harassed because they do not conform to gender norms of how a boy or girl is “supposed to” act. We hold school systems accountable when they fail to take the proper steps to address harassment within their schools.

In response to incidents of harassment, the division investigates written complaints, helps to amend school policies and requires school districts to implement a host of other remedies, including providing training to teachers and administrators on how to better promote positive school climates and rid their schools of harassment. In the past few years, we have reached comprehensive and groundbreaking settlement agreements with numerous school districts across the country, including in Philadelphia, where Asian students were regularly harassed at a local high school, and in Mohawk County, N.Y., where a gay teen was physically and verbally abused for failing to conform to gender stereotypes.

We also reached an agreement with the school district in Anoka-Hennepin, Minn. The school district had failed to adequately address the harassment of students who did not conform to gender stereotypes in their schools. But students in Anoka-Hennepin were brave and spoke out. They brought the problems they were facing to the Civil Rights Division, and we worked with the school district to reach a blueprint for sustainable reform that we hope will be a model for schools across the nation.

In 2010, Attorney General Eric Holder launched the Defending Childhood Initiative to address the problem of children’s exposure to violence and to promote evidence-based practices. As part of the Defending Childhood Initiative, the department provided grants to eight jurisdictions to develop strategic plans for comprehensive community-based anti-violence efforts, including anti-bullying programs. In Boston, Mass., for example, we are supporting the implementation of state-wide bullying intervention and prevention legislation.

The Obama Administration has made clear that bullying prevention is an issue of national priority. Last year, the White House organized a summit on bullying and harassment in schools. Recently, the White House also announced its support for both the Student Non-Discrimination Act and the Safe Schools Improvement Act. These bills would help ensure that school environments are free from discrimination, bullying, and harassment. 

Ending bullying is a common mission rooted in common experience. Many of us can recall being bullied during childhood, or have seen the effects of bullying on loved ones. National Bullying Prevention Month is a reminder that bullying in schools remains a serious and unacceptable problem. The Justice Department will continue to vigorously enforce the nation’s civil rights laws to support the common goal to end bullying and harassment. The work of our Civil Rights Division, as well as of our nationwide partners on this issue, is absolutely crucial to protect the safety and wellbeing of our students.

Students, teachers, administrators, advocates and community members can find extensive resources to help in the fight against bullying at stopbullying.gov

It is estimated that over 9 million children live in homes where a parent or other adult use illegal drugs. Children growing up in such a challenging environment are 3 times more likely to be verbally, physically, or sexually abused and 4 times more likely to be neglected.

This week, Deputy Attorney General James Cole, Community Oriented Policing Services Office Director Bernard Melekian, U.S. Attorney for the District of Kansas Barry Grissom, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Iowa, Nicholas Klinefeldt, and  interim U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Iowa Sean Berry attended the National Alliance for Drug Endangered Children Conference in Des Moines, Iowa to support the efforts to find and help children growing up in dangerous drug environments. 

Deputy Attorney General James Cole spoke with urgency about the importance and responsibility we have to ensure the justice, health and safety of these vulnerable young members of our communities:

This work is difficult and gut-wrenching. We cannot simply arrest and prosecute our way out of the growing epidemic of drug abuse, trafficking, and addiction by parents and childcare providers.   Saving these children requires a multi-disciplinary approach involving coordinated teams comprised of law enforcement, child protective services, healthcare professionals, educators, victim service specialists, child advocates, courts, and the community.   It requires all of us.

As Chairman of the Federal Interagency Task Force on Drug Endangered Children,  Deputy Attorney General Cole has led the efforts to raise awareness; increase coordination at the federal, state, tribal and local levels; and provide assistance to the field. 

The DEC Task Force recently developed a combined resource CD for law enforcement and child welfare agencies; new training courses at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center; and developed a drug endangered children resource website.

The National Alliance for Drug Endangered Children (National DEC) is one of the DEC Task Force’s best allies. This year they received a $1.2 million in grants from the department. With this funding, they’ve transformed from an informal association of state leaders to a national voice for training, technical assistance, and advocacy on behalf of abused and neglected children.

COPS Director Melekian:

The better the availability of training opportunities focused on identifying and helping drug endangered children, the better chance we have of making this a central part of law enforcement’s mission to serve and protect.  And it needs to be clear that there is an alternative to the violence and fear that is part of the daily lives of these children…With the right tools and information, we can reduce the incidences of children’s exposure to violence and intervene more effectively.

In addition to the national organization, state-level DEC groups are finding innovative solutions to share with their state and federal partners.

For example, the COPS Office awarded the Colorado Alliance for Drug Endangered Children funding to expand their Drug Endangered Children Tracking System (DECSYS).  DECSYS is an easy-to-use, web-based system that allows law enforcement and child protection agencies an automated process for identifying children at risk.

This can expedite the identification of children in danger and bring them the assistance they need.  In the last two years, DECSYS has been credited with a 150 percent increase in the number of drug endangered children identified for child protective services.  It will soon launch in Nevada and Wisconsin.

U.S. Attorney Grissom spoke about coordination and collaboration:

Our coordination and collaboration with the Southern District of Iowa and the National DEC Alliance serves as an example of the power of partnerships;  this training will encourage partnerships, and provide tools for law enforcement, victim service providers, medical personnel,  welfare workers, educators  and other professionals to protect our most valuable resource, our children.    

While investigation and  prosecution will be discussed at this conference, the conference will focus on the importance of partnerships to assure the safety of children, enforce state and federal laws, and identify alternatives to incarceration that are designed to maintain,  or reunite families.

By bringing together federal, state and local resources with advocates, experts and community leaders, we can raise awareness of the plight of drug endangered children nationwide. We can increase coordination and intervene early to stop the cycle of violence and ensure these vulnerable citizens have the bright future full of promise they deserve.

To learn more about Drug Endangered Children, visit justice.gov/dec.

The following post appears courtesy of Zane David Memeger is U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

On October 16, I had the pleasure of joining Deputy Attorney General James Cole, in Chester, Pa., at the first, district-wide Southeastern Regional Reentry Conference. We had the opportunity to speak with more than 200 county, state, federal, faith-based and non-profit professionals — sharing information and practices that will help improve prisoner reentry efforts. 

Today, some 2.3 million people – or more than 1 in 100 American adults – are behind bars in the United States.  At some point, 95 percent of these prisoners will be released.  This translates into some 700,000 people coming out of our state and federal prisons every year.  Two-thirds of all released state prisoners will be re-arrested within three years, and half will return to prison.  Among released federal prisoners, 40 percent are re-arrested or have their supervision revoked within three years.

In his remarks, Deputy Attorney General Cole emphasized the importance of making communities safe with these reentry efforts:

“As we continue to work with reentry projects and learn about them, we realize more and more that they need to be sustained and continuous if they are to be successful. They need to start the first day an individual arrives at the prison.  The process needs to be nurtured while the individuals are incarcerated by having programs to deal with drug addiction, mental health issues, and basic job and life skills that will give them a fighting chance when they are released.  After they are released, whether it is in a transitional setting or when they are living fully in the community, there needs to be follow up to support what they learned and achieved in the prison programs.” 

“All of these initiatives are geared toward giving returning inmates a fresh start and an opportunity to contribute to the safety of their communities.  The first and most important decision a former inmate can make is to remain crime-free.  And as we develop new reentry policies and practices, we need to measure our success by how effective we are at keeping inmates from returning to prison or jail while keeping our communities safe.”

While speaking to the attendees, I highlighted the role that reentry programs can play in reducing the rates of recidivism in the country:

“The vast majority of defendants we prosecute will be returning to live in our communities upon their release from prison. Accordingly, it is vital that we take appropriate steps to ensure that formerly incarcerated individuals are provided with the tools and support necessary to successfully and lawfully reintegrate into the community.  Otherwise, the vicious cycle of recidivism will simply continue as we cannot arrest our way out of the crime problems facing this district.  Today’s conference will clearly foster and enhance the federal, state and local agency partnerships which are key in the effort to reduce recidivism.” 

The Eastern District of Pennsylvania has been active in federal reentry efforts and this event brought together the agencies and programs involved in reentry.   One of the programs highlighted at the conference was the U.S. District Court’s Supervision to Aid Reentry (STAR) reentry court, an intensive 52-week court program that assists people returning from federal prison who are at high-risk of re-offending.  Reentry courts are operating in over 50 districts.  Reentry courts are a form of heightened supervised release that combines significantly increased judicial oversight and in-court hearings with the collaborative efforts of the probation office, the U.S. attorney office, the federal defender’s office, and contract treatment/service providers.  Some individual reentry courts have been examined.  Studies from courts in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and the District of Massachusetts generally show a reduction in recidivism for participants.  In the Eastern District, the study found that only 10 percent of reentry court graduates were rearrested during the 18 month study period, compared to 31 percent of the control group. 

It is clear that we face significant challenges in ensuring the safe and effective reintegration of formerly incarcerated individuals.  The issues are complex and the stakes are high.  The key to responding to these challenges lies in working together and collaborating at events like today’s conference.

The Southeastern Regional Reentry Conference was sponsored by Widener University’s Center For Violence Prevention, the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD), and the United States Attorney’s Office.

Today, the Department of Justice announced a change to the Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act (CAFRA), effective immediately, which will allow federal law enforcement agencies to advertise certain public forfeiture notices online, at a reduced cost, at www.forfeiture.gov. This will save approximately $6.2 million each year in administrative costs. Those savings will remain in the Justice Department’s Assets Forfeiture Fund and be used to fight fraud, drug trafficking and violent crime. 

Traditionally, law enforcement agencies have published public forfeiture notices in newspapers. Starting in 2007, the department began advertising public forfeiture notices that were part of judicial proceedings on the Internet. This saved approximately $1.5 million per year.

The department will now begin also advertising administrative forfeiture notices online as well. These are notices that do not require judicial involvement. Because of the volume of administrative forfeiture notices, the department expects savings to increase fivefold, for a combined total savings of $7.7 million per year.

Taxpayers deserve to know that we’re using their money responsibly, and by lowering administrative costs, the department can focus more resources towards protecting Americans and upholding our nation’s laws.  Today’s change simplifies the notification process and increases the availability of information, ensuring that more of the ill-gotten gains from criminal activities will be available to fight crime.

The department currently offers the benefits of this online platform to other federal law enforcement agencies, including the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the Secret Service. By expanding this program to even more agencies, including Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, we can save additional taxpayer dollars.

This initiative is part of Attorney General Eric Holder’s SAVE Council, which was established in July 2010 to direct and oversee efforts to identify and implement best practices for saving taxpayer money, realizing efficiencies and monitoring the department’s savings progress.

For more information about the Attorney General’s SAVE Council, visit http://www.justice.gov/ag/save-council.html.

On October 10th, Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole traveled to Talladega, Ala., where he spoke with members of the Northern Alabama Reentry Council. The Reentry Council was formed in April 2011, with the goal of offering recommendations to create more successful outcomes in the lives of former inmates, as well as improving the security of the communities they return to upon their release. The U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, Joyce White Vance, Bureau of Prisons Director Charles Samuels and FCI Talladega Warden John Rathman hosted the Reentry Council meeting which included a group of professionals from across the federal, state and local criminal justice systems. 

Each year more than 700,000 individuals exit our state and federal prisons. Currently, two-thirds of all released state prisoners will be rearrested within three years, with half of those returning to prison. Forty percent of former federal prisoners are rearrested or have their supervision revoked within three years after release. The Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics estimates that more than $74 billion is spent on state, local and federal prisons each year.  The Department of Justice has made a strong commitment to programs that will assist with reentry, along with prevention and enforcement, as part of our comprehensive Anti-Violence Strategy.

As Deputy Attorney General Cole said:

“The members of this Council have recognized that we can no longer afford the societal and budgetary costs incurred when people cycle in and out of our prisons… As we developed our comprehensive Anti-Violence Strategy we realized that we cannot arrest and prosecute our way out of this devastating problem.  While prosecution is important, we also have to prevent the violence from happening in the first place and one important way to do this is to pay attention to the people incarcerated in our prisons and as they prepare to leave those institutions make sure they are ready to reenter our communities as productive, law abiding members.  In this vein, federal prosecutors are encouraged to think comprehensively about the criminal justice process – to critically examine other ways to improve public safety, beyond traditional enforcement and to place an increased reliance on criminal justice stakeholders and community leaders to help guide and inform these efforts.” 

Deputy Attorney General Cole went on to discuss other efforts that are being made at the Department of Justice, the Bureau of Prisons and at the state level. He highlighted, for example, programs taking place in Alabama through the Reentry Council:

“[T]hrough its working groups, this Council has tackled issues for formerly incarcerated individuals involving housing, transportation, healthcare and rehabilitation, education, job training and access, and community support and reintegration.  The working groups have developed and implemented critical initiatives which are providing measurable results — such as working on the development of a memorandum of understanding between municipal judges to assist formerly incarcerated individuals who are attempting to re-acquire their driver’s licenses.”

Under Attorney General Eric Holder, the department has prioritized effective reentry and reinvestment programs for formerly incarcerated individuals. Since October 2009, the department has awarded more than $200 million Second Chance Act grants to more than 370 state, local and tribal prisoner reentry programs. These grants will help the nearly 10 million individuals that are released from jails and state and federal prisons each year successfully return to communities.  Recently, the Office of Justice Programs announced new awards including a grant to the Alabama Department of Corrections for the Jefferson County Reentry Planning Project.

U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance noted the impact of the Reentry Council working with the states to take an active role to find solutions to ensure public safety and security.

“The North Alabama Reentry Council has been a collaborative effort among federal and state judges, prosecutors, probation and prisons officials to achieve better outcomes for formerly incarcerated individuals reentering our communities. Our goal in these efforts is to identify and coordinate resources toward enhancing public safety and saving taxpayer dollars. I have been deeply impressed by all the groups in the community who were operating in isolation but came forward and are now working in specific areas that were the worst barriers to successful re-entry.”

In 2011, Attorney General Holder created the Federal Interagency Reentry Council, bringing together 20 federal agencies to tackle the issue of reentry in a comprehensive way. The Department of Justice recognizes that in order to make our country safer, it is important to make sure that rehabilitation and reentry outcomes are a priority. As Deputy Attorney General Cole said:

“Only by working together can we reduce criminal justice spending, protect individuals and their families, prevent new victimizations, and improve the quality of our communities.”

For more information about the Reentry Council and Second Chance Act, visit www.nationalreentryresourcecenter.org

The following post appears courtesy of Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Justice Programs, Mary Lou Leary

Last week, I was privileged to speak at the Clery Center for Security on Campus’s 25^th anniversary gathering.  Founded by Connie Clery – who was moved to action by the brutal rape and murder of her daughter, Jeanne – the Clery Center has made a tremendous impact on campus culture by raising awareness of sexual assaults on campus to help make schools safer and provide support and resources for victims.

There was a time when we didn’t talk about campus violence.  We took for granted that our institutions of higher education were peaceful havens for learning.  Meanwhile, victims were often left without support or services. That changed significantly with the passage of the Clery Act in 1990. 

That landmark piece of legislation helped university officials understand the importance of disclosing crimes and security risks.  Thanks to the Clery Act – and to the education and awareness the Clery Center has provided over the years – colleges and universities now are much more focused on solving a problem than on admitting one exists.

But we’re far from meeting all our challenges – especially the problem of sexual assault.  Several studies sponsored by our National Institute of Justice indicate that between 14 and 30 percent of college students experience some type of sexual violence during their college careers. 

In one study, close to 12 percent of students reported being a victim of rape.  And current research suggests that as many as 85 to 90 percent of sexual assaults are perpetrated by someone known to the victim.  Often, alcohol is involved.  Victims in these cases often feel they bear some responsibility for the rape, and fail to report it, fearing they’ll be poorly treated by the police or other parts of the system.  As long as this fear of reporting prevails, we have more to do.

Several years ago, our National Institute of Justice issued a report recommending schools have written response protocols to campus crime, provide prevention education to the general student population, and make sure adequate services are available for the victims.

More recently, our Bureau of Justice Assistance supported a review of campus crime prevention efforts with a national survey of universities on evidence-based crime prevention practices, and held focus groups to discuss where to target campus crime prevention efforts. 

The Justice Department’s Office on Violence Against Women has awarded $132 million to 360 institutions of higher education since 1999 to help schools develop standards and create programs to address violence against women on campus.  Information gathered from these and other efforts has helped produce useful tools, like a mobile app that provides students and parents access to campus crime statistics and resources on campus safety.  This is a terrific tool, given students’ historic lack of access to information about campus crime. 

Through OJP’s work and partnerships with organizations like the Clery Center, we have raised the profile of campus crime victims and made student safety a top priority of our system of higher education.  

Let’s continue to build on that momentum, working to put systems in place that protect students, help victims, and ensure that our colleges and universities are safe communities for learning and growth.