An Act establishing a competitive grant program to fund violence intervention strategies and supplementing Title 52 of the Revised Statutes.

Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

1. The Legislature finds and declares that:

a. In New Jersey, community violence is a public health crisis that disproportionately impacts underserved communities of color and firearm violence specifically is a major component of that violence;

b. Each year, New Jersey suffers more than 1,000 interpersonal shootings and, in 2016, African American and Latino men constituted 90 percent of the total firearm homicide victims in the State;

c. A few New Jersey cities suffer the vast majority of homicides in this State, most of which are committed with a firearm, and in 2015, more than half of the state's total homicides occurred in the cities of Camden, Jersey City, Newark, Paterson, and Trenton;

d. This violence results in enormous trauma, lifelong health impairments, immeasurable human suffering, and significant economic costs;

e. The direct costs of firearm violence in New Jersey are over $1.2 billion per year including healthcare expenses, law enforcement and criminal justice expenses, costs to employers, and lost income, and when reduced quality of life attributable to pain and suffering is considered, the overall economic cost of firearm violence is $3.3 billion per year;

f. The vast majority of victims and perpetrators of violence are young men of color who are at heightened risk for exposure to violence because of a number of risk factors, including lack of educational and economic opportunity, unaddressed mental health needs, substance abuse issues, unstable housing situations, and previous exposure to violence;

g. Research indicates that in most cities in the United States less than a half percent of a given city's population is responsible for the vast majority of violence and effectively intervening with this high risk population is essential to addressing and preventing interpersonal violence;

h. Historically, community-based violence intervention strategies have demonstrated remarkable success at reducing homicides and other incidents involving the use of firearms in heavily impacted communities and when properly implemented and consistently funded, these programs produce impressive life-saving and cost-saving results in a short period of time;

i. Large reductions in violence have been seen in cities that centrally coordinate multiple violence reduction strategies, including New York City; and

j. Providing consistent funding and support to the evidence-based violence reduction initiatives is an essential part of New Jersey's comprehensive response to interpersonal firearm violence and given the extremely high cost of firearm violence, public investment in these solutions is very likely to generate significant savings for New Jersey taxpayers.

2. The New Jersey Violence Intervention Program is established in the Office of the Attorney General, in the Department of Law and Public Safety. The purpose of the program is to invest in effective, evidence-based violence reduction initiatives focused on the highest-risk individuals in communities disproportionately impacted by community violence, with a particular emphasis on firearm violence.

Specifically, the Office of the Attorney General shall establish, advertise, and administer grants through the New Jersey Violence Intervention Program, conduct program evaluation to determine the effectiveness of the violence intervention programs, submit and post reports to provide transparency regarding the effectiveness of the programs, and hold public forums to gather community input regarding the programs.

3. a. The Office of the Attorney General shall award funds from the New Jersey Violence Intervention Program on a competitive basis to municipalities, health agencies, law enforcement agencies, and non-profit organizations that serve communities with disproportionately high rates of homicides and other incidents involving the use of firearms, as determined by the Office of the Attorney General.

The grants shall be used to:

(1) implement, expand, or enhance the coordination between evidence-based violence reduction initiatives, such as hospital-based violence intervention programs, street outreach programs, and focused deterrence strategies, which have demonstrated effectiveness at reducing rates of homicides and other incidents involving the use of firearms;

(2) support the development and delivery of intervention-based strategies by entities that engage directly with those individuals identified as being in need of such services, to enable person involved in or at risk of engaging in violent acts to avoid or circumvent future acts of violence;

(3) support initiatives that primarily target a reduction of violence and interrupt cycles of violence in the segment of the population, identified through the collection and analysis of objective data, having the highest risk of perpetrating or being victimized by violence in the near future;

(4) ensure that a sufficient portion of the available grant funding is provided to support programs directed at providing public awareness, outreach, assistance or intervention services to victims of firearm violence offered at community locations such as hospitals where individuals may be encountered in the immediate aftermath of a violent incident; and

(5) conduct annual assessments of the needs of communities demonstrably affected by interpersonal violence to ensure program funds are used effectively.

b. In awarding grants, the Office of the Attorney General shall prioritize applicants operating in areas disproportionately affected by serious violence, whose grant proposals demonstrate the greatest likelihood of reducing the rate and number of homicides and other incidents involving the use of firearms in the community served by the applicant. The award applicants may apply either independently or jointly.

The amount of funds awarded to an applicant shall not be limited to a specific amount and shall be commensurate with:

(1) levels of firearm violence in the community served by the applicant; and

(2) the applicant's demonstrated need for additional resources to effectively reduce the rate and numbers of homicides and other incidents involving the use of firearms in the community served by the applicant.

c. A grantee may use the grant awarded to supplement, but not replace, funding that would otherwise be made available to address firearm, group, and community violence in the grantee's community.

4. a. Application for a grant shall be made in a manner and form as determined by the Office of the Attorney General. In applying for the grant, the applicant shall provide:

(1) a description of how the applicant proposes to use the grant funds to implement an evidence-based violence reduction initiative;

(2) a description of how the applicant proposes to use the grant funds to promote or improve coordination among agencies, organizations, and any already-existing violence reduction strategies or programs, in order to minimize duplication of services and achieve maximum impact;

(3) objective evidence indicating that the applicant's proposed violence reduction initiative would likely reduce rates of homicides and other incidents involving the use of firearms; and

(4) clearly defined, measurable objectives for the violence reduction initiative.

b. Each applicant which is a county or municipality, including a law enforcement agency, shall include in its grant application plans to distribute at least 50 percent of the grant funds received to either or both of the following:

(1) one or more non-profit, community-based organizations; and

(2) a public agency or entity that is not a law enforcement agency but regards violence reduction as part of its mission. An award made pursuant to this act may be used for the purpose of creating or expanding the public agency or department.

5. The Office of the Attorney General may use up to five percent of the funds appropriated or made available, or such percentage as may be authorized under program guidelines for funding made available to the New Jersey Violence Intervention Program through federal funding sources, for the costs of implementation and administration of the program, including but not limited to employment of dedicated grants management and programmatic personnel, and annual program evaluation and analysis of the effectiveness of violence reduction initiatives. These evaluations shall be made available to the public.

6. The Office of the Attorney General shall annually hold three public hearings: one hearing in each of the northern, central, and southern regions of the State. The public hearings shall provide a forum to receive information on how the public funds are spent, testimony from grant award recipients on the effectiveness of their programs and best practices, and input from the public on whether the initiatives and the grant funded programs are accomplishing their respective missions. Public input shall be used to assess whether the grant-making metrics and process for issuing grants needs to be revised.

7. The Office of the Attorney General shall report annually to the Governor and, pursuant to section 2 of P.L.1991, c.164 (C.52:14-19.1), to the Legislature, on the activities of the program. The report shall include a listing of the grants awarded under the program, descriptions of the initiatives and impact on the communities served through the grants, and such other information as the Attorney General deems appropriate.

The report shall include, but not be limited to:

(1) a list of all grant applicants and approved grant applicants;

(2) the amounts awarded to approved grant applicants;

(3) the amount of matching funds and types of in-kind contributions provided by approved grant applicants; and

(4) a status report on the activities funded by an approved grant applicant.

8. In addition to any moneys appropriated by the Legislature, the Office of the Attorney General may seek money from the federal government, including but not limited to Victims of Crime Act grants, private foundations, and any other source to fund this initiative.

9. The act shall take effect on the first day of the third month following enactment.

STATEMENT

This bill establishes the New Jersey Violence Intervention Program (NJVIP) for the purpose of saving lives by investing in effective, evidence-based violence reduction initiatives focused on the highest-risk individuals in communities disproportionately impacted by community violence, with a particular emphasis on firearm violence.

Specifically, the bill requires the Office of the Attorney General to establish, advertise, and administer grants through the NJVIP, conduct program evaluation to determine the effectiveness of the violence intervention programs, and provide written reports to provide transparency regarding the effectiveness of the programs, and hold public forums to gather community input regarding the programs.

The bill requires the Office of the Attorney General to award funds on a competitive basis to municipalities, health agencies, law enforcement agencies, and non-profit organizations that serve communities with disproportionately high rates of homicides and other incidents involving the use of firearms. The bill provides that the Office of the Attorney General is to prioritize applicants operating in areas disproportionately affected by serious violence, whose grant proposals demonstrate the greatest likelihood of reducing the rate and number of homicides and other incidents involving the use of firearms in the community served by the applicant. The award applicants may apply either independently or jointly. The bill requires that grants awarded cannot replace current violence prevention funding being provided.

The bill requires applicants to provide certain information to ensure measurable results when applying for the grant. In addition, counties or municipalities, including law enforcement agencies, applying for grants are required to provide plans in the grant application to distribute at least 50 percent of the grant funds it receives, pursuant to the application, to either or both of the following: (1) one or more non-profit, community-based organizations and (2) a public agency or entity that is not a law enforcement agency, but which has violence reduction as part of its mission.

The bill permits the Office of the Attorney General to use up to five percent of the funds appropriated or made available, or such percentage as authorized if through federal funding sources, for the cost of implementation, administration, and evaluation of the program. The evaluations conducted are to be made publicly available.

The bill requires that the Office of the Attorney General annually hold three public hearings: one hearing in each of the northern, central, and southern regions of the State. The public input are to be used to assess whether the grant-making metrics and process for issuing grants needs to be revised.

The bill requires the Office of the Attorney General to provide a report to the Legislature annually on the activities of the program, descriptions of the initiatives and impact on communities served through the grants, and any other information the Office of the Attorney General deems to be appropriate.

It is the sponsor's intent that the bill would support community-based violence reduction programs, such as Hospital-based Violence Intervention Programs (HVIPs), Street Outreach Work (SOW), Group Violence Intervention (GVI), and focused deterrence strategies, which have demonstrated effectiveness at reducing rates of homicides and other incidents involving the use of firearms.

The first example of these programs is HVIPs, which work to break cycles of violence by providing intensive counseling, case management, and social services to patients recovering from firearm injuries, as research indicates that violently injured patients are at extremely high risk of retaliating with violence or being re-victimized in the near future. Evaluations of HVIP programs show that patients who receive HVIP services are four times less likely to be convicted of a violent crime and roughly four times less likely to be violently reinjured than patients who do not receive services.

The next example is SOW, which is a public health-oriented strategy that employs trained, culturally competent outreach workers to detect and interrupt the emergence and transmission of violence. Several evaluations have found this strategy to be associated with significant reductions in firearm homicides and assaults. In New York City, researchers found the Cure Violence model of SOW to be associated with up to a 63 percent reduction in shootings.

The final example is GVI, which is a strategy that coordinates law enforcement, service providers, and the community to reduce violence among a small, identifiable segment of the population that is responsible for the vast majority of firearm violence in most cities. Studies have found that GVI programs are associated with homicide reductions of up to 60 percent.