Criminal Justice Division
The Criminal Justice Division (CJD) focuses on the enhancement of Texas' capacity
to prevent crime, provide service and treatment options, enforce laws, train staff
and volunteers, and the restoration of crime victims to full physical, emotional
and mental health. CJD administers grants from a variety of state and federal funding sources [26KB PDF]. Although each funding source
has its unique purpose, all CJD grant programs share two overarching values: 1)
encourage innovative solutions; and 2) provide for local control. Adhering to these
values allows CJD to respond to the specific needs of Texas' communities.
Prevention & Juvenile Justice
Early intervention and prevention are important components in crime reduction. CJD
recognizes this by funding prevention initiatives that impact the youngest Texans,
involve schools, families, and communities, and build meaningful relationships between
children and adults. CJD's prevention projects provide violent behavior alternatives,
drug and alcohol abuse prevention, mentor programs, school safety education, after
school activities (e.g., tutors, sports, arts), and gang prevention.
Juvenile justice projects focus on holding juvenile offenders accountable while
providing meaningful intervention. Projects involve substance abuse treatment, professional
training and education, school resource officers, gang intervention, gender-specific
programming, juvenile court assistance, drug court assistance, juvenile supervision
programming, family services, and prosecution.
CJD's juvenile justice research projects are designed to benefit the overall juvenile
justice system. Research in the area of disproportionate minority contact assesses
the extent to which minorities are subject to different confinement decisions than
non-minorities. This project includes the development of standardized instruments
assessing risk and making confinement decisions.
Law Enforcement
CJD funds a variety of grants to law enforcement programs for investigation, enforcement,
prosecution, courts, substance abuse treatment, training, and technology. As necessary,
law enforcement resources have been directed toward homeland security initiatives,
especially emergency communication systems, border security, training, and coordinated
response planning.
Texas Crime Stoppers
This program provides funds for the administration and operation of local Texas Crime Stoppers programs. Texas Crime Stoppers programs
accept anonymous tips and provide rewards when these tips lead to indictments and/or
convictions. Texas Crime Stoppers funds a 24-hour toll-free hotline for gathering
information on unsolved crimes and trains local programs. Texas Crime Stoppers also
provides grant funds directly to certified local programs. The program provides
a partnership between the public, law enforcement agencies and the media in order
to speed identification and apprehension of criminals.
Victims' Services
Assisting crime victims through comprehensive restoration to physical, mental and
emotional health is the focus of the Criminal Justice Division’s (CJD) victim strategy.
CJD promotes coordinated local service systems that involve multiple disciplines
and support a seamless delivery of services to create a state in which service providers
and communities at large recognize the power of prevention, education, and individual
empowerment, while simultaneously fostering an environment of intolerance for violent
acts of crime. This initiative is intended to provide scalable concepts to communities
throughout the State of Texas in order to achieve a collaborative approach amongst
victim service providers to reinstitute the human priority in victim services.
Homeland Security Grants Division
The Homeland Security Grants Division (HSGD) promotes strategies to prevent terrorism and other
catastrophic events and to prepare communities for the threats and hazards that pose the greatest
risk to the security and resilience of Texas and the Nation. The grant funding assists Texas
jurisdictions in building, sustaining, and delivering core capabilities to further the National
Preparedness Goal which is, “A secure and resilient Nation with the capabilities required across
the whole community to prevent, protect against, mitigate, respond to, and recover from the threats
and hazards that pose the greatest risk.”
Guided by the framework established in the Texas Homeland Security Strategic Plan, HSGD supports
investments in homeland security planning, organization, equipment, training, and exercises.
Grant funding is used to address gaps identified through the annual State Preparedness Report (SPR)
in achieving capability targets set through the annual Threat and Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment (THIRA).
These assessments identify capability targets and Texas’ current ability to meet those targets.
Precedence is given to high-priority core capabilities where significant gaps exist.
Texas Music Office (TMO)
To request information about grants and loans from TMO, click here.