March 6, 2009:  Today, President  Obama and Attorney General Holder announced funding allocations for state and local law enforcement assistance.  MA is allocated State joint funding, plus 148 MA cities will also receive local government individual shares.  Somerville’s allotment is only exceeded by 20 other cities in MA.

This program is called the Edward Byrne Justice Assistance Grant, or JAG Program.

MA is allocated $25,044,649 in State joint allocation funds, plus a total of $15,749,229 in local government “eligible individual allocation” funds. Added together, the funding that will stream to MA through this JAG program equals $40,793,878.

Somerville’s portion of those local government JAG funds is $156,117.

The White House press release is found at recovery.gov under “Fighting Crime, Improving the Justice System,” and lists the following as eligible JAG activities:

• Law enforcement programs.
• Prosecution and court programs.
• Prevention and education programs.
• Corrections and community corrections programs.
• Drug treatment and enforcement programs.
• Planning, evaluation, and technology improvement programs.
• Crime victim and witness programs (other than compensation).