The National Institute of Corrections (NIC) has established a blog for juvenile justice professionals. The blog, Juvenile Justice Connection, features news from NIC, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, and other federal, state and local sources. It gives information about professional training opportunities and juvenile justice research. The posts include everything from news about events to where to find important resources and information. This blog is one of eleven “news columns” on NIC’s Corrections Community Web site that cover various corrections-related topics, from today’s jails to offender employment to PREA. To receive e-mails when there is a new post, a viewer can subscribe by providing his or her e-mail address. Visit Juvenile Justice Connection at http://community.nicic.org/blogs/juvenilejustice/default.aspx.

The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention has released two reports to Congress on grant programs. Juvenile Accountability Block Grants Program, 2005 Report to Congress and Title V Community Prevention Grants Program: 2004-2005 Report to Congress detail the progress of these programs.

The Juvenile Accountability Block Grants Program began in 1998 to help states and communities reduce juvenile offending through accountability-based reforms. These reforms include swift, proportionate sanctions such as restitution, community service, victim-offender mediation and restorative justice sanctions. The report details the history of the program and how it has affected the communities in which it was implemented. It presents data from the second round of performance measurement, the reporting period of April 1, 2004, to March 31, 2005. This data is compared, where possible, to the Oct. 1, 2003, to March 31, 2004, data. It also discusses how OJJDP plans to improve the program. This report is available at www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/ojjdp/217458.pdf.

The Title V Community Prevention Grants Program was established in 1992 as an amendment to the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974. It encourages community leaders to assess the risk factors of juvenile delinquency and develop prevention strategies. In 2004, OJJDP disseminated a set of quantitative performance indicators and directed the states to collect data from their local subgrantees and to report every year on the outputs and outcomes of the prevention efforts. This report presents the results. View the report at www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/ojjdp/215559.pdf.

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