Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator Daniel K. Akaka announced today that the State of Hawaii Department of the Attorney General is receiving a federal grant of $577,749 to continue making improvements to the State of Hawaii-managed Juvenile Justice Information System used by police officers, probation officers, prosecutors, correctional officers, and judges.  The system also serves as a repository for statewide information on missing children. 

The grant was awarded by the Department of Justice as the result of an Akaka provision in the Consolidated Appropriations Act (H.R. 2764), passed by Congress and signed into law last December.  The grant will continue development of a New Generation Juvenile Justice Information System, a secure, web-based, user friendly application to be used by legal and law enforcement officers to monitor juvenile offenders and juvenile-justice cases within the state's judicial system.

The NG JJIS will serve as a central repository for all juvenile justice-related information in Hawaii, beginning with a juvenile's first exposure to the juvenile justice system through his or her prosecution, adjudication and incarceration.  The system will also serve the data-sharing needs and requirements of the member-agencies of the Hawaii's Juvenile Justice Information Committee (JJIC), which include the four county Police Departments, four county Prosecuting Attorneys, four circuits of the Family Court, the Hawaii Youth Correctional Facility and the Department of the Attorney General.  The system will also address the problem of juvenile criminal behavior by enhancing coordination and collaboration among and between the state's child-services agencies.

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