FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE VAWO
TUESDAY, JULY 3, 2001 202/307-0703
JUSTICE DEPARTMENT AWARDS ARIZONA $1.9
MILLION
TO COMBAT VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
WASHINGTON, DC - Attorney General Ashcroft
announced today that the Justice Department is awarding $1.9 million to Arizona
to prevent and respond to violence against women, as part of this year’s
STOP (Services, Training, Officers and
Prosecutors) Violence Against Women Formula Grants Program. This program is funded under the Violence
Against Women Act (VAWA).
“No
American should feel outside the protection of the law, or beyond the reach of
the law. The STOP program supports
communities that champion victims’ rights and develops coordinated responses to
violence against women,” said Attorney General Ashcroft. “The funds will give law enforcement and
victim services the resources they need to do a better job of investigating,
prosecuting and preventing crimes against women. We must continue to provide our communities with the resources to
hold offenders accountable and to meet the needs of victims.”
STOP funds are used to promote partnerships among law
enforcement, prosecution, the courts and victim advocates to ensure victim
safety and accountability for offenders.
The Justice Department has awarded Arizona
over $11.2 million in STOP funds since
1995, for total funding exceeding $23.1 million under the VAWA grant programs
since the enactment of the VAWA legislation in 1994. In the President’s FY 2002 budget request, the Justice Department
seeks $390 million in overall VAWA funding, a $102.52 million increase over FY
2001.
Through this funding, states and communities
are urged to restructure and strengthen the criminal justice system response to
domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking, utilizing the expertise of all
participants working in the system, including victim advocates.
Arizona continues to fund projects that
address identified needs and improve the criminal justice system’s response to
violent crimes against women.
The State of Arizona has used its STOP funds to:
·
Develop and
implement a statewide model law enforcement training program for police
officers, 911 operators, and prosecutors on issues of domestic violence, sexual
assault, and stalking;
·
Develop
specialized sexual assault and domestic violence units within police
departments;
·
Provide legal
advocacy to victims in rural communities;
·
Develop
curricula and educational materials for judges and court staff, including
probation officers;
·
Expand full,
faith and credit services between state and tribal courts and;
·
Increase
outreach to rural and Native American communities.
Current project priorities include:
·
Providing
effective and consistent criminal justice services to citizens;
·
Developing a
safe and consistent continuum of services through a coordinated community
approach to domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking; and
·
Coordinating, designing, and implementing a
plan that will assess the status of domestic violence and sexual assault
services in Arizona’s rural, tribal, and urban communities.
The
STOP Program is authorized under the Violence Against Women Acts of 1994 and
2000. The STOP grants are awarded by
the Office of Justice Programs’ (OJP) Violence Against Women Office (VAWO) to
designated state agencies, which must award 25 percent of the funds they
receive to law enforcement, 25 percent to prosecution, 30 percent to victim
services,
5 percent to courts and 15 percent at the state’s discretion for other
STOP program purposes.
For information about the Arizona STOP grant contact Donna
Irwin, in the Governor’s Office for Domestic Violence Protection at
602/542-1773. Information about the
STOP program and other initiatives involving violence against women issues is
available on VAWO’s Website at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/vawo or OJP’s Website at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov, or by
calling the National Criminal Justice Reference Service toll-free at
800/851-3420.
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VAW01135
After hours contact: Angela Harless on 202/616-3266