Recrganizing fiscal assistance for criminal justice the justice system improvement act of 1979

Although reorganizing the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration had been repeatedly proposed in the past seven years, it was not until January 29,1979 that Senator Edward Kenndy (D-Mass.) introduced the "Justice System Improvement Act" designed to do just that. An examination of this bill, and a comparison of the present LEAA structure and function with that proposed in the Act illustrates that the legislation will serve to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of criminal justice fiscal assistance pro- grams. The suggested course is to separate the research and statistics components from purely assistance functions and giving LEAA the latter responsibility on an exclusive basis. Research and Statistics would be housed in their own individual organizational structures, but within the perview of the Department of Justice.

Two shortcomings, however, could serve to defeat the proposed bill. Although the legislation gives priority to fiscal assistance to state/local jurisdictions, there is no corresponding increase in financial commitment on the part of the Federal Government. In fact, the FY 1980 budget allocates LEAA its lowest funding level since 1972. At a time of growing concern over crime rates, this would certainly serve to soften the impact of the reorganization effort. In addition, maintaining the research function within the,Department of Justice could well prove prejudi- cial to research findings. The recommended course of action is to adopt the proposal which calls for an indepen-dent "National Institute of Justice, to be organized along similar lines as the National Science Foundation.