BJA FY 18 Upholding the Rule of Law and Preventing Wrongful Convictions Program | BJA 2018 14401

Opportunity Information: Apply for BJA 2018 14401

The BJA FY 18 Upholding the Rule of Law and Preventing Wrongful Convictions Program (Funding Opportunity Number BJA 2018 14401) is a competitive federal grant opportunity offered by the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance. It was released on May 8, 2018, with an original application deadline of June 11, 2018. The program is structured as a cooperative agreement, which generally means the awarding agency expects to have a more active role than in a standard grant, often including ongoing collaboration, shared planning, and participation in project direction or oversight.

The purpose of the program is to reduce the risk of wrongful convictions and strengthen the integrity of the justice process by funding projects that bring key stakeholders together to examine where failures can occur and to put practical safeguards in place. Funded applicants are expected to create multidisciplinary teams that can assess and address risk factors for wrongful conviction, and also support the review and assessment of post-conviction claims of innocence. In practice, that means the work is not limited to policy discussions; it is meant to translate into concrete, coordinated procedures for identifying error risks (such as witness identification issues, forensic science challenges, disclosure practices, false confessions, jailhouse informant reliability, or other breakdowns) and for responsibly handling innocence claims after conviction.

A central feature of the solicitation is its emphasis on collaboration among prosecutors, conviction integrity units, and innocence programs. Applicants are expected to lead and coordinate these partnerships, aligning different perspectives and responsibilities into a functioning team that can analyze case review practices, identify systemic vulnerabilities, and implement improvements. The intent is to encourage honest assessment and continuous learning within offices and jurisdictions, while also building processes that can more consistently detect and correct miscarriages of justice.

The solicitation also includes support for training and technical assistance. In addition to project awards, BJA sought a training and technical assistance provider to support the selected projects through structured training and hands-on help. That assistance is meant to strengthen implementation by helping sites adopt effective methods, troubleshoot operational barriers, develop sound protocols, and share lessons learned across projects, rather than leaving each awardee to reinvent processes in isolation.

Funding is discretionary, with an award ceiling of $500,000 per award and an anticipated total of seven awards. The eligible applicant pool is broad and includes state, county, and city or township governments; special district governments; federally recognized Native American tribal governments; public and state-controlled institutions of higher education; private institutions of higher education; nonprofit organizations with 501(c)(3) status (other than institutions of higher education); for-profit organizations other than small businesses; and small businesses. The funding activity areas tied to the opportunity span law, justice, and legal services, as well as training, research and development, information and statistics, and related fields, reflecting the program's blend of policy improvement, operational practice, and evidence-informed approaches.

Overall, this opportunity is designed to help jurisdictions and partners build durable, multidisciplinary capacity to prevent wrongful convictions before they happen and to ensure that credible innocence claims are reviewed in a careful, consistent, and transparent way after conviction, supported by targeted training and technical assistance to improve the quality and impact of the work.

• The Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance in the education, employment, labor and training, humanities (see cultural affairs in cfda), information and statistics, law, justice and legal services, science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "BJA FY 18 Upholding the Rule of Law and Preventing Wrongful Convictions Program" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 16.746.
• This funding opportunity was created on May 08, 2018.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Jun 11, 2018. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $500,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 7 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education, For profit organizations other than small businesses, Small businesses.

Apply for BJA 2018 14401

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