Bureau of Justice Assistance Grants

The Office of Justice Programs (OJP) is committed to advancing work that furthers the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) mission to keep our country safe and secure and uphold the rule of law and protect the rights of American citizens. This NOFO is authorized under Public Law 119-21, Title X, Subtitle A, Part II, Section 100055 (codified at 34 U.S.C. § 61101), which provides funding to enhance capacity to locate and apprehend aliens who have committed crime(s) under Federal, State, or local law, in addition to being unlawfully present in the United States, investigate crimes committed by illegal aliens, counter gang and criminal activity including drug and human trafficking operations, support prosecutions, coordinate with federal immigration enforcement partners, and strengthen multi-jurisdictional responses to transnational criminal organizations threatening American communities. This grant program is a collaboration between the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and the Office of Justice Programs’ (OJP) Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) to provide state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies with funding to acquire modern ballistic imaging equipment and implement crime gun intelligence best practices. This is an invitation to apply notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) for the FY 2026 National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN) Modernization Program. This program will modernize NIBIN technology at 194 existing sites currently utilizing outdated technology. Grant funds will cover the cost of new NIBIN-compatible equipment and maintenance costs for five years.

The Office of Justice Programs (OJP) is committed to advancing work that furthers the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) mission to keep our country safe and secure and uphold the rule of law and protect the rights of American citizens. OJP provides federal leadership, funding, and other critical resources to directly support law enforcement, combat violent crime, protect American children, provide services to American crime victims, and address public safety challenges, including human trafficking and the opioid crisis. This is a notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) for the BJA FY 2026 Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) Program—Local Formula. This opportunity will provide formula funding to eligible units of local government to, in general, support hiring additional personnel and/or purchase equipment, supplies, contractual support, training, technical assistance, and information systems for criminal justice or civil proceedings, including for any one or more of the eleven program areas. Applicants should check the FY26 JAG allocations to determine if they are eligible to receive direct JAG funding from BJA prior to starting an application: https://bja.ojp.gov/program/jag/allocations.

This is a notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) for the BJA FY 2026 Capital Case Litigation Initiative: Improving the Quality of Legal Representation in State Capital Cases. This opportunity will enhance the ability of prosecutors to effectively represent the public in state capital cases and to improve the quality of legal representation for defense attorneys who represent indigent defendants in state capital cases. States must allocate funding equally among capital prosecution and capital representation.

This is a notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) for the BJA FY2026 Adult Treatment Court Program. This opportunity supports the implementation and enhancement of Adult Treatment Court (ATC) operations to prevent overdoses and reduce the use of opioids, stimulants, and other substances by high-risk/high-need adults in the criminal justice system. Adult Treatment Courts (ATCs) combine judicial supervision, substance use disorder treatment, mandatory and random drug testing, case management, sanctions and incentives, and recovery support services to improve participant outcomes and public safety.

This is a notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) for the BJA FY 2026 DNA Capacity Enhancement for Backlog Reduction (CEBR)—Formula Grants Program. This opportunity will support states and units of local government with existing crime laboratories that conduct DNA analysis to process, and/or to increase the capacity to process, more DNA samples for entry into the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), thereby helping to reduce the number of forensic DNA and DNA database samples awaiting analysis and/or to prevent a backlog of forensic and database DNA samples.

This is a notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) for the BJA FY 2026 Prosecuting Cold Cases Using DNA (COLD) Program. This opportunity supports prosecutors in the investigation and prosecution of violent cold case crimes where a DNA profile from a suspect is already developed. This initiative aims to enhance public safety, hold violent offenders accountable, and further case resolution for victims and their families. Law enforcement and prosecutorial agencies may utilize this funding for investigative and prosecutorial activities, as well as crime and forensic analysis that could increase the rate of successful prosecutions and/or other appropriate resolution of cases.

This is a notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) for the Comprehensive Opioid Stimulant and Substance Use Program (COSSUP) Training and Technical Assistance (TTA). This opportunity will provide training and technical assistance to BJA COSSUP grantees to address technical operational challenges to improve responses to overdose deaths, illicit opioids, stimulants, and other substances.

This is a notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) for the BJA FY 2026 Second Chance Act Community-based Reentry Program. This opportunity will support community-based organizations and tribal governments to provide mentoring and transitional services for people returning to communities from adult correctional facilities and who are assessed as moderate to high risk for recidivism. Services may be provided pre-and/or post-release.

This is a notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) for the BJA FY 2026 Upholding the Rule of Law and Preventing Wrongful Convictions Program. This opportunity strengthens the capacity of wrongful conviction review (WCR) entities and their criminal justice and victims’ services partners to more effectively and efficiently identify, assess, and manage post-conviction claims of innocence. Additionally, it aims to enhance public safety by preventing future errors, identifying actual perpetrators of crimes, and delivering justice to victims.

This is a notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) for the BJA FY 2026 National Center for Veterans Justice. This opportunity will establish a national center to provide specialized support to state, local, and tribal criminal justice agencies; treatment and service providers; courts; corrections systems; and community supervision agencies to effectively support and respond to the needs of veterans across the justice system, improve outcomes, and strengthen public safety. The Center will serve as a one stop shop to address critical gaps in veteran identification, cross-system coordination, and implementation of evidence-based interventions by providing criminal justice professionals with specialized tools, training, and technical assistance on military culture, combat trauma, military sexual trauma (MST), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injury (TBI), and other veteran-specific considerations. Providing resources and specialized technical assistance through a centralized location and entity is essential to effectively supporting veterans whose needs require coordination across multiple systems, including criminal justice, Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), behavioral health, and social service systems that operate under distinct legal frameworks and institutional priorities.

This is a notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) for the BJA FY2026 Veterans Treatment Court Program. This opportunity supports the implementation and enhancement of veterans’ treatment court (VTC) operations to reduce the use of opioids, stimulants, and other substances, including alcohol, by high-risk/high-need veterans in the criminal justice system. VTCs effectively integrate substance use disorder (SUD) and mental health disorder (MHD) treatment, mandatory drug testing, incentives and sanctions, and transitional services in judicially supervised court settings that have jurisdiction over veterans in the criminal justice system who have SUD and/or co-occurring mental health disorders (MHSUD), including those with a history of violence and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and/or traumatic brain injury (TBI).

This is a notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) for the BJA FY 2026 Rural Violent Crime Reduction Initiative. This opportunity supports local law enforcement in rural jurisdictions to prevent, respond to, and reduce violent crime. The goal is to equip rural law enforcement agencies and prosecutors’ offices with the resources necessary to implement a violent crime reduction strategy to solve a specific violent crime challenge utilizing one or more of the following approaches: • Personnel, Tactics, Training, and Equipment to Reduce Violent Crime. This includes updated technology and tools, including records management systems, vehicles, vests, and firearms that assist agencies in responding to and preventing violent crime. This also includes hiring additional personnel such as a prosecutor or criminologist to strategically address persistent crimes, early case management, and increased police training. • Technological Enhancements to Reduce Violent Crime. Technology takes the form of hardware, software, communications systems, intelligence centers, and equipment. Technology systems can create the infrastructure for actionable intelligence, enhance officer safety, support efficient operations, shorten case filing timelines, and manage risk. • Data Analytics and Intelligence. Enhance crime analysis capabilities through personnel, training, and software enhancements to identify crime hotspots, predict high-risk times and locations, and allocate resources more effectively to prevent violent incidents before they occur. • Other approaches that align with the Department’s priorities and provide a significant reduction in violent crime rates.

Under the Paul Coverdell Forensic Science Improvements Grant Program, state administering agencies (SAAs) may be eligible and apply for both formula and competitive funds. This NOFO is ONLY for formula funds. An applicant seeking to apply for Coverdell competitive funds (consistent with 34 U.S.C. § 10563(a)(2)) that are available to eligible states and units of local government would need to apply separately under BJA’s FY 2026 Paul Coverdell Forensic Science Improvement—Competitive Grants Program NOFO.

This is a notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) for the BJA FY26 Paul Coverdell Forensic Science Improvement—Competitive Grants Program. This opportunity funds improvements to forensic science and medical examiner/coroner services, including services provided by laboratories operated by states and units of local government.

This is a notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) for the FY26 Students, Teachers, and Officers Prevention (STOP) School Violence Program. This opportunity supports programs to prevent and reduce school violence by implementing training, developing school threat assessment teams and/or intervention teams to identify violence risks, introducing technologies like anonymous reporting tools, or applying other school safety strategies that assist in preventing violence. The Student, Teachers, and Officers Preventing School Violence Act of 2018 (STOP School Violence Act) describes the following allowable uses of funding for school safety projects: • Training to prevent student violence against others and self, including training for local law enforcement officers, school personnel, and students. • The development and operation of technology solutions such as anonymous reporting systems for threats of school violence, including mobile telephone applications, hotlines, and internet websites. • The development and deployment of: o School threat assessment and intervention teams that include coordination with law enforcement agencies and school personnel or o Specialized training for school officials in responding to mental health crises. BJA’s STOP School Violence Program improves school safety and security by providing students and teachers with the tools they need to recognize, respond quickly to, and help prevent acts of violence. Activities that go beyond the allowable uses of funding as described above will not be funded.

This is a notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) for the BJA FY 2026 DNA Capacity Enhancement for Backlog Reduction (CEBR) — Competitive Grants Program. This opportunity will increase capacity of states and units of local government with existing crime laboratories to process DNA samples for entry into the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS). The purpose of the CEBR Competitive Program is to maximize the effective utilization of DNA technology to strengthen evidence-based criminal justice responses. The priorities of the CEBR Competitive Program are (1) to use DNA technology to increase the capacity and/or efficiency of publicly funded forensic DNA laboratories to conduct analysis of DNA samples for entry into CODIS and (2) implementing Rapid DNA in the booking station(s) in eligible jurisdictions. The program is designed to fairly and efficiently prioritize jurisdictions facing operational challenges by considering key performance measures reported by publicly funded forensic DNA laboratories. This program is for Competitive funding only. The BJA FY 2026 DNA Capacity Enhancement for Backlog Reduction (CEBR) — Formula Grants Program for formula funding will post at a later date. Eligible agencies may apply for both Competitive and Formula CEBR Funding.

This initiative seeks to protect American citizens from being victimized, harmed, or killed by criminal illegal aliens, and ensure that no additional families endure the trauma and life altering devastation experienced by our Angel Families. This funding opportunity will support state, local, and tribal government’s activities to identify, disrupt, and prevent violent crime committed by criminal illegal aliens and enhance public safety through coordinated, intelligence-led law enforcement operations. Awards from this program should be used to support significant participation in and support of Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) activities and other DOJ efforts to combat gangs, cartels, and other violent crime. Within the context described above, examples of permissible activities include but are not limited to the following: • Sworn and Non-Sworn Law Enforcement Personnel—Funding can be used to hire or rehire full-time sworn career law enforcement officers/deputies and civilian/non-sworn personnel as outlined below: o Hire new full-time officers/deputies and full-time civilian/non-sworn personnel, including by filling existing officer/deputy vacancies that are no longer funded in your agency’s budget. o Rehire full-time officers/deputies and full-time civilian/non-sworn personnel who have been laid off by any jurisdiction as a result of state, local, or Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) budget reductions. o Rehire full-time officers/deputies and full-time civilian/non-sworn personnel who are (at the time of application) currently scheduled to be laid off by your jurisdiction on a specific future date as a result of state, local, or BIA budget reductions. • Non-Law Enforcement Personnel—Funding can be used for the hiring, retention, and training of critical personnel for the purposes cited above. Examples of personnel could include but need not be limited to the following: forensic, investigative, analytical; prosecution and legal support. Funding may not be used for co-responders, interpreters, or translators. Funding will support salaries for up to three years of eligible positions to be expended within a five-year period of performance to accommodate time needed for recruitment and hiring. • Technology and Equipment—Funding can be used to purchase and support multi-year implementation, ongoing subscriptions, training, and maintenance of equipment and advanced technology to address critical resource gaps and enhance capacity to support criminal justice operations related to the purposes cited above. Examples of technology and equipment could include but need not be limited to the following o Surveillance, Intelligence, and Investigative Technology o Forensic and Analytical Equipment o Officer Safety and Tactical Equipment

This opportunity provides loan repayment assistance for local and state prosecutors and local, state, and federal public defenders who commit to continued employment as public defenders and prosecutors for at least three years. States receiving funding will administer statewide programs through state agencies designated by the governor by soliciting applications from eligible beneficiaries, which include local and state prosecutors and local, state, and federal public defenders (“beneficiaries”). Beneficiaries selected must commit to an additional three years of qualifying service in exchange for partial loan repayment directly to the beneficiary’s loan service provider.

This is a notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) for the BJA FY 26 Tribal Justice Training and Technical Assistance Program. This opportunity strengthens Tribal justice systems by providing specialized technical experts to assist federally recognized Indian Tribes in developing, implementing, and enhancing justice systems. The program addresses violent crime, substance-use related crime (including opioids, stimulants, and other illicit substances), and overdose fatalities while helping Tribes build sustainable legal and corrections infrastructure and enhance collaboration with federal, state, and local partners.

This is a notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) for the BJA FY 2026 Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crimes Act Program. This opportunity supports state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies, including prosecution agencies, in investigating and prosecuting criminal offenses involving civil rights that occurred no later than December 31,1979, and resulted in a death.

This is a notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) for the BJA FY 2026 Tribal Civil and Criminal Legal Assistance Program. This opportunity will support legal assistance to eligible tribal members, federally recognized Indian tribes, and tribal justice systems that provide legal aid and indigent defense services to tribal communities located in rural and remote regions throughout the United States where legal services are sparse. This NOFO will also support specialized training and technical assistance (TTA) to grantees for the development, enrichment, and enhancement of tribal courts and justice system operations. This includes tribal and state joint jurisdiction; veterans’ clinics and legal assistance for Native American veterans; Missing Murdered and Indigenous People; Violence Against Women Act; Tribal Law and Order Act; and Special Tribal Criminal Jurisdiction.

This is a notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) for the BJA FY 2026 Justice Reinvestment Initiative: Strengthening State and Local Operations to Reduce Crime and Recidivism. This opportunity will support state, local, and tribal government efforts to reduce wasteful spending and inefficient uses of funds across justice system operations and redirect that funding to target crime and other public safety and/or justice system challenges. Applicants should propose projects that address one or more urgent local justice system challenge. Applicants should use existing data and information to identify the specific challenges they will focus on and how they will refocus resources on the strategies and populations most likely to reduce crime. Jurisdictions may consider addressing challenges across the judicial system, including those related to law enforcement, prosecution, sentencing, jails and prisons, probation, and parole.

This is a notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) for the BJA FY2026 Residential Substance Abuse Treatment (RSAT) for State Prisoners Formula Grants Program. This opportunity provides formula grant funding to enhance the capabilities of state, local, and tribal governments to support residential substance use disorder (SUD) treatment to adult and juvenile populations in detention or incarceration, initiate or continue evidence-based SUD treatment in jails, prepare individuals for reintegration into the community, and assist them and their communities throughout the reentry process by delivering community-based treatment and other recovery aftercare services. This NOFO will increase access to treatment for individuals with substance use or co-occurring substance use and mental health disorders in detention or incarceration and improve continuity of care during and after reentry by delivering community-based treatment and other broad-based aftercare services.

This is a notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) for the FY 26 Invited to Apply – Medicaid and Corrections Program. This opportunity seeks to support the delivery of highly specialized technical assistance and training to sheriffs, jail administrators, state departments of correction, and correctional leaders and staff in order to support understanding and implementation of legal requirements related to Medicaid, reentry, and the provision of care within correctional facilities. This specialized technical expertise is critical to safely operationalizing Medicaid requirements in secure settings.

This is a notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) for the OJP FY 2026 Special Attorneys Program. This program will support state, local, Tribal, and territorial prosecuting agencies to assign or hire qualified prosecutors to serve full-time or part-time (on a case-by-case basis) as Special Attorneys under the direction of the National Fraud Enforcement Division or the Criminal Division, or to serve as Special Assistant United States Attorneys (SAUSAs) within a United States Attorney’s Office. Funds under this program can also be used to hire criminal investigators, as well as analysts, forensic accountants, and other staff who help with collection or analysis of law enforcement investigative information, to provide further investigative support. These “cross-designated” prosecutors, criminal investigators, and other investigative support staff will remain employees of their home agencies but will investigate and prosecute assigned fraud and other crimes committed by aliens within the United States (hereafter referred to as “criminal aliens”) for the duration of their appointment under this program. Cross-designated prosecutors, criminal investigators, and other investigative support staff may also be assigned cases involving drug or human trafficking committed within the United States. The National Fraud Enforcement Division, Criminal Division, and United States Attorney’s Offices will coordinate with selected prosecutor offices on a case-by-case basis to address logistics and any unique local circumstances. This grant program, authorized under Public Law 119-21, Title X, Subtitle A, Part II, Section 100055 (codified at 34 U.S.C. § 61101), is intended to improve the collection and analysis of law enforcement investigative information, strengthen investigative and prosecutorial capacity, expand intergovernmental coordination, and enhance the ability of jurisdictions to counter gang or other criminal activity, investigate and prosecute fraud and other crimes committed by aliens within the United States, as well as investigate and prosecute drug and human trafficking crimes. The program is also intended to increase the availability of cross-designated prosecutorial personnel who can pursue these matters in coordination with federal authorities and contribute to the effective enforcement of applicable criminal laws.

This is a notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) for the OJP FY 2026 Integrity in American Elections Grant Program. This opportunity will support state and local prosecutors and other justice professionals to prevent, investigate, and prosecute criminal offenses pertaining to voter roll integrity and voter fraud, including illegal voting and registration crimes. This includes votes by aliens, felons, the deceased, those younger than 18, those who vote more than once, those who vote in the name of another, and other illegal voting and registration crimes.