The Federal Office of Justice Programs (OJP) awards formula grants to the states for corrections-related programs. The largest of these programs is the Violent Offender Incarceration and Truth-in-Sentencing Incentive (VOI/TIS) program. VOI/TIS provides funds to build or expand temporary or permanent correctional facilities for the confinement of violent offenders or to house nonviolent offenders and criminal aliens to free existing prison space for violent offenders.

In general, VOI/TIS awards strongly favor increased beds (i.e., adding to rated capacity). The awards are primarily constructing new adult and juvenile correctional facilities (e.g., Delano II in California, the Wilsonville Womenís Facility in Oregon, and Stafford Creek Corrections Center in Washington) and adding capacity at existing institutions (e.g., the 50-bed unit for juveniles at SYCRCC in California).

States have difficulty financing security electronics upgrades and replacements with VOI/TIS money, since awards arenít made for on-going repairs and maintenance. However, the following exceptions might permit VOI/TIS funding of retrofits: Increasing the security level of an existing facility (e.g., from medium to maximum security) to make additional beds available for violent offenders. Initial repairs to make a newly acquired facility ready for use as a correctional facility. Possibly upgrading an existing control center, if it was necessary to accommodate controls for expanded housing.

In FY 1998, a total of more than $503 million was awarded to the 50 states, the District of Columbia, the territories, and five Indian tribes. FY 1999 awards will be $496 million.

Federal law allows up to 15 percent of a stateís VOI/TIS grant to be passed along to counties for adult and juvenile detention facility construction. The allocation of these funds is administered by the states. States may even declare "exigent circumstances" in order to allocate more than 15 percent to counties, as California did, but exigent circumstance funds can only be used for local juvenile facility construction.

Federal law and program guidelines differ between juvenile and adult facilities: Juvenile facility projects must add bed space for any type of offender except adjudicated violent offenders. Counties cannot make general modifications or juvenile facility improvements with federal funds unless necessitated by the added bed space.

Adult facility projects are subject to less restrictive federal rules; adding bed space is optional and funds can be used solely to make general adult facility modifications or improvements. For example, $1 million of the total $2.5 million in funding for the upgrade of security electronics at the Sacramento County Main Jail is being obtained with VOI/TIS funds awarded by the state.

In many states, California being a good example, the competition is fierce for VOI/TIS funds to finance local adult jail and juvenile detention facility construction. award by the California Board of Corrections

At various times, states support local detention projects through general fund and/or jail construction fund grants, which are financed by state bonds. Counties generally must complete the funding by matching part of the award with their own funds. The majority of existing jails in California and Washington, for example, were funded in this manner. However, the last ten years Since federal construction grant funds for juvenile facilities are limited to adding beds and related support space, state grants can provide needed renovation and deferred maintenance funds not otherwise available to juvenile facilities.

This Act, which is administered by the BOC, appropriated $100 million from the General Fund for competitive grants supporting the renovation, reconstruction, construction, and replacement of county juvenile facilities and the performance of deferred maintenance. In May 1999, the BOC awarded $98.5 million in funds available as a result of this Act to 16 counties.

The BOC also administers the Jail Construction Fund, which has provided over $1.5 billion since its inception in 1980 for construction projects, primarily from general obligation bonds. The vast majority of the projects are complete and have met contractual obligations. The estimated completion of all projects is FY 1999/00, at which time the program will conclude. This Fund is primarily responsible for increasing Californiaís jail capacity from 31,824 beds in 1980, to 70,963 beds by the end of 1997, and capacity is scheduled to increase to approximately 73,000 beds at the conclusion of the bond program in FY 1999/00. Many new and remodeled jails have been constructed as "new generation" facilities reflecting state-of-the-art design. This enables more effective inmate supervision, management and control, and may result in reduced operational costs in some jurisdictions.