The county’s probation department has received a $1,005,334 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice, it was announced on Friday, September 11. The money-awarded as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant, which funds nationwide crime prevention efforts-must be approved for acceptance by the County Board of Supervisors before it can be used. Once that happens, it will help probation department employees more closely monitor people considered to be high-risk gang offenders-or, in technical terms, “provide intensive supervision and evidence-based therapeutic interventions to specific high-risk probationers with gang-related terms and conditions and/or identified gang affiliations,” as per a press release from county communications director William Boyer.
The probation department was one of 3,600 agencies nationwide to apply for the money.