FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE AG

TUESDAY, MAY 1, 2007 (202) 514-2007

WWW.USDOJ.GOV TDD (202) 514-1888

Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales

Announces Additional
Funding for Indianapolis as Part of the
Justice Department's
comprehensive Anti-Gang Initiative
Indianapolis to Receive $2.5 Million to Combat Gang
Violence
and Increase Prevention Efforts
INDIANAPOLIS– Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales today joined U.S.
Attorney Susan Brooks of the Northern District of Indiana and Indianapolis Mayor
Bart Peterson to announce the expansion of the Justice Department’s
Comprehensive Anti-Gang Initiative to include Indianapolis as one of four
additional sites targeting dangerous street gangs and promoting prevention efforts to
keep communities and neighborhoods safe. As part of the Comprehensive Anti-
Gang Initiative, Indianapolis will receive $2.5 million in additional grant funding to
combat gang violence.

“Keeping neighborhoods safe from gang violence and protecting youth from
increased gang involvement are priorities of the Department of Justice,” stated
Attorney General Gonzales. “Through strong partnerships, federal, state and local
law enforcement, educators and community leaders in Indianapolis are working
together to combat gang violence. The Justice Department’s Comprehensive Anti-
Gang Initiative will help to bolster these efforts by providing additional resources to
increase law enforcement and prevention efforts, making Indianapolis a safer
community.”

Indianapolis is one of four target areas chosen to receive additional funding as part
of the Department’s initiative to combat gang violence, including Oklahoma City,
Rochester, N.Y., and Raleigh/Durham, N.C. Supported by $2.5 million in grant
funds per site, the Comprehensive Anti-Gang Initiative incorporates prevention and
enforcement efforts, as well as programs to assist released prisoners as they re-enter
society. By integrating prevention, enforcement and prisoner re-entry, the
Comprehensive Anti-Gang Initiative aims to address gang membership and gang
violence at every stage.

“At all levels of government, we in Indianapolis are working to reduce violent

crime and target gangs and neighborhood groups who cause the violence in our
community,” said U.S. Attorney Brooks. “We also want to ensure young people
understand the dangers of joining gangs. This grant can help us make a huge
difference in funding programs in schools, community centers and faith-based
organizations.”

In February 2006, Attorney General Gonzales announced the creation of the Justice
Department’s Comprehensive Anti-Gang Initiative, designed to support law
enforcement in combatting violent gang crime, while also promoting prevention
efforts that discourage gang involvement. As part of the initiative, in May 2006 the
Department provided anti-gang resources for prevention, enforcement and offender
re-entry efforts to six sites across the nation: Los Angeles, Tampa, Cleveland,
Dallas/Ft. Worth, Milwaukee and the “222 Corridor” that stretches from Easton to
Lancaster in Pennsylvania. The Comprehensive Anti-Gang Initiative has already
made strides in the original six sites. For example, in Cleveland, one of the most
violent gangs operating in the target area has been dismantled through both federal
and state investigations and prosecutions that resulted in 63 federal and state
indictments. Fifty-five defendants have pled guilty and the remainder are awaiting
trial.

The Justice Department’s strategy to combat gang violence around the nation is
two-fold: First, prioritize prevention programs to provide America’s youth, as well
as offenders returning to the community, with opportunities that help them resist
gang involvement. Second, ensure robust enforcement policies when gang-related
violence does occur.

Indianapolis was selected to receive these grant funds based on a variety of factors,
including the need for concentrated anti-gang resources, established infrastructure to
support the envisioned prevention, enforcement and re-entry components, and
existing partnerships prepared to focus intensely on the gang problem. U.S. Attorney
Susan Brooks will work with state, local and community partners in Indianapolis to
implement strategies that address the following areas:

Prevention – The Department will make available approximately $1 million in

grants per community to support comprehensive prevention efforts such as the
Gang Reduction Program, which focuses on reducing youth-gang crime and
violence by addressing the full range of personal, family and community
factors that contribute to juvenile delinquency and gang activity.

Enforcement – The Department will make available approximately $1 million

 in grants per community to help support enforcement programs that will focus
law enforcement efforts on the most significant violent gang offenders.

Prisoner Re-entry – The Department will make available approximately

$500,000 per community to create re-entry assistance programs with faith-
based and other community organizations that will provide transitional
housing, job readiness and placement assistance, and substance abuse and
mental health treatment to prisoners re-entering society.

The Comprehensive Anti-Gang Initiative complements existing Department of

Justice programs to combat gangs and reduce gun-related crime throughout the
country. Those programs include the Violent Crime Impact Teams, Safe Streets
Task Forces, and the Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) initiative, under which the
number of federal firearms prosecutions has more than doubled in the past six years,
compared to the six years prior to PSN’s implementation. Since 2001, the
Department of Justice has allocated over $1.6 billion to PSN to combat violent
crime at the federal, state and local levels.

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