Weekly News Brief

WASHINGTON, June 24 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Senate Confirms John H. Laub, Ph.D., and John P. Lynch, Ph.D., to lead NIJ and BJS—The U.S. Senate confirmed the new directors of OJP's National Institute of Justice (NIJ) and Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) on Tuesday, June 22, 2010. OJP Assistant Attorney General Laurie O. Robinson said, "Supporting basic social science research, while expanding our inventory of evidence based approaches, is one of the President's priorities. We welcome the expertise and experience that they bring to their respective bureaus, and look forward to their leadership within the Office of Justice Programs." Dr. Laub, the Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Maryland, College Park, will become the NIJ Director. Dr. Lynch, a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Criminal Justice at John Jay College, City University of New York, will serve as BJS's director. http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/newsroom/pressreleases/2010/OJP10095.htm

State Prison Population Declines; Federal Prison Population Increases—OJP's Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) recently reported that during 2009, the number of prisoners under jurisdiction of state correctional authorities decreased by 2,941 inmates (down 0.2 percent). This was the first decline in the state prison population since 1972. The federal prison population increased by 6,838 (or 3.4%) which accounted for all of the increase in the U.S. prison population. The increase in federal prisoners was slightly less than the average annual growth of 4.1% in the federal prison population that occurred from 2000 through 2008. By yearend 2009, the U.S. prison population (state and federal prisoners combined) reached 1,613,656, increasing by 0.2% during the year. The increase of 3,897 prisoners was the smallest annual increase during the current decade. As of June 30, 2009, state and federal prisons and local jails had custody over 2,297,400 inmates, a decrease of 0.5 percent since yearend 2008. This decrease resulted from the 2.3 percent decline of inmates held in local jails, which hold over a third of the custodial population each year. http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/pub/press/pim09stpy09acpr.cfm

Justice Department Outlines Plan to Protect U.S. Intellectual Property—Research has shown that intellectual property crimes are closely related to and support other crimes, including violent crime. Attorney General Eric Holder announced the Administration's strategic plan for protecting U.S. intellectual property from criminals on Tuesday, June 22. OJP's Bureau of Justice Assistance serves on the Department's new Task Force on Intellectual Property. BJA also will assist the Department by organizing a one-day Intellectual Property Crime Enforcement Outreach Summit in September in California for state and local law enforcement to learn and understand the impact of intellectual property crime on the local, regional, and national economies.

In addition, BJA is administering a $4 million intellectual property enforcement grant intended to provide national support and improve the capacity of state, local, and tribal criminal justice systems to address intellectual property crime.

http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2010/June/10-ag-722.html

http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/BJA/grant/10IntelPropertySol.pdf

Nominations for 2011 Crime Victims' Service Awards—Nominations are being accepted until September 15, 2010, for the 2010 National Crime Victims' Service Awards. The Attorney General presents these awards annually in recognition of outstanding victim service providers and programs. The 2011 awards ceremony will be April 8 in Washington, DC. https://ovcncvrw.ncjrs.gov/awards/default.html

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SOURCE Office of Justice Programs - U.S. Department of Justice