Wisconsin’s Criminal Record System Gets Funding
The Department of Justice announced on Sept. 26 that it will contribute over $26 million to state agencies for the additional financing of criminal record systems. The money is meant to increase the completeness, quality, and accessibility of criminal record systems in the country for the coming year.
The Department of Justice’s Criminal History Involvement Program will offer the financing, which includes $5 million to be specifically employed to upgrade state and national stalking and domestic violence databases. The financing is part of an ongoing measure, known as the National Criminal History Improvement Program, which was begun 10 years ago; since then, the Department of Justice has earmarked nearly $495 million for the program.
Wisconsin got $562,733 in 2005 from the program, the 11th-greatest amount among states. Wisconsin’s Office of Justice Assistance gets the money annually, and then dispenses it to area law enforcement, the court system, and state agencies involved in the records system.
The amount of money each state is given depends upon how much each state requires to be on par with the FBI’s record system. The Department of Justice utilized multiple factors to decide this, including the number of criminal history records each state possessed.
Abstracted by the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center(NLECTC) from the Badger Herald (09/27/05); Smith, Carolyn .
