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Bureau of Justice Assistance · Department of Justice

BJA FY 2026 Justice Reinvestment Initiative: Strengthening State and Local Operations to Reduce Crime and Recidivism

Open

In short: Bureau of Justice Assistance gives grants of up to $4 million. Open to many kinds of groups. See who can apply.

Key facts

Deadline
Due Nov 20, 2026 · 41 days left
Award size
Up to $4M
Match ?
Not required · Work out your budget and match
Who can apply
County government, City or town government, Special district (utility, fire, etc.), State government, Tribal government, and others named in the official notice
Where
Anywhere in the U.S., including Tennessee

Before you apply: federal grants require an active SAM.gov registration (Unique Entity ID) and a Grants.gov account. Registration is free but can take weeks, so start now, not when the deadline is close. Get-ready checklist

How this fits you

  • Available in Tennessee (nationwide program)
  • No match required
  • Past Tennessee awards on file: 3

Tell us who you are to see whether you're eligible.

About this grant

This is a notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) for the BJA FY 2026 Justice Reinvestment Initiative: Strengthening State and Local Operations to Reduce Crime and Recidivism. This opportunity will support state, local, and tribal government efforts to reduce wasteful spending and inefficient uses of funds across justice system operations and redirect that funding to target crime and other public safety and/or justice system challenges. Applicants should propose projects that address one or more urgent local justice system challenge. Applicants should use existing data and information to identify the specific challenges they will focus on and how they will refocus resources on the strategies and populations most likely to reduce crime. Jurisdictions may consider addressing challenges across the judicial system, including those related to law enforcement, prosecution, sentencing, jails and prisons, probation, and parole.

Who can apply, from the official notice

Other units of local government: For the purposes of this notice of funding opportunity, other units of local government include towns, boroughs, parishes, villages, or other general purpose political subdivisions of a state.

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Your schedule, working back from the deadline

  1. Oct10
    Check that your SAM.gov registration is active (or start it now)
    Grants.gov: allow up to 10 business days for SAM registration, weeks or months if information isn't verified. It must be renewed every year. Grants.gov
  2. Oct30
    Ask partners for letters of support or commitment
    Suggested: partners need about three weeks to write and sign letters.
  3. Nov13
    Finish a complete draft for a final review
    Suggested: leave about a week for someone else to read the draft.
  4. Nov18
    Submit
    Grants.gov: submit at least 24–48 hours before the deadline: uploads fail, systems slow down, errors need fixing. Grants.gov blog
  5. Nov20
    Deadline
    From the funder.

Save this grant to put these dates in My grants and your private calendar.

See how others wrote it

The agency posted this example. Read them for structure and level of detail. Don't copy their words: funders treat copied text as plagiarism, and requirements change from year to year, so follow the current notice.

All sample proposals

Who in Tennessee has won this program

1 award to Tennessee groups since 2022. Largest shown:

Past Tennessee winners
Past winnerWhereAmountFiscal year
State of TennesseeNashville$57K spent that year2023

Source: Federal Audit Clearinghouse. Past awards show who this program funds. They don't guarantee future awards.

Tennessee groups that got this money through a state agency or another organization

This federal money also reaches local groups as pass-through grants. 2 pass-through grants on file. Largest shown:

Tennessee pass-through grant winners
Past winnerWhereThroughAmountFiscal year
State of TennesseeNashvilleCommunity Resources for Justice, Crime and Justice Institute$134K spent that year2024
State of TennesseeNashvilleCommunity Resources for Justice$75K spent that year2023

Source: USAspending.gov pass-through reports (the first recipient reports each one of $30,000 or more).

More from Bureau of Justice Assistance

About the federal program

Justice Reinvestment Initiative, also called “JRI”
Program number 16.827 (the federal Assistance Listing number) · U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs · Project grant

How applications are judged

In each year's official notice: read this year's.

Match

None required (federal program listing).

This program on SAM.gov

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What's wrong?

Source: Federal grants from Grants.gov · the official federal record. Last checked by GrantMe Oct 10, 2026.

Reference numbers: official notice number O-BJA-2026-172770 · program number 16.827