§12102 Authorization of Grants

Summary

The Attorney General must give two kinds of grants to eligible states: Violent Offender Incarceration grants and Truth‑in‑Sentencing Incentive grants. States can use the money to build or expand places to hold people convicted of serious violent crimes or juveniles judged for similar acts; to build or expand temporary or permanent facilities (including on military bases, prison barges, and boot camps) to house nonviolent offenders and criminal aliens so existing prison space can be used for violent offenders; to build or expand jails; and to carry out activities listed in section 10631(b). States may join regional compacts to run the program; a compact counts like a state, but every member must be eligible on its own and no state can get a grant both alone and as part of a compact. A state that certifies to the Attorney General that, as of April 26, 1996, it enacted laws relying on how the program was written on September 13, 1994, and would have qualified then, may receive a grant for fiscal year 1996 as if it met the section 12104 rules.