§12102 Authorization of Grants

Summary

The Attorney General must give two types of grants to eligible states: Violent Offender Incarceration grants and Truth‑in‑Sentencing Incentive grants. States can use the money to build or expand prisons and jails to add beds for people convicted of serious violent crimes (including juveniles who would be treated like adults), to build temporary or permanent facilities (including on military bases, prison barges, or boot camps) for nonviolent offenders and noncitizen prisoners so existing space can be used for violent offenders, and to do other related activities listed in section 10631(b). States may form regional compacts to get these grants, and a compact is treated like a state for this purpose. Every state in a compact must be eligible on its own. No state can get a grant both by itself and as part of a compact. A state that certifies to the Attorney General that it passed laws by April 26, 1996 based on the program as first written on September 13, 1994 may get a grant for fiscal year 1996 as if it met the normal rules.