Justice Blogs

2017 Chief FOIA Officer Report Guidelines include new questions on FOIA requester services, self-assessments, and proactive disclosures.

Courtesy of Office for Victims of Crime Director Joye E. Frost and Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Administrator Robert L. Listenbee On a November day in 1999, 14-year-old Kuntrell Jackson accompanied two boys to a video store in Blytheville, Arkansas, to commit a robbery. On the way there, he learned that one of the boys was carrying a shotgun. Jackson stayed outside for most of the robbery, but after he entered, one of his co-conspirators shot and killed the store clerk. Arkansas charged Jackson as an adult with capital felony murder and aggravated robbery, and a jury convicted him of both crimes. The trial judge imposed a statutorily mandated sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

When most people think of the Justice Department, they are likely to imagine the most visible parts of our job – the law enforcement agents who investigate crimes or the lawyers who prosecute them. But the department’s core responsibilities go beyond investigation and prosecution. Unlike most states, the federal government puts its law enforcement agents, criminal prosecutors, and correctional officers all in a single department. We handle every step from the start of an investigation to the end of a prison sentence. Our work to house and rehabilitate individuals incarcerated in the Federal Bureau of Prisons is an important part of our responsibility and operations, accounting for 25 percent of the department’s budget every year.