A deaf mother, trying to get away from her abusive husband, went to a domestic violence shelter for help. She didn’t know American Sign Language very well, which made it hard to communicate. The shelter workers got in touch with Activating Change, a group that provides sign language interpreters trained to support people who have experienced trauma. Over the year she spent at the shelter, the woman used the interpreter’s help to file for divorce, win custody of her kids, go to therapy, get a job, and find a place to live.
“Our superpower is adaptability, and having access to services like Activating Change allows us to have that,” said Marjie George, developmental director at the Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Services shelter.
Activating Change helps people with disabilities deal with the criminal justice system. It was one of hundreds of organizations that got a notice on April 22 that the Department of Justice was canceling grants given through the Office of Justice Programs. Over 350 grants worth more than $800 million were canceled midway, causing layoffs and program shutdowns.
The nonprofit had to let go of almost half of its 26 staff members after the government canceled $3 million in direct grants. About $1 million of that had already been spent. The group also lost money it was getting through other organizations’ grants.
Amy Solomon, former assistant attorney general who led the Office of Justice Programs and now works at the Council on Criminal Justice, said the cuts affected every area the department worked in.
“This is highly unusual,” Solomon said. “You expect any administration to have their own priorities, and to implement that in future budget years and with future awards. You would not expect it to be grants that have already been granted, obligated or awarded to be pulled back.”
The Office of Justice Programs normally gives out close to $4 billion in grants each year.
It was not clear how much of the money the government planned to take back, since some grants went as far back as 2021. A few days before payments were due for work already done, grantees were locked out of the financial system.
It was also not clear how the Justice Department planned to use any money it might get back. Some of the funding came from specific sources, such as the Victims of Crime Act, which gathers fines and penalties from federal court cases to fund programs for crime victims.
A department spokesperson didn’t answer questions about the cuts.
The cancellation notices said grant recipients had 30 days to appeal. As of Friday, the department had changed its decision for a small number of grants and returned some funding.
Department of JusticeLaw enforcement priorities
The letters about the cuts said the changes were because the department wanted to focus more on “more directly supporting certain law enforcement operations, combatting violent crime, protecting American children, and supporting American victims of trafficking and sexual assault.”
But experts, advocates, and people in the justice field said many of the canceled grants already served those goals. Some of the grants that were cut were linked to the Biden administration’s programs, such as violence intervention efforts. Others had been connected to the Trump administration, including elder abuse and financial fraud prevention.
Even though police departments didn’t lose much funding directly, they are affected by the loss of partner programs.
In a harsh statement on Wednesday, New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin said the state lost nearly $13 million in ongoing funding.
“To say, ‘We’re going to cut programs that protect people from bias, that help people with opioid addiction, that keep guns off our streets’ — it’s irresponsible, it’s reckless, it’s dangerous, and it’s going to get people killed,” Platkin said.
The cuts included grants for research groups that help create standards for training, collect data, and support smaller law enforcement agencies.
The Police Executive Research Forum lost three grants, including one for a study of how police respond to protests to help prevent riots. The National Policing Institute lost grants that helped rural police departments and supported efforts to build trust with communities of color.
Mandated functions
Some of the canceled grants funded services that are tied to legal requirements, like audits under the Prison Rape Elimination Act.
Impact Justice, which lost millions, had created and run the PREA Resource Center for over ten years. The center played a major role in making and managing the federal rules, including creating the online audit system, training for auditors, and certification.
“It’s a collaborative relationship, but we are the ones that execute the work and have the systems and maintain the systems,” said Michela Bowman, Vice President of Impact Justice and senior advisor to the PREA Resource Center.
She said the center designed and owns the audit software and data tools.
“I can’t tell you what the DOJ plans to do in the alternate,” said Alex Busansky, president and founder of Impact Justice.
Department of JusticeSafety and victim services
Groups that help crime victims lost funding, too. Advocates say this could harm public safety, like when the national crime victims hotline lost funding, or when a grant to the International Association of Forensic Nurses was cut. That grant helped train and support SANE—Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners—in areas that don’t have many resources.
“It’s very important for a survivor to be able to access a rape exam done by a SANE nurse. It’s vital,” said Ilse Knecht, director of policy and advocacy at The Joyful Heart Foundation, who leads the group’s work to track and fight the national backlog of untested rape kits.
Grants that directly deal with the backlog haven’t been cut so far, but Knecht said services for survivors are critical.
“When we don’t keep this system that has been set up to keep victims safe and make them want to participate in the criminal justice system … we are really doing a disservice,” she added. “How is this helping public safety?”
For Activating Change, the cuts led to an instant drop in services. Leaders of the group disagreed with the idea that their work doesn’t match federal goals.
“It is a catastrophic blow to our organization,” said Nancy Smith, the organization’s executive director. “But also to the safety net for people with disabilities and deaf people who’ve experienced violent crime in our country.”