34 U.S.C. § 60531 — Community-based mentoring and transitional service grants to nonprofit organizations

(a) Authority to make grants. Using available funds, the Attorney General must make grants to nonprofit organizations and Indian Tribes. The purpose is to provide transitional services essential for reintegrating offenders into the community. (b) Use of funds. A grant may pay for: (1) mentoring adult and juvenile offenders during incarceration, through their transition back to the community, and after release; (2) transitional services that help offenders reintegrate, including (A) educational, literacy, and vocational services, and the Transitional Jobs strategy; (B) substance abuse treatment and services; (C) coordinated supervision and services for offenders, including physical health care and comprehensive housing and mental health care; (D) family services; and (E) validated tools to assess the risk factors of returning inmates; and (3) training on issues affecting offenders and victims. (c) Application; priority consideration. (1) In general: to qualify, a nonprofit or Indian Tribe must submit an application, at the time and in the manner and with the information the Attorney General requires. (2) Priority: applications get priority if they (A) include a plan to use activities proven effective at helping offenders successfully reenter, and (B) provide for an independent evaluation that, as much as feasible, randomly assigns offenders to either the program or a control group. (d) Strategic performance outcomes. The Attorney General must require each applicant to set specific performance goals tied to the long-term aim of stabilizing communities by reducing recidivism — measured consistently with the research done under section 60551(b)(6) of this title — and reintegrating offenders. (e) Reports. A grant recipient must, by the last day of the fiscal year after the one when it got the grant, send the Attorney General a report. The report describes and assesses how the grant was used and shows the grantee's progress toward its performance goals. (f) Authorization of appropriations. Congress authorizes $15,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2019 through 2023 to carry out this section.