FY 2000 State Criminal Alien Assistance Program Overview

Program Purpose and Background

The State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP) is administered by the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), Office of Justice Programs (OJP), U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), in conjunction with the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). SCAAP provides federal assistance to states and localities that are incurring costs of incarcerating undocumented criminal aliens who have been convicted of state and local offenses. SCAAP is authorized by Section 241 of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1990, as amended, 8 U.S.C. Part 1231(i). Section 241 gives the Attorney General the discretion, in the event of an appropriation, to either assist states and localities with costs incurred in incarcerating qualifying criminal aliens or take such aliens into federal custody. The U.S. Attorney General has exercised her discretion to use the financial assistance option by delegating program implementation authority through the OJP Assistant Attorney General to BJA. BJA is a criminal justice grantmaking and administrative agency; SCAAP is a program that provides financial assistance only. Please note that SCAAP is a payment program, not a reimbursement or entitlement program. Due to the constructive feedback from applicants, Congress, and other supportive DOJ agencies, fiscal year (FY) 2000 SCAAP includes several major changes that distinguish it from the program in prior years.

FY 2000 SCAAP

SCAAP FY 2000 is managed entirely through the Internet-based system. Applicants provide applicant, inmate, and facility data for a specified period during the formal application period. After that application period closes, data are reviewed by BJA and INS. Approved data are processed by formula to determine an applicant's relative percentage of total SCAAP funding for that fiscal year. Because the formula is used to determine relative amounts of funding for individual applicants, applications must be submitted during the formal application period. If the application period is missed, data for that year may not be submitted during a subsequent application period. The reporting period for FY 2000 is July 1, 1998, to June 30, 1999.

SCAAP Data

FY 2000 SCAAP payment amounts will be determined by a fixed formula using a data set that has been refined from previous years based on BJA and other DOJ agencies' experience with the program. FY 2000 is streamlined in regard to the application/payment systems, and payment amounts are determined using actual empirical data without any "data averaging" or "1-day sampling" techniques. The enhanced data processing capabilities of the new Internet-based system allow for effective and efficient management of high volumes of empirical data through the formula process and ensure that payments will move into applicant accounts in less than 3 months from the opening of the FY 2000 SCAAP application period, provided applicants take actions as indicated.

Applicants will see several onscreen certifications that not only ask them to ensure the accuracy of the data and the presence of a file onsite that supports their on-screen data entries, but also ask them to certify that they understand that the submission of fraudulent and/or misleading data will affect SCAAP funding to that jurisdiction.

The FY 2000 application asks for the following types of data:

Applicant: Data about each applying agency and any individual contact information.

Facility: Data about the total number of inmate beds; total inmate days for all inmates housed during the reporting period, including U.S. citizens, legal aliens, illegal aliens and individuals of unknown immigrant status; and the aggregate correctional officer salary costs, excluding benefits.

Inmate: Inmate data continues to include the A-Number if assigned; last, middle, and first name; date of birth; foreign country of birth; unique inmate number assigned by the applicant; and date taken into custody and date released from custody or the last day of the reporting period if the inmate is still in custody at the end of the reporting period. If an FBI number is known, it can be provided.

Inmate Data

FY 2000 is a critical transition year for the SCAAP program. Applicants will move from the scannable forms and disk modes of data transmission used in prior years to the new Internet-based SCAAP system. FY 2000 is a transition period, so applicants may continue to submit inmate data using their own formats as long as data dictionaries also are submitted. However, the FY 2000 system will also introduce applicants to direct data entry capabilities and establish the standard inmate reporting format for all subsequent submissions of inmate data beginning in FY 2001. The provision of two options for inmate data formats has required additional resources because data submitted in applicants' individualized formats require specialized handling external to the new system. This duplication of services will be eliminated by FY 2001. Therefore, all applicants are encouraged to open the direct data entry screen and download the format. As of FY 2001, should funding be available, the SCAAP process will require that all data be submitted in the SCAAP system format. Therefore, all applicants that anticipate applying in FY 2001 should begin converting inmate data for the period of July 1, 1999, to June 30, 2000, to the new format so they will have all inmate data ready to submit in spring 2001. Applicants will continue to have the option to submit data via direct entry or by upload as long as the standard format and data definitions are followed.

In prior years, applicants were asked to provide actual felony or misdemeanor coding. For FY 2000, applicants must certify that either one felony or two misdemeanors have been committed by each inmate whose record is being provided for SCAAP funding purposes and that this information is maintained at their site in a file that can be audited.

Facility Data

Cost data are gathered in the Facility section of the application, and this data field represents another example of the streamlining of the SCAAP processing of data to determine applicants' relative percentages of available funding. Instead of burdening applicants with the submission of numerous allowable cost categories as in past years, FY 2000 narrows considered costs to one aggregated salary cost element: salary costs, excluding benefits, for all correctional officers (part-time and full-time) in a facility used to incarcerate the illegal aliens reported in the application. As aggregate salary costs for correctional officers will be common to all applicants, and as this data element tends to account for the majority of costs that have been considered in the past, this streamlining of the cost data will serve applicants' interests equally. To avoid applicant confusion, BJA has consulted with various DOJ agencies to refine the data elements, including relying on the Bureau of Justice Statistics for a reasonable definition of correctional officer.

SCAAP Payments

Individual SCAAP payment amounts are determined after all data have been reviewed and approved by BJA and INS. Data are then processed using a formula to determine an individual applicant's relative percentage of the total available funding, which is expressed as a dollar amount. Applicants will receive e-mail notification that payments are ready to be accepted. Formal online acceptance of the payment is necessary for funds to be electronically transferred into the applicant account. If account information has not been given to OJP previously, the applicants are required to provide this information after accepting their payments online.