Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Charles Grassley (R-IA) has asked the Justice Department to respond to whistleblowers' claims that it fraudulently paid millions of dollars in grant money to states that should not have received the money because they incarcerated nonviolent juvenile offenders in violation of federal law, reports the Juvenile Justice Information Exchange. In a letter to Assistant Attorney General Karol Mason, Grassley detailed allegations that the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) knowingly violated federal law by giving the grants to states that incarcerated runaway youth, foster children and other “vulnerable minors.”
“Most disturbingly, whistleblowers allege that OJJDP's exercise of this policy is not limited to the correction of clerical errors or other innocent mistakes arising from states' misunderstanding of reporting requirements,” wrote Grassley, who cited Wisconsin and four other states or territories but did not disclose which ones. Grassley said, “As evidenced by the Wisconsin example, the core allegation is that OJJDP knowingly allows states to obtain [JJDPA] funds to which they are not entitled, as part of its institutional philosophy of 'working with the states' at all costs.”