The Stimulus bill includes a $3 Billion package that funds a program the has resulted on some egregious scandals including a case in Tulia, Texas.
According to the ACLU:
he most well-known Byrne-funded scandal occurred in Tulia, Texas where dozens of African American residents (representing nearly half of the adult black population) were arrested, prosecuted and sentenced to decades in prison, even though the only evidence against them was the uncorroborated testimony of one white undercover officer with a history of lying and racism. The undercover officer worked alone, and had no audio-tapes, video surveillance, or eyewitnesses to corroborate his allegations. Suspicions arose after two of the accused defendants were able to produce firm evidence showing they were out of state or at work at the time of the alleged drug buys. Texas Governor Rick Perry eventually pardoned the Tulia defendants (after four years of imprisonment), but these kinds of scandals continue to plague the Byrne grant program.
The Byrne grant program will do little to stimulate the economy and is nothing more than pork-fest for the police (insert your own pun here) The Drug Policy Reform movement is working on the issue.
"We're working on a letter to Congress about the Byrne grants right now," said Lawanda Johnson, communications director for the Justice Policy Institute, one of the organizations that had signed on to the 2006 DPA letter. "The Byrne grant program is not an effective use of funds for preserving public safety or stimulating the economy. The only way you will get an economic boost from this is if you own stock in Corrections Corporation of America," she laughed, grimly.
The funding for the program was reduced from $520 Million in 2007 to $170 Million for 2008. The Drug War Chronicle has a good piece on the issue.
As a Senator, Barrack Obama cosponsored an amendment in 2006 to raise the Byrne Grant program
Senator Obama has supported greater funding to fight meth through the use of Byrne Justice Assistance Grants. The Byrne Grant program provides important funding to many local Illinois law enforcement groups. For example, the Southern Illinois Enforcement Group (SIEG), a meth task-force that polices 31 Illinois counties, pays for 5 of its 12 agents through Byrne grants. During Senate consideration of the Department of Justice funding bill, Senator Obama cosponsored an amendment to raise Byrne funding to $900 million in 2006; the amendment passed the Senate.
More rational thinking about controls being added to the program appear to have had little support in the past.
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee had the right idea. She introduced H.R. 253 in January, 2007, the "No More Tulias: Drug Law Enforcement Evidentiary Standards Improvement Act of 2007" to "increase the evidentiary standard required to convict a person for a drug offense, to require screening of law enforcement officers or others acting under color of law participating in drug task forces."
In addition to limiting Byrne Grants, it provided:
at a minimum, no State that fails to prohibit criminal convictions based solely on the testimony of a law enforcement officer or informants should receive a grant under such program; and (3) corroborative evidence, such as video or audio tapes, drugs, and money, should always be required for such criminal convictions to be sustained.
Unfortunately, it only got three cosponsors in the House and didn't go anywhere.