Attorneys employed in ohio and serving as an eligible prosecutor or public defender are encouraged to apply to the john

This $171,210 Formula Grant award from the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs Bureau of Justice Assistance under the John R. Justice Prosecutors and Defenders Incentive Act program (CFDA 16.816) funds the State of Ohio Department of Higher Education to administer a statewide student loan repayment assistance program for eligible prosecutors and public defenders.

The program supports the recruitment and retention of talented legal professionals in public service roles by providing student loan repayment assistance to selected applicants based on factors like debt-to-income ratios and length of service. The Ohio Department of Higher Education will solicit applications, review them, and distribute award funds directly to recipients' student loan servicers. Recipients must commit to 3 additional years of qualifying service as a prosecutor or public defender in the state. The grants aims to ensure geographic diversity in the selected recipients across Ohio's 12 workforce development regions.

R. Justice student loan repayment program (JRJ) through the ohio department of higher education. A priority deadline will be highlighted after which all applications received will be processed and scored. The minimum goal award amount will be determined for prosecutors and for public defenders. If we receive more applications that will prevent the minimum award still to be determined, we will institute a scoring methodology. Scores will rank applications based on an assessment of each applicants ability to pay current student loan debt and will arrive at a ratio of student loan debt to gross annual salary. The highest scores will represent the least ability to pay and will receive higher priority in awarding. The scoring methodology will weight final scores on two additional factors – length of time in loan repayment and length of public service as a prosecutor or public defender. These additional weights allow applicants who have paid off a substantial amount of their loan debt to be competitive in the program since their base student loan debt to gross annual salary ratio will likely be lower.also, these weights will reward those applicants who have already fulfilled the core aspect of the JRJ; continuous service as a prosecutor or public defender.finally, an effort will be made to ensure a diverse geographic representation among award recipients by choosing at least one recipient from each of ohios twelve workforce development regions. Each recipient will be required to sign a service agreement to continue as a prosecutor or public defender for an additional 3 years. Award amounts will be sent directly to the recipients student loan servicer and will be applied to an outstanding qualifying student loan debt(S) in the recipients name.annual follow-up confirmations will be made to ensure recipients fulfill the terms of their service agreement. Working with both the ohio public defenders office and the ohio prosecuting attorneys association, we were able to determine the employment rates for public defenders and prosecuting attorneys in the state of ohio prior to our involvement with the JRJ grant in comparison to the most recent employment data collected.