Justice & Public Safety Cabinet

The Justice & Public Safety Cabinet (JPSC) of Kentucky is a state government entity based in Frankfort, Kentucky, that serves as the commonwealth's primary agency for administering criminal justice, public safety, and victim services. Through federal grant awards, the JPSC functions as a central hub for distributing federal funding to support comprehensive public safety initiatives across Kentucky, including law enforcement enhancement, crime victim services, substance abuse treatment, sexual assault intervention, and violence prevention programming. The cabinet operates under the Secretary of the Kentucky Justice & Public Safety Cabinet and coordinates with multiple state agencies and local organizations to implement evidence-based criminal justice strategies and address emerging public safety challenges.

The JPSC has demonstrated extensive engagement across multiple federal grant programs and funding agencies to support diverse criminal justice and victim services initiatives. The cabinet has received substantial formula grant awards from the U.S. Department of Justice's Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) for the Sexual Assault Services Formula Program and the STOP Violence Against Women Formula Grants, which support rape crisis centers, victim advocacy services, and law enforcement response training to combat domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking. Through the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), the JPSC has managed funding for the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) Block Grant Program, which supports multi-jurisdictional drug task forces, law enforcement training, and substance abuse prevention initiatives. The cabinet has also administered Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) awards coordinated with the U.S. Attorneys' Offices for the Eastern, Western, and other districts, channeling funds to community-based violence reduction initiatives, gang prevention programs, and intervention strategies targeting at-risk youth. Additionally, the JPSC has received cooperative agreements and project grants from the Bureau of Justice Statistics for criminal justice data collection and system improvement initiatives, including the National Criminal History Improvement Program and the Kentucky Offender Online Lookup (KOOL) system development. The cabinet has partnered with the Bureau of Justice Assistance and Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking (SMART) to support sex offender registration compliance, probation and parole monitoring enhancements, and sexual assault kit initiative (SAKI) programs. The JPSC has also coordinated funding through the Office of Victims of Crime for comprehensive crime victim services provided through subawards to community-based organizations. Across these programs, the cabinet has made subawards to critical state partners including the Kentucky Department of Corrections, Kentucky State Police, Department of Juvenile Justice, Kentucky Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, and numerous local law enforcement agencies, nonprofit victim service organizations, and community intervention programs to implement evidence-based services spanning forensic laboratory improvements, crisis intervention programs, residential substance abuse treatment, offender recidivism reduction initiatives, and direct victim assistance services.