OCJP Overview

The Office of Criminal Justice Programs (OCJP) under the State Department of Finance and Administration functions as a strategic planning agency that secures, distributes, and manages federal and state funds for Tennessee. OCJP utilizes strategic program management, a structured process that looks three to five years ahead of daily grants management activities at the changing needs of Tennessee’s justice system and the needs of its victims of violent crime. OCJP tracks problems surfacing in the criminal justice system, monitors trends in Tennessee’s communities, assesses the condition of the state’s resources, and measures the recent performance of OCJP-funded programs. To address crime and victimization in Tennessee, OCJP manages a systematic, year-round cycle for determining the communities’ needs, identifying the justice system’s problems, setting program priorities, making grant allocation decisions, managing those funded projects, and evaluating the results of those decisions.