H.R. 2669 — Community First Act

This section authorizes the Attorney General, acting through the Bureau of Justice Assistance, to make grants to eligible partnerships (i.e., collaborations between at least two of a unit of local government, territory, Indian tribe, or nonprofit organization) to reduce the number of individuals in local jails and the days spent incarcerated. Grants support (1) analysis and planning, including collecting and analyzing local criminal justice and incarceration data (including equity disparities) and developing a public strategic plan to decrease jail incarceration; or (2) implementing such plans through activities such as reducing cash bail or revocations of conditional release; expanding pretrial services, case processing, early counsel assignment, or indigent defense training; or creating non-plea-based diversion programs (pre-arrest, pre-booking, or post-booking) or other evidence-based practices. Grant applications must detail available pretrial services; outline plans for least restrictive pretrial conditions addressing flight or harm risks and for process/outcome evaluations; and provide (or a plan to obtain) five years of disaggregated demographic data on local jail populations, pretrial/post-conviction holds, lengths of stay, and arrests.

This section establishes requirements for grantees under the grant program, including (1) consulting with local law enforcement, courts, public defenders, substance use and mental health authorities, community members (including justice-involved individuals), and community-based organizations in all phases of planning, implementation, and evaluation; (2) analyzing local jail incarceration and arrest data to identify drivers of incarceration and equity disparities and basing reduction strategies on that data; (3) reducing incarceration rates by at least 5% in the first year, 10% in each subsequent year, and 50% by the end of the grant period; (4) adopting, in consultation with the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), a methodology for measuring equity disparities in jail incarceration, setting goals to reduce those disparities, and decreasing incarceration across all races and ethnicities; (5) engaging an external evaluator, with BJA support, to conduct ongoing data collection, process evaluations, and outcome evaluations; and (6) using financial savings from reduced incarceration to sustain programmatic and community-based efforts. This section further directs BJA to audit any grantee failing to meet annual incarceration reduction requirements under clause (a)(3) and requires the grantee to implement new strategies based on the audit, with the Attorney General terminating the award for failure in any two consecutive years. (BJA may modify the reduction requirement following an audit if due to population growth in the jurisdiction, but the Attorney General terminates the award for failure to meet modified requirements in any two subsequent years.)

This section establishes grant amounts and terms for planning and implementation grants under this Act. Planning grants under section 2(a)(1) may be for not more than $100,000 for a single grantee and shall be for a 1-year term. Implementation grants under section 2(a)(2) shall be for a 6-year term, structured as follows: (1) for the first year, not less than $500,000 and not more than $3,000,000, contingent upon acceptance of the grantee's proposed budget (which may be revised during the award process); (2) decreasing annually by 10 percent in year two, 15 percent in year three, 20 percent in year four, and 25 percent in year five; and (3) in year six, limited to program evaluation and drafting a final report, with funds available until expended.

This section directs the Attorney General, in selecting grantees, to (1) give priority to applicants from jurisdictions with the highest incarceration rates that are not already in decline and whose applications contain the most ambitious and attainable plans for reducing that rate; (2) give additional priority to applicants from jurisdictions seeking to use funds to prevent expansion of beds in local correctional facilities; (3) for any year with only one new or ongoing award, ensure that a small metropolitan, micropolitan, or noncore area receives the award; (4) for any year with more than one new or ongoing award, ensure that small metropolitan, micropolitan, or noncore areas receive at least two awards; and (5) for any year with three or more new or ongoing awards, ensure that no more than one large central metropolitan area receives an award.

This section establishes definitions for 11 terms used in the Act, including “conditional release” (i.e., probation, parole, supervised release, home confinement, community supervision, and related practices); “diversion,” “pre-booking diversion,” and “post-booking diversion” (i.e., programs or practices diverting individuals from standard criminal justice processing to reduce system involvement); “emerging practice” and “promising practice” (i.e., programs shown to decrease jail incarceration and subject to rigorous evaluation); “evidence-based practice” (i.e., scientifically proven programs with fidelity, theory, measurable outcomes, and replicability for reducing jail incarceration); “equity disparities” (i.e., measurable differences in criminal justice outcomes correlated with demographic factors); and CDC urban-rural classifications (“micropolitan area,” “small metropolitan area,” “noncore areas”).

This section authorizes appropriations of (1) $20 million for each of fiscal years 2026 through 2030 for planning grants; and (2) $100 million for each of fiscal years 2026 through 2030 for implementation grants, of which 10% of any appropriated amount is reserved for evaluation activities.