
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, November 4, 1994                   TAG: 9411040120
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                  LENGTH: Short

FUNDS FLOW TO FIGHT TEEN CRIME

The Justice Department awarded $5.3 million in grants Thursday for crime-fighting programs in 18 localities, including a project to instill values in youngsters at an Ohio boot camp and enlisting teens in Washington, D.C., to improve their communities.

The money to deal with youth and gun problems comes from the crime bill signed by President Clinton in September.

Cuyahoga County, Ohio, will get the largest grant - a little more than $1.5 million over three years - to develop and test a program to instill discipline and values among nonviolent juvenile offenders. The youngsters will be confined to a boot camp run by the county in Hudson, Ohio, 25 miles outside Cleveland.

Washington will get the second-largest grant - $1.5 million - to reduce the number of teen-agers victimized by crime and enlist teens in improving their schools and communities.

Other grants are designed to disrupt illegal firearms markets, reduce young people's demand for guns and to make it safer for them to travel to school. Several grants will fund task forces to prosecute firearms violations; others will train teachers in anti-gun violence curricula, improve background checks on applicants for federal firearms licenses and survey gun violence by young people.

The crime bill includes a federal ban on handgun possession by youths, new penalties for those who sell guns to kids and money for these new programs to prevent youth crime.

by CNB