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| Christopher Wray , Assistant Attorney General |
Last
updated: December 5, 2003
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Welcome
to OPDAT's Justice Sector Project Initiatives (JSPI) About OPDAT || OPDAT's Programs || Recent OPDAT Accomplishments || About JSPI || Contact Information || Download JSPI Established in
1991, in response to the increasingly global nature of crime, the Office
of Overseas Prosecutorial Development, Assistance and Training (OPDAT)
harnesses the Department of Justice’s resources to assist prosecutors
and criminal justice personnel worldwide in developing and sustaining
effective criminal justice institutions. Located in the Criminal Division,
OPDAT calls on some of the most experienced criminal justice experts
in the nation, including 400 division prosecutors and 5,000 Assistant
US Attorneys, to provide justice sector assistance. On occasion, OPDAT
partners with the Federal judiciary, providing an opportunity for judges
to share their experience and expertise with their foreign counterparts.
Working with the State Department and the US Agency for International
Development (USAID), OPDAT provides technical assistance tailored to
meet the specific justice sector needs of a particular country or region.
Once a justice sector assessment has been conducted, OPDAT applies a
best practices methodology to develop effective criminal codes and procedures;
improve institutional structures, policies and relationships; and/or
enhance the professional capabilities and skills of prosecutors and
select law enforcement officers to help create more responsive and responsible
criminal justice systems abroad. Currently, OPDAT provides justice sector development assistance in the regions of Africa and the Middle East, Asia and the Pacific, Central and Eastern Europe, the former Soviet states of Eurasia, and Latin America and the Caribbean. Twenty Resident Legal Advisors (RLAs) provide full time advice and technical assistance to 15 host governments in establishing fair and transparent justice sector institutions and practices. RLAs serve in a specific country at least one year, usually working within U.S. Embassies. OPDAT also offers programs focussing on specific aspects of criminal justice (i.e., terrorism, corruption, human trafficking, money laundering, narcotics trafficking, and organized crime), staffed by Intermittent Legal Advisors (ILAs), which may be completed in less than a year. Both legal advisor positions are highly competitive; the candidates are culled from the most experienced, talented, and versatile prosecutors in federal and state prosecutor’s offices throughout the United States. A typical candidate is a seasoned prosecutor with more than ten years experience, who has specialized in areas such as complex fraud, organized crime, money laundering, asset forfeiture, terrorism, violent crimes, computer crimes, or civil rights. OPDAT also administers
the Department’s International Visitors Program; it serves as the
Department’s liaison between various private and public agencies
that sponsor visits to the United States by foreign officials who are
interested in a closer examination of the U.S. legal system. Overseas
guests with specific interests are given the opportunity to meet with
experts in specialized components of the Department, often making contacts
with counterparts which prove invaluable in speeding up the resolution
of outstanding international criminal matters.
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to Top || Download JSPI
About OPDAT’s Justice Sector Project Initiatives OPDAT developed its “Justice Sector Project Initiatives” (JSPI) in response to the State Department’s Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs’ (INL) method of allocating funding, introduced last year, which encourages assistance providers to contact embassies directly to inform them of the nature of the assistance they are able to provide. JSPI is designed to embody INL’s “project-oriented approach,” which, as described in State Cable No. 10833, “New Concepts in Law Enforcement,” January 2001, focuses on “rule of law concerns” and is aimed at “writing laws, training prosecutors, improving court and correctional institutions, and promoting anti-corruption standards.” JSPI consists of three parts:
A present or former
OPDAT Resident Legal Advisor and an attorney within the Criminal Division
with subject-matter expertise reviewed and provided comments on the
project descriptions for counter-terrorism, anti-corruption, money laundering
and asset forfeiture, organized crime, narcotics trafficking, and human
trafficking. The basic justice sector institution building was developed
through the collaborative efforts of three OPDAT Headquarters attorneys.
Below is a directory
of OPDAT personnel who may be contacted for additional information or
assistance in tailoring a justice-sector program to meet the needs of
a host country.
Click here
to download OPDAT Justice Sector Project Initiatives
as a Adobe Acrobat document. Last
updated by
usdoj/crm/itm/sj |