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| 2024-04-26 | 2024-04-27 | LEAA |
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The Law Enforcement Assistance Administration (LEAA) funded PROMIS, a case management software, and supported its expansion. LEAA was shut down in 1982, leading to funding issues for INSLAW, which later faced bankruptcy after a contract with the U.S. Department of Justice. |
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The Law Enforcement Assistance Administration was funded by a 1968 omnibus crime bill from Lyndon B. Johnson and provided hundreds of millions of dollars of grants for programs to further law enforcement and judicial assistance within the United States.
PROMIS was started with an exploratory grant by the LEAA to the U.S. Attorney's office DC to create a case management software system. The program was considered "examplary" and the LEAA invested heavily in expanding PROMIS both funding INSLAW (as up to 80% of their income) and providing grants for municipalities who would transfer to PROMIS. In August 1971, LEAA head Jerris Leonard wrote 1,300 letters to most of the prosecutors in the country telling them about PROMIS and encouraging them to adopt a similar system. Later LEAA head Charles R. Work (who was head of the program that created PROMIS along with Joan E. Jacoby and Bill Hamilton) would also extensively promote the program through funding of the National Center for Prosecution Management as well as direct grants to INSLAW and municipalities who would transfer into the PROMIS software.
In 1981, Jimmy Carter slashed the government budget and the LEAA's grants were in trouble. The election of Reagan administration provided hope that the LEAA would be resurrected with Reagan's tough on crime stance, but instead the organization was fully shut down in 1982 with some parts reorganized into other areas of the U.S. Department of Justice.
This caused a crisis of funding for INSLAW who soon after entered into the contract with the U.S. Department of Justice that would eventually bankrupt the company.