[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 128 (Wednesday, July 3, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 40191-40193]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-16013]
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DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
National Institute of Corrections
Solicitation for a Cooperative Agreement--Development and Pilot
Training of a Curriculum for Pretrial Justice System Stakeholders
AGENCY: National Institute of Corrections, U.S. Department of Justice.
ACTION: Solicitation for a Cooperative Agreement.
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SUMMARY: The National Institute of Corrections (NIC) is soliciting
proposals from organizations, groups, or individuals to enter into a
cooperative agreement for a 15-month period to begin no later than
August 31, 2013. Work under this cooperative agreement will involve the
development and pilot of a training curriculum targeted toward teams of
pretrial justice stakeholders who have the primary responsibility of
developing and maintaining the pretrial justice system within their
jurisdiction. This curriculum is intended to prepare these teams to
plan, develop, and implement critical policy and systemwide pretrial
decisions in a collaborative structure based on the most current legal
and evidence-based pretrial knowledge. These teams must have the
participation of the judge, prosecutor, defense attorney, sheriff or
jail administrator, and pretrial director, who have primary oversight
of pretrial justice in their jurisdiction. The curriculum will help
teams explore their independent and collaborative roles in the
development and daily operational functions of maintaining pretrial
justice within their jurisdiction. This project will be a collaborative
venture with the NIC Community Services Division.
NIC Opportunity Number: 13CS04. This number should appear in the
reference line in your cover letter, on Standard Form 424 in section 11
with the title of your proposal, and in the right justified header of
your proposal.
Number of Awards and Funds Available: Under this solicitation, 1
(one) award will be made. The total amount of funds available under
this solicitation is $70,000.00.
Applications: All applications must be submitted electronically via
http://
[[Page 40192]]
www.grants.gov. Hand delivered, mailed, faxed, or emailed applications
will not be accepted.
DATES: Application must be submitted before midnight on Tuesday, July
16, 2013.
Authority: Public Law 93-415
Elegibility of Applicants: An eligible applicant is any public or
private agency, educational institution, organization, individual or
team with expertise in the described areas.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background: The National Institute of Corrections recognizes the
necessity of having a high functioning pretrial release structure
within a criminal justice system. The pretrial detention or release
decision is unique and often creates conflicts between criminal justice
stakeholders even when the best policy and protocols are followed. This
conflict has contributed to increasing numbers of defendants being held
in jail during their pretrial period. Nationally, about 65% of jail
populations are pretrial defendants, charged but not convicted of a
crime. Many of these pretrial detainees are being held on low money
bail amounts, are considered to have a high probability to appear at
all of their scheduled court hearings, and have a low probability of
committing any criminal acts while in the community. NIC currently
offers an Orientation for New Pretrial Executives two times per year.
This 40-hour training addresses and prepares these executives for the
unique challenges they face with the development and implementation of
pretrial release and supervision services. Approximately 150 pretrial
executives have completed this course and have taken their new skills
and knowledge back to their jurisdictions with the intent of
implementing the best known practices in pretrial release. When they
return to their jurisdictions, other key pretrial release stakeholders
do not have the same knowledge and skill set as the pretrial executive
now holds. This knowledge gap creates a significant barrier to the
implementation of a high functioning pretrial detention and release
system. A proposal responsive to this solicitation should, at minimum
include strategies to develop a curriculum targeted to a team of
pretrial justice stakeholders, including the judge, prosecutor, defense
attorney, sheriff or jail administrator, and pretrial director. The
curriculum will explore the individual and collaborative roles and
functions they have when maintaining a pretrial justice system grounded
in relevant legal and evidence-based practices. It should be delivered
in a manner that promotes adult learning and collaborative planning and
decision making.
Scope of Work: The goal of this cooperative agreement is to develop
and pilot a blended learning curriculum formatted on the instructional
theory into practice (ITIP) model. The curriculum is intended for
pretrial justice stakeholder teams that have the primary responsibility
of developing pretrial detention and release policy and practices
within their jurisdiction. The curriculum will prepare teams with the
skills and knowledge necessary to plan, develop, and implement a high
functioning pretrial justice system. It should be developed and
delivered in methods that promote adult learning and collaborative team
decision making. This work will occur in four phases. The first phase
is curriculum development and design. Mandatory content areas that the
curriculum must address include legal foundations, professional
standards, performance and outcome measures, and evidence-based
practices of pretrial justice. Stakeholder focus groups will be held to
determine other required knowledge and competency areas needed to
complete the curriculum. The second phase is training for and review
and revision by identified course trainers. The training will introduce
trainers to the curriculum, adult learning theory, and effective
facilitation strategies. Information gathered from observation of the
training and/or feedback from the trainers will be incorporated into
the draft curriculum. The third phase is pilot testing. Trainers will
deliver the curriculum to 4 to 5 teams from local jurisdictions.
Knowledge and competency assessments as well as a testing schedule will
be developed and administered to the participants of the pilot
training. Information gathered from participant feedback and exit
knowledge assessment will be incorporated into the draft curriculum.
Finally, the last phase is review and revision of the draft to develop
the final curriculum and other deliverables.
Deliverables: (1) Create a 32- to 40-hour blended training
curriculum based on the ITIP model. This will include all training
material required to deliver the course. Training materials will
include, but are not limited to (a) a complete instructor training
manual in hard and electronic copy, (b) slide show presentations to
support the training curriculum, (c) copies of participant training
material, and (d) a final participant manual hard and electronic copy.
(2) Design and facilitate stakeholder focus groups to gather
information for additional curriculum content. The awardee will work
with NIC's Correctional Program Specialist (CPS) to identify subject
matter experts to serve on these focus groups. (3) Design and
facilitate a 3- to 4-day train-the-trainer experience for the
identified trainers of the new curriculum. The awardee will work with
NIC's CPS to identify trainers. NIC will make the final approval of
trainers for the pilot and any future program offerings. The design of
the train the trainer will include adult learning theory, review the
curriculum and objectives, practice facilitating the module, guided
feedback sessions to provide feedback to the awardee, and guided
feedback session for the awardee and CPS to provide feedback to the
trainers. This training session will be held at the National Training
Academy in Aurora, CO. (4) Pilot the final draft of the curriculum. The
curriculum will be delivered to 4 to 5 teams from various
jurisdictions. The awardee will be present during the pilot training
sessions to observe the training and facilitate a debriefing session(s)
with the trainers and participants to assess and address the training
and curriculum concerns. (The travel and per diem costs of the 20-25
participants and trainers will be funded outside of this cooperative
agreement and cost estimates should not be included in this budget.)
The awardee will work with NIC on training logistics, which must follow
mandatory training protocols set out by the Bureau of Prisons and NIC.
The pilot will take place at the National Training Academy in Aurora,
CO. (5) Develop a system and written protocol, in consultation with
NIC's CPS and Research and Information Services Division, to assess the
effectiveness of the training curriculum in changing identified
knowledge and performance over time. (6) Plan and participate in
planning meetings and updates with the assigned NIC CPS to initiate the
project plan, review the information from the stakeholder focus groups
and draft agenda, review draft curriculum, and perform final curriculum
review. Maintain contact and advise NIC's CPS of any major changes,
barriers, or progress. Face-to-face meetings must be held in an
approved NIC training facility or by phone or video conference. (7) All
documentation submitted must follow NIC's Service for Results
guidelines which will be given to the awardee at the first meeting.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: All technical or programmatic
questions concerning this announcement should be directed to Ms. Lori
Eville, Correctional Program Specialist, National Institute of
Corrections, who
[[Page 40193]]
may be reached by email at [email protected]. In addition to the direct
reply, all questions and responses will be posted on NIC's Web site at
www.nicic.gov for public review (the names or affiliations of those
submitting questions will not be posted). The Web site will be updated
regularly and postings will remain on the Web site until the closing
date of this cooperative agreement solicitation.
Application Requirements: Applications should be typed, double
spaced, in 12-point font, and reference the project by the ``NIC
Opportunity Number'' 13CS04 and title in this announcement,
``Development and Pilot Training of a Curriculum for Pretrial Justice
System Stakeholders''. The package must include: a cover letter that
identifies the audit agency responsible for the applicant's financial
accounts as well as the audit period or fiscal year that the applicant
operates under (e.g., July 1 through June 30); a concisely written
program narrative, not to exceed 30 numbered pages, in response to the
statement of work, and a detailed budget with a budget narrative
explaining projected costs. Applicants may submit a description of the
project teams' qualifications and expertise relevant to the project,
but should not attach lengthy resumes. Attachments to the proposal
describing your organization or examples of other past work beyond
those specifically requested above are discouraged. These attachments
should not exceed 5MB.
The following forms must also be included: OMB Standard Form 424,
Application for Federal Assistance; OMB Standard Form 424A, Budget
information--Non-Construction Programs; OMB Standard Form 424B,
Assurances--Non-Construction Programs (these forms are available at
http://www.grants.gov) and DOJ/NIC Certification Regarding Lobbying;
Debarment, Suspension and Other Responsibility Matters; and the Drug-
Free Workplace Requirements (available at http://nicic.gov/Downloads/General/certif-frm.pdf
Failure to supply all required forms with the application package
may result in disqualification of the application from consideration.
Note: NIC will NOT award a cooperative agreement to an
applicant who does not have a Dun and Bradstreet Database Universal
Number (DUNS) and is not registered in the Central Contractor
Registry (CCR).
A DUNS number can be received at no cost by calling the
dedicated toll-free DUNS number request line at 1-800-333-0505 (if
you are a sole proprietor, you would dial 1-866-705-5711 and select
option 1).
Registration in the CRR can be done online at the CCR Web site:
http://www.bpn.gov/ccr. A CCR Handbook and worksheet can also be
reviewed at the Web site.
Review Considerations: Applications received under this
announcement will be subject to the NIC Review Process. Proposals which
fail to provide sufficient information to allow evaluation under the
criteria below may be judged non-responsive and disqualified.
The criteria for the evaluation of each application will be as
follows:
Programmatic (40%)
Are all of the project tasks adequately discussed? Is there a clear
statement of how each task will be accomplished to include the overall
project goal(s), major tasks to achieve the goals(s), the strategies to
be employed in completing the tasks, required staffing, and other
required resources? Are there any approaches, techniques, or design
aspects proposed that are new to NIC and will enhance the project?
Organizational (35%)
Do the proposed project staff members possess the skills,
knowledge, and expertise necessary to complete the tasks listed under
the scope of work? Does the applicant organization, group, or
individual have the organizational capacity to achieve all project
tasks? Does the proposal contain project management and staffing plans
that are realistic and sufficient to complete the project within the
project time frame?
Project Management/Administration (25%)
Does the applicant identify reasonable objectives, milestones, and
measures to track progress? If consultants and/or partnerships are
proposed, is there a reasonable justification for their inclusion in
the project, and a clear structure to ensure effective coordination? Is
the proposed budget realistic, does it provide a sufficient cost
detail/narrative, and does it represent good value relative to the
anticipated results?
Specific Requirements: Documents or other media that are produced
under this award must follow these guidelines: Prior to the preparation
of the final draft of any document or other media, the awardee must
consult with NIC's Writer/Editor concerning the acceptable formats for
manuscript submissions and the technical specifications for electronic
media. For all awards in which a document will be a deliverable, the
awardee must follow the guidelines listed herein, as well as follow the
Guidelines for Preparing and Submitting Manuscripts for Publication as
found in the ``General Guidelines for Cooperative Agreements,'' which
can be found on our Web site at www.nicic.gov/cooperativeagreements.
All final documents and other materials submitted under this
project must meet the federal government's requirement for Section 508
accessibility, including those provisions outlined in 1194 Subpart B,
Technical Provisions; Subpart C, Functional Performance Criteria; and
Subpart D, Documentation and Support. NIC's government product
accessibility template (see www.nicic.gov/section508) outlines the
agency's minimum criteria for meeting this requirement; a completed
form attesting to the accessibility of project deliverables should
accompany all submissions.
Note Concerning Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Number:
The Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) should be entered
into box 10 of the SF 424. The CFDA number for this solicitation is
16.601. You are not subject to the provisions of Executive Order
12372 and should check box b under section 16.
Robert M. Brown, Jr.,
Acting Director, National Institute of Corrections.
[FR Doc. 2013-16013 Filed 7-2-13; 8:45 am]
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