[Federal Register Volume 62, Number 105 (Monday, June 2, 1997)]
[Notices]
[Pages 29740-29742]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 97-14275]


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DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

Office of Justice Programs
[OJP(BJS)-1134]
RIN 1121-ZA80


National Survey of Indigent Defense Systems

AGENCY: Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics, 
Justice.

ACTION: Solicitation for award of cooperative agreement.

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SUMMARY: The purpose of this notice is to announce a public 
solicitation for services of multi-stage sample design, survey 
development, data collection, data verification, coding and entry, and 
delivery of a final data set to BJS for a National Survey of Indigent 
Defense Systems.

DATES: Proposals must be postmarked on or before August 1, 1997.

ADDRESSES: Proposals should be mailed to: Application Coordinator, 
Bureau of Justice Statistics, Room 303, 633 Indiana Avenue, NW., 
Washington, DC 20531.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Steven K. Smith, Chief, Law 
Enforcement, Adjudication and Federal Statistics, Bureau of Justice 
Statistics, (202) 633-3046.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    The National Survey of Indigent Defense Systems is a collaborative 
effort sponsored by the Bureau of Justice Statistics with funding from 
the Bureau of Justice Assistance, components of the Office of Justice 
Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. The study will develop, test, and 
implement a national-level data collection program to measure the way 
in which states and localities provide legal services for indigent 
criminal defendants, their caseloads, related costs, and policies and 
practices.
    BJS is the lead agency for the study because of its prior 
experience in conducting a comprehensive study of indigent defense 
systems in 1982 and a smaller follow-up study in 1986. The results from 
these studies were reported in three BJS publications entitled, 
National Criminal Defense Systems Study: Final Report, Criminal Defense 
Systems and Criminal Defense for the Poor, 1986.
    Court appointed legal representation plays a critical role in the 
Nation's criminal justice system. Limited information from various BJS 
statistical series shows that most criminal defendants rely on some 
form of publicly-provided defense counsel. In 1986, the latest year for 
which national level information is available, the states provided 
indigent defense services to approximately 4.4 million criminal 
defendants. No major data collection on criminal defense for indigent 
offenders has been undertaken since 1986.
    Much has changed over the past decade as States and local defender 
systems are relying more on contact and private services. The National 
Survey of Indigent Defense Systems will provide a clearer understanding 
of the changing nature of public defender services in the United 
States.

Objectives

    The purpose of this award is to develop, test, and implement a 
national-level data collection program to identify the number and 
characteristics of public indigent defense organizations and agencies 
and to measure the way in which states provide legal services for 
indigent criminal defendants, their caseloads, and policies and 
practices. The nationally representative sample of indigent defense 
providers will also be surveyed on types of offenses represented, 
expenditures, funding sources, and related administrative issues. This 
project will provide a machine readable, public-use dataset which will 
be able to produce a comprehensive portrait of state and local efforts 
to meet the needs of indigent criminal defendants and their interaction 
with the other components of the criminal justice system.

Type of Assistance

    Assistance will be made available under a cooperative agreement. 
The total amount to be awarded under this two year project is estimated 
to be $850,000.
    Awards will be made for a period of one year with supplemental 
funding for an additional one year conditional upon the quality of 
initial performance and products, adherence to project milestones, and 
completing this project of national interest in a timely fashion. Data 
collection agent will work closely with BJS staff in developing the 
overall research design, survey instrument and data collection phase of 
the project. The initial report for publication will be produced and 
published by BJS and no data will be released by the recipient of funds 
until BJS makes the data set available to the public.

Statutory Authority

    The cooperative agreement to be awarded pursuant to this 
solicitation will be funded by the BJS consistent with its mandate as 
set forth in 42 U.S.C. 3732. Specifically, BJS is authorized by (42 
U.S.C. 3732) to ``collect and analyze statistical information 
concerning operations of the criminal justice system at the Federal, 
State, and Local levels''.

Eligibility Requirements

    Both profit-making and nonprofit organizations may apply for funds. 
Consistent with OJP fiscal requirements, no fees may be charged against 
the project by profit-making organizations.

Scope of Work

    The object of this solicitation is to develop, test, and implement 
a comprehensive data collection program to measure state and local 
indigent defense services throughout the United States. Specifically, 
the recipient of funds will perform the following tasks:
    1. Develop detailed research design for national-level data 
collection on indigent defense programs; this includes a detailed 
timetable for each task in the project. Data collection should begin 
within 180 days of project start date with completion within 12 months. 
After the BJS grant monitor has agreed

[[Page 29741]]

to the timetable, all work must be completed as scheduled.
    2. Provide detailed description of how the data will be collected 
in state, county and other relevant offices with and without automated 
information systems, and how information pertaining to assigned counsel 
and contract programs will be collected. Determine the appropriate unit 
of analysis (state, county, individual program) for the survey or 
surveys. This includes the production of detailed profiles of how each 
of the 50 states and the District of Columbia delivers services to 
indigent criminal defendants and related activities.
    3. Develop a comprehensive sampling frame that would include the 
names and addresses of organizations that provide indigent defense 
services or funding for those services, no matter what the nature of 
the delivery system. This includes organizations dealing with conflict 
cases whereby a defendant is represented by counsel outside the public 
defender's office because of conflicts of interest with staff.
    4. Design a sample that can produce reliable and accurate national 
as well as state estimates of staff size and type, expenditures, 
budgets, workload and other related factors. Provide detailed 
documentation of sampling plan, including targeted CV for selected 
variables.
    5. Develop questionnaire(s) and methodology for collecting 
information. The final survey instrument and methodology approved by 
BJS will include a detailed description of methods that will be used to 
collect data from initial non-respondents.
    6. Develop new areas and expand existing areas in the questionnaire 
to collect information on how offices provide services related to 
juvenile issues, death penalty cases, domestic violence cases, family 
welfare cases, and cases processed in drug courts.
    7. Mail surveys to appropriate parties. Follow-up by telephone with 
those not completing survey or to clarify responses. Electronically 
disseminate questionnaire to program offices with Internet 
capabilities.
    8. Identify a coordinator in each State to assist in achieving an 
acceptable survey response rate and in compiling individual State 
information.
    9. Verify reported information on selected subset of the completed 
surveys via telephone follow-up, code and enter data, apply appropriate 
weights for national and state level estimates, and create public-use 
data set.
    10. Provide complete documentation on verification procedures and 
on producing final case weights. Provide standard error table 
information for national and state level estimates.
    Formulas for standard error calculations should reflect the sample 
design and must be fully documented.
    11. Provide machine readable data set and documentation to BJS for 
archive at the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social 
Research (ICPSR). The data sets will be delivered in format readable by 
SPSS and should include replicate weights for producing standard 
errors.
    12. Provide comprehensive documentation for the entire project that 
will be archived at ICPSR. Applicants should use the documentation from 
the Civil Justice Survey of State Courts, 1992 as a model. This is 
available from BJS on a CD-ROM or can be accessed through the BJS 
homepage http://www:ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/.

Award Procedures

    Proposals should describe in appropriate detail the procedures to 
be undertaken in furtherance of the activities described under the 
Scope of Work. Information on staffing levels and qualifications should 
be included for each task and descriptions of experience relevant to 
the project should be included. Resumes of the proposed project 
director and key staff should be enclosed with the proposal.
    Applications will be reviewed by BJS. Final authority to enter into 
a cooperative agreement is reserved for the Director, BJS, or his 
designee.
    Applications will be evaluated on the overall extent to which they 
respond to the priorities and technical complexities of the scope of 
the work, conform to high standards of data collection, and appear to 
be fiscally feasible and efficient. Specifically, applicants will be 
evaluated on the basis of:
    1. Documentation of applicant's ability to carry out the scope of 
the work described in this solicitation. Particular emphasis will be 
placed on the quality of the applicant's overall proposed research 
design to collect data on indigent defense systems and description of 
methods and procedures for collecting standardized data on staff size 
and type, expenditures, workload, types of cases represented, and other 
relevant factors from different indigent defense services, organization 
and agencies including statewide and county level systems, assigned 
counsel programs, and contract programs.
    2. Knowledge of relevant criminal justice issues and prior research 
related to indigent defense services for both adults and juveniles. 
Knowledge of state-and county-based indigent services and operations. 
Applicants should be familiar with the findings in the reports National 
Criminal Defense Systems Study: Final Report, NCJ-94702, Criminal 
Defense Systems, NCJ-94630, and Criminal Defense for the Poor, 1986, 
NCJ-112991. Copies of the three reports are available from the National 
Criminal Justice Reference Service, 1-800-732-3277. The application 
should include a summary of key findings from these reports and outline 
how the current study would gather the same or similar types of 
information for comparative purposes and address additional topics.
    3. Demonstrated knowledge of the contemporary issues in indigent 
defense services and programs. Quality of proposal for collecting data 
on these issues, including those pertaining to juveniles cases, family 
matters, workload levels, quality of defense representation, and cases 
handled by speciality courts such as drug courts. Proposal will be 
evaluated on methods for measuring quality of representation of 
juvenile cases and death penalty cases (such as training and 
certification) and the kinds of defense services provided relating to 
domestic violence and family welfare matters.
    4. Documented knowledge and experience related to multi-stage and 
multi-frame sampling design and questionnaire development.
    5. Documented evidence of research expertise and experience in 
sample design, objective data gathering, data coding, entry and 
verification, and production of public-use data files. This includes 
availability of adequate computing environment and knowledge of 
standard social science data processing software. Demonstrated ability 
to produce SPSS readable data files for analysis and report production.
    6. Availability of qualified professional, field and support staff, 
and suitable equipment for data gathering and processing. This includes 
expertise in multi-stage sampling, probability sampling techniques and 
standard error estimation from survey data.
    7. Demonstrated fiscal, management and organizational capability 
and experience suitable for proving quality data within budget and time 
constraints.
    8. Reasonableness of estimated costs for the total project and for 
individual cost categories.

Application and Process

    An original and five (5) copies of a full proposal must be 
submitted with SF 424 (Rev. 1988), Application for Federal Assistance, 
as the cover sheet.
    Proposals must be accompanied by SF 424A, Budget Information; OJP 
Form 4000/3 (Rev. 1-93), Program Narrative and Assurances; OJP Form 
4061/6,

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Certifications Regarding Lobbying; Debarment, Suspension and Other 
Responsibility Matters; and Drug-Free Workplace Requirements; and OJP 
Form 7120-1 (Rev. 1-93), Accounting System and Financial Capability 
Questionnaire (to be submitted by applicants who have not previously 
received Federal funds from the Office of Justice Programs). If 
appropriate, applicants must complete and submit Standard Form LLL, 
Disclosure of Lobbying Activities. All applicants must sign Certified 
Assurances that they are in compliance with Federal laws and 
regulations which prohibit discrimination in any program or activity 
that received Federal funds. To obtain appropriate forms, contact Getha 
Hilario, BJS Management Assistant, at (202) 633-3031.
    The application should cover a 2-year period with information 
provided for completion of the entire project. Proposals must include a 
program narrative, a detailed budget and budget narrative. The program 
narrative shall describe activities as stated in the scope of work and 
factors for evaluation. The detailed budget must provide costs 
including salaries of staff involved in the project and portion of the 
salaries to be paid from the award; fringe benefits paid to each staff 
person; travel costs; and supplies required to complete the project. 
The budget narrative closely follows the content of the detailed 
budget. The narrative should relate the items budgeted to the project 
activities and should provide a justification and explanation for the 
budgeted items. Refer to the aforementioned timetable when developing 
the program narrative and budget information.

    Dated: May 23, 1997.
Jan M. Chaiken,
Director, Bureau of Justice Statistics.
[FR Doc. 97-14275 Filed 5-30-97; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4410-18-P