[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 128 (Tuesday, July 3, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 39511-39514]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-16171]


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DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

National Institute of Corrections


Solicitation for a Cooperative Agreement: Development of a Guide 
for Correctional Agencies To Establish Tele-Visiting Capacity in 
Correctional Facilities

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 seeking 
applications from organizations, groups, or individuals to enter into a 
cooperative agreement for an 18-month period to develop a guide to 
establishing televisiting capacity in correctional facilities.

DATES: Applications must be received by 4:00 p.m. (EDT) on Friday, 
August 3, 2012.

ADDRESSES: Mailed applications must be sent to: Director, National 
Institute of Corrections, 320 First Street NW., Room 5002, Washington, 
DC 20534. Applicants are encouraged to use Federal Express, UPS, or 
similar service to ensure delivery by the due date. Hand delivered 
applications should be brought to 500 First Street NW., Washington, DC 
20534. At the front security desk, dial 7-3106, ext. 0 for pickup. 
Faxed or emailed applications will not be accepted. Electronic 
applications can only be submitted via http://www.grants.gov.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: A copy of this announcement and links 
to the required application forms can be downloaded from the NIC Web 
site at http://www.nicic.gov/cooperative_agreements.
    All technical or programmatic questions concerning this 
announcement should be directed to Maureen Buell, Correctional Program 
Specialist, National Institute of Corrections, Community Services 
Division. Ms. Buell can be reached directly at 1-800-995-6423, ext. 
40121 or 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 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. Only questions received by 12:00 
p.m. (EDT) on July 25, 2012 will be posted on the NIC Web site.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 
    Overview: According to a 2000 Bureau of Justice Statistics report 
(Mumola, C.J. NCJ 182335, 8/30/2000), of the nearly 2 million men and 
women being held in state prisons, local jails, and federal facilities, 
nearly 1.1 million were parents, affecting an estimated amount of 2.3 
million children. Over half of those parents had minor children. This 
has a significant effect on children who are assigned temporary living 
arrangements such as foster care or placement with extended family or 
neighbors. Without maintaining positive connections to a parent, 
children are more likely to experience a variety of adverse effects, 
including impaired learning, poverty, and frequent displacement or 
instability in their living situations. Data shows that children who 
were residing with their mothers prior to incarceration were most 
likely to be living with grandmothers (78%) or other kinship or under 
foster care arrangements. Children of male offenders were more likely 
living with their biological mother (90%) and less likely to be in 
other kinship or foster care placements. Over the past two decades, as 
the number of incarcerated men and women has increased, so have the 
numbers of prison and jail facilities. It is likely that the facility 
in which a man or woman is housed is far away from family, community, 
and other potential supports. This is more often the rule with women, 
given that states may have only a single facility that houses women, 
and they frequently are not

[[Page 39512]]

easily accessed by family and other potential support networks. 
Regardless of the gender of the offender, the effect of parental 
incarceration is significant, and lack of appropriate contact with 
family and other community supports affects how an offender serves his 
or her time and challenges the reentry process.
    Research shows there is a positive relationship among supportive 
family, community contacts, and behavioral health issues that support 
successful reentry. In fact, ``maintaining community and family ties is 
related to desistance'' (Visher, C., and S. Courtney, 2007. One Year 
Out, Experiences of Prisoners Returning to Cleveland, Washington). Yet, 
U.S. incarceration trends support the transfer of offenders to 
accommodate inmate populations. Family and community supports are 
becoming disconnected as men and women are sentenced and transferred to 
facilities far from home, leaving them with numerous systemic barriers 
to maintaining healthy contact.
    Beginning with the sentencing process, ``whereas a family law court 
often makes children's interests paramount, a criminal law court may 
overlook altogether how its sentencing decision will affect a 
defendant's children'' (Abramowicz, S. Rethinking Parental 
Incarceration, summer 2011 Copyright(copyright) 2011 University of 
Colorado Law Review, 82 U. Colo L. Rev. 793). Institutional policy and 
practice, while in place to facilitate manageable and safe visitation, 
may inadvertently create barriers due to staffing requirements, 
physical plant and space accommodations, security issues, and 
scheduling. Furthermore, staff may perceive in-person visiting as a 
privilege or perk, rather than as programming and preparation for 
reentry. Such attitudes can severely limit opportunities to build 
potential supportive networks.
    The inability of incarcerated individuals to visit with family and 
build community supports can have far-reaching consequences. Inmate 
parents face significant obstacles in asserting parental rights. The 
Adoption and Safe Family Act of 1994 (ASFA) was developed to provide 
adoption priority for children who were lingering in foster care 
waiting for adoption. For those parents who had maintained appropriate 
contact (for example, having had sufficient contact between parent and 
child in 15 consecutive months out of 22) or had their children living 
with them prior to incarceration, an unintended consequence of ASFA 
could be the termination of parental rights during the period of 
incarceration. Some states, but not all, have opted out of this legal 
mandate. Whether it be because of financial ability, transportation, 
geographical distance, unwillingness of a caregiver, or inconvenience, 
lack of visitation can have severe consequences for both the parent and 
child.
    Numerous studies over the decades have supported the building of 
familial and community bonds as contributing to improved reentry and 
reductions in recidivism. Some national criminal justice organizations 
have supported the increased use of visitation to improve reentry 
efforts. These include The Sentencing Project (The Effects of Prison 
Visitation on Offender Recidivism, November 2011), The Reentry Policy 
Council (Children of Incarcerated Parents: An Action Plan for Federal 
Policymakers, 2009), and The Vera Institute of Justice Family Justice 
Program (Close to Home: Building on Family Support for People Leaving 
Jail, October 2011). The National Institute of Justice currently has a 
solicitation out as well, ``Impact of Video Visitation on Offenders and 
Their Families'' under Research and Evaluation in Justice Systems, CFDA 
No. 16.560.
    This request for application is not intended to create a guide to 
supplant in-person visitation, but used in combination with other types 
of communication, televisiting has the potential for building and 
maintaining supportive connections between parents and children.
    Background: The National Institute of Corrections has been 
providing support to federal, state, and local criminal justice 
organizations nationally since 1974. Since that time, NIC has worked 
closely with federal, state, and local jails, prisons, and community 
corrections agencies on a broad range of projects ranging from 
operational to research and innovation-based. As correctional practice 
has evolved, trends have emerged and focus has expanded beyond study of 
the individual in corrections to the study of the impact that community 
and family, broadly defined, have on an individual's success in our 
nation's facilities or under some form of community supervision (i.e., 
probation or parole). As correctional populations have soared, bed 
space has been at a premium and new facilities have been opened, often 
far from whatever supports the individual in correctional custody may 
have.
    Scope of Work: The intent of this cooperative agreement is to 
inform the development of televisiting initiatives. The cooperative 
agreement awardee will design and develop a guide to assist 
correctional agencies in the establishment of televisiting programs to 
enhance family and supportive community connections. The concept of 
televisiting has been employed in correctional agencies in various 
ways, and with the transfer of offenders, to locations often far from 
their communities and families. There continues to be a strong interest 
in the field for establishing such programs. It is anticipated that in 
developing the guide, the applicant will have strong familiarity with 
the concept of televisiting, technology, and potential uses of 
televisiting. The applicant will draw from the existing research and 
incorporate lessons learned from correctional agencies that have 
already established programs. Lessons learned might include any current 
evaluations, knowledge about the potential for and existing 
collaborative partnerships, the financial aspects of televisiting 
systems and the potential for broadly defined cost benefits. It is 
further anticipated that the applicant will prepare a resource guide 
for sites that are contemplating development of televisiting or looking 
to make enhancements to current televisiting initiatives. The final 
product will be broadly available to the correctional field and will be 
shared via the National Institute of Correction's Web site.
    Document Length: The length of the document should be determined by 
content. Brevity and clarity are encouraged.
    Intended Audience: The primary audience for this curriculum is the 
leadership and management of correctional organizations and various 
external public and private stakeholders interested in the 
establishment of televisiting programs in correctional settings.
    Meetings: The cooperative agreement awardee will participate in an 
initial meeting with NIC staff for a project overview and preliminary 
planning prior to September 15, 2012. Additionally, the awardee should 
plan to meet with NIC staff on a routine, established basis to discuss 
the activities noted in the timeline during the course of the 
cooperative agreement. (The applicant creates a timeline in response to 
the RFP. See section titled Project Management below.) Meetings will be 
held no less than quarterly and may be conducted via webinar or in 
person as agreed upon by NIC and the awardee.
    Project Deliverables: Under this cooperative agreement, the awardee 
will design and develop three products: (1) A guide to assist 
correctional agencies in the establishment of televisiting programs to 
enhance family and supportive community connections, (2) a resource 
guide for sites that are contemplating the development of

[[Page 39513]]

televisiting in their own facility or looking to make enhancements to 
current televisiting initiatives, (3) a series of evaluative questions 
about the efficacy of televisiting for sites that have implemented or 
are considering the establishment of correctional televisiting. These 
questions will be developed in collaboration with NIC's Research and 
Information Services Division.
    Document Preparation: For all awards in which a document will be a 
deliverable, the awardee must follow the Guidelines for Preparing and 
Submitting Manuscripts for Publication as found in the ``General 
Guidelines for Cooperative Agreements,'' which can be found on the NIC 
Web site at www.nicic.gov/cooperativeagreements. In addition, awardees 
are asked to comply with NIC's recommendations for producing media 
using plain language. These can be found at www.nicic.gov/plainlanguage. All final publications submitted for posting on the NIC 
Web site must meet the federal government's requirement for 
accessibility (e.g., 508 PDF, HTML file, or other acceptable format). 
All documents developed under this cooperative agreement must be 
submitted in draft form to NIC for review prior to the final products 
being delivered.
    Application Requirements: An application package must include OMB 
Standard Form 425, Application for Federal Assistance; a cover letter 
that identifies the audit agency responsible for the applicant's 
financial accounts as well as the audit period or fiscal year under 
which the applicant operates (e.g. July 1 through June 30); and an 
outline of projected costs with the budget and strategy narratives 
described in the announcement. The following additional forms must also 
be included: OMB Standard Form 424A, Budget Information--Non-
Construction Programs; OMB Standard Form 424B, Assurances--Non-
Construction Programs (both available at www.grants.gov); DOJ/FBOP/NIC 
Certification Regarding Lobbying, Debarment, Suspension and Other 
Responsibility Matters; and the Drug-Free Workplace Requirements 
(available at www.nicic.gov/Downloads/General/certif-frm.pdf).
    Applications should be concisely written, typed double spaced, and 
reference the NIC opportunity number and title referenced in this 
announcement. If you are hand delivering or submitting via Fed-Ex, 
please include an original and three copies of your full proposal 
(program and budget narrative, application forms, assurances, and other 
descriptions). The original should have the applicant's signature in 
blue ink. Electronic submissions will be accepted only via 
www.grants.gov.
    Place the following at the top of the abstract: Project title; 
Applicant name (Legal name of applicant organization); Mailing address; 
Contact phone numbers (voice, fax); Email address; and Web site 
address, if applicable.
    The narrative portion of the application should include, at a 
minimum, a statement indicating the applicant's understanding of the 
project's purpose, goals and objectives. The applicant should state 
this in language other than that used in the solicitation.
    Project Design and Implementation: This section should describe the 
design and implementation of the project and how the key design and 
implementation issues and challenges will be addressed.
    Project Management: This section should include a chart of 
measurable project milestones and timelines for the completion of each 
milestone.
    Capabilities and Competencies: This section should describe (1) the 
qualifications of the applicant organization and any partner 
organizations to do the work proposed and (2) the expertise of key 
staff to be involved in the project. Attach resumes that document the 
relevant knowledge, skills, and abilities of the principle investigator 
and each staff member to complete the project. If the applicant 
organization has completed similar projects in the past, please include 
the URL/Web site or ISBN number for accessing a copy of the referenced 
work.
    Budget: The budget should detail all costs for the project, show 
consideration for all contingencies for the project, note a commitment 
to work within the proposed budget, and demonstrate the ability to 
provide deliverables according to schedule.
    Authority: Public Law 93-415.
    Funds Available: NIC is seeking the applicant's best ideas 
regarding accomplishment of the scope of work and the related costs for 
achieving the goals of this solicitation. Funds may be used only for 
the activities that are linked to the desired outcome of the project. 
The funding amount should not exceed $48,000 for a period of 18 months.
    Eligibility of Applicants: An eligible applicant is any state or 
general unit of government, private agency, educational institution, 
organization, individual, or team with expertise in the described 
areas. Applicants must have demonstrated ability to implement a project 
of this size and scope. To be considered, applicants must demonstrate, 
at a minimum, in-depth knowledge of research and practice regarding 
reentry; the effect of parental incarceration and correctional 
visitation policy and practice; understanding of the challenges 
experienced by family and other potential sources of support in the 
correctional visitation process; in-depth knowledge of the practices, 
programs and complexities in operation of correctional facilities; 
issues relevant to parenting, the importance of family in influencing 
offender outcomes, and the benefit of community supports in male and 
female facilities; knowledge of case law as it relates to visitation in 
correctional environments; demonstrated knowledge of tele-visiting 
technology and its potential uses; specific examples of expertise in 
directing project design and implementation, particularly with regard 
to the development of similar projects in which such technology might 
be used; and demonstrated ability to work in a collaborative fashion 
with other experts in the field of reentry, transition, family, and 
community supports.
    Review Considerations: Among the criteria used to evaluate the 
applications are: An assessment of whether the applicant has a clear 
understanding of the project requirements as stated in the 
solicitation; background, experience and expertise of the proposed 
project staff, including any sub-contractors; effectiveness of an 
innovative approach to the project; clear, concise description of all 
elements and tasks of the project, with sufficient and realistic time 
frames necessary to complete the tasks; technical soundness of project 
design and methodology; financial and administrative integrity of the 
proposal, including adherence to federal financial guidelines and 
processes; a sufficiently detailed budget that shows consideration of 
all contingencies for this project and commitment to work within the 
budget proposed; and indication of availability to work with NIC staff.
    Applications received under this announcement will be subject to a 
collaborative review process. The criteria for the evaluation of each 
application will be as follows:

Programmatic: 40 Points

    Are all of the tasks and activities adequately covered? Is there a 
clear description of how each project activity will be accomplished, 
including major tasks, the strategies to be employed, required 
staffing, responsible parties, and other required resources? Are there 
any unique or exceptional approaches,

[[Page 39514]]

techniques, or design aspects proposed that will enhance the project?

Project Management and Administration: 20 Points

    Does the applicant identify reasonable objectives, milestones, and 
measures to track progress? Are the proposed management and staffing 
plans clear, realistic, and sufficient to complete the project? Is the 
applicant willing to meet with NIC as specified in the solicitation for 
this cooperative agreement?

Organizational and Project Staff Background: 30 Points

    Do the skills, knowledge, and expertise of the organization and the 
proposed project staff demonstrate a high level of competency to 
complete the tasks? Does the applicant/organization have the necessary 
experience and organizational capacity to complete all goals of the 
project? 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?

Budget: 10 Points

    Is the proposed budget realistic? Does it provide sufficient cost 
detail/narrative? Does it represent good value relative to the 
anticipated results? Does the application include a chart that aligns 
the budget with project activities along a timeline with, at minimum, 
quarterly benchmarks? In terms of program value, is the estimated cost 
reasonable in relation to work performed and project products?

    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). Applicants can obtain a DUNS number at no cost by 
calling the dedicated toll-free request line at 800-333-0505. 
Applicants who are sole proprietors should dial 866-705-5711 and 
select option 1.

    Applicants may register in the CCR online at the CCR Web site: 
www.ccr.gov. Applicants can also review a CCR handbook and worksheet at 
this Web site.
    Number of Awards: One.
    NIC Opportunity Number: 12CS06. This number should appear as a 
reference line in the cover letter, where indicated on Standard Form 
424, and outside of the envelope in which the application is sent.
    Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Number: 16.601.
    Executive Order 12372: This project is not subject to the 
provisions of Executive Order 12372.

Morris L. Thigpen,
Director, National Institute of Corrections.
[FR Doc. 2012-16171 Filed 7-2-12; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4410-36-P