[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]
BILLING CODE 4410-36-P