[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 128 (Wednesday, July 3, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 40190-40191]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-16014]


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DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

National Institute of Corrections


Solicitation for a Cooperative Agreement--Sexual Safety in 
Women's Institutions

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 an 18-month period to begin no later than 
September 15, 2013. Work under this cooperative agreement will involve 
the development and piloting of a blended-learning curriculum, which 
could include the use of virtual instructor-led training (VILT), to 
address the safety of women inmates within correctional institutions. 
The audience for this curriculum represents correctional staff, 
volunteers, contractors, community stakeholders who work within women's 
correctional institutions, and community residential facilities. This 
project will be a collaborative venture with the NIC Community Services 
Division.
    NIC Opportunity Number: 13CS10. 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 $80,000.00. Funds awarded under this solicitation 
may only be used for activities directly related to the project as 
described herein unless otherwise amended in writing by NIC.
    Applications: All applicants must be submitted electronically via 
http://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.

    Eligibility 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: In 2006 the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) funded 
a study titled ``Gendered Violence and Safety: A Contextual Approach to 
Improving Security in Women's Facilities.'' More recently, the National 
Institute of Corrections funded the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) 
Validation Project for Improving Safety in Women's Facilities 
(cooperative agreement 10PEI34GKB6), which further contributed 
to the body of work addressing this issue. Sandwiched between those 
efforts has been the release of the PREA National Standards to Prevent, 
Detect, and Respond to Prison Rape, released in 2012, which has 
significant implications for correctional settings housing women and 
girls. A collection of standards comparison materials is available on 
the Web at the following locations: http://nicic.gov/Library/026085; 
http://nicic.gov/Library/026082; http://nicic.gov/Library/026083; 
http://nicic.gov/Library/026084. Over the past few decades, through 
research efforts and improved practice, the corrections profession has 
had access to a great deal of information, which has influenced 
continuing research efforts, training, assessment and classification, 
development of program models, and the creation of promising practices 
specific to improving system outcomes and individual outcomes for 
justice-involved women. While many current practices within criminal 
justice are seen as applicable to both justice-involved men and women, 
more recently the corrections profession has had opportunities to 
sharpen practice and more effectively manage resources in working with 
women in correctional settings.
    Scope of Work: The awardee must develop a blended learning 
curriculum, including the piloting of the curriculum. The curriculum 
must use a variety of delivery methodologies, which could include 
readings, case study review, webinars, onsite delivery, and pre- and 
post-training activities. A virtual instructor-led training format will 
be considered if it can be demonstrated that the transfer of knowledge 
to the participants is effective. Awardees should develop the materials 
specific to physical and sexual safety in women's correctional 
facilities, based on current research, knowledge, best practice, and 
reflective of the experiences of corrections professionals and the 
target population. It should also include outlined method(s) for the 
transfer of learning, opportunities for skills practice, follow up 
coaching/assistance, and a method to measure the effectiveness of the 
training curriculum. The deliverables will help advance and foster 
professional correctional environments while enhancing safety and 
security and positively influencing systems, staff, and justice-
involved women.
    Deliverables: Tasks to be performed through this cooperative 
agreement include: (1) Conducting a literature search to contribute to 
curriculum development (2) convening a working session at an approved 
location; designing the working agenda; providing facilitation; and 
using content from the session to inform project deliverables. Working 
session participants will be identified in collaboration with and upon 
the approval of the NIC project staff. (3) working with NIC project 
staff and designated experts to develop deliverables. Deliverables 
could include a facilitator's manual and participant workbook, 
audiovisual materials, supplemental readings, pre/post measures of 
learning and other materials that facilitate learning. (4) developing 
and delivering the final curriculum modeled on the instructional theory 
into practice format (5) creating a final report that summarizes the 
project.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: All technical or programmatic 
questions concerning this announcement should be directed to Maureen 
Buell, Correctional Program Specialist, National Institute of 
Corrections, who 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: Application Requirements: Applications 
should be typed, double spaced, in 12-point font, and reference the 
project by the ``NIC Opportunity Number'' (13CS10) and title in this 
announcement, ``Sexual Safety in Women's Institutions.'' 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

[[Page 40191]]

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 goal(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 Executive Order 12372 and should 
check box b under section 16.


Robert M. Brown, Jr.,
Acting Director, National Institute of Corrections.
[FR Doc. 2013-16014 Filed 7-2-13; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4410-36-P