Solicitation for a Cooperative Agreement: Training for Parole Board Members, 38247-38249 [E8-15149]

Agencies

• Department of Justice
• National Institute of Corrections

[Federal Register Volume 73, Number 129 (Thursday, July 3, 2008)]
[Notices]
[Pages 38247-38249]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E8-15149]


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DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

National Institute of Corrections


Solicitation for a Cooperative Agreement: Training for Parole 
Board Members

AGENCY: National Institute of Corrections, 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

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individuals who would like to enter into a cooperative agreement with 
NIC to develop a 24-36 hour field tested curriculum to train parole 
board members. The curriculum should include a blended approach to 
training utilizing instructor-led face-to-face and Web-based 
instructional delivery strategies.

DATES: Applications must be received by 2 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, July 29, 
2008.

ADDRESSES: Mailed applications must be sent to: Director, National 
Institute of Corrections, 320 First Street, NW., Room 5007, 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 desk, dial 7-3106, extension 0 for 
pickup.
Faxed applications will not be accepted. Electronic applications can be 
submitted via https://www.grants.gov.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: A copy of this announcement and the 
required application forms can be downloaded from the NIC Web page at 
https://www.nicic.gov.
    All technical or programmatic questions concerning this 
announcement should be directed to Carla J. Smalls, Correctional 
Program Specialist, National Institute of Corrections at 
cjsmalls@bop.gov or to George M. Keiser at gkeiser@bop.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
    Overview: The overall goal of the initiative is to design, develop, 
field test and revise a training curriculum for parole board members 
that will:
    Describe the role and function of parole within the criminal 
justice system;
    Promote the use of Evidence Based Practices in parole and 
revocation decision making;
    Describe parole's responsibility in the transition/reentry of 
offenders;
    Clarify the collaborative role of parole with other stakeholders 
within the criminal justice system;
    Illustrate the use of management information systems and technology 
in the processing of parole, early release and revocation cases;
    Examine the core competencies that parole board members must 
possess to be effective.

This curriculum must conform to the principles presented in the 
Comprehensive Framework for Paroling Authorities in an Era of Evidence-
Based Practices. This document can be found at the Web site https://
www.nicic.org/Downloads/PDF/Library/022906.pdf.
    Background: Parole can be defined as both a procedure by which a 
board administratively releases inmates from prison as well as a 
provision for post-release supervision. This training focuses on the 
functions of administrative release and revocation of this release by 
paroling authorities. For our discussion, parole is defined as the 
release of an offender from imprisonment to the community by a 
releasing authority (parole board or paroling authority) prior to the 
expiration of the offender's sentence, subject to conditions imposed by 
the releasing authority. Revocation is the action of a releasing 
authority removing a person from parole status in response to a 
violation of conditions.
    Since eligibility for release on parole is a matter of state law, 
there is considerable variation in the location, administration and 
organization of paroling authorities in the United States. All states 
have parole boards and these boards may be independent agencies that 
have responsibility for release decisions or a branch of a department 
of corrections or a community corrections agency. In these 
organizational structures, boards may also have responsibility for 
staff that monitor the supervision of parolees in the community.
    Regardless of the structure, governors/governments are usually ill-
equipped to select, hire and train the caliber of individuals needed to 
do this important work that has a significant impact on public safety 
and the economy of a state. Thirteen governors of states or U.S. 
territories will be up for election this year. Election of a new 
governor usually results in the appointment of new parole board members 
and most of these appointments do not have a background in criminal 
justice or an understanding of the magnitude of the work.
    As stated by Burke and Tonry, in the publication ``Successful 
Transition and Reentry for Safer Communities: A Call to Action for 
Parole'', in the course of one year, roughly 200 individuals who make 
up the United States parole boards are responsible for determining the 
timing of release on parole and determining the conditions of release 
on parole for 128,708 offenders. During the same year they are 
responsible for setting conditions of release for an additional 288,679 
individuals on mandatory parole and conditional release. They are also 
responsible for overseeing compliance with conditions and responding to 
revocations for 643,452 individuals on a given day during the year. 
Over the course of the year, they also send 227,690 individuals to 
prison as a result of parole revocations.
    Along with handling the sheer volume of the work, without a 
background in criminal justice, being a parole board member is not 
considered a career or rarely leads to long term employment. Members 
rotate on and off the job as governors come in and leave office, 
resulting in limited consistent overview from the appointing authority 
and little incentive to examine the vision, mission and goals of the 
parole board with the intent of organizing the work to produce a more 
effective agency. Lack of training increases the likelihood that parole 
board members will rely on ``popular but unproven criminal justice 
theories'' to guide their decision making. For example, attitudes and 
opinions that lead to parole board members imposing numerous conditions 
of parole or revoking technical violators may reflect a get tough on 
crime mentality. Instead of these attitudes and opinions, paroling 
authorities must obtain the knowledge, skills, and resources to enable 
them to perform their work as a bridge between the correctional 
institution and the community.
    Scope of Work: Under this cooperative agreement, the single goal is 
the development, testing, and revision of a curriculum to train parole 
board members.
    The following represents a description of the products:
    Delivery of a curriculum, to be conducted at a centrally located 
site.
    Description: The training program provides participants with 
information and training about parole and the criminal justice system 
that are critical to effectively performing the job of a parole board 
member. The training will build on the principles established in the 
``Comprehensive Framework for Paroling Authorities in an Era of 
Evidence-Based Practices''. The resource provider must consider and use 
NIC's available curriculum or position statements relative to 
transition, Evidence-Based Practices, and parole decision making in the 
development of the training program. Final curriculum must be approved 
in advance by NIC. The resource provider would be expected to duplicate 
participant and trainer materials, including three-ring binders, 
specified index tabs and inserts for each participant, one copy for the 
training team and a copy for NIC.
    Work to be performed: The provider shall:
    Consult with the Correctional Program Specialist (CPS) assigned to

[[Page 38249]]

manage the cooperative agreement to ensure understanding of, and 
agreement on, the scope of work to be performed;
    Submit a detailed work plan with time lines for accomplishing 
project activities (See Scope of Work) to CPS for approval prior to any 
work to be performed under this agreement;
    Designate a point of contact, which would serve as the conduit of 
information and work experience between the CPS and the awardee;
    Review pertinent NIC curriculum and/or documents in the development 
of the curriculum;
    Consult with CPS concerning trainers for program delivery. NIC will 
have final approval of training program faculty. The program must be 
staffed with at least 3 trainers;
    Consult with the CPS and the Research and Evaluation Division on 
evaluation methodology; and
    Make recommendations to CPS for any needed revisions of the 
curriculum.
    Deliverables: The provider shall conduct a needs assessment; Design 
curriculum consistent with the Instructional Theory Into Practice 
(ITIP) model; Develop written products to support the training; 
Structure a reporting process that documents training; Conduct a field 
test of the curriculum; Provide evaluation data with recommendations 
for revisions to the curriculum.
    Required Expertise: The successful applicant will need the skills, 
abilities and knowledge in the following areas:
    Knowledge of the role of parole and its function within the 
criminal justice system;
    Ability to develop curriculum using the Instructional Theory Into 
Practice (ITIP) format;
    Expertise in a variety of instructional delivery strategies to 
include but not be limited to instructor-led, synchronous/asynchronous, 
Web-based, e-learning, etc.;
    Skilled in designing training curriculum linked to training 
objectives;
    Knowledge of evidence-based practices and offender transition, and 
how these areas relate to the parole process;
    Knowledge of training evaluation methods; and
    Effective written and oral communication skills.
    National Institute of Corrections Experience: NIC has provided 
training assistance to the field of parole for more than 20 years in 
the form of annual training seminars for parole board members, 
conducting annual meetings for chairs of paroling authorities, 
providing ongoing information and staff support to include audio 
conferences (accessible to anyone with a telephone), developing parole 
specific documents, funding technical assistance initiatives targeting 
release decision making and violation/revocation, developing a Resource 
Kit for New Parole Board Members and training hearing officers. This 
training has been provided to parole board members and staff in the 
United States, U.S. territories, the military, federal commission and 
Canada. Boards from other nations may also participate, if their 
participation is not at fiscal cost to NIC.
    Progress to Date: To guide the development of the training, NIC 
convened a group of correctional professionals to participate in three, 
2-day meetings to develop a document that would articulate a strategy 
to assist parole board members and paroling authorities in making 
needed improvements. From these meetings, The ``Comprehensive Framework 
for Paroling Authorities in an Era of Evidence-Based Practice'' was 
developed. The ``Framework'' describes the overarching visionary plan 
that paroling authorities will need for a future of well trained board 
members, using evidence based practices within agencies that have 
sufficient staff and other resources to effectively support the release 
and revocation of offenders. Parole Board member and staff training is 
a component of this visionary plan.
    Application Requirements: Applications should be concisely written, 
typed double spaced and reference the ``NIC Application Number'' and 
Title provided in this announcement. The application package must 
include: OMB Standard Form 424, 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 of fiscal 
year that the applicant operates under (e.g., July 1 through June 30), 
an outline of projected costs, and the following forms: OMB Standard 
Form 424A, Budget Information--Non Construction Programs, OMB Standard 
Form 424B, Assurances--Non Construction Programs (available at https://
www.grants.gov), and DOJ/NIC Certification Regarding Lobbying; 
Debarment, Suspension and Other Responsibility Matters; and Drug-Free 
Workplace Requirements (available at https://www.nicic.gov/Downloads/
PDF/certif-frm.pdf.)
    Applications may be submitted in hard copy, or electronically via 
https://www.grants.gov. If submitted in hard copy, there needs to be an 
original and six copies of the full proposal (program and budget 
narratives, application forms and assurances). The original should have 
the applicant's signature in blue ink.
    A telephone conference will be conducted for persons receiving this 
solicitation and having a serious intent to respond on July 18, 2008 at 
2 p.m. EDT. In this conference NIC project managers will respond to 
questions regarding the solicitation and expectation of work to be 
performed. Please notify Carla Smalls electronically (cjsmalls@bop.gov) 
by 12 noon EDT on July 15, 2008, regarding your interest in 
participating in the conference. You will be provided with a call-in 
number and instructions. In addition, NIC project managers will post 
answers to questions received from potential applicants on its Web site 
during the time when the solicitation is open to the public.

    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. The final budget and award 
amount will be negotiated between NIC and the successful applicant. 
Funds may only be used for the activities that are linked to the 
desired outcome of the project.
    This project will be a collaborative venture with the NIC Community 
Corrections Division.
    Eligibility of Applicants: An eligible applicant is any private 
agency, educational institution, organization, individual or team with 
expertise in the described areas.
    Review Considerations: Applications received under this 
announcement will be subjected to a 3 to 5 person NIC Peer Review 
Process.
    Number of Awards: One.
    NIC Application Number: 08C78. This number should appear as a 
reference line in the cover letter, in box 4a of 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. E8-15149 Filed 7-2-08; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4410-36-P