Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collection; Submission to OMB for Review and Approval for Collection of Qualitative Feedback on Agency Service Delivery; Public Comment Request, 44097-44098 [2013-17643]

Agencies

• Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency

[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 141 (Tuesday, July 23, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 44097-44098]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-17643]


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COURT SERVICES AND OFFENDER SUPERVISION AGENCY


Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collection; 
Submission to OMB for Review and Approval for Collection of Qualitative 
Feedback on Agency Service Delivery; Public Comment Request

AGENCY: Pretrial Services Agency for the District of Columbia (PSA), 
CSOSA.

ACTION: 30 Day Notice and request for comments.

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SUMMARY: This notice announces the intention of the Pretrial Services 
Agency for the District of Columbia to request that the Office of 
Management and Budget (OMB) approve the proposed information collection 
project: ``Pretrial Services Agency for the District of Columbia 2013 
Judicial Survey.'' In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 
1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501-3521), this notice announces PSA's intent to 
submit this collection to OMB for approval. PSA invites the public to 
comment on this proposed information collection.
    Notice and request for public comment on this collection was 
published in the Federal Register on April 23, 2013 at 78 FR 23918. The 
Agency did not receive any comments in response to the 60-day notice 
published in the Federal Register.

DATES: Consideration will be given to all comments received by August 
22, 2013.

ADDRESSES: You may submit written comments to, the Office of 
Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget, 
Attn: CSOSA Desk Officer and to: oira_submission@omb.eop.gov. A copy 
of any comments should be sent to: Rorey Smith, Deputy General Counsel 
and Chief Privacy Officer, Office of General Counsel, Court Services 
and Offender Supervision Agency, 633 Indiana Avenue NW, Room 1390, 
Washington, DC 20004 or to Rorey.Smith@csosa.gov. All comments should 
reference the title of the collection, ``Collection of Qualitative 
Feedback on Agency Service Delivery.'' Comments submitted in response 
to this notice may be made available to the public. For this reason, 
please do not include in your comments information of a confidential 
nature, such as sensitive personal information or proprietary 
information. If you send an email comment, your email address will be 
automatically captured and included as part of the comment that is 
placed in the public docket and may be made available on the Internet. 
Please note that responses to this public comment request containing 
any routine notice about the confidentiality of the communication will 
be treated as public comments that may be made available to the public 
notwithstanding the inclusion of the routine notice.
    Request for Comments: Comments submitted in response to this notice 
will be summarized and/or included in the request for OMB approval. 
Comments are invited on: (a) Whether the collection of information is 
necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the agency, 
including whether the information shall have practical utility; (b) the 
accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of the collection of 
information including the validity of the methodology and the 
assumptions used; (c) ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity 
of the information to be collected; (d) ways to minimize the burden of 
the collection of information on respondents, including through the use 
of automated collection techniques or other forms of information 
technology; and (e) estimates of capital or start-up costs and costs of 
operation, maintenance, and purchase of services to provide 
information. Burden means the total time, effort, or financial 
resources expended by persons to generate, maintain, retain, disclose 
or provide information to or for a Federal agency. This includes the 
time needed to review instructions; to develop, acquire, install and 
utilize technology and systems for the purpose of collecting, 
validating and verifying information, processing and maintaining 
information, and disclosing and providing information; to train 
personnel and to be able to respond to a collection of information, to 
search data sources, to complete and review the collection of 
information; and to transmit or otherwise disclose the information.

[[Page 44098]]


FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Rorey Smith, Deputy General Counsel 
and Chief Privacy Officer, Office of General Counsel, Court Services 
and Offender Supervision Agency, 633 Indiana Avenue NW, Room 1380, 
Washington, DC 20004, (202) 220-5797 or to Rorey.Smith@csosa.gov.
    For content support: Diane Bradley, Assistant General Counsel, 
Office of General Counsel, Court Services and Offender Supervision 
Agency, 633 Indiana Avenue NW, Room 1375, Washington, DC 20004, (202) 
220-5364 or to Diane.Bradley@csosa.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Title: Pretrial Services Agency for the 
District of Columbia 2013 Judicial Survey.
    Abstract: The proposed information collection activity provides a 
means to garner qualitative customer and stakeholder feedback in an 
efficient, timely manner, in accordance with the Administration's 
commitment to improving service delivery. This feedback will provide 
insights into customer or stakeholder perceptions, experiences and 
expectations, provide an early warning of issues with service, or focus 
attention on areas where communication, training or changes in 
operations might improve delivery of products or services. These 
collections will allow for ongoing, collaborative and actionable 
communications between the Agency and its customers and stakeholders. 
It will also allow feedback to contribute directly to the improvement 
of program management.
    The proposed survey will assess judicial satisfaction with PSA's 
responsiveness, staff professionalism, the quality and benefit of PSA 
reports, PSA's supervision of higher risk defendants (including those 
with mental health and substance dependence issues), and the provision 
of treatment services. The judicial survey will represent the only 
qualitative or quantitative measure of this important metric. PSA will 
use the collected information to support several organizational 
improvements including: enhancements to PSA's supervision of medium to 
higher-risk pretrial defendants; improve communications with the court 
regarding defendant compliance and noncompliance with supervision 
requirements; provide better performance ratings of Senior Executive 
Services (SES) staff; and creation of a qualitative performance measure 
to gauge overall judicial satisfaction under PSA's ``partnerships'' 
strategic objective. This type of collection for qualitative 
information will be used for quantitative information collections that 
are designed to yield reliable actionable results, such as monitoring 
trends over time or documenting program performance.
    As a general matter, information collections will not result in any 
new system of records containing privacy information and will not ask 
questions of a sensitive nature, such as sexual behavior and attitudes, 
religious beliefs, and other matters that are commonly considered 
private.
    This evaluation study addresses PSA's need for a report to inform 
strategic planning for dissemination and program activities to targeted 
60 DC Superior Court and District Court judicial officers as survey 
participants--the universe of judicial officers hearing criminal 
matters in both courts and those with bail setting duties.
    The survey is intended to assess judicial officers' perceptions and 
attitudes through a structured survey to measure judicial perceptions 
and attitudes about specific elements of Agency performance. Given the 
qualitative nature of these data, PSA will use a customer satisfaction 
rank order response of customer satisfaction questionnaire format for 
its survey. These customer satisfaction questionnaires are a proven 
method to solicit and record critical input from primary customers and 
partner agencies for PSA to address customer-related issues more 
competently and resolve issues more quickly.
    The outcome will best provide a detailed analysis of customer 
feedback and may also provide ``customer intelligence'' that can be 
used as a roadmap to spur innovation efforts, research and development 
and new programs and initiatives. The outcome will also include a 
recommendation for strategic planning for future efforts which will 
engage and develop information and programming for DC judicial official 
audience. Survey results will not be published independently, but will 
be part of PSA's Performance Budget submitted to the United States 
Congress every February and used as a metric for performance appraisals 
for SES staff, submitted in September of each year.

Method of Collection

    This survey will be conducted by PSA through its Office of 
Strategic Development. To achieve the goals that PSA hopes to obtain 
through its judicial survey, the following data collections will be 
implemented:
    (1) On-line instrument: All responses to the survey will be 
solicited, collected and recorded via a web-based survey instrument. 
This method will increase participants' ease in completing the survey 
and returning results to PSA. Automatically-logged results also ensure 
greater quality control of entered data and easier recording and 
analysis of results.
    (2) Rank-ordered responses: Most survey questions ask respondents 
to rank-order responses on a standard five-item Likert-scale, for 
example, ``Very Dissatisfied'' to ``Very Satisfied.'' The remaining 
questions are value neutral and open ended and allow respondents to 
give opinions on how PSA can improve specific functions.
    (3) Limited question set: The survey consists of 15 questions, 
making it relatively easy to understand, navigate and complete.
    (4) Anonymity: Survey results are anonymous, although respondents 
have the choice to identify themselves.
    Since the survey targets all judicial officers that have direct 
exposure and knowledge of PSA services and supervision, there are no 
anticipated issues with sample selection, stratification or estimation 
procedures.
    Described below is an overview of the information collection, the 
projected average annual estimates of the total number of respondents 
and responses, and the amount of time estimates:
    Current Actions: New collection of information.
    Type of Review: New collection.
    Affected Public: DC Superior Court and District Court Judges.
    Average expected annual number of collection activities: 2.
    Respondents: 60.
    Number of responses per respondent: 15.
    Annual responses: 900.
    Frequency of Response: Once per request.
    Average minutes per response: 10-15.
    Total burden hours associated with this collection: 15.
    The Agency's estimated annualized cost burden associated with the 
respondents' time to participate in this research is $1,200. The total 
and annualized cost to the federal government for the questionnaire 
development, administration, analysis, and study management for 
conducting this research is $150.
    An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required 
to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a current 
and valid Office of Management and Budget control number.

    Dated: July 18, 2013.
Rorey Smith,
Deputy General Counsel, for the Court Services and Offender Supervision 
Agency.
[FR Doc. 2013-17643 Filed 7-22-13; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3129-04-P