National Institute of Corrections – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The National Institute of Corrections (NIC) is soliciting proposals from organizations, groups, or individuals to enter into a cooperative agreement for a 12-month period to begin in February 2010. Section 5 of the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) requires NIC to provide ``training and education programs for Federal, State, and local authorities responsible for the prevention, investigation, and punishment of instances of prison rape.'' NIC's technical assistance program is used to provide much of this training and education. Work under this cooperative agreement award will continue the technical assistance component of NIC's PREA Initiative.

The National Institute of Corrections (NIC) is soliciting proposals from organizations, groups or individuals to enter into a cooperative agreement for a twelve-month period to publish a ``Corrections Mental Health Newsletter'' on a quarterly basis providing up-to-date information, news, research, relevant issues, highlighted training and programs, etc. to a correctional audience responsible for, and interested in mental health issues in community corrections, prisons and jails. It is expected that such a newsletter will be published quarterly with the first publication anticipated to be released in February/March 2010 and continue quarterly thereafter for the calendar year. The recipient of this award may be awarded a cooperative agreement for up to two successive years in 2011 and 2012 to continue the publication.

The National Institute of Corrections (NIC) is soliciting proposals from organizations, groups or individuals to enter into a cooperative agreement to develop and field test a 36-hour curriculum to train a multi-disciplinary staff in state correctional agencies and prison systems. The time of the cooperative agreement is for a twelve month period. Two training pilots at sites selected by NIC will be completed no later than September 30, 2010, with a final curriculum delivered to NIC no later than December 30, 2010.

The National Institute of Corrections (NIC) is soliciting proposals from organizations, groups, or individuals to enter into a cooperative agreement for a nine month project period. Work under this agreement will result in a ``tool kit'' to aid those charged with assessing the quality of lesson plans to include performance objectives, content delivery strategies, training activities, and supplemental materials. The tool kit will be framed around the Instructional Theory Into Practice model. In addition to providing assessment guidance, the tool kit will provide a brief history of the model, a description of the relevant research, a glossary, and a list of relevant references and websites.

The National Institute of Corrections (NIC), Jails Division, is seeking applications for the development of curricula on the administration of large jails (jails with 1,000 or more beds). The project will be for an eighteen-month period and will be carried out in conjunction with the NIC Jails Division. The awardee will work closely with NIC staff on all aspects of the project. To be considered, applicants must demonstrate, at a minimum, (1) in-depth knowledge of the purpose, functions, and operational complexities of local jails, (2) expertise on the key elements in jail administration (see ``Supplementary Information''), (3) expertise on the implications of jail size for implementing these elements, (4) experience in developing curriculum, based on adult learning principles, and (5) extensive experience in working with local jails on issues related to administration and operations.

The National Institute of Corrections (NIC) is soliciting proposals from organizations, groups, or individuals who would like to enter an 8-month cooperative agreement to write a 45-50 page white paper exploring implementation strategies to introduce and increase awareness of environmental and conservation efforts to the field of corrections.

The National Institute of Corrections (NIC), Community Corrections Division, is seeking applications for the development of evidence based strategic plans in four Southern California County Probation Departments. Efforts to develop initial plans in county probation departments will happen over a 9-month period, and will be carried out in conjunction with the NIC Community Corrections Division. NIC Community Corrections staff will direct and participate in the planning efforts to ensure consistency with other evidence based planning and implementation work coordinated through NIC. Note that this particular Cooperative Agreement is intended to cover only the initial strategic planning phase for each site, as described below in the section entitled Supplementary Information.

The National Institute of Corrections, Jails Division, is seeking applications for the development of two training-program curricula: one that focuses on the role of the housing-unit officer and shift supervisor in a direct supervision jail and another that focuses on the role of the administrator in a direct supervision jail. The project will be for an eighteen-month period, and will be carried out in conjunction with the NIC Jails Division. NIC Jails Division staff will direct the project and will participate in curriculum design, lesson plan development, and the creation of related training materials.

Helping offenders make a successful transition from prison back into the community has been the focus of much interest in recent years. In 2001, the National Institute of Corrections (NIC) launched its Transition From Prison to the Community (TPC) initiative to bring the best of practical thinking and research knowledge to this issue. The goal was to articulate a comprehensive and strategic approach to transition that incorporates the lessons of evidence-based practice, emphasizes the importance of collaboration, and provides a practical tool for use by corrections agencies and their governmental and community partners. The TPC model was developed and NIC is now bringing to conclusion extensive implementation assistance to a first set of eight states. The TPC Reentry Handbook (see ``Background'') provides a thorough record of that initiative and what has been learned so far. Building specifically on NIC's efforts to date, this cooperative agreement award will deliver TPC technical assistance to a new set of approximately six states and the provider, in conjunction with NIC, and will continue to advance the model and develop products that can assist non-participating jurisdictions who have an interest in TPC implementation. Since a system change initiative of this scale and scope is complex and time consuming it is expected that new states will require TPC assistance for three years. This initial 12-month phase is expected to be followed by 12 month funding from each of the next two fiscal years for a full 36-month project duration. However, year's two and three funding is subject to satisfactory performance by the provider and availability of funds for NIC to make subsequent TPC continuation awards. Therefore, applications will be reviewed specifically for the ``Year One'' proposal and work plan, as well as vision and demonstrated competence to complete necessary subsequent year tasks like document development and electronic dissemination of information to non- participating jurisdictions.

The National Institute of Corrections, Jails Division, is seeking applications for the development of a document that provides jail practitioners with a guide on developing and implementing programs and activities for jail inmates, as part of an overall strategy to manage inmate behavior.

The National Institute of Corrections (NIC) is soliciting proposals from organizations, groups or individuals who would like to enter into a cooperative agreement with NIC to develop a series of five papers related to parole with a primary audience of parole board members, parole staff, governors, appointing authorities, and related criminal justice agencies. The five papers will be developed over an eighteen month time. The initial paper will address core competencies for parole board members and executive parole staff in paroling authorities. Additional topics for this series will be determined by NIC and the vendor. Project Goal: The overall goal of the initial paper is the development of a document on core competencies for parole board members and executive staff. This document will address the following: Describe the competencies needed to be a parole board member, parole chair and executive parole staff; Clarify how the competencies relate to the role of parole with other stakeholders within the criminal justice systems; Describe the organizational structures within the parole office that support the development and operation of competencies; Examine how competencies promote the use of EBP in parole and revocation decision making; Illustrate how governors, appointing authorities, and parole boards can use the competencies to make selection and hiring decisions. The core competencies must conform to the principles presented in the documents ``Comprehensive Framework for Paroling Authorities in an Era of Evidence-Based Practices'', the ``Correctional Leadership Competencies for the 21st Century for Executives and Senior-Level Leaders'', and the ``Correctional Leadership Competencies for the 21st Century for Manager and Supervisor Levels''. These documents can be found at the following links: https://nicic.org/Downloads/PDF/Library/ 022906.pdf (NIC Accession no. 022906), https://www.nicic.org/pubs/2005/ 020474.pdf (NIC Accession no. 020474) and https://nicic.org/Downloads/ PDF/Library/020475.pdf (NIC Accession no. 020475).

This project has two areas of focus: Assistance to selected jails in implementing the six elements of inmate behavior management and evaluation of the process and impact of implementation. The project award will be for a two-year period, and the project will be carried out in conjunction with the NIC Jails Division. The awardee will work closely with NIC Jails Division staff.

The National Institute of Corrections (NIC) is soliciting proposals from organizations, groups or individuals to enter into a cooperative agreement for a 12-month, developmental phase of a new initiative, ``Identifying the Characteristics of High Performing Correctional Organizations.'' This project will focus on developing a methodology to allow organizations to build from their strengths to identify and bridge gaps between current performance and optimal performance in terms of efficiency, effectiveness and accountability. Project Goal: The products from this cooperative agreement will be to establish a model, accompanying assessment methodology, and appropriate performance measures that define a high performance correctional agency or system. The model will synthesize the literature about building high-performance organizations into diagnostic tools that can be put to practical use by organizations to understand their business practices and overall performance. The intended user of the tools are local and state operated jails, prisons and community corrections agencies or systems. The intended outcome for this project is to establish a model, assessment methodology, performance indicators, and practical strategies to (1) Develop ways to address agency inefficiencies that result from the lack of a ``holistic'' and integrated perspective; (2) establish a core set of values or guiding principles that agencies can apply to correctional disciplines to enhance business practices; (3) improve organizational performance by assessing strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, resources and threats; (4) prioritize goals and objectives; and (5) contain costs associated with operating correctional agencies and systems. This project will: Define the ``hard side'' of correctional organizations i.e. strategic plan, mission statement, capacity building, policy/procedure etc; their leadership and management philosophy; organizational structure; and other operational characteristics. Identify methods to improve the infrastructure, activities, and outputs of correctional organizations to be better aligned with operational practices, community partnerships, offender reentry and the best use of resources. Identify evidence based and/or best practices. Develop and test tools that can be put to practical use. Develop methods to measure the degree to which correctional organizations are functioning that comprises the actual output or result measured against its intended outputs or goals and objectives in determining performance.

The National Institute of Corrections (NIC) has implemented Learn.com's Learn Center learning management system (LMS) to manage the NIC Learning Center. NIC has used this LMS for the past four years to manage its Web-based training (WBT). Through this cooperative agreement, services offered through the Learning Center will be expanded to bring access to all NIC training opportunities available through this system.

The National Institute of Corrections (NIC), Jails Division, is seeking applications for the development and production of a broadcast quality, educational DVD covering the five phases of new jail planning.