National Institute of Corrections 2008 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

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.