Funding Wizard

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a federal law that gives civil rights protections to individuals with disabilities in many areas of life. The ADA guarantees that people with disabilities have the same opportunities as everyone else to enjoy employment opportunities, participate in state and local government programs, and purchase goods and services. For example, the ADA protects people with disabilities from discrimination by social services agencies; child welfare agencies; courts; prisons and jails; medical facilities, including hospitals, doctors’ offices, and skilled nursing facilities; homeless shelters; and schools, colleges, and universities. (U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, April 2022). The ADA protects people with disabilities from discrimination. Disability rights are civil rights. From voting to parking, the ADA is a law that protects people with disabilities in many areas of public life. This includes the criminal justice system—from encounters with law enforcement to pretrial status, local jail, community supervision, and finally to prison and reentry. Entities in each of these areas are required to adhere to the ADA. How a correctional setting applies the ADA law and accommodates those with mental and/or physical disabilities could significantly affect the outcome for people with disabilities in the justice system.

In 2020, the National Institute of Corrections (NIC) established a collaborative venture with the American Probation and Parole Association (APPA) to develop a comprehensive set of black letter standards of practice to guide community supervision policy and practices across the nation. The black letter standards provide consistent national guidance and direction for the community supervision field, and, more specifically, help probation and parole agencies build the case for organizing, staffing, and operating in a manner consistent with the latest knowledge and evidence. In addition, the standards provide guidance about what is effective in producing the desired outcomes of supervision, including safer communities, law abiding and productive persons under supervision, and prudent use of public resources. The standards are definitions established by APPA to model or serve as a minimum acceptable benchmark of correctional practice. APPA is the largest membership organization supporting community supervision professionals at every level of probation and parole organizations and serves over 90,000 community supervision professionals nationally. The standards development effort followed the approach used by the National Association of Pretrial Services Agencies (NAPSA), and the format follows the black letter model used in the NAPSA standards. In 2020, NIC and APPA established a workgroup that consisted of both practitioners and researchers who assisted with the development of the first draft of the publication Black Letter Standards of Practice. The goal of the first year of this work was to assess and use research and practitioner input comprehensively to establish sound principles and practices that would support rehabilitation and positive outcomesfor people on community supervision so they could lead productive and law-abiding lives. NIC continues to collaborate with APPA to finalize the draft of the standards that will include accompanying commentary. Additional work will include developing and implementing marketing and education strategies and plans. The Black Letter Standards of Practice document will be the sole ownership of APPA, with NIC providing project management, structure, a draft of the black letter standards, which will include developing accompanying commentary. Additional work will include developing and implementing marketing and education strategies and plans. The goal of this project will be drafting and finalizing the black letter national standards and commentary for adult community supervision (parole and probation) and introducing the standards to the field at the APPA Summer Institute in August 2023. The awardee will work with the APPA project team and workgroup to develop marketing and educational strategies to support the adoption of the national standards by adult community supervision agencies .nd guidance. NIC will retain the right to publish, reproduce, and use any subsequently copyrighted or trademarked material pursuant to the “Rights in Data” paragraph contained in Section F: Federal Award Administration Information.

THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR APPLICATIONS. This announcement is to provide notice of the continuation of funding for cooperative agreement award 20CS04GLD9.

THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR APPLICATIONS. This announcement is to provide public notice of the National Institute of Corrections to fund the project activities without full and open competition.

With the closure of state hospitals beginning in the 1970s and shrinking resources in many communities, a large and disproportionate number of seriously mentally ill individuals were diverted from medical facilities and placed under correctional custody and supervision. The trend continues. Researchers today document serious mental illness in 15% of incarcerated men and 31% of incarcerated women. These rates are in excess of three to six times those found among the general public. The magnitude of untreated mental illness is revealed in the numbers and the consequences. These individuals are more likely to experience suicide, victimization, violence and unpredictable crises. Crisis intervention teams (CITs) for law enforcement originated in Memphis, Tennessee, in the late 1980s after a deadly tragedy involving a person with serious mental illness. The community came together in the aftermath with the police director and the mayor of Memphis to find an effective way for officers to respond to people with mental illness in crisis. The model they created takes a team approach and engages community stakeholders, including corrections, local mental health agencies, family advocacy groups, and others, in a collaborative response to manage and support justice-involved persons with mental illness. Typically, when a correctional facility is faced with an individual in crisis, the first reaction is to call upon a specialized operations response team (SORT), or its equivalent, for a swift response and resolution. Correctional leaders, community members, and mental health advocates agree that first responders’ speedy response is necessary for facility safety and security. However, if force is used, the response can have unfortunate consequences, such as the injury of incarcerated individuals, staff injury, and/or property damage. CIT training is the bridge to narrowing the gap between use of force and first response mental health service by providing frontline staff with the skills and competencies they need to handle potentially dangerous individuals experiencing crises. Additionally, it includes training for officers regarding behavioral health issues and educates community members about the role and needs of correctional and detention staff, so both sides can collaborate effectively enough to benefit both incarcerated individuals and their families. In 2010, the National Institute of Corrections (NIC) formally introduced CIT training to correctional agencies. The CIT Training for Corrections program applies to both jails and prisons and focuses on building an agency’s capacity to implement a sustainable, locally administered CIT Training for Corrections program. From December 2010 to March 2014, NIC implemented a multi-phase operation to offer CIT training throughout the country. During phase I, staff representing nineteen jail systems, twenty state departments of correction, and one team from U.S. Probation and Pretrial Services were trained in the tenets of CIT for corrections. Participants were assembled in three-person teams (mental health advocate, operations executive, and behavioral health clinician) and encouraged to take the information learned back to their respective agencies to plan the implementation of a locally administered CIT Training for Corrections program

THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR APPLICATIONS. This announcement is to provide notice of the continuation of funding for cooperative agreement award 20CS09GLE0

THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR APPLICATIONS. This announcement is to provide public notice of the National Institute of Corrections intention to fund the following project without full and open competition

There are over 3,000 sheriffs in the United States. Sheriff’s offices are complex organizations with a variety of responsibilities. The office of sheriff is inherently powerful and influential, especially within the criminal justice system and communities they serve. Sheriffs operate 85% of the approximately 3,200 jails nationwide, provide patrol services, court security, civil process, transportation, and/or criminal investigation. In addition, sheriffs are called upon to navigate community conversations about justice, equity, and accountability; engage and convene diverse community stakeholder groups; and provide healthcare and treatment while ensuring public safety. The National Sheriffs’ Institute (NSI) provides executive leadership training for the nation’s sheriffs. The NSI assists sheriffs as leaders of their organizations and communities and equips them to manage essential aspects of their office.

THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR APPLICATIONS. This announcement is to provide notice of the continuation of funding for cooperative agreement award 20CS07GLE1.

THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR APPLICATIONS. This announcement is to provide notice of NIC to make an award without full competition.