Funding Wizard

THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR APPLICATIONS. This announcement is to provide notice of the continuation of funding for cooperative agreement award 21PR02GLK1

It is estimated that over 800,000 people return to the community each year following a period of incarceration. Over the years, there has been an increase in the use of parole supervision as institution populations have increased. During 2020, the parole supervision population increased in 30 states and decreased in only 19 states and Washington, DC1.People can transition through the correctional system and reenter society on parole supervision in ways that both improve their chances of success (reduced recidivism) and ensure public safety. Because they are one of the gate keepers to public safety, paroling authorities and their members should have the competencies to effectively deliver paroling services effectively and efficiently. Well prepared paroling authorities understand how to use current research to guide operations that make communities safer.NIC is the only agency that offers state paroling authorities access to free parole board training. In 2010, NIC developed the only training for parole board members in the United States. In 2020, NIC revised the training curricula for parole board members and chairs to be delivered virtually in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Both trainings encourage participants to explore their beliefs and how those beliefs influence their work on the parole board. The trainings describe how paroling authorities can use evidence-based decision-making and practices to improve operations. Both trainings, for parole board members and chairs, were designed to equip the boards to:- Make sound and informed release decisions- Build infrastructure and capacity within parole organizations- Understand their unique role as a member of a paroling authorityNIC’s parole board member virtual training is composed of a pre-assignment, virtual sessions, and homework assignments. The virtual sessions were delivered for the first time in the summer of 2021. The post training assessments for the parole board member trainings indicated that while the virtual training was well received, it lacked supportive training materials. A number of the face-to-face training materials were not used in the virtual sessions. The parole board chair virtual training has not yet been delivered. The virtual conversion was completed in 2022.NIC revises its parole board curriculum every 3 years to ensure it is relevant and consists of the most current knowledge and practices in the field. To continue to deliver current virtual trainings to parole board members and chairs, new materials must be added, so NIC can deliver training that meets the changing and ongoing needs of parole boards.

The most fundamental goal of every jail is to maintain a safe and secure environment for staff, incarcerated individuals, and visitors. Effectively managing the behavior of incarcerated individuals is critical to this goal. The purpose of Strategic Inmate Management (SIM) is to promote safe and secure environments by employing the best practices of direct supervision and inmate behavior management applicable to all physical plant designs in jails.SIM is the intentional integration of the principles and strategies of direct supervision and the elements of Inmate Behavior Management as a unified operational philosophy. It is an evolution of the direct supervision and Inmate Behavior Management training and assistance that the National Institute of Corrections (NIC) once offered.With the SIM initiative, NIC works with jurisdictions seeking to integrate a comprehensive approach to managing the behavior of incarcerated individuals.The goals of this initiative are to:• Support correctional leaders and staff in fulfilling their role in providing safe and secure facilities.• Demonstrate the importance of having a cohesive management strategy to manage the behavior of incarcerated individuals effectively.• Assist correctional agencies in integrating SIM as an operational philosophy, ingraining SIM in the organizational culture.• Build organizational capacity to sustain the integration of SIM throughout all levels of an organizationStatutory Authority: Public

Parole, best known as discretionary release is, the early releasing entity for people serving time in institutions, began in the state of New York and has been a part of the criminal justice system since 1907. By 1942, all the state and federal criminal justice systems implemented a paroling system to determine who could and could not be released early from prison. Paroling authorities had to develop a release decision making process to determine who was “ready” for early release, based on the premise that people who received early released would agree to abide by certain behavioral conditions, including not committing new crimes, in exchange for serving the remainder of their sentence in their community. This agreement to commit no new crimes recognizes that people in the criminal justice system can change their criminal behavior, making parole decisions key to public safety. Over the years, there has been an increase in the use of parole supervision as institutions have been overcrowded. During 2020, the parole supervision population increased in 30 states and decreased in only 19 states and Washington, D.C.1In the 1979 U.S. Supreme Court case Greenholtz v. Inmates of the Nebraska Penal and Correctional Complex, it was established that people who are incarcerated have no “liberty interest” in the parole release process unless an interest is created by state legislation. This ruling meant that most laws/legislation for parole release are determined by state legislature, courts, and parole board member themselves.2 Many paroling authorities have taken steps to establish transparency in how release decisions are made as well as the criteria used. To gather more insight, NIC convened a focus group of several parole boards who stated the importance of establishing a set of foundational principles to guide their release decisions.3Parole releasing decisions should be done with due diligence that is consistent and transparent. The principles guiding parole decision making have evolved over time. It began with an unstructured judgement approach, where board members relied on unclear/unarticulated factors that reflected personal experience, values, beliefs, and “gut feelings.” As the criminal justice field began to embrace evidence-based practices, parole release decision models began to reflect the use of some of these practices. The use of decision matrices is another approach, where a combination of factors are cross referenced with an actuarial risk score. The matrix produces a presumptive parole decision. The structured professional decision guidelines approach uses evidence-based factors that are assigned a rating and calculated into a final score. According to Paroling Authorities Strategic Planning and Management for Results, “the most common and original form of guidelines are matrices incorporating typically, some combination of severity of offense and risk of re-offending bound within specific factors to be considered in each case.4 Today, paroling authorities use some combination of these three basic approaches. As more research is conducted on parole decision making models, more effective models can be developed. Unfortunately, there is scarcity in the research on paroling authorities and the breadth of their decision making.5

Local jurisdictions face a wide variety of challenges when deciding whether to build a new jail. If they make the decision to build, they face further challenges in the planning, construction, and operation of a new jail. The National Institute of Corrections (NIC) Jails Division provides training, technical assistance, and information related to new jail planning. These services address issues such as factors to consider in making the decision to build a new jail; the crucial importance of owner involvement in all phases of the project; and information related to designing, constructing, and occupying the new facility. The NIC Jails Division is seeking one qualified applicant to revise and update the current How to Open a New Institution (HONI) class; administer the delivery of up to twelve classes of Planning of New Institutions (PONI), Managing Jail Design and Construction (MJDC) and HONI classes (not including the pilot class, for a total of 12 classes); and deliver up to four Jail and Justice System Assessments (JJSAs) through technical assistance services to requesting jurisdictions. All technical resource providers (TRPs) must be approved by NIC as qualified instructors and/or JJSA providers.

To target staff at all levels of an organization, including executive leaders, mid-managers, and line staff, to assess the context in which they are delivering EBP. The resources include a process to assess, at all levels of an organization, systemic readiness to adopt innovations that support behavior change among supervised individuals. The assessment findings will determine where organizations align with adopting innovations by identifying policy and practice gaps within leadership, staff competency, and organizational support areas. Findings will be translated into tactical plans that will include identifying areas of strength and prioritizing recommendations. A final and critical focus of the work will be to support the implementation of the tactical plans, the goal of which will be to reinforce the sustained use of change-oriented interventions for persons under community supervision.

THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR APPLICATIONS. This announcement is to provide notice of the continuation of funding for cooperative agreement award 21CS04GLI0.

THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR APPLICATIONS. This announcement is to provide notice of the continuation of funding for cooperative agreement award 21CS20GLH0

THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR APPLICATIONS. This announcement is to provide notice of the continuation of funding for cooperative agreement award 21CS29GLJ7.

HIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR APPLICATIONS. This announcement is to provide notice of the continuation of funding for cooperative agreement award 21PR10GLG8.