Deadline: 16-Mar-21
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Office of Justice Programs (OJP), Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) is seeking applications for funding for the Innovations in Reentry Initiative (IRI): Building System Capacity and Testing Reentry Strategies to Reduce Recidivism.
This program furthers the Department’s mission by reducing violent crime; enhancing programs to fight the addiction crisis; supporting efforts in the corrections system that punish, deter, and rehabilitate released offenders; and providing sworn law enforcement personnel with opportunities to partner with corrections and reentry practitioners.
The FY 2021 Innovations in Reentry Initiative (IRI): Building System Capacity and Testing Reentry Strategies provide state and local jurisdictions and Indian tribes with the resources to identify assets and gaps in their reentry systems and improve their overall approach to reentry.
Program-specific Priority Areas
In FY 2021, and in addition to executing any OJP policy prioritization that may be applicable, priority consideration will be given to applications as follows:
- Applications that propose to reduce violent recidivism among medium- and high-risk offenders through validated assessment tools. The proposals should include a description of how this group will be identified and demonstrate access to and use of relevant data.
- Applications that target offenders with histories of homelessness, substance abuse, or mental illness, including a prerelease assessment of the housing status of the offender and their behavioral health needs to inform individual release plans that coordinate mental health, substance abuse, and homelessness services systems to achieve stable and permanent housing outcomes with appropriate support service.
- Applications that propose to improve reentry-related services in geographic areas with disproportionately large numbers of reentrants. Proposals should include data to demonstrate that a higher concentration of adults return from incarceration to the identified community than to others in the jurisdiction or the surrounding jurisdictions.
- Applications that employ randomized controlled trial (RCT) methods to assess the effectiveness of programs and practices. A strong RCT design should include low sample attrition, sufficient sample size, and close adherence to random assignment, valid outcome measures, and statistical analyses.
Funding Information
- Anticipated Number of Awards: 4;
- Anticipated Maximum Dollar Amount of Awards: $1,000,000.00;
- Period of Performance Start Date: 10/1/21 12:00 AM;
- Period of Performance Duration (Months): 48;
- Anticipated Total Amount to be Awarded Under Solicitation: $4,000,000.00.
Deliverables
Grantees will work with BJA to identify system gaps and then implement improvements to enhance the effectiveness of their reentry system or to implement or enhance a reentry program to reduce recidivism among a specific target population. Projects should propose to meet the following three-phased approach: Planning, Implementation, and Evaluation over the 4-year grant period:
- Phase 1: Planning (up to 12 months): During the planning phase, grantees will have access up to $75,000 of the grant award (see Federal Award Information section), will be required to participate in technical assistance, and will be required to complete and submit an Action Plan to guide implementation.
- Deliverable 1: Task Force Review;
- Deliverable 2: Assessment Results and Action Plan.
- Phase 2: Implementation (24 months)
- Deliverable 3: Preliminary Process Evaluation Reflecting System Improvements Due at 30 Months.
- Phase 3: Evaluation and Sustainability (12 months)
- Deliverable 4: Preliminary Outcome and/or Impact Evaluation Due at 36 Months.
- Deliverable 5: Final Process Evaluations Due at Grant Closeout, 90 Days after End of Grant Period (51 Months).
Eligible Applicants
- City or township governments;
- County governments;
- State governments;
- Others;
- Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized).
Other Eligibility Information
- For purposes of this solicitation, “state” means any state of the United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
- To advance Executive Order 13929 Safe Policing for Safe Communities, the Attorney General determined that all state, local, and university or college law enforcement agencies must be certified by an approved independent credentialing body or have started the certification process to be eligible for FY 2021 DOJ discretionary grant funding.
For more information, visit https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=330947