Deadline: 4 May 2020
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 2020 Innovations in Reentry Initiative (IRI): Building System Capacity and Testing Reentry Strategies provides 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.
Priority Areas
In FY 2020, 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.
Objectives and Deliverables
Grantees will work with BJA to either 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; 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
- Engage a Re-Entry Task Force to examine policies and practices in four capacity areas: data-driven decision making; staff allocation to maximize impact; quality and capacity of community providers to address client needs; and other barriers to successful reentry, such as housing.
- Engage a third-party evaluator in a research-practitioner partnership throughout the award period.
- Deliverable 2: Assessment results and Action Plan
- Develop an action plan to address gaps and deficits identified in the assessment.
- Project can propose either general system improvements to benefit all offenders in reentry or a reentry program focused on reducing recidivism among a target population (minimum 150 over grant period)—specific subset or subsets of reentering offenders—identified through data analysis as having a relatively high recidivism rate; a specific demographic or set of demographics (e.g., age, gender); returning to a particular jurisdiction area where a disproportionate population of offenders will be released from prisons or jails (e.g., specific neighborhood or ZIP code); or who are housed in the same facility prior to release.
- Develop an action plan to address gaps and deficits identified in the assessment.
- Phase 2: Implementation (24 months)
- Deliverable 3: Preliminary process evaluation reflecting system improvements due at 30 months.
- Once a grantee’s Action Plan is approved by BJA, the grantee will proceed to the implementation phase to test strategies for addressing gaps and deficits and implementing this proposed project with the remainder of their grant funds.
- 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).
The goal of this phase is for the grantee to track recidivism and other outcomes defined in the evaluation to assess effectiveness of their project. Recidivism measures must include arrest, conviction, and incarceration.
Funding Information
- Estimated maximum dollar amount for each award: $1,000,000
- Total amount anticipated to be awarded under this solicitation: $4,000,000
- Period of performance duration: 48-month
- Period of performance start date: October 1, 2020
Eligibility Criteria
- County governments
- City or township governments
- Special district governments
- Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized)
- State governments
For more information, visit https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=325073