The National Institute of Corrections is soliciting proposals from qualified organizations or individuals to update and expand a civil liabilities guidebook for probation and parole.  The successful applicant would be expected to deliver the following three products during an eighteen-month cooperative agreement period.

1. A revised, updated version of NIC's document dealing with civil liabilities for probation/parole officers and supervisors.  (See the most recent version of the document.)
2. An executive supplement for directors and chiefs of probation, parole, and other community corrections agencies that identifies their legal issues and responsibilities.
3. Various adult learning and informational materials related to the revised document and executive supplement. 

Applications must be received y 4:00 pm EDST on Thursday, May 22, 2008. See solcitation details and application forms.

UPDATE:  A Telephone Conference with Applicants for this Solicitation was held on May 13, 2008 at Noon, EDST.  
NIC Participants were George Keiser and Dot Faust.  Following is a summary of questions and answers discussed at the conference.  The summary is not intended to be a word-for-word account of the discussions.

Introduction to the Session History/ Use of Cooperative Agreement Funding Vehicle

For years, the National Institute of Corrections has coordinated Executive Orientation Sessions for executives of probation and parole in cooperation with the National Association of Probation Executives (NAPE) and Sam Houston State University. As part of this work, the Civil Liabilities document was developed at the initiation of Professor Rolando del Carmen of Sam Houston State University. The subject matter is civil liabilities. The guidebook has been updated in the past. The intent of the current effort is to again update the document, and to add two other products: an executive supplement and a set of learning tools for executive level audiences.

NIC has looked at all available funding tools. The Cooperative Agreement is the best in this instance because NIC can solicit the creativity of individuals in response to the Institute's requirements. What's new this time is that a dollar figure has not been identified. As a result, the responses to the solicitation will be judged both on the substance of the piece as well as on which application gives NIC the most of what it wants for a price that NIC can afford.

The Executive Level Supplement is not meant to be an executive summary of the core document. Rather, this piece should address any liability issues that are unique for the CEO-level person and different from issues that may be faced by other managerial levels.

The award will probably be made by the middle of the summer. Specifically, the National Institute of Corrections will go through a sequence of steps during the award process:

a) An internal panel from NIC will review all applications.

b) The panel will have a face-to-face meeting to discuss the applications,

score them and designate preferred applications.

c) There may be further negotiation with an applicant.

d) There will be a staff recommendation to NIC's Executive Director. It is rare that the

Executive Director does not follow the staff recommendation, but it may happen.

e) The earliest time for the award will probably be within six weeks of the submission.

The latest will probably be within eight weeks of the submission.

Both hard copies and electronic copies will be made available to the user audience. The main document needs to be textual.

All three deliverables must be submitted by the end of the 18-month period. The sequence and schedule for completing them, however, will depend on the applicant's work plan as submitted.

No, it is intended that the core document be updated and expanded as it currently exists.

Probation and parole are the primary target audiences. Private treatment agencies, for example, are not the focus. If probation or parole supervision takes place within other agency structures, however, or if these functions happen to be called by a different name in a jurisdiction (such as post prison mandatory release), then the material should have application to these audiences, too. The information should have general applicability to all probation and parole agencies, keeping in mind the various state and local organizational structures.

Using a board is not required, but is an option for the applicant to consider.

Dissemination and distribution of the products will be accomplished primarily through NIC's Information Center. The products will be housed in a web-based format at the Information Center and accessible to a broad audience. (In other words, just use a standard pdf format.)

Another distribution vehicle will be through professional associations and conferences. The products will also need to be useable for these purposes.

Question 9. Does NIC expect general or state-by-state applicability of the material?

NIC needs the materials to have applicability for a general, nationwide audience. If certain state or local examples can show trends or if they are helpful as examples, they can be used. The applicant should also try to pay attention to possible differences between judicial or executive branch applications of the information.

Question 10.  (Received 5/16/08)  Will there be an existing soft copy of the publication that we are to update or will [we] have to totally re-key each document?

After checking with administrative staff at NIC, it appears to be doubtful that the Institute will be able to provide the existing document in a format that can be edited.  You should not have this expectation when writing your applications.

Question 11.  Do you have a set number of pages that this should be around, or is this just based on the amount of material extracted that would be beneficial/essential to CEO level administrators?

There is no predetermined number of pages for the Executive Supplement.