Request for Information (RFI) – Cognitive-Behavioral Programming in Corrections

This RFI is an inquiry only and does not imply that a contract or agreement will be made from its results.

Background 

The National Institute of Corrections (NIC) is the only federal agency with a legislative mandate (Public Law 93-41.5) to provide specialized services to corrections from a national perspective. NIC is recognized by other federal agencies for its unique role and quality services. Its leadership is evidenced by the numerous partnerships and interagency agreements targeted to provide correctional services and training. 

NIC is unique because it provides direct service rather than financial assistance as the primary means of carrying out its mission. It responds directly to needs identified by practitioners working in state and local adult corrections, the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the Department of Justice, other federal agencies, and the United States Congress. NIC staff provide leadership to influence correctional policies, practices, and operations nationwide in areas of emerging interest and concern to correctional executives and practitioners, as well as public policymakers. 

NIC provides practical assistance in planning and implementing improvements at the federal, tribal, state, and local levels. These efforts contribute to cost efficiency and effectiveness in such areas as planning, design, and operation of new jail, prison, and community corrections programs, cognitive behavioral therapy programs, and offender classification and risk assessments. 

NIC is acclaimed by the corrections community as a focused, customer-oriented, apolitical, professional agency that continues to make a significant difference. It is credited with raising the standard of performance for correctional agencies nationwide.

Scope

Perhaps no other intervention has attracted more attention across the criminal justice system than cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). First widely used in the latter half of the 20th century, as large numbers of people with mental illness were deinstitutionalized and treated in community settings, CBT has since found its way into nearly every aspect of the justice system, often supplementing, or displacing other programs and interventions. CBT assumes that most people can become conscious of their own thoughts and behaviors and then make positive changes to them. A person's thoughts are often the result of experience, and behavior is often influenced and prompted by these thoughts. In addition, thoughts may sometimes become distorted and fail to reflect reality accurately. Practitioners today use CBT to reduce recidivism among adults and juveniles, help victims deal with the aftermath of crimes, and address substance abuse, depression, violence, and other problematic behavior. CBT programs help individuals in corrections improve their social skills, means-ends problem solving, critical reasoning, moral reasoning, cognitive style, self-control, impulse management, and self-efficacy.

As part of NIC’s Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Initiatives, NIC, under a cooperative agreement, developed Thinking for a Change (T4C). T4C is an integrated cognitive behavioral change program authored by Jack Bush, Ph.D., Barry Glick, Ph.D., and Juliana Taymans, Ph.D. T4C incorporates research from cognitive restructuring theory, social skills development, and the learning and use of problem-solving skills. Since the late 1990s, NIC has provided the T4C curriculum, T4C facilitator training, and T4C training for trainers to corrections professionals in prisons, jails, detention centers, community corrections, probation, and parole settings in tribal, federal, state, and local corrections agencies. The National Institute of Corrections has trained more than 10,000 professionals as T4C group facilitators and more than 500 trainers who can train additional staff to facilitate the program with justice-involved individuals.

The T4C program is designed to be provided to justice-involved adults and youth, males, and females. It is intended for groups of eight to twelve and should be delivered only by trained facilitators. Due to its integrated structure, T4C is a closed-ended group, meaning members need to start at the beginning of a cycle and may not join the group mid-stream.

NIC is aware of other cognitive behavioral intervention (CBI) programs. While they may use some of the same or similar concepts and philosophies as programs like T4C, some of these programs are finding newly found pedagogies and creative ways to provide programming for justice-involved individuals that are based in newer best practice research that may have not been available in the late 1990s during the creation of T4C.

For the reason above, NIC is exploring information about cognitive behavioral programming and its delivery that may include, but not limited to, newer technologies, newer strategies, and newer delivery methods that will provide corrections professionals with more options and/or supplement their already implemented cognitive programming offerings for their justice-involved populations. These programs maybe opened-ended groups that allow group members to start at certain entry points or at any point within the program. There are also programs that allow the participants to complete a self-directed CBI/CBT program or asynchronous learning.

This RFI is an inquiry only and does not imply that a contract or agreement will be made from its results.

Purpose 

This RFI is seeking to explore the needs, feasibility, and cost for the development of CBTs and CBIs for the corrections field. Specifically, NIC is seeking information to determine:

• Delivery Modality 
  • What are the pros and cons of traditional/classroom programming in corrections? 
  • What are the pros and cons of virtual/online programming in corrections? 
  • What are the pros and cons of blended learning/hybrid programming in corrections? 
  • What is the efficacy of self-directed CBI and CBT programming (specific to corrections and outside of the corrections field)? 
  • What is the efficacy of asynchronous learning with CBI and CBT programming (specific to corrections and outside of the corrections field)?
• Entry/Exit of Cognitive Behavioral Programming 
  • What are the pros and cons of known opened-ended CBIs and CBTs (specific to corrections and outside of the corrections field)? 
  • What are the pros and cons of closed-ended CBIs and CBTs (specific to corrections and outside of the corrections field)? 
• Cognitive Programming Responsivity 
  • Does a program need to be culturally responsive and/or culturally specific to work. If so, what elements must a program have to be considered culturally responsive and/or culturally specific? 
  • Does a program need to be gender responsive and/or gender specific to work? If so, what elements must a program have to be considered gender responsive and/or gender specific?
  • What are the concepts or elements needed to build a “trauma-informed” CBI or CBT program? 
• Facilitator Qualifications and Traits
  • What educational requirements or general qualifications does a person need to be an effective facilitator of group programming in corrections?
  • What are the characteristics or traits of an effective facilitator of group programming (specific to corrections and outside of the corrections field)?
  • What are the pros and cons of those with “lived experience” facilitating group programming in corrections? 
• Recidivism/Re-Offense Reduction
  • What are the success rates in recidivism and/or re-offense reductions for CBIs and CBTs delivered in institutional settings (within prisons, jails, detention centers, etc.)? 
  • What are the success rates in recidivism and/or re-offense reduction for CBI and CBTs delivered in community settings (within probation, parole, residential reentry centers, etc.)? 
  • What factors influence increases in recidivism/re-offense reduction? 
  • How are the “big four” risk/need factors (criminal history, antisocial attitudes, associates, and personality) targeted in CBIs and CBTs in corrections?
  • How should CBI and CBT programs be designed with frequency, intensity, and duration (dosage) for the best results? 
• Specialized CBIs and CBTs in Corrections 
  • What are the different approaches and key strategies being used in specialized CBIs and CBTs for justice-involved populations? Examples include but are not limited to: 
    • Employment
    • Sex Offender Treatment
    • Substance Abuse
    • Domestic Violence

Costs

NIC may, after considering all approaches, enter into a cooperative agreement to build a new open-ended CBI/CBT program, complete with a facilitator guide, participant guide, associated presentations and/or other visual aids. Based on the above RFI, what would be the projected budget to develop a new “open ended” CBI/CBT program? The cost proposal should include the cost for an in-person, face-to-face curriculum; a virtual curriculum; and a train-the-trainer curriculum to train trainers to deliver the program.

Vendor Profile

General:

Name, Address (Headquarters), Main Telephone Number, Website, Socio-Economic Status, System for Award Management (SAM) Unique Entity ID. 

Main Contact:

Name, Title, Address, Telephone Number, Email Address. 

Questions and Answers (Q&A)

All RFIs shall be clear, legible, and conform to the following requirements: 

Times New Roman at a font size of twelve (12) points with a 20-page limit. Offers shall notate pages which contain confidential/proprietary information. It is the offeror’s sole responsibility to ensure their offers are received timely and that pdf files are accessible, legible, and do not exceed an individual file size of 12Mb. 

All questions regarding this RFI must be submitted to the Contracting Officer, C.J Price at c1price@bop.gov -on or before October 21, 2024, 1:00PM E.S.T. Please include the Notice ID. Government response to questions will be answered via amendment to this posting, after the question submission deadline.