Request for Proposals – Technology Platform to Help States Reduce Recidivism The Council of State Governments (CSG) Justice Center is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that works with state and local governments to provide research-driven strategies that increase public safety and strengthen communities. The CSG Justice Center is a national leader in criminal justice research and policy development and has helped over 30 states use data to reduce recidivism, improve public safety, and increase the cost effectiveness of state corrections systems. Unfortunately, most states do not have the ability to continue generating the level of detailed data analysis that the CSG Justice Center provided to help achieve those outcomes. The CSG Justice Center invites proposals that use technology tools and platforms to help states increase and maintain analytic capacity and better track and reduce recidivism. To learn more about the CSG Justice Center, please visit csgjusticecenter.org. Funding for this proposal is provided by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) as part the federal Justice Reinvestment Initiative (JRI) under Grant No. 2015-ZB-BX-K001. BJA is a component of the Office of Justice Programs, which also includes the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the National Institute of Justice, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the Office for Victims of Crime, and the SMART Office. To learn more about the Bureau of Justice Assistance, please visit bja.gov. Deadline All applications are due by 5:00 p.m. PST on Tuesday, January 15, 2018 to kmosehauer@csg.org. Contact Information For assistance or questions, please contact Katie Mosehauer, project manager at the CSG Justice Center, at kmosehauer@csg.org. Contents Overview of the Project Scope of Work and Deliverables Project Timeline Eligibility Application Process Selection Criteria OVERVIEW OF THE PROJECT Across the country, revocations from community supervision drive between one and three of every four admissions to state prisons. Despite the financial and human cost, however, statewide supervision agencies struggle to adopt comprehensive, sustainable, and safe strategies to reduce 1
revocations. Through its work with more than 30 states, the CSG Justice Center has seen firsthand that analytic capacity is a significant hurdle preventing statewide supervision agencies from identifying the drivers of revocations and effectively crafting and deploying strategies to reduce revocation admissions to prison. This lack of analytic sophistication means that supervision data is often unanalyzed, decoupled from decision-making, and/or outdated by the time it reaches decision-makers. As a result, data is not consistently used in most states to inform policy or practice or assess impacts at the state, district, and caseload levels. The CSG Justice Center seeks a highly skilled technology partner to assist in realizing an automated, open-source analysis platform to help states gain the real-time analytic capacity needed to reduce revocation admissions to prison by ingesting criminal justice data from existing data systems, connecting siloed information, and automatically calculating revocation and other recidivism metrics. The technology partner would also help provide a suite of tools, such as dashboards, reports, and alerts, designed for each state to automatically deliver analysis to officers, supervisors, and managers on a routine basis to inform, guide, and advance the state’s goal of reducing revocations. SCOPE OF WORK AND DELIVERABLES The goal of this project is to provide states with an open-source platform that ingests data from multiple sources in real time, cleans those data sets and links appropriate data points across them, and produces simple but insightful data dashboards and alerts that spur actions in supervision agencies that increase success on community supervision. The platform is not expected to replace any existing data systems in states, but rather to augment current capacity. Required platform functionality/features. The technology partner will have sole responsibility for writing and maintaining any back-end code, establishing and maintaining real-time or daily data feeds with the state partner, constructing UX, and maintaining customer-facing analysis deliverables, such as data dashboards and push notifications. The code base must be open-source and capable of connecting with existing state data systems. Additionally, the platform must be able to provide the following: • Capacity to ingest millions of individual records either daily or in real time and the ability to consistently deliver up-to-date computed analytics • Ability to automate existing manual processes and produce new insights through analysis of data sources provided by the state partner • Password protected or other secure login that differentiates access to information based on credentials/staff level/district of operation • Interactive dashboards that provide select information and the ability to click through to more detailed views • Push notifications when/if certain indicators are met • Scalable timeframes for reviewing analytics
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Printable and/or downloadable reports Secure, encrypted data storage that is compliant with state and federal regulations, industry best practices, and any additional requirements set by the state partner Ability to provide access and/or downloadable batch data to the CSG Justice Center at selected points in the project Ability to provide continuous operation of the platform and deliver analysis through September 2020, with potential for the state partner to extend a service contract or migrate data at that point
Analysis deliverables. The technology partner is expected to participate in a collaborative, iterative ideation process with both the CSG Justice Center and state partner to determine what types of analysis will be delivered by the platform. Together, these three entities will determine what information is to be ingested by the platform, how that information is presented (i.e., data visualization design, data dashboard layout and specific analysis included, indicators to trigger push notifications, etc.), and the format in which it is delivered (i.e., via email, text message, passive display, etc.). The technology partner is expected to present concept mock-ups for visualizing data in formats that can be easily digested by people who are not data experts. The technology partner is responsible for developing the necessary code base to deploy agreed-upon analytics dashboards, notifications, and alerts. The technology partner will be responsible for informing the CSG Justice Center of any potential additive costs associated with a potential analysis delivery strategy (such as costs generated through an email client) prior to any finalization and will present a plan as to how those costs will be absorbed in the project. Testing and quality assurance. To demonstrate the accuracy of the platform’s ingesting, linking, and reporting functions, the technology partner will be expected to produce a replica of data analysis produced in an existing supervision agency report using a one-time download of static historical data. The technology partner will provide a written quality control plan explaining how they will continue checking accuracy of reporting during development and implementation of analysis deliverables. In addition to overall platform quality control, the technology partner is expected to participate in field testing of analysis concepts, such as dashboards and alerts. Testing and quality assurance of analysis deliverables must be conducted prior to active technology launch, and an assessment mechanism should be determined for ensuring proper functionality over the long term. The technology partner will provide a written statement of risk outlining potential causes and solutions for disruptions in service and how all parties are to respond in those circumstances. Training. The technology partner will provide initial training to the CSG Justice Center and select staff of the state partner on how data dashboards, monitoring functions, and alerts work. The technology partner will assist the CSG Justice Center and state partner in developing an initial and refresher training schedule for state supervision agency staff in the field. Training must cover the definition of data fields, walk-throughs of individual charts and their meanings, and identification of key indicators that a function is not working as intended and how to contact the appropriate party to correct it.
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Training will also include information on how to report bugs, request new reports, or request additional platform features. Support after launch. The technology partner will provide secure, encrypted cloud storage and computing services through September 2020. The cloud service provider must be certified to host government data. The technology partner will provide a written plan describing the type and amount of customer support they will provide to both the CSG Justice Center and state supervision agency staff during the implementation period (estimated to be approximately seven months) as well as the post-implementation period through the end of the contract. As early as possible in the project, the technology partner will provide an itemized estimate of costs that the state partner should prepare to assume if they plan to extend platform operations past the initial term of the contract. Project management. The CSG Justice Center will provide general project management, acting as a liaison to all parties and ensuring key deliverables meet project needs and are achieved on appropriate timelines. The technology partner will be responsible for its own internal product management oversight of technical builds and timelines. PROJECT TIMELINE The project award is no more than $275,000. The timeline for the project is dependent on the amount of time it takes the technology partner to pass state security reviews; however, the project should be completed within approximately seven months of contract execution. Unless significant delays are encountered, the project will begin approximately February 12, 2019. All applications are due by 5:00 p.m. PST on Tuesday, January 15, 2018. Potential technology partners will be notified no later than 5:00 p.m. PST on January 29, 2019. ELIGIBILITY Applicants for the position of technology partner are limited to private nonprofit policy and research organizations, philanthropic organizations, public and private colleges and universities, and civicfocused consultant firms. All applicants must be able to deliver all components detailed under the Scope of Work and Deliverables within the stated budget. APPLICATION PROCESS Interested parties are invited to submit a full proposal. Proposals should include a narrative of no more than 10 pages detailing the following: A. Organizational Experience/Qualifications • Organization’s history, mission, and key goals, as well as the experience of all partner organizations, if applicable • Organization’s leadership in the field(s) of software development, data management, cloud computing, open-source code development, criminal justice, or other relevant areas
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Overview of software, platforms or tools created, owned, and/or used by the organization that meet the technical needs of this project, including explanations of computing capacity and automation potential Organization’s experience in designing and managing large-scale data ingestion projects with monitoring and alerting components Organization’s experience working with state or local governments and criminal justice system stakeholders, agencies, and/or data
B. Project Strategy • Description of organization’s existing platform/software solution, including the type of open source license it uses • Plan for assessing state data, identifying and overcoming data challenges, and establishing an automated data feed • Strategy for collecting stakeholder feedback to develop dashboards and alert tools, as well as strategies for beta testing early concepts • Plans for fulfilling quality assurance, training, support after launch, and project management components of this RFP • A project timeline, description of capacity to complete this work within the proposed timeframe, including the roles of partners, if applicable • Organizational strategy for securely hosting data, along with an overview of any instances of security breaches and what measures the organization has taken to safeguard against their repetition In addition to the 10-page narrative addressing sections A and B above, proposals should include the following attachments: C. Resumes or job descriptions of all staff that will be involved in the project D. Project budget detail worksheet (template) and budget narrative. Budget template available at https://csgjusticecenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/CSG-Justice-Center-Tech-RFP-BudgetTemplate.xlsm. Please note that the Excel template will download automatically when clicking the link. The accompanying budget narrative should clearly describe each expense category listed in the template. Budgets must be complete, cost effective, and allowable (e.g., reasonable, allocable, and necessary for project activities). Federal funding from the Department of Justice (DOJ) will be used to support this proposal. Please ensure that the budget proposal and narrative complies with the DOJ Grants Financial Guide, available at https://ojp.gov/financialguide/doj/pdfs/DOJ_FinancialGuide.pdf. E. This grant requires invoicing to include hourly and/or FTE billing per person. Please include a description of the organization’s capacity to create detailed monthly invoices for work completed that are both timely and accurate. F. Current and prior year expense and income statements of the lead organization G. Current and unexpired federally approved indirect cost agreement, if applicable.
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In addition to a written application, finalists will be invited to participate in a phone call or in-person interview with the review panel. SELECTION CRITERIA A panel of reviewers will assess proposals based on the following criteria and make an award decision in consultation with the Bureau of Justice Assistance: A. Knowledge of the criminal justice system (up to 10 points) • Does the applicant demonstrate a basic understanding of the workings of the criminal justice system, including probation, parole, and the role of revocations in overall prison admissions? • Does the applicant show a nuanced understanding of key measures of recidivism and the challenges states face in producing those measures? • Has the applicant worked with criminal justice data in the past? B. Previous work with state or local governments (up to 10 points) • Does the applicant have experience working with state or local governments? With their data systems? • Does the applicant demonstrate an understanding of the specialized challenges government agencies may face as opposed to those of private companies? C. Experience with behavior change/effective technology strategies (up to 10 points) • Does the applicant demonstrate expertise in how to use technology to spur personal action? • Does the applicant demonstrate the ability to advise the CSG Justice Center on best practices for prompting responses to data and on pitfalls to avoid? D. Experience securely managing large quantities of complex data (up to 20 points) • Does the applicant have an existing data ingestion engine with a cloud-based platform that meets the needs and requirements of this project? • Does the proposed software/platform solution have a demonstrated ability to ingest large quantities of data points and link them accurately? • Does the applicant have demonstrated experience using the cloud to store large quantities of data securely? Do they have experience managing confidential identifying information? • Does the applicant demonstrate adequate knowledge of security requirements and best practices for personal and/or governmental data? • Does the applicant have experience generating and supporting open-source platforms? • Is the proposed software/platform compatible with existing state data systems? Can it work in conjunction with those systems rather than replace them? E. Skill in data visualization and data dashboards (up to 20 points) • Does the applicant have experience developing original data visualizations?
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Does the applicant demonstrate an ability to present data to a layperson in simple and digestible formats? • Does the applicant have a track record of providing automated, real-time data visualizations to clients or constituents? F. Compliance with budget requirements (up to 15 points) • Is the required budget template fully complete? • Is the proposed budget $275,000 or less? • Does the proposed budget include cloud storage and computation services through September 2020? • Is the proposed budget compliant with the DOJ Grants Financial Guide? • Does the applicant demonstrate adequate accounting systems to properly track and generate invoices for this project? G. Overall quality of the proposal (up to 5 points) • Does the proposal include all required components? • Does the applicant express enthusiasm, thoughtfulness, a commitment to reducing recidivism, and an interest in creative problem-solving? • Does the proposed budget meet DOJ Grants Financial Guidance criteria? G. Overall quality of interview (up to 10 points) • Did organizational representatives answer questions clearly and directly? • Did organizational representatives demonstrate a collaborative approach and openness to feedback?
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