FY24 Residential Substance Abuse Treatment for State Prisoners Program Formula Grant

Transcript also available as a PDF.

DARYL FOX: Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to today's webinar, “Funding Opportunity: Fiscal Year 2024 Residential Substance Abuse Treatment Program,” or RSAT, hosted by the Bureau of Justice Assistance. So, at this time, it's my pleasure to introduce Meg Chapman, Senior Policy Advisor with BJA, to begin the presentation. Meg?

MARGARET CHAPMAN: Thank you, Daryl. Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining. As mentioned, my name is Meg Chapman and I'm a Senior Policy Advisor in the Behavioral Health and Justice Systems Policy Office at BJA. And you'll be hearing from three BJA staff today. I'm going to introduce four, but my colleagues, Aja Pappas and Renee Howell and Ivette Ruiz, sit within BJA's Programs Office. So I sit within our Policy Office and they sit within our Programs Office, and we work as a team to support the RSAT Program, from solicitation to award to successful implementation of grants. We're going to talk a little bit more about our specific roles a little later in the webinar, but I just wanted to note who you'll be hearing from today. Next slide.

Over the next hour, I'm going to provide just a brief review of OJP and BJA, Office of Justice Programs and the Bureau of Justice Assistance, before we move into reviewing the FY24 Residential Substance Abuse Treatment for State Prisoners Program, or RSAT for short. And then we will shift to Renee, who's going to go through the eligibility and application requirements. And then I will jump back in and talk a little bit about some resources. And then we're going to move into Q&A. And as Daryl mentioned, please enter your questions into the Q&A box. We will get to as many questions as we can at the end of the presentation. There may be some questions we don't get to or outside the scope of this webinar, which is specific to the solicitation and the application process. In both cases, please feel free to submit your questions or any additional questions that come up to the OJP Response Center at [email protected]. Don't worry about jotting that down. You're going to see it a couple of times as we move along. Next slide.

So, I'm just going to start with a little introduction here. I'm just starting to orient you a bit to the Bureau of Justice Assistance, or BJA. So BJA is located within the Office of Justice Programs, or OJP. OJP provides a wide range of services to the criminal justice community in the form of grants, training, technical assistance, and research. Although our focus today is on a BJA solicitation, there are other OJP offices and departments of justice agencies shown on this slide that offer additional grants and programs to support our shared public safety mission.

So, BJA's mission is to provide leadership and services in grant administration and criminal justice policy development to support state, local, and tribal justice strategies to achieve safer communities. And as reflected on this slide is BJA's website, we're going to be sharing some resources along the way, but that's always your sort of go-to for all things BJA. Next.

So, BJA does this through funding, which is one of the things we're talking about today, as well as through training and education and the development and dissemination of tools and products to support the delivery of what works and by supporting partnerships and collaboration through opportunities to bring the field together through convenings and peer-to-peer networking. Next slide.

So, we're going to shift into a polling question so we can kind of get a better sense of your experience with the RSAT Program. So the question is, "What is your level of familiarity with the RSAT Program?" And response options are, "My state has an active RSAT award, and I am familiar with the grant program," or, "My state has an active RSAT award, but I'm not familiar with the grant program," because you might be new to the position as an administrator or a subgrantee with the RSAT award, or, "My state does not have an active RSAT award, but I am familiar with the grant program," because maybe you had one in the past and you just don't have one actively right now, or, "My state does not have an active RSAT award," and you personally are not familiar with the grant program.

So, if you can put in your responses, that will just put a structure to the conversation. Okay. We'll have a few more seconds. We'll close the poll. Has everyone submitted? Okay. So we have some folks who were unable to submit their responses. I'm sorry if you ran out of time. But a good mix of those who have an active award and are familiar with the grant program—I'd say roughly 50/50 actually who—you have an active award and you are familiar with the grant program. So much of this webinar may—or at least the part that I'm speaking to—may be a bit familiar to you, as well as those who are either don't have an active RSAT award or are less familiar with the grant program. So hopefully then, this information we're sharing will be of value to you. Okay.

So, now I'm just going to orient you to the RSAT Program, which as I said will be a refresher for some, newer to others. Before I do that, I just want to revisit what you can expect in terms of support upon an award. So all RSAT grantees and subawardees are supported throughout the active grant cycle by representatives from BJA's Policy Office, that's me, and Programs Office, which includes Aja, Renee, and Ivette, as well as by staff from Advocates for Human Potential, who serves as the training and technical assistance provider for this grant program. Collectively, we work to support grantees and the successful implementation of the grants. So while I focus a bit more on ensuring alignment of the program and grantee activities with the statutory requirements associated with RSAT, Renee and Ivette work more closely with you to meet federal grant requirements and to engage both me and the training and technical assistance provider to address some of your questions and connect you with training and technical assistance resources. So over the life of a grant, you may hear from all three of us, either directly or indirectly.

So, okay, let's now get into the specifics of the RSAT opportunity here. So the RSAT Program assists states in their efforts to increase access to treatment to individuals with substance use or co-occurring substance use and mental health disorders during detention or incarceration and to improve continuity of care during and after reentry by delivering community-based treatment and other broad-based aftercare services.

So, components of this, to support treatment during detention or incarceration and then that aftercare reentry. In FY24, we anticipate making up to 56 awards, and the award amounts will generally range between $124,000 and $2.5 million. And this means that an average award amount would be around $30,000. The award duration is 48 months. Because this is a formula grant program as opposed to our other BJA competitive grants, the amount of the award depends on the number of awards made.

And if you're interested in how much RSAT funds your state has received in the past, please visit BJA's website. Under our RSAT Program Information, there is a document that lists total awards by state over the past few years. So that might give you a sense of what could be expected.

So, these are the four primary goals of the RSAT Program. The first is to enhance the capabilities of state, local, and tribal governments to initiate or continue evidence-based substance use disorder or co-occurring substance use and mental health disorder treatment programs in the nation's prisons and jails. The second is to increase the number of prisons and jails offering FDA-approved medications to incarcerated individuals with opioid use disorders. The third is to prepare individuals for reintegration into communities, including supporting continuity of care for opioid use disorder and other substance use disorder treatment and recovery supports prior to release. And then to assist individuals through the reentry process by delivering community-based treatment, recovery, and other broad-based aftercare services to support successful reentry and continuity of care.

So to accomplish this, RSAT funds may be used to support four different types of programming. One is prison-based residential substance use treatment. The other is jail-based residential substance use disorder treatment. The third is aftercare. And the fourth is jail-based pretrial substance use disorder treatment. I want you to note two things. One is that there are two ways to support jails in your state.
The second is that applicants are required to allocate at least 10% of the total state allocation each year to local correctional facilities, provided such facilities exist. I'm going to go through each of the four options for use of RSAT funds, but as I said, I just wanted you to note that there's two allowable uses of RSAT funds to support local corrections.

So, the first is to support residential substance use disorder treatment programs in prisons. So RSAT funds may only be used to support prison-based programs that meet these conditions. The first is to engage individuals with substance use disorder or co-occurring substance use and mental health disorders for a period of six to twelve months. The second is to require periodic and random drug testing of individuals while they are in that program and under community supervision. The third is to establish a therapeutic community. And what we mean by that is program participants are set apart from the general population. And to provide aftercare services. So these are the four requirements of programs that are residential substance use disorder treatment programs in prisons that are receiving RSAT funds.
The second option is to support residential substance use disorder treatment programs in jails. Again, to use RSAT funds, these programs are required to meet similar criteria as those in prisons with the exception of the time in programming. So its requirement is to still provide aftercare to establish a therapeutic community or set up to have folks set apart from the general population, to require periodic and random drug testing, and then to engage in that program for at least three months as opposed to the six to twelve months. That is the requirement in prisons. Next slide.

As noted, both the residential, prison and jail substance use disorder treatment programs require the provision of aftercare services to support program participants upon release. Therefore, RSAT funds may also be used to support the aftercare programming provided to those released from residential programs. And by aftercare services, we mean can include the case management and the full continuum of recovery and aftercare services to support people released from a residential substance use disorder treatment program, which may include human service and rehabilitation programs, such as education and job training, parole supervision, recovery or transitional housing, peer support programs, and other recovery support services.

Lastly, the fourth option is RSAT funds may also be used to support jail-based programs that initiate or continue evidence-based substance use disorder treatment programs for people who were in such treatment upon arrival at the facility. So, for example, RSAT funds may be used to maintain people on medication for opioid use disorder while they are in pretrial status and may be either returning to the community or awaiting sentencing and potential engagement in a MAT program, or medication-assisted treatment program. Again, the emphasis is on pretrial populations as opposed to the residential programs that are focused on sentenced populations, there is no requirement related to therapeutic community or minimum length of programming.

Before we get into the specifics of applying for RSAT funding, we wanted to flag this resource, which is also on BJA's website. This is a document we created to address common questions from existing RSAT grantees, and we update this regularly in response to new questions from the field. So it's a really helpful tool. And I'm just going to go through a few questions that are fairly popular.

So, in terms of who's eligible to receive funding. Only states, as defined by this program, are eligible to apply and must designate a single state administering agency that has authority to apply on their behalf. States often rely on a single entity within the state to oversee the RSAT for state prisoners program and its subgrantees. For purposes of this program, 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. So that is both who can apply and who can receive.

Another question we often get is what does therapeutic community mean? So use of residential treatment facilities that are set apart—what this means is the use of residential treatment facilities that are set apart from the general correctional population in either a separate facility or a dedicated housing unit that is used exclusively for RSAT and/or other substance use disorder treatment programs. Jails that don't have the capacity to establish a therapeutic community are encouraged to group RSAT Program participants within the general correctional setting. So by that, it's if you have a residential program and you're just sort of co-locating those participants, so that they are grouped within the broader correctional setting.

Another question, "Is drug testing required for all individuals participating?" Drug testing is required for individuals participating in any RSAT Program supported by RSAT funds, as well as while participating in aftercare programs until they are no longer under the custody of the state.

Next question. "Do RSAT for State Prisoner Program funds have to be used to support residential or jail-based SUD, substance use disorder, treatment programming?" As I mentioned earlier, that [INDISTINCT] reinforcement is at least 10% of the total amount made available to a state for any fiscal year must be used to make subgrants to local correctional and detention facilities in the state, provided those facilities exist. And as we talked earlier, there are two ways to do that. Either through residential substance use disorder treatment program in the jail or through a program focusing on the pretrial populations and continuing and initiating treatment for those in need.

Another question. "Can RSAT funds be used to provide substance use disorder treatment services to pretrial populations?" I think you're probably sensing a theme, but, yes, they may be used to continue or initiate evidence-based treatment to individuals detained by the jail pretrial, as well as to support connecting those individuals to community-based treatment services. So those are some common questions, but we do encourage you, it's linked in the application. But I encourage you to look at all of those questions as they may be helpful as you contemplate your own applications. At this point, I'm going to turn it over to Renee, who's going to go through some of the specifics of the the application itself.

RENEE HOWELL: Thank you, Meg. And I'm going to ask Ivette to come on camera if she can. I know a lot of you guys have talked with me, and Ivette and I are now going to share the RSAT caseloads, so you can see her face and when you're talking with either of us, you know who we are. But I'm starting here—if we can go to the next slide.

We're actually going to start with a poll question. So if we can get that poll started. And then I kind of want to make a little mention about subaward versus procurement contracts. And I think we're going to post into the chat the OJP Toolkit. But just making sure you understand the difference between subaward and procurement as we have now defined it. Some of you guys have had this conversation with us at other awards that you have. But we'll give it a few minutes for you guys to give us a response. You can also look up these definitions in the DOJ Financial Guide as well. We'll give you guys a few minutes and, hopefully, we can get that Toolkit posted in the chat, if you want to open that up as well and bookmark it. Right about a minute. So let's give it a little bit longer and then we'll close the poll.

It should be good. If you don't mind closing the poll. Let's see. It looks like, yeah, most of you guys are doing subawards or you're not sure. And it looks like the Toolkit was just posted in the chat. And that's probably an appropriate response based on your current budgets for any past RSAT awards. We can go to the next slide. Really, this section is geared toward your 2024 application for our solicitation application. So we're really just talking about that and not any prior awards that you have.

But looking at your application requirements, make sure that you attach your SF-424 and your SF-LLL, your Proposal Abstract, your Proposal Narrative. Keeping in mind all the requirements that Meg just mentioned that are part of the program that you're doing. And your Budget Detail Worksheet and Budget Narrative, which is actually an Excel form. It's not the web-based form, if you're familiar with other types of BJA funding. It's the actual Excel worksheet, which I have in my notes. In the solicitation, there is a link for that. So that Excel worksheet will be what you use in that link, again, in the solicitation.

So allowable costs. We're looking at this. This is just kind of a sample. We put a sample of just questions we've been asked before. "Can the RSAT for Prisoners Program funds be used to cover administrative costs associated with grants management?" Yes. "Can RSAT for State Prisoners Program funds be used for costs associated with travel?" Yes. Keeping in mind that when you're filling out your budget, you're filling it out and providing that Budget Narrative section, which is underneath each of the categories, giving the relevant information for how those funds are going to be used. "Can RSAT for State Prisoners Program funds be used to purchase items provided to individuals at reentry?" Yes. " Is the of consultants or contractors to provide training allowable?" And, again, yes, as you see with the big yes in the middle. But those are some of the questions that we get fairly often. Again, as Meg pointed out, there is an FAQ if you have other questions. But we just kind of wanted to pull up some of those budgetary questions that we do get asked from time to time. Go to the next slide.

So match. The calculation is actually in the solicitation. There is a 25% cash or in-kind match. We kind of have a short definition of what in-kind match is. It may be in the form of services, supplies, real property, equipment, personnel time. Those are all listed out in the solicitation. You could find more information. Just of note, if you're looking at a budget where you propose match which exceeds the 25% and OJP approves that budget, keeping amounts 27%, 30%, whatever that percent may be over the 25%, that that total match amount in that approved budget becomes part of the project budget and is subject to review, monitoring, or audit further down the line. So you may want to keep close to that 25%. And the match funds may only be used for purposes that would be allowable under the RSAT award. So keeping that in mind. Just of note, if you're in one of the territories that's listed on the slide, American Samoa, Guam, Virgin Islands, and Northern Mariana Islands, actually, there is no match requirement for those areas. We can go to the next slide.

I know we've said this several times now but it bears repeating that you must allocate at least 10% of the total state allocation to local correctional facilities, provided such facilities exist. And, again, that they could be used for the residential substance abuse disorder treatment programs or to initiate or continue those programs in the pretrial population as Meg has already gone over. We want to reiterate that several times, this 10% jail requirement. We could go to the next slide.

You have some additional application requirements. You've got to complete the budget Excel worksheet, as I previously mentioned, and upload it as an attachment in JustGrants. We are asking that you use the most recent award amount, which would probably be your '23, unless you chose not to apply last year. I believe that a link to that website was put in the chat, so you can see your award amount from your last available award. Post award. We will ask you to update that budget to reflect the allocated amount for 2024. And the Budget Detail Worksheet and the archived allocations can be found—I already said that we did post that link in the chat.

Also, I want to let you know this goes back to—we started last year. If you applied last year or were on any of our webinars this past year, Special Condition 46, which is how we're now uploading those final documents. We can go to the next slide.

So just kind of reviewing some of the allowable cost. I think Meg kind of talked about that as well, but salary benefits for personnel to run the program; subawards; MAT supplies—medication supplies for medically-assisted treatment programs; screening and assessment tools; pretrial programming and aftercare services; and equipment materials, training, travel, anything that would support the program or the persons overseeing the program would be allowable cost. And you can see more of that in the solicitation. So I'm going to stop here. I believe that's the end of me.

MARGARET CHAPMAN: Sorry. That meant I have to come back.

RENEE HOWELL: No, I was thinking it was Meg. I'm going to kick it back over to Meg. And thank you.

MARGARET CHAPMAN: Yeah. And I was quickly looking at the Q&A. I'm not sure I've covered everything, but I did want to point out that, yes, local correctional facilities include county and city jails. And a question regarding leased vehicles and—yes. I mean, as with most—I think our answer will be, in most cases, that whatever you're proposing has to have a clear nexus to the RSAT Program. So if there's aftercare services, how are they being delivered to the participants leaving a residential program. If there's equipment or training, what is that nexus to the actual RSAT Program? And so if it's associated with dispensing medication, then we would need to have confirmation that the participants in the RSAT Program are receiving that medication, so that medication is going to the program participants.

So, again, it's just the ability to link whatever the request is to the program that you're proposing. I'm going to jump back a little bit into the PowerPoint here. And we know that our solicitations are long and detailed but they're long and detailed to really facilitate, or we hope, facilitate the application process. So we encourage you to review them closely and note the references and links to get support. Some of which I'm going to go through now.

But before we get into that, we're having a poll here. And we've linked a number of items that are available on the BJA website, and we referenced it a couple of times, and we're just pausing here to get a sense of how familiar you are with BJA's website. So if you could take a moment to put in your response. We won't pause too long because hopefully this is quick. Very familiar, somewhat familiar, or not familiar at all. Okay. We'll give it another maybe 15 seconds and—okay. We close the poll. Okay.

We have some folks who weren't able to answer, but amongst those who did, we have a mix of very familiar, somewhat familiar, and a few that are not that familiar. So for those that are not familiar, we’ve linked to the website. Please, I encourage you to poke around. And as I go through the next couple of slides, I'm going to reference different, both OJP and BJA, web resources. So, explore those links and that will give you a good feel for what's available through our website.

So, we just put up here—and I think it's already been linked in the chat, is—this is an important resource. This solicitation incorporates guidance provided in the Office of Justice Programs Grant Application Resource Guide, which provides additional information for applicants to prepare and submit their applications to OJP for funding. So as you can see, the contents are very—well, you probably can't see that well, but there's a lot of material covered in this resource guide. So the link is here. I think we've also put it in the chat. It's also in, at least, a few places in the solicitation itself.

And so this site here offers tools to support use of JustGrants, which is one of the systems used to submit an application. I'm going to say this a couple of times. I think this is the first time I'm saying it, but this is a two-part application process. The first part is submitted through Grants.gov and the second part, which is the bulk of the application, is submitted through JustGrants. That bulk of the application are most of those sections that Renee mentioned. Again, bears repeating that there are two systems. The first is Grants.gov, and the deadline for this application is July 10th. And that would include submitting your Application for Federal Assistance or SF-424 and the Disclosure of Lobbying Activities, which is SF-LLL. Per this solicitation, please start this process as early as possible or a minimum of 48 hours before the due date of July 10th. As I mentioned, JustGrants is where you submit the rest of your application. That deadline is July 15th. So, the Grants.gov start is first—step one. Step two is the JustGrants. Again, please start the process early.

This slide provides information on how to access assistance with both systems. If you experience technical difficulties with either system, please see the solicitation for specific instructions on how to request assistance and track that request. Again, reminder that there is [a] dual deadline. This is relatively new over the past couple of years, but it's something that can trip you up. So the Grants.gov deadline, and please note, is 8:59 p.m. Eastern Time on July 10th. And the application deadline for JustGrants, that second piece, is, again, 8:59 p.m. Eastern Time on July 15th. We encourage you to stay in touch with us through our newsletters. And note, on this slide, this opportunity to receive weekly notice of new funding opportunities. Given you're on this call, I'm assuming you're interested in funding opportunities. So do click that link to sign yourself up and subscribe for that, as well as all the other great materials to keep apprised of what's going on within Office of Justice Programs and then BJA. You can also connect with us through social media. So here's the various ways of or our presence on Facebook, X, and YouTube.

Before we shift to questions, we're going to sit on this slide for a minute because this tells you where to go if you're experiencing technical difficulties with Grants.gov or JustGrants. And I mentioned this earlier, but this is also where you'd submit questions related to this funding opportunity. The OJP Response Center is where to go for any questions we don't get to before we close, any that come up as you review the solicitation, or any that are really just specific to you that you would like to get an answer on. So please use all three resources if you need to.

And, at this point, we are going to click to questions. And I don't know if—Aja, you are going to sift through them or, Daryl, but I am going to try to open it up right now.

AJA PAPPAS: Meg, I'm happy to read the question. I think we've tried to answer some and some have already been answered, but I can read the questions, and then between you and Renee can provide an answer. So one of the questions which had been written a couple different ways was, if we could better explain what qualifies as a local correctional facility. “Does a county jail qualify and satisfy this 10% requirement?”

MARGARET CHAPMAN: The answer is yes.

AJA PAPPAS: The next question, "Is there a limit on the amount of administrative funds that SAA can retain to administer the grant?" I went ahead and answered that, and that was that it is typically 10%. We would request that you review the DOJ Financial Guide, as well as the solicitation, and those links had been provided.

This one was answered. Again, yes, county entities would qualify as the jail requirement. And the next question is, "Must the 10% local allocation be made directly by SAS to local entities or can it be done through a second-tier subaward, for example, SAS to Department of Corrections, Department of Corrections to the local entity?" Renee, did you want to answer that or did you want me to?

RENEE HOWELL: I lean toward yes. I know I've talked to several states in the way that their correctional systems are structured, but I kick it back to you and Meg for a formal answer on that.

AJA PAPPAS: I think how we'd answer this is, say, we would just really request that you review that solicitation in detail and that we do want to ensure that we're able to track and see that the 10% requirement for pass through has been made. The way and vehicle in which you make that and that path that goes is of less concern. We just want to ensure that that local jail or facility has been provided funding. Yeah.

RENEE HOWELL: [INDISTINCT] narrative really given an explanation. Sorry. My…

AJA PAPPAS: Again, yes, for the question about 10% local allocation can be defined municipal, and, yes, it can be.

"Are lease expenses for recovery or transitional housing allowable?" Meg?

MARGARET CHAPMAN: Yeah. I think that's the same—so yes. Again, we would look for a demonstration that the folks that are benefiting from that opportunity to receive recovery or transitional housing are residents leaving an RSAT Program. So just that connection of the aftercare program to the substance use disorder treatment program that they are leaving from.

AJA PAPPAS: Next question, "Is methadone-dispensing equipment allowable?"

MARGARET CHAPMAN: I wouldn't say it's not allowable. Again, it would be important to demonstrate that the reason for requesting the equipment is to provide services to individuals in a residential substance use disorder treatment program. So, again, provided that the individuals with opioid use disorders in that program receive part of a MAT program and that's the reason for the request.

AJA PAPPAS: What I would just add to that is that we would really encourage you to ensure you're reading the solicitation in its entirety, as well as the statutory language if you needed to, to fully understand, so that you can make those appropriate nexuses that are required.

Next question. "Can position salaries and benefits count toward the 25% in-kind match?" This was answered and the answer is the match can be provided in-kind or cash, salaries, and/or benefits may be used as match.

Next question. "If you end up not expending the full award amount," I'm sorry. "If you end up not expending the full award amount, is 25% match requirement then proportional to the amount that was actually expended at the end of the award period?"

The best way to answer that is that we will definitely look at the match by the end of your performance period and when your award is closing out, so it would really be on a case-by-case basis. The reason why you may have not expended your funds and if you're closing your award earlier, but definitely our goal is that if you were to be awarded funding, that we see that through the entire project period and you were able to use the entirety of the funds, which then we would have that 25 match based on your total project amount.

"Do you know when the FY24 award amounts will be announced?" Meg, did you want me to answer that? I think she might, oh, I thought you were frozen.

MARGARET CHAPMAN: No. When the FY24 award amounts will be announced? So we operate on a government fiscal year, so that's our target date is to make all awards by the end of the current fiscal year. So, yeah, by October 1st. Is that the question? But the amounts that…

AJA PAPPAS: I think it's more about the amount. And as Meg mentioned earlier, because this is a formula award, the total amount of each award is based on how many applications we get, and so there's a formula that is followed and we don't know those amounts, obviously, on the front end. That's why we ask you to use a previous allocated amount in your budget. So what would happen, as soon as we get that formula and we get the amounts for who applied, we would reach out. We'd let you know. We'd give you the link that has your SAA with the amount that was awarded for you, and then you would update your budget and your narrative accordingly. But I can't speak to the exact timeline that we would have that out for you guys, but it definitely is as soon as we possibly can get that to you once we get all applications in and the formula is ran. I want to make sure I don't miss anything.

"We are the state SAA. Can we subaward to a profit and nonprofit community-based SUD provider that are not a part of our state or local prisons or jails, as our prisons and jails do not have such treatment in them? Can we, the SAA, directly grant to these community-based SUD providers that give treatment, medications, or case management, et cetera, to these released inmates and pretrial individuals that the jails do not house because there is no room for them?" Meg, do you want to take a stab at that? That's in…

MARGARET CHAPMAN: I mean, that's one of those things we have to see the whole picture. It's hard to answer in the abstract. But sort of trying to tease this out, there is certainly the opportunity to provide funding to a community's provider who's providing in-reach services into the prison or jail. Again, we just have to kind of see within the narrative what facility is benefiting from those services. And then similarly for the pretrial population, is to provide in-reach and/or support those individuals upon reentry, which would then fall under aftercare. So I think that's generally answering the question is if they're providing the services in the facility and it's through in-reach, we would just need to appreciate and understand that. And if it's providing services in the community, then that would be as part of an aftercare program, and, again, we'd have to see, have an understanding of -whether program participants that started with while they were incarcerated or detained are benefiting from that program.

AJA PAPPAS: Thank you, Meg. Next question. "Can both the SAA and another agency in the state apply for RSAT or does it need to be one or the other?"

MARGARET CHAPMAN: So, my understanding, I'll defer to my program staff, is that the applicant needs to be the state administrating agency, but in terms of who sort of supports administration of the grant or is subawarded through the grant, that is where there can be variation. Is that correct? I feel like I'm…

AJA PAPPAS: That's correct.

RENEE HOWELL: Correct. That would be, you know, the stated SAA.

AJA PAPPAS: Yup. Yup. That's absolutely correct. So to come full circle on that, the SAA is the one that needs to actually apply for this funding and then they may go ahead and issue grant funding subawards directly from the SAA to other agencies to provide the services.

"If I'm a correctional facility, what's the best way for me to ensure that I receive funds through this program for my state? And how can I make sure I'm alerted if funding is made available through this program by my state?" I think that's a great question. And from a program's perspective, we would definitely encourage you to go ahead and reach out to your SAA to find out if they are applying. If so, what is that going to look like? When can you expect to go ahead and see potential opportunities to apply? What I can do is, in the chat, I will go ahead and it's from BJA's website, we have a state administering agencies link that I can drop in, if you're not really sure who that may be in your specific state. I'll drop that in the chat right now. And we have point of contacts, to the best of our knowledge, for particular award programs. And so you can go ahead and click on that link. For instance, you could pick California and then it will list who the RSAT point of contact for the state of California may be as it relates to SAA. We try to keep that as up to as we possibly can, but please know it's just information we do have. So I put that in the chat for you.

"Can local governments directly apply?" I think we answered that question is that it has to be the SAA and then you may apply directly through them should they make that an opportunity.
"Our jails and prisons do not have the grant managers to run the grant nor provide SUD treatment in the facilities. We would not have the 10% going to any jail or state entity. We only have community SUD providers. Can we subaward to these community providers as they provide treatment to the released inmates and pretrial individuals, not in the jails that don't have room to keep them?"

MARGARET CHAPMAN: I think that's the same question we just…

AJA PAPPAS: Did I already read that? I'm sorry. I thought it was [INDISTINCT]

MARGARET CHAPMAN: No, it's okay.

RENEE HOWELL: I was going to say either it's a very similar question, but I think that…

AJA PAPPAS: I think we answered it.

RENEE HOWELL: …I already, kind of spoke to that and it would remain.

AJA PAPPAS: "If we can't fully expend funds and might not be able to meet the 25% match commitment for total award amount, should that topic be broached with the BJA RSAT Grant Manager?" I think our advice on the front end here when you're applying is that our expectations is you meet that, as you have outlined in your budget, in your Program Narrative, et cetera, you have that 25% match laid out and identified, whether that be in-kind or cash. And should you be awarded and things come up at that time, then the advice would be to reach out to your grant manager for your specific situations that may arise.

Here's a therapeutic community question, Meg. "There is some confusion in the therapeutic community regarding jails. One place it says separate and one place states make every effort. Could you clarify?" I think this is in regards to the jail versus prison.

MARGARET CHAPMAN: Yes. You're picking up on language that's sprinkled within the solicitation and the FAQ, and it speaks to we're trying to offer reasonableness for jails that are smaller environments and may not be able to have a designated housing unit or a separate facility, as is often the case in prisons. So we state the goal, which is to the intent of a therapeutic community, which is to separate individuals who are engaging in a treatment program away from the general population so that they can focus on their recovery. If that is not possible, then we sort of work, Renee, with me to make sure you're making every effort. And by that, we mean, I think I mentioned earlier, sort of co-locate the individuals who are participating in the treatment program, so they, again, that spirit of a therapeutic community and that ability to have peers who are going through the same experiences as part of their environment is the goal there. So that's where there's maybe different language coming across, but it is the intent to try to meet the intent of the therapeutic community ideally separating from the general population. And if that's not an option in a particular facility, then that's when you can clarify that with us and we work with you on that.

RENEE HOWELL: Thank you, Meg.

AJA PAPPAS: "What if your local jail doesn't want to assist or participate with you?" I think that's a great question. We do get that sometimes. And I'll take a stab here, and then, Renee, if you want to add anything. I think, for us, our goal is definitely, we want you if you're applying for this, we have to adhere to the solicitation as statutory requirements, which is working with a local jail should one be available. We definitely want you guys to apply for this funding and in one of the earlier slides, Meg, showed kind of that circle with the different tiers that support each other. So we have the Program's Office, we have Policy, and then we have our TA provider AAHP. So should you apply and then we run into some concerns with your local jail or whatnot, we definitely would work with you and provide technical assistance and some ideas and creative ways to help try to get your local facilities on board. We definitely don't want that to deter you from even attempting to apply. So we definitely encourage you to, again, really read through that solicitation, read through that language, and know that we're able to make some connections with AAHP ourselves and policy should you be awarded funding.

MARGARET CHAPMAN: That would've been my answer, Aja.

AJA PAPPAS: Okay.

RENEE HOWELL: That. That. So…

AJA PAPPAS: You can see we work together. We speak for each other. That works. "Can the SAA exceed the typical 10% admin number?" I think that's a good question. We would tell you to go ahead and look at that DOJ Financial Guide and the solicitation. I do believe, specific to the RSAT solicitation, 10% is that cap. And so we would want you to ensure that you're filling out your budget to stay within those requirements there.

And, "How can a community-based organization compete for this grant?" I think I know the answer, but, Meg, I'll hand that to you.

MARGARET CHAPMAN: I think this goes back to the earlier question, is community-based organizations can receive a subaward from the state to support, whether it's in-reach services or aftercare services. Again, through the narrative and the justification to us would just be making that linkage, A, to where those services are being provided and the extent to which it is supporting aftercare services for those going through. If it's aftercare, the linkage to the RSAT Program in the facility. So again, once the award is made, that is part of the subaward process, is to work with your states to receive those funding, especially if that's the means to provide services in the jail, which it sounded like that was part of the question.

AJA PAPPAS: You must go back to the link that we sent. If you're unfamiliar with who receives RSAT in your state, you can go to that link and that can be your connection there.
And the question came up again. It seems like there was still a little bit of confusion on whether the jails and prisons that do not have grant managers to run nor provide any SUD and they don't have the 10% going to any jail or state, that they only have community SUD providers, can they subaward to those community providers as they provide treatment to released inmates and pretrial individuals but not in the jails since there's not room. It didn't appear that that question was understood. And I think, Meg, you gave a very detailed response. I'll let you respond again, if you'd like, but I would also suggest that while you're filling out your application and applying, you can also send that question to the OJP Response Center, who sends every question directly to us and then we provide a robust answer that goes out to all applicants. So we may be able to better provide you that response in writing through the OJP Response Center. But, Meg, I'll let you take another stab at that, if you would like to.

MARGARET CHAPMAN: Okay. Yeah. Sorry. I feel like I'm being as clear as possible. But community-based programs can receive RSAT funds to provide—and perhaps it's my use of the word in-reach—so in-reach, by that, I mean, the community-based substance use disorder treatment provider can form a partnership with a jail or a prison to provide services to individuals who need it while they're incarcerated or detained. The important point there is that the programming needs to meet the criteria of an RSAT Program. So if the prison program would need to be a residential substance use disorder treatment program, so that community-based provider can provide in-reach services, meaning provide the programming within the facility similar to a residential jail-based program or similar to your continuing or initiating treatment for folks in pretrial. A community-based SUD treatment organization can also sit in the community and provide aftercare services for folks moving through said RSAT programs in the prison or jail. And so that would be the sort of thread that we would want to see in the narrative as to the services the community-based organization is providing and to whom.

AJA PAPPAS: Thank you, Meg. So the individual that asked that question, if it's still not clear and you'd like to submit that to the OJP Resource Center, we're happy to respond also that way so you can actually have that and reference it back, because I understand how, with all of our talk here in different lingo, that sometimes you might want to like reference that back while you're applying. So I definitely encourage you guys to reach out to the OJP Response Center, which we will drop that link in the chat again, should you have questions that you want answered. And I also believe that all the questions that have been answered today will end up compiling, will end up getting out to—questions and answers from the Q&A will end up getting out to you guys, along with the recording and the slides from today's presentation so you'll be able to reference back and it will be posted on our website.

MARGARET CHAPMAN: And I do want to encourage—as I said, I'm trying to—apologies, if my responses aren't clear. We were trying to keep it general so that it applies to everyone. But if you have your own particular question and you want to lay out a scenario, then that is certainly an opportunity to go to the OJP Response Center and, collectively, we can provide a response to you. We don't want any sort of lack of clarity to get in the way of applying. Just reach out and we'll do our best to address your questions.

AJA PAPPAS: I think there's just one more question. I just was scanning through. It looks like I missed. And if I missed any others, please just quickly drop it in the Q&A so it comes up for me. But, "Can a—like a small inducement be paid to inmates for completing final evaluation assessments such as like canteen credits be paid via the grant?" In this particular situation, to keep our answers more general, we would definitely ask that you refer to the DOJ Financial Guide and the solicitation. You can also reach out to the OJP Resource Center. In some of those situations, it is case-by-case and we would need more details, et cetera. It looks like there is something that popped up.

MARGARET CHAPMAN: There is a link to the performance reporting in the solicitation. So it's on page 22 of the solicitation, it says performance measures and those are the performance measures.

AJA PAPPAS: Thank you Meg. And please note, should you be awarded—I just want to close up. I don't see any other questions, I don't think. Should you be awarded funding for RSAT, we would then have a new grantee webinar, we'd call it, where we would go through everything in more detail, being that you were then awarded funds. Everything from managing your award to submitting performance reporting. So we definitely didn't want to overwhelm you guys on this front end. Our goal here is to provide you with clear, concise information so we can see those applications start to roll in. And I would just say, please be mindful of the deadlines. They have been provided in the chat a couple different places, as well as they're on the solicitation. Again, a two-pronged approach. You have the JustGrants--you have the grants.gov deadline, which is 8:59 p.m. on July 10th and you have the application deadline for JustGrants at 8:59 p.m. Eastern Time on July 15th. So two dates, July 10th and July 15th, to be mindful of. I do not see any other questions. If Meg or Renee have nothing else, I definitely would like to thank you guys for your time today in attendance.

MARGARET CHAPMAN: No, thank you. And we hope this facilitates you submitting an application.

RENEE HOWELL: Yes. Thank you guys for attending.

AJA PAPPAS: Thank you.

DARYL FOX: Wonderful. So on behalf of the Bureau of Justice Assistance and all of our panelists, we want to thank you for joining today's Webinar. This will end today's presentation.