FY 2021 Tribal Justice System Infrastructure Training and Technical Assistance Initiative Solicitation Overview

MARY JO GIOVACCHINI: Good afternoon, everybody. And welcome to today's webinar, FY 21 Tribal Justice System Infrastructure Training and Technical Assistance Initiative Solicitation, an overview, hosted by the Bureau of Justice Assistance. At this time, I would like to introduce Julius Dupree, Policy Advisor with the Bureau of Justice Assistance.

JULIUS DUPREE: Thank you, Mary Jo. Good afternoon, everyone. On behalf of Department--the Bureau of Justice Assistance, I'd like to thank you for joining today's webinar and your interest in the Tribal Justice System Infrastructure Training and Technical Assistance Initiative Solicitation. And actually, well--we're doing this presentation--we're going to be covering a few items here. When the--looking at the agenda, we'll do an overview of the program. We'll talk--we'll discuss like the application materials. And then we'll go to Q&A session as well.
Just to provide an overview of this program, so the Bureau of Justice Assistance has a program that's called the Tribal Justice System Infrastructure Training and Technical Assistance Program, and actually it is to help tribes with strengthening their infrastructure, you know, that is to renovation, expansion, or permanent modular, or pre-fab facilities, or buildings. And what it is, is really it gives tribes an opportunity to maybe look at existing facilities that are currently on the reservation and basically make, you know, possibly--if they need to renovate or expand the existing facility then they can use our funding to do so. Or if there's--if there are existing facilities that are not--that are on the reservation--or on the reservation but are not--you know, in the--in the condition to be able to be used for Tribal Justice System functions. You know, especially that you have--you have--you're looking to do a police department, but you don't have--you know, you don't have a building suitable for that person--that purpose, then you may want to go ahead and look at a permanent modular option to serve that purpose. And so, we do offer those options.
We do not do new construction projects. I know that we get that question a lot. We used to do new construction but we no longer do that. And it's mainly around resources, you know, not just operate--but mainly operational resources because we do find sometimes when we get folks that want to do new construction projects and sometimes they may not have the operational resources to be able to run that facility. And I know a lot of the federal budgets are kind of limited as far as providing operations that way. So we--that's why we're--where--we are where we are with the renovation expansion permanent modular or pre-fabs.
And so, as I--as I kind of alluded to, you know, the program, it really spans the justice system because you can use the funding to, you know--you know, rehab or establish a multipurpose justice center that includes courts, police departments, and detention centers. Or you could expand alone courts, police departments, detention centers. You can also do alternative to incarceration types of facilities where you're looking at, you know, trying to divert folks from, you know, incarceration and having them go through more community-based programming. There's also transitional living facilities. So when folks reenter the community, let's say they're--they were imprisoned for a period of time, a lot of times you find that tribes don't--you know, they--their--the issue is having the folks transition back into the community once they've been incarcerated, and sometimes transitional living facilities are a way to do that.
And then, as of last year, we added another category, which is domestic violence shelters or, you know, programs. You know, so if they--if they want to use funds to do that, to stand up a domestic violence shelter or any kind of, you know, domestic violence victims-based programming--program I should say, then they can do that. But if they go--as it relates to programming, we really defer more to the Office on Violence Against Women. And, you know, the Office for Victims--for Victims of Crime, also may have some victims-related programming as well. All of our funds are--can only be used for infrastructure-related projects and not operational programming. I just wanted to be clear on that piece of it.
But it's--as it relates to training and technical assistance provider, now whoever is going to be the successful awardee at--of this particular award will help the--our grant recipients actually engage in operational planning process, which I'll talk to a little bit more about that later. But for this particular solicitation, this--the TA provider will be looking at operational planning. And we'll have--we have another TA provider, a training and technical assistance provider that really focuses on the construction management piece of it. And I'll talk a little bit more about it as I--as I go through this presentation.
But in continuing the solicitation overview, we--the--you know, I basically kind of gave you an overview of what the program does. But, you know, when you--when you really look specifically at kind of like what it aims to do, it's really addressing staff, resident, detainee, inmate safety or security issues, or adding physical infrastructure capacity to bolster justice system services and recidivism-reduction efforts. So that's--so that's what we hope that our funding, you know, that is useful to tribes in that--in that way.
So in an effort to facilitate the implementation of these projects, we have a training and technical assistance provider that we've--you know, that we will enter into a cooperative agreement with to assist with the operational planning that's related to facility staffing,
you know, how many staff are they going to need to stand up a detox facility. Or, you know, what are the programming needs for a healing and wellness court if that's what they--if that's what a tribe wants to do as well as other operational needs. Okay.
So eligibility, here you'll see the eligibility for profit organizations other than small businesses, Native American tribal organizations other than federally recognized tribal governments, nonprofits that having a 501(c)(3) status with the--with the IRS other than institutions of higher education, private institutions of higher education, public and state controlled institutions of higher education, as well as small businesses. So if you--and if you don't fall within that eligibility criteria, then that--then this program may not be the right fit for your organization. So we'll--we will consider applications, so like let's say you're partnering with another entity to actually carry out the goals of this project, you know, we'll--we will consider that. But that--if you are partnering with another agency, then we--it's got to be--one entity is got to be the applicant, and then the other implement--entity would be the subrecipient or subgrantee.
Applicants that apply and participate-- in partner--in a partnership with other agencies also must submit a signed partnership agreement like an MOA or, you know, a memorandum of understanding or, you know, I think the difference with the--if it's a MO--memorandum of understanding, I don't think there's any--there may not be any money that transfers, but I think with the memorandum of agreement, then that really implies that there are some sort of financial transaction as part of that agreement. So just keep that in mind.
The goal here like I said is pretty simple, supporting tribes as they improve and enhance their justice system physical infrastructure needs. The objective as far as doing that is we provide technical support and guidance to what's called BJA's CTAS Purpose Area 4 grant recipient. And for some of you who may not be familiar with that grant program, so what it is is there's a--all of the--all the Department of Justice tribal-specific grant programs may--or--not to say all, but most of them go through a grant solicitation that's called a Coordinated Tribal Assistance Solicitation, which is currently open. It's out--it's out--it's currently out. And so what it is, is this particular program actually supports grant recipients from that particular--out of that particular solicitation because within that solicitation, there's a number of different purpose areas. I think it's like one through eight or maybe eight purpose areas. And the pro--this program is actually Purpose Area 4. So if you want to become a little more illuminated or enlightened about the--that program, I do encourage you to go to the Coordinated Tribal Assistance Solicitation and look at the solicitation to kind of get an idea and flavor of what we require for the folks that receive our grant project or our grant funding, I should say. Okay.
The project scope disclaimer and that's--this is what I alluded to a little bit at the outset of the presentation, but basically what this says is that if you are successful in receiving this solicitation, your--the scope of your--of the--of the assistance you provide will really be around operational planning, more preconstruction types of activities, but also facility activation as well. So, you know, let's say that they complete the project and now they're ready to open a facility. You know, you--you'll--your--you and your team will—may be asked to provide technical assistance to assist with facility activation because as you all know, a lot goes into having to operationalize--to open a facility. So that's really going to be your scope.
But as it relates to the actual project management of the renovation and construction project, we actually work with the training and technical assistance provider currently that fulfills that role. And basically what they do is they'll look at the budget of the--for the project that the grant recipient is proposing and they'll also look at whatever design came out of the operational planning process, and then they'll try to see if those things marry up. You know, if the budget and design, all those things comport, and if so then we give the grant recipient the green light to move forward with construction, which means that they'll be putting out a, you know, request for proposal for maybe an architect and a contractor.
But that--you know, you don't have to worry about that role. We already have a training and technical assistance provider that does provide that. But you are going to have to work closely with this particular TA--training and technical assistance provider just because, you know, there's going to be regular coordination meetings to really discuss these projects, and then the--in the--and operational planning and the project management piece of it. There is--there is some overlap in that sometimes, so just so you're aware where it's at. All right.
As far as the project deliverables are concerned, I'm just going to go through these real quick. So all these bulleted items that are listed here, you know, are again affiliated with operational planning, assessing the proposed uses of the planned facility for impact on the tribal justice system. So basically you know, it--they may just be implementing a court, you know, like some sort of healing and wellness court or some other divert program, and so what we're going to ask for, you know, the operational training and technical assistance provider to do is to actually, you know, look at their justice system as a whole, you know, basically saying, "Okay. So how is this project, you know, going to impact other aspects of your justice system?" You know, because now if you have a healing and wellness court then, you know, maybe you're not sending as many people to jail and now, you know, so that may free up some, you know, you may be able to do something else now that you're going to free up--you're not--you're not using--you're
not--those people aren't being sentenced to jail or you may need to figure out a way to just kind of make sure that the judiciary is educated about certain things that are, you know, that are going to be--or, you know, this particular project so that they'll know to refer people, you know, to this particular project.
So there are all these little pieces of it that it's not just about necessarily the facility but it's also how--whatever project they're pursuing may have a--have impact other aspects of the justice system. Another thing, establishing and enhancing multiagency cooperation and collaborations necessary to plan and implement facility and maximize the use of resources. So you know, so it could be that, you know, whatever project the tribe is working on, you know, it may be that they need to bring in other agency involvement, you know, and that may be helpful for them to engage. So, you know, we've seen some instances where tribes want to partner--maybe partner with local or state facilities to help with, you know, housing inmates or, you know, those kinds of things. And so that's kind of what we mean by establishing or enhancing multiagency cooperation collaborations because there may be a need to engage other organizations as part of this planning project--or this project is part of the planning process.
Developing plans for staffing operation and management of facilities, I think that's pretty self-explanatory. Assessing needs for programming and other space needs within the facility to accommodate services such as defense counsel, community-based providers to assist with diversion, correctional, reentry, cultural and religious programming, again, you know, if you're doing a multipurpose justice center, you know, are you going to have, you know, all the resources that you need to be the one-stop shop that you--that you're proposing to be with your multipurpose justice center. So that's an example there. Applying community-based alternatives to help control and prevent jail overcrowding, I alluded to that a little bit. I think as much as we can encourage least restrictive community-based types of programming for those offenders that do not pose a significant risk to public safety, then we want to pursue those options because honestly they're less expensive options and then also, you know, the rehabilitative, you know, long-term benefits of rehabilitation, there seem to be data that support that that's--that is the way to go.
The other--the other--the other deliverable here is developing sustainability plans for the operations and maintenance of justice system facilities, because what we do find is that it's one thing to get a facility up and running and operational, but if you don't have a plan in place to sustain the operations, then that's going to be a problem, you know, in the future, and so this is another area where we're--where we help out as well. Okay. Just continuing on with the project deliverables, developing and maintaining a distance learning and technical assistance capacity complement classroom training.
So basically what the classroom training has entailed today is we'll do a grant--we'll do a grant orientation so when we--when folks get awarded the grant, we do an orientation session where we basically give them guidance on how to implement the program and--or how to implement their projects and, you know, the various components that they need to consider as far as implementation is concerned and so we'll--what we do is we'll have a training for that, and that training is once a year, but what we also want to see hopefully is that there's some sort of maybe publications and it could be fact sheets, it could be, you know, book or, you know, program briefs, but really literature actually to really kind of complement the training that we provide in a classroom setting and it could be really topic-based types of--types of publications.
Developing content for BJA's tribal justice webpage to assist tribes with planning process for renovating, expanding, building, and operating tribal justice facilities, that's just what it is, I mean, we do have a website up for the tribal justice system. I'm sorry, the Tribal Justice System Infrastructure Program. So you know, we--we're always wanting to make sure we have the most relevant and, you know, current information there, I know it's been a while since we kind of updated it but any publications or anything that comes out of your efforts, we are going to post that to our website as well.
The other thing is providing assistance to tribes interested and exploring the option of contracting with establishing MOUs. So I, kind of alluded to that--alluded to that earlier, it's just a little more specific about, you know, if you want to establish an MOU with a nearby tribe or state wide agencies or local entities, that's--you know, then hopefully the TA that we provide could help provide with that. Providing assistance to tribes interested in exploring the option. Develop and disseminate written materials that support and complement training sessions.
So just continuing on, so in addition to any of the recipients of, you know, assisting recipients for the FY that receives grant under our fiscal year '21 CTAS solicitation, we're--we also have some of the previous grant recipients that have already completed their project but still could need some assistance in their operational capacity. I'll give you an example, I mean we may have some tribes that they may, let's say, they have a detention facility that they've implemented and they use our funds to implement that but, you know, they'll have a--they're not--they're not--the capacity of the facility is, kind of, not at the operational capacity as it should be of a facility of that type. So what we may do is, you know, have some technical assistance provided so that if they want to maybe repurpose some of that base for another purpose because they, you know, they no longer need it to have as many people as they thought they would need for detention, then we would have a training and technical assistance provider that would work with that, that former--well previous grant recipient to hopefully help them with, you know,
make--ensuring that they're utilizing--they're maximizing the utility of their facility I should say.
This next bullet here is working with tribes—U.S. Department of Interior--I'm sorry, as far as, you know, working with tribes, the U.S. Department of--Bureau of Indian Affairs, Health and Human Services, Department of Veterans Affairs, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and other federal agencies, we want to see, you know, where appropriate, that you all are coordinating with those agencies. I'll give you an example. You know, we have a number of grant projects that may receive operational funding from the Bureau of Justice Assistance to, you know, for their--for their detention center and so in that instance, as far as operational planning is concerned, we're going to need to make sure that the Bureau of Indian Affairs is kind of aware of what the grantee is doing as far as their design.
Now we're going to rely on the grantee to really be working with BIA but, you know, it'll probably be, you know, if there--if it is that the grantee has to work with another federal agency that it would be the grantee, but we would hope that you all would be there to facilitate that process as well. So that's why we have that listed in there. Now does that happen frequently? No, it's not frequently, but I have seen instances where we've had to have our training and technical assistance provider, you know, coordinate or communicate with another federal agency in regard to these projects, so just be aware of that.
The next bullet here is participate in BJA-led tribal, federal, state intergovernmental collaboration team in-person meetings. And so we, you know, those are to be determined, you know, we don't have that regularly--or those meetings regularly, but we do have--we do have a tribe--we do have a tribal what we call--well, it's called a intergovernmental collaboration training and technical assistance effort where, you know, you may be called upon to actually provide input or, you know, basically be part of that collaboration team because there are--there are--there may be curriculum--there may be training curriculum that we're developing for training in that area. So please be aware of that as well.
This other deliverable, demonstrate ability to conduct a thorough assessment of project feasibility and preparedness based on the structural integrity of the facility that the tribe proposes to renovate or expand. Okay. So this is where--excuse me, so this is where I was talking about there may be overlaps in your roles and the roles of the construction or the--I should say the project management training and technical assistance provider, because what'll happen is there will be an initial monitor or site visit where at this point they're virtual, obviously, because of the circumstances where we are right now. But you
know, when we get to the point to where they are in person, what would happen is you--your team, I mean, would actually conduct a joint site or site visit with the construction or the project management training and technical assistance provider and as part of that visit, you're going to be looking at project feasibility because basically, what that's going to entail is it's going to be a formula around, you know, how much money did they propose under the grant, you know, what are they proposing to build and, you know, and also what is the structure, like, is there--is the structure of their building structurally sound. So if they want to renovate it or if they want to expand on it, is it--is the structure sound that it will be able to handle that renovation or that expansion? Because the last thing we want to do is to put, you know, for the tribe to get our funding and put a lot of funding into a facility and then that facility we find later on doesn't have the structural integrity to be able to support that renovation.
So you're not--you--like as the--as the operational training and technical assistance provider would not be doing the actual feasibility--I'm sorry, the actual structural integrity, physical part of that. But we do have the construct--the project management team that will be doing that piece. But right now, just so you know how we're managing this, you know, because our construction--our project management team cannot go out on site because of the pandemic, we are actually going to be potentially contracting with entities within--that's already within the community to be able do this--the structural integrity assessment. So I just wanted to explain that. I know it sounds a little complicated, but I just don't want you all thinking that we're going to have you looking at the structural integrity of a building and making an assessment. It's whether or not it's structurally sound, because that's not your--that's not going to be your role.
But you are going to be looking at whether the cost that they're proposing in their budget supports, you know, their--the program that they're proposing or whatever they're--like they're--like if they're doing a healing to wellness court, or if they're going to be doing a program, or they're--whether they're going to want to do a transitional living facility, you know? That--that's what they--what they're proposing makes sense on that. Okay.
Continuing here--continuing all project deliverables. So one of the things we like to see like, you know, prior to even, you know, going on site is doing some groundwork, like--so basically as soon as we make these awards, we like to provide all the projects to our training and technical assistance provider so that they can review the grant applications, you know, review the project budget. You know, hopefully do a quick assessment. You know, maybe say, "Oh, you know, based on my assessment, you know, I see there's three courts that we got to deal with. We--you know, one of the courts is a renovation project. The other one is a permanent modular facility." So, you know--so we got to have a strategy on how we plan out the visits based on, you know, whether there may
be some risk criteria or--not risk criteria, but some--certain risks that we need to take--may need to look at for certain projects, all that kind of assessment. As much as we can, we want to be able to do that up front. And so we would--we would--we would hope that you all can help us with that piece of it as well.
And another thing we like to do is, you know, if there's a successful program, you know, we like to, you know, be able to share that information with the field because, you know, we realize that there are, you know, other--you know, there are a number of tribes that are--you know, that are--that are trying to strengthen their justice system. But if they can--you know, if folks can see kind of the results of the work that, you know, let's say a tribe put in to build a facility and they could see that there's been something that's been completed successfully, then we would love to be able to just kind of provide like a summary of all those successful projects to the field so that--because we find that tribes are always asking us, "You know, what are other tribes doing around the country," and, you know, what--you know, kind of--we like to learn about that. So that's--we--that's what we get out of that.
The last bullet here is participating in a BJA-led grant performance review that tracks grantee or program performance along several key indicators. So what it is is--what BJA does is we'll take--we'll do like 30,000--we'll take, you know, certain programs, we'll select certain programs, and really take an expansive look at that entire program to determine the efficacy of that program, you know, whether what we're doing is effective. So that will involve like looking at data, but we have an internal team of folks that we work with for that. But there may be--we may ask for your involvement and input as part of that process as well. So I just wanted to kind of highlight that. All right.
So this next slide here just kind of gives you a snapshot of--you know, of active grant projects that you know--or, grant projects that we currently have active and then--as well as--so you'll see here 37 that are currently active. We do anticipate closing about nine of those, you know, by the end of September of this year. And then we do estimate making maybe nine awards for FY 21. So maybe that can kind of help you gauge a little bit of what the workload would look like on that piece of it.
The--so again I--and I told--just as I mentioned about touting the work that--the field--that--you know, that the tribes are doing in the field, here's an example of a courthouse before and after photo here. You can see they took an existing house, and they actually built onto that house. And then you can see the end product there. Here's another one. This is a police station. Looks like that was a renovation project maybe. This is--this is another--this is a reintegration house or a transitional living facility. Again, I think they took an existing house and they--and they renovated it. And I--and I--and I'm really
impressed that some--sometimes at these budgets. I--you know, I've seen budgets as low as $80,000, and they--and they've really stretched it to renovate an existing facility to--you know, to really serve their needs. And so--you know, so it's not--it's not always the big million-dollar projects that are the ones that we want to highlight, so. Okay.
So as far as just kind of getting back to the perform--the requirements of the program, so if you--you know, if you're successful and you do receive the grant, you will need to report on performance measures. So it's really--there's going to be a--it's called a--it's a T--the training and technical assistance manage--it's a training and technical assist--I know it used to be called training and technical assistance portal, but I think--I know--I know that's not the name anymore. But what it is--it's going to be--you're going to need to report into a database basically on performance measures. And for those of you who may have received federal grants in the past, you're probably familiar with that particular process, but the solicitation will also go more in depth about that as well. Okay.
How to apply? You know, I have here the solicitation link. You see here the BJA solicitation link. So you can just click on that link to apply. The other--and just so you know, it's--there's a new two-step process this year. For some of you who may have applied last year or in previous years, we used to use the Grants Management System or GMS. That system is no longer operational for external use, so you would not be able to apply that way. So this year, you would need to apply through the grants.gov system. And we'll talk a little bit more about that later. And basically you would--that's the first step. So you go--you apply to grants.gov, and you would need to get your application--you would need to get--not your whole application, I'm sorry, but just--at least, the--there's like the cover page or the--it's called the SF-424, which is the page--the cover page of the application essentially, or--which would have all your contact information and your authorizing official information. But that's due April 7th.
And then after you've completed that process, you're still not done yet because you're going to have to submit the application itself through the JustGrants system, which JustGrants has actually replaced the Grants Management System. And so you'll need to get the--solicitate--your application in the JustGrants system by April 21st, 11:59 Eastern Time .
Just to help out here a little bit with--you know, if you're not quite familiar with our grant process, I--I'm listing a couple of webinars here on this PowerPoint that may be really helpful for you. We had a webinar on January 21st. It's called funding the--The Funding Process: First Steps to Applying, How to Prepare Now, and Other Considerations. So that really kind of walks you through the application--you know the application process. If you--if you haven't--if you weren't able to catch that webinar on the 21st, not all is lost.
You can see the link here to where you can access the actual presentation or you can watch the recording. And then here's another one right below that, which I think is very important. It's JustGrants and ASAP: OJP's New Grants Management Systems. And so that's what I alluded to where your application must be submitted by April 21st.
And so if you--if you--if you're not familiar with JustGrants and you would like to get an orientation about that system, please click on one of these links here, watch--either watch the recording or access the presentation. So JustGrants--there--we--it's new. It's a fairly new system. It has been--well, it was rolled out in October of this year so it's fairly new. And I--and the reason I preface it by stating that is because, you know, we are still getting questions about the system that we're trying to field, you know? So it's--so it has been--you know, we're all growing together, I should say, on this. So if you have any, you know, JustGrants technical or support issues or questions, the email information is--or the--sorry. The--yeah, the email information is provided in this presentation as well as the contact--the phone number, and also I think that's been noted in your chat box as well. Okay.
Application assistance and support. Again, I'm just kind of getting at all the resources that you can leverage to help you with this process. We have a response center. It's called NCJRS. It's the National Criminal Justice Reference Service. And there--or, I'm sorry. Yeah, they’re a resource that you--that you should look to if you have--if you--if you have questions about a solicitation. And there is all the phone number information listed on the slide as well. Okay.
Grants.gov. I talked briefly about grants.gov, about that's the first step of your application process. And you can see here, here's all the contact information from--for grants.gov. Okay. And then I just wanted to, you know highlight if you want to stay current on, you know, BJA events, funding opportunities, you know, if you're a big social media person, then here's all the social media information listed for Facebook, Twitter, YouTube. And then also another important website is BJA's website. So that's where you find all the funding opportunities, publications, and initiatives as well. Okay.
And then resources for funding opportunities. Again, I'm not going to go through all these, because I do want to leave some time for some questions, but I--it just kind of--kind of--kind of repetitive of some of the stuff I've already talked about. But if I had to highlight one thing that I did not--or, a couple things that I haven't already highlighted, the OJP Grant Funding Resource Center. So if you--so for all Office of Justice Programs grants, not just Bureau of Justice Assistance, you can just click on this particular website and you can find out all of the Office of Justice Programs funding opportunities that are out there. The other--the other one, Office of Justice Programs
Award Data. So if you want to, you know, figure out where OJP made investments as far as grant awards, this is a good page where you can find that data. And then this last link here is the NIJ CrimeSolutions.gov. If you want to see about--you know, hear about evidence-based practices in, you know, certain areas, I would--I would go look at this particular page because it's got--it's full of information about successful practices, and you can find out about those in--on that particular page there, so. Okay. And I think, at this point, we're at the Q&A portion of the presentation.

MARY JO GIOVACCHINI: That is correct. And we really don't current--we do not currently have any questions. Oh, I think one just popped up. Yay. Can you tell us which tribes or locations--can you tell us which tribes or location of the tribal sites--I'm not…

JULIUS DUPREE: Okay. Yeah, no. I get it.

MARY JO GIOVACCHINI: Okay.

JULIUS DUPREE: Yeah. So that--that's a good question. And then to answer your question, it's pretty diverse. We have sites all around the country, you know? So that--they're everywhere. But the highest concentration I can say is probably west of the Mississippi. It's probably obvious, but west of Mississippi River. But it's--we--we're--there's a lot of different tribes that are represented in different regions around the country.

MARY JO GIOVACCHINI: All right. This is your opportunity to ask any questions that you may have, while Julius is still on the call. So we will give you a couple minutes to--or a minute or so to see if you have any questions that come up. If you do think of a question after the call has ended, Julius mentioned the National Criminal Justice Reference Service or the response center, [email protected]. You can email them, and they will work with Julius to get you an answer to your question. We can also call them at 800–851–3420 if you have any questions about the solicitation. All right. Julius, still no other questions coming in.
Julius had also mentioned JustGrants, and there will be upcoming webinars on JustGrants between now--somewhere around mid-February through March. The dates have not been firmed up, but if you're interested in that information, I definitely suggest that you subscribe to the BJA newsletter and you'll be alerted of those webinars. You can do that as pointed at on the slide by texting your email address to 468-311. You can also subscribe to the weekly funding newsletter that comes out from the response center, that comes about each Friday, and they will announce webinars for solicitations
such as this one, as well as the upcoming JustGrants webinars. You can do that by going to the NCJRS site, ncjrs.gov, and clicking on the subscribe button.

JULIUS DUPREE: Okay.

MARY JO GIOVACCHINI: We do have another question…

JULIUS DUPREE: So…

MARY JO GIOVACCHINI: Oh, sorry.

JULIUS DUPREE: That's okay. Go ahead. I'm sorry. I'm trying--I can't see the questions. Go ahead.

MARY JO GIOVACCHINI: That's--sure. Hold on one second. I'm having a hard time scrolling for some reason now.

JULIUS DUPREE: Okay.

MARY JO GIOVACCHINI: Is the main goal of this grant proposal simply to improve facilities or improve the whole system?

JULIUS DUPREE: So, yeah, that--that's an--that's an excellent question. You know, I'd like--you know, we're--it's really--it's focused--whatever--the project is going to definitely have a real clear goal or focus, and so--yeah. And so--and so--yeah. So if someone--if their--if their goal is to--let's say their goal is to expand the police department to include more offices, so, yeah, as a result of that expansion, they are going to be able to house more police officers. And so--you know, because it could have been--there may--there may have been an issue where the police department was set up so that it wasn't safe because, you know, there was some safety issues or it could be--no. This--that's not a good example.
Let's say the court. Let's say there's some safety issues around the court where the victims and the defendants are all coming through the same doors and it's kind of--and it could be unsafe. So they're--the goal is for them to make--basically enhance the safety of that--of that--you know, of their facility. And that--then they have achieved their goal, and we hope ultimately that basically enhances the safety of all those who frequent the court, so--yeah. So to answer your question, we--ultimately we hope that it enhances their justice system, but the project itself has a real clear focus, if that makes any sense.

MARY JO GIOVACCHINI: Another question came through. Can the applicant focus on one of the areas, i.e. law enforcement facilities, or detention centers, etc.?

JULIUS DUPREE: Yes, that's correct. The--they can focus only one aspect. I mean, we--we've had--we've had projects where they may have only needed to replace a roof or, you know, maybe they need an HVAC system, you know? So--yes. So it's--it can be--the magnitude of the project varies. It can be something that's only one--when you focus in on only one aspect of it, but, you know, we have seen projects where they are focusing on more than one component.

MARY JO GIOVACCHINI: All right. Julius, that right now is the last question. If--there was something I think I started to interrupt you a little bit, if you want me to go over…

JULIUS DUPREE: No.

MARY JO GIOVACCHINI: …earlier. Okay.

JULIUS DUPREE: No.

MARY JO GIOVACCHINI: Oh, I'm sorry. I thought I was talking over you earlier. I apologize.

JULIUS DUPREE: You're fine.

MARY JO GIOVACCHINI: So last call for questions. We'll give you another--a few seconds to see if you have anything that comes up. In the meantime, I will flip over to the JustGrants informational slide. If you do have any questions or difficulties with JustGrants, you can email them at [email protected]. You can also--or phone them at 833–872–5175. They are open Monday through Friday from 5 a.m. until 9 p.m.; Saturday, Sunday, and federal holidays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. So they are available to answer your calls at any time during this application process. Again, as mentioned earlier, the response center is available to help you with any technical questions about the solicitation itself. They also are open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. They are closed on the weekends and federal holidays. And they are open additional time the date the solicitation closes. I think they close like at 9 p.m. on that closing date, something like that. All right. Julius…

JULIUS DUPREE: You know what? Oh, I'm sorry.

MARY JO GIOVACCHINI: Go ahead.

JULIUS DUPREE: I think someone mentioned--someone mentioned something about the jail surveys, report. I can't--the problem is I can't see the text for some reason. Let me see. Maybe I can--maybe I can do--I'm trying to figure out how I can--I don't know if you see it or not.

MARY JO GIOVACCHINI: I could not…

JULIUS DUPREE: It was a Q&A kind of deal I think it was, or it may have been that.

MARY JO GIOVACCHINI: It's possible that it was sent to you privately. If so, then I'm not going to be able to see that. Or it could have been sent…

JULIUS DUPREE: Yeah.

MARY JO GIOVACCHINI: …in chat. Let me double-check the chat real quick.

JULIUS DUPREE: I just want to make sure that I'm being responsive to every…

MARY JO GIOVACCHINI: Uh-hmm. Definitely.

JULIUS DUPREE: Because it relates to the BJS, the Indian--the jails in Indian country. I'm sorry--report. The jails report that comes out annually. I think someone mentioned that there's a list of all the correctional--the--or tribal detention centers that are on that list, and--oh, yeah. I see it here. I think--okay. There's one--one is a center…

MARY JO GIOVACCHINI: Yes.

JULIUS DUPREE: Yeah. You can reference the BJS survey. Yeah. And so, yeah, that does happen. Thanks for providing that link, Carla. And she's right, it does have--you can--a list of all active correctional facilities in Indian country. But please note that, like, not all of those facilities that are on that list receive our funding, but some do. A subset of those do. And I think that's all I have there.

MARY JO GIOVACCHINI: Yeah. I'm going to just do one quick look here. Another question came through. If our grant proposal were to solely focus and zone in on main things that are able to be changed, is that more of what you're looking for in this grant?

JULIUS DUPREE: Okay. Well, the--what we're looking for in this grant is for--like a--like a national-level agency that will--that will be able to provide training and technical assistance to, you know, tribes throughout the country, basically. So it's not--it's not necessarily--I mean, just to be clear, it's not something that we can get a site-base. Like if you're a federally recognized tribe and you want--you want to get--you want to get funding from this program, that's not--you would not be eligible for that, but--you know, you would have to be an organization that's going to be willing to basically--all those deliverables that I laid out earlier, that's going to be able to be able to deliver on that as far as providing training and technical assistance to tribes that receive our grant funds. I hope that helps clarify that. Or let me know if that doesn't answer your question or if I'm not just clear on it.

MARY JO GIOVACCHINI: He does under--he understands what you're saying, he said.

JULIUS DUPREE: Okay. Thanks.

MARY JO GIOVACCHINI: All right. We have about five more minutes, so if there are any other questions, please go ahead and feel free to submit those at this time, otherwise probably we'll be safe to end this webinar. I'll give you a minute to see. Another question popped up. I love when I prompt you all and you come up with questions. One more time, where to find the tribe and their location. So that is going to be in the Bureau of Justice Statistics, which is another agency under the Office of Justice Programs. They have a survey of jails in Indian country. If you'd give me a minute, I may be able to quickly find the URL. I just have to multitask here, and I can put the URL into the chat box for you. All right. So there is a link that has been added for the survey of jails that Tammy had posted. And you can see that and copy it from the chat box. It's actually the very last item that came through at 3:57, and it was sent to everyone. So let me know if you're having--if you need that information and you're having a difficult time finding it. All right, Julius, there are no other questions, and we are at the 1:00--or, the 4:00 hour.

JULIUS DUPREE: Okay. Great. Well, thank you, everyone. And I don't have anything else, but I definitely appreciate your interest in the program, and good luck to you if you are going to apply. And if you have any questions, please feel free to reach out. Thank you.