Research and Evaluation on Promising Reentry Initiatives, Fiscal Year 2021 | O NIJ 2021 40002

Opportunity Information: Apply for O NIJ 2021 40002

The National Institute of Justice (NIJ), within the U.S. Department of Justice, offered this Fiscal Year 2021 discretionary grant opportunity to fund rigorous research and evaluation of promising reentry initiatives. The central focus is on testing and measuring the impact of innovative reentry services, programs, or coordinated plans that start while a person is incarcerated and continue after release in the community. NIJ is looking for projects that do more than describe a program; the expectation is strong, evidence-producing evaluation work that can show whether a reentry approach actually reduces reoffending and improves key outcomes.

A defining priority of the solicitation is addressing violent, habitual recidivism. In other words, NIJ is particularly interested in initiatives designed for individuals at higher risk of repeated and serious offending, and in evaluations that can credibly determine whether the intervention changes that trajectory. The initiatives of interest should also address multiple criminogenic needs (the dynamic factors linked to criminal behavior, such as substance use, antisocial attitudes, education/employment barriers, family instability, and similar domains). NIJ emphasizes that these needs should be assessable in an incremental way, which points to interventions and evaluation designs that can track progress over time rather than relying on a single end-of-program snapshot.

Methodologically, NIJ signals a strong preference for multi-site randomized controlled trial (RCT) evaluations. Multi-site means the intervention is implemented and studied in more than one location or system (for example, multiple prisons, counties, or reentry jurisdictions), which helps determine whether results generalize beyond a single setting. RCTs are highlighted because they are considered the strongest design for estimating causal effects, using random assignment to compare outcomes for people offered the reentry initiative versus those receiving business-as-usual services or another comparison condition. NIJ indicates that proposals aligned with these priorities (innovative reentry initiative, multiple sites, RCT design, focus on violent/habitual recidivism, and in-custody-to-community continuity) would receive preference in award decisions.

The solicitation anticipates that many strong applications will require partnerships with criminal justice agencies and other organizations that control access to participants, services, and administrative data. Because of that, applicants proposing partnerships are expected to include robust letters of support from each partnering agency, signed by an appropriate decision-making authority. These letters are not meant to be generic endorsements; they should reflect real commitment to participation and should explicitly acknowledge a key requirement around data sharing and archiving.

A major compliance component is NIJ’s expectation that de-identified data from the project will be archived with the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data (NACJD) at the end of the award period. The partnering agency letter of support should confirm the agency understands and agrees to this de-identified data archiving requirement. Applicants and partners are encouraged to review NACJD policies and protections in advance so they understand how confidentiality, de-identification, and controlled access (when applicable) are handled. In addition, if an award is made, grantees are expected to have a formal agreement in place with partnering agencies by January 1, 2022, and that agreement must include provisions to meet the NACJD archiving requirement.

The opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number O-NIJ-2021-40002) falls under CFDA 16.560 and the Law, Justice and Legal Services activity category, with funding provided as a grant. The application window opened with a creation date of December 11, 2020, and had an original closing date of February 26, 2021. NIJ anticipated making up to four awards, with an award ceiling of $5,000,000 per award. Eligibility was broad and included state, county, and local governments; federally recognized tribal governments and certain tribal organizations; public and private institutions of higher education; public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities; nonprofit organizations with or without 501(c)(3) status; for-profit organizations other than small businesses; small businesses; and other eligible entities as further clarified in the solicitation.

Finally, the solicitation clarifies how to structure applications when multiple agencies are involved. Even if the project is a true partnership and federal funds will support work across several organizations, only one entity can be the applicant of record. Any additional participating organizations that will receive federal funds to carry out project activities must be included as subrecipients rather than co-applicants. This structure is meant to keep grant accountability clear while still allowing multi-organization, multi-site evaluations that NIJ is explicitly trying to promote through this opportunity.

• The Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice in the law, justice and legal services sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Research and Evaluation on Promising Reentry Initiatives, Fiscal Year 2021" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 16.560.
• This funding opportunity was created on Dec 11, 2020.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Feb 26, 2021. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $5,000,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 4 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Independent school districts, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities, Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Nonprofits that do not have a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education, For profit organizations other than small businesses, Small businesses, Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

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