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BJA, in a public/private partnership with The Pew Charitable Trusts, launched the Justice Reinvestment Initiative (JRI) in 2010 as a multistaged process in which a jurisdiction reduces unnecessary incarceration, increases the cost-effectiveness of its criminal justice system and reinvests savings into high-performing public safety strategies.  JRI jurisdictions reinvest these cost savings into high-performing initiatives that make communities safer. In addition to reducing prison populations, justice reinvestment encourages states to embrace a culture of greater collaboration, data-driven decisionmaking, and increased use of evidence-based practices. While the full impact of justice reinvestment reforms is not yet known, the policies enacted in JRI states hold great promise to reduce prison populations, achieve substantial cost savings, and avert future growth.  However, many of the states found similar factors driving populations and costs for example, parole and probation revocation rates; sentencing policies and practices that favored incarceration of low-risk offenders over alternatives and that resulted in long lengths of stay; insufficient or inefficient community supervision, services, and support; and parole system processing delays and denials. The policy responses to these issues also overlapped, sharing themes of evidence-based practices and data-driven decisionmaking, including risk and needs assessments; accountability measures such as performance and outcome measure reporting; earned credits to encourage compliance with conditions of community supervision; sentencing changes; swift, certain and fair responses to technical probation and parole violations, mandatory post-incarceration supervision requirements; problem-solving courts; streamlined parole processes and expanded parole eligibility; and re-entry programs to reduce recidivism.

 BJA, in a public/private partnership with The Pew Charitable Trusts, launched the Justice Reinvestment Initiative (JRI) in 2010 as a multistaged process in which a jurisdiction reduces unnecessary incarceration, increases the cost-effectiveness of its criminal justice system and reinvests savings into high-performing public safety strategies.  JRI jurisdictions reinvest these cost savings into high-performing initiatives that make communities safer. In addition to reducing prison populations, justice reinvestment encourages states to embrace a culture of greater collaboration, data-driven decisionmaking, and increased use of evidence-based practices. While the full impact of justice reinvestment reforms is not yet known, the policies enacted in JRI states hold great promise to reduce prison populations, achieve substantial cost savings, and avert future growth.  However, many of the states found similar factors driving populations and costs for example, parole and probation revocation rates; sentencing policies and practices that favored incarceration of low-risk offenders over alternatives and that resulted in long lengths of stay; insufficient or inefficient community supervision, services, and support; and parole system processing delays and denials. The policy responses to these issues also overlapped, sharing themes of evidence-based practices and data-driven decisionmaking, including risk and needs assessments; accountability measures such as performance and outcome measure reporting; earned credits to encourage compliance with conditions of community supervision; sentencing changes; swift, certain and fair responses to technical probation and parole violations, mandatory post-incarceration supervision requirements; problem-solving courts; streamlined parole processes and expanded parole eligibility; and re-entry programs to reduce recidivism.

NIJ's New Investigator/Early Career Program provides support for non-tenured assistant professors to conduct applied research on topics relevant to NIJ's Office of Research and Evaluation (ORE) including justice systems, violence and victimization, and/or crime control and prevention. Applications must propose research led by a Principal Investigator (PI) who: was awarded a terminal degree within the four (4) years prior to September 30, 2016; holds a non- tenured assistant professor position at an accredited institution of higher education in the United States; and has not previously served as PI on an NIJ research grant or fellowship. Please note that those who have held Graduate Research Fellowships with NIJ are not deemed PIs under that award and are eligible under this solicitation. NIJ encourages applications from diverse social and behavior sciences including but not limited to criminal justice, criminology, economics, law, psychology, public health, and sociology.

The purposes of the NCIPC extramural violence prevention research program are to: 1. Build the scientific base for the prevention of violence by helping to expand and advance our understanding of the primary prevention of interpersonal violence. 2. Encourage professionals from a wide spectrum of disciplines of epidemiology, behavioral and social sciences, medicine, biostatistics, public health, health economics, law, and criminal justice to perform research in order to prevent violence more effectively. 3. Encourage investigators to propose research that involves the development and testing of primary prevention strategies, programs and policies designed to prevent interpersonal violence and reduce violence-related outcomes as well as dissemination, implementation, and translation research to enhance the adoption and maintenance of effective strategies among individuals, organizations, or communities.

The awards pursuant to this Notice of Funding Opportunity are contingent upon the availability of funds. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC) is soliciting investigator-initiated research that will help expand and advance our understanding about what works to prevent overdose from prescription and illicit opioids by developing and piloting, or rigorously evaluating novel primary or secondary prevention interventions. The intent of this Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) is to: (1) build the scientific base for the primary or secondary prevention of opioid overdose, and (2) encourage collaboration of scientists from a spectrum of disciplines including public health, epidemiology, law enforcement, social work, economics, and criminal justice to perform research that can identify ways to prevent opioid overdose more effectively. Interventions can be strategies, programs, or policies. Ultimately, this research is intended to improve state and local health departments’ ability to implement and improve interventions focused on preventing opioid-related deaths. Researchers are expected to develop and pilot, or rigorously evaluate novel primary or secondary prevention interventions that address prescription or illicit opioid overdose. Primary prevention approaches are expected to aim to prevent opioid misuse, abuse, and overdose before it occurs. Secondary prevention approaches are expected to focus on the more immediate responses to opioid overdose, such as emergency department services and linkage to treatment immediately following a nonfatal overdose.

The focus of this program is to enhance the capacity of state, local, tribal, and territorial criminal justice systems to prevent, investigate, respond, and prosecute economic, high-technology, and white collar crimes through specialized training and technical assistance. The program also supports the crime prevention of these types of crimes through education and training of law enforcement, corrections, probation/parole, prosecutors, first responders, and members of the community. The training classes are provided both in a classroom setting and online allowing state, local, tribal, and territorial officers, investigators, and prosecutors to attend the classes at no charge to their agency. The program also provides technical assistance to agencies, upon request, to assist with specific needs or investigative support.

The National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC) is seeking applications from qualified organizations for Injury Control Research Center (ICRC) grants. These centers will conduct high quality research and help translate scientific discoveries into practice for the prevention and control of fatal and nonfatal injuries and violence that support NCIPC’s priorities and mission. ICRCs are expected to blend Outreach, Training and Education, and Research activities into a program to reduce the number, risk, and public health impact of injury and violence in the U.S. The over-arching goals for the NCIPC ICRC program are to: Build the scientific base for the prevention and control of fatal and nonfatal injuries and violence. Integrate, in the context of a national program, professionals from a wide spectrum of disciplines of epidemiology, behavioral and social sciences, medicine, biostatistics, public health, health economics, law, criminal justice, and engineering to perform research and provided technical expertise in order to prevent and control injuries and/or violence more effectively. Encourage investigators to propose research that involves intervention development or translation of effective programs among individuals, organizations, or communities. Provide technical assistance to injury and/or violence prevention and control programs in their geographic region, including other researchers; universities; medical institutions; community groups; state and local government agencies, public health agencies; and policy makers. Act as sources of injury and/or violence prevention and control information for their constituents and stakeholders at the local, state, tribal, national, and global levels.

The program focuses on areas of strategic importance to U.S. national security policy. It seeks to increase the Department's intellectual capital in the social sciences and improve its ability to address future challenges and build bridges between the Department and the social science community. Minerva brings together universities, research institutions, and individual scholars and supports multidisciplinary and cross-institutional projects addressing specific topic areas determined by the Department of Defense. The Minerva Research Initiative aims to promote research in specific areas of social science and to promote a candid and constructive relationship between DoD and the social science academic community.

OJJDP seeks to award funding for assessing the effectiveness and/or cost efficiency of juvenile justice system reforms defined as systemic policy or practice changes within a locality or state that impact one or more segments of the juvenile justice system.

The Law & Social Sciences Program considers proposals that address social scientific studies of law and law-like systems of rules. The Program is inherently interdisciplinary and multi-methodological. Successful proposals describe research that advances scientific theory and understanding of the connections between law or legal processes and human behavior. Social scientific studies of law often approach law as dynamic, made in multiple arenas, with the participation of multiple actors. Fields of study include many disciplines, and often address problems including though not limited to: Crime, Violence and Punishment Economic Issues Governance Legal Decision Making Legal Mobilization and Conceptions of Justice Litigation and the Legal Profession

Nigeria has sought to tackle corruption through traditional legal, law enforcement, and governance-focused interventions. The United States seeks to support the Government of Nigeria (GON) to institutionalize a culture of accountability at the federal, state, and local levels of government through support for prevention and enforcement activities. The purpose of this program is to develop strategic national, state, and local level anti-corruption programming to complement traditional anti-corruption efforts led by the GON and donors. The project will work at the national, state, and local level, in each geopolitical zone, and in coordination with relevant civil society stakeholders thereby creating networks of change and collective action throughout Nigeria. Particular attention should be paid to anti-corruption efforts related to security and justice sectors.

Supporting civil society and creating a space for a diversity of people and ideas is a cornerstone of U.S. foreign policy abroad. To that end, the U.S. Mission to China (Embassy Beijing and Consulates General Chengdu, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Shenyang, and Wuhan) seeks to support activities that promote civic engagement, human rights, good governance, rule of law, environmental protection, education, and multilateral and economic engagement. Such programming will enhance and broaden the outreach of the U.S. Mission in China.

The U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (DRL) announces an open competition for organizations interested in submitting applications for projects to address the potential negative human rights and labor rights impacts of international mega-sporting events.

he United States Agency for International Development, Regional Development Mission for Asia (USAID/RDMA) is in the process of designing a new program to support microenterprise development in Lao PDR., including, but not limited to, agriculture sector. This is a Request for Information (RFI) which intends to provide public information to parties interested in USAID's support in the sector, as well as to collect any information and suggestions about the USAID's planned programming. Information collected is intended to help in the Mission's activity design and development for an intended future solicitation which is anticipated to be issued in the mid 2018. Requested Action: At this time, USAID is seeking responses to the questions of this RFI as detailed below. Please note USAID is not seeking technical or cost applications/proposals at this time. Responses to this RFI are voluntary and USAID will not pay respondents for any information provided in response to this RFI. If a future solicitation is issued, it will be announced on the Federal Business Opportunities website at www.fbo.gov or at www.grants.gov at a later date. Thank you for your assistance and interest in USAID programs. Sincerely, /s/ Gregory Wang Regional Agreement/Contracting Officer USAID/RDMA, Bangkok, Thailand

The Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB), U.S. Department of Labor announces the availability of approximately $1.5 million total costs for one or more cooperative agreements to fund a project to integrate the issues of child labor alleviation and acceptable conditions of work into women's economic empowerment initiatives. The project intends to support service providers and policy makers when working with women entrepreneurs to ensure women-led enterprises can improve livelihoods responsibly without resorting to child labor or harmful labor practices. The project's outcomes include: Outcome 1: Increased understanding of child labor and acceptable conditions of work in the context of women's economic empowerment initiatives. Outcome 2: Increased availability of tools to integrate child labor awareness and acceptable conditions of work into women's economic empowerment initiatives. Outcome 3: Demonstrated effectiveness of tools in mitigating child labor and unacceptable conditions of work in women's economic empowerment initiatives. Outcome 4: Increased awareness and adoption of tools to integrate child labor awareness and acceptable conditions of work into women's economic empowerment initiatives by a broad range of stakeholders.The duration of the project will be a maximum of 4 years (48 months) from the effective date of the award.

The Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB), U.S. Department of Labor announces the availability of approximately $4 million total costs for up to two cooperative agreements of up to $2 million total costs each to fund technical assistance project(s) in two different countries to improve implementation of social compliance systems that promote acceptable conditions of work and the elimination of child labor and forced labor in coffee supply chains. Each cooperative agreement will fund a project in one of the following countries in the Latin America/Caribbean region, where DOL's List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor (TVPRA List) documents child labor and/or forced labor concerns: Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, or Nicaragua. Project outcomes include: 1) Adoption of a robust and sustainable social compliance system by private sector stakeholders in coffee supply chains; 2) Strengthened capacity of private sector stakeholders to implement a robust and sustainable social compliance system in coffee supply chains; and 3) New social compliance tools on child labor, forced labor, and acceptable conditions of work piloted in the coffee supply chain. The duration of the project will be a maximum of 4 years (48 months) from the effective date of the award. Applicants may apply for one or two of the cooperative agreements listed above. No more than two applications per applicant will be accepted. If applying for two cooperative agreements, applicants should not combine countries in a single application, but must submit separate applications for each country. Each application should request no more than $2 million total costs in funding.