Survey of Public Defenders Supplement | O BJS 2022 171278

Opportunity Information: Apply for O BJS 2022 171278

The Survey of Public Defenders Supplement (SPDS) is a continuation cooperative agreement offered by the Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), under OJP, to extend and complete work tied to a national data collection effort about public defense. The larger purpose is to support OJP priorities around civil rights and racial equity, improving access to justice, strengthening community safety, and building trust in the justice system by producing credible, national-level statistics on the public defender workforce and the resources available to them.

This supplement specifically funds a short, focused project period running from July 1, 2022 through January 31, 2023. During that window, the award is intended to support three main tasks that move the project from pilot testing toward full implementation: first, assessing office reimbursement strategies (in practical terms, examining how offices handle and track reimbursements and what approaches may help improve participation and data completeness); second, conducting a data quality analysis of the pilot data already collected (looking for issues such as missing data patterns, inconsistencies, measurement error, and how well questions performed across different types of offices and respondents); and third, compiling a final report that pulls together findings and recommendations, essentially serving as the roadmap for how to implement the survey at full scale.

The SPDS effort is designed to produce national estimates in three core areas: public defender workload (for example, caseload pressures and the distribution of work), access to litigation and support resources (such as investigators, social workers, experts, training, and other tools needed for effective representation), and compensation (pay structures and related staffing realities). Because public defense systems vary widely across states and localities, a key value of the project is creating standardized, comparable information that can be used by policymakers, justice system leaders, researchers, and advocates to understand capacity and gaps across jurisdictions.

The supplement builds directly on an earlier award that handled foundational development work. That earlier phase included revising the sampling plan originally proposed in the Survey of Publicly Appointed Defense Attorneys Design Study, developing two web-based instruments (an office-level survey and a defender-level survey), and conducting a pilot test that evaluated response rates under different outreach strategies. In other words, the base project created the survey architecture and tested whether and how offices and individual defenders would respond; this continuation funding is meant to refine the approach based on what the pilot revealed and to package clear recommendations for full rollout.

From an administrative standpoint, this opportunity is listed as a continuation (Opportunity Number O-BJS-2022-171278) under CFDA 16.734, uses a cooperative agreement instrument (which typically implies substantial federal involvement in project direction or oversight), and anticipated making one award. The ceiling amount was $163,879. Eligibility is described broadly as "Others" with additional clarification referenced in the original posting. The opportunity was created May 5, 2022, with an original closing date of May 20, 2022.

The legal authority cited for BJS to fund this work comes from Section 302 of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act, which authorizes BJS to make grants or enter into cooperative agreements and contracts with public agencies, higher education institutions, private organizations, or individuals to collect and analyze criminal justice data and produce reliable national statistics, as reflected in 34 U.S.C. 10132(c)(1).

• The Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics in the information and statistics sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Survey of Public Defenders Supplement" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 16.734.
• This funding opportunity was created on May 05, 2022.
• Applicants must submit their applications by May 20, 2022. (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 $163,879.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

Apply for O BJS 2022 171278

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