RFI contractor questions with MDOC responses.docx

DOCX document 148 KB Posted

Attached to
Request to bid Prisoner Store Services with Vending option
Solicitation number
RFI 472 190000000039 2
Issued by
Michigan

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Written by GovTribe AI ·

This document is a Request for Information (RFI) responses file between the Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC) and prospective contractors regarding prisoner store services, friends and family care packages, and vending machine services across MDOC facilities. The RFI addresses three primary service categories: vending machines in employee break rooms and prisoner visiting areas, pop machines within secure perimeters, and prisoner store and care package delivery services. MDOC currently operates vending services across 30 facilities, with five facilities additionally offering pop machines accessible to prisoners. Each facility currently manages independent vending agreements with separate product selections and pricing structures. The RFI seeks information from potential bidders regarding their capacity to consolidate and standardize these services, including details on payment mechanisms, product offerings, delivery capabilities, and operational requirements. Deliveries must occur during business hours before 1 p.m. on weekdays, excluding state holidays and weekends. If direct prisoner delivery is required, contractor staff must be accompanied by Corrections Officers.

MDOC has not consolidated current vending sales data, commission rates, or pricing information from individual facilities, indicating this information may be provided during a future Request for Proposal if the service is pursued. The department does not anticipate providing storage space within facilities but indicated willingness to consider warehouse space if permanent contractor staff are assigned to facilities. Approximately 60 percent of the prisoner population currently has access to tablets, which MDOC suggests as a potential ordering mechanism, though alternative digital ordering platforms such as prisoner phone systems are also being explored. MDOC seeks responses identifying what information bidders would need to submit competitive proposals, including visitor frequency data available from Attachment B and delivery schedule information in Attachment C. The department remains undecided on whether vending services will be included in a formal solicitation and has not yet issued a Request for Proposal.

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Other files

File Type Posted
RFI for Prisoner Store.doc DOC document
Attachment C Delivery Schedules.xlsx XLSX spreadsheet
Attachment B Facility Address List with visitor numbers.docx DOCX document

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Q #

Document and Section
Page# / Requirement#
Question
State’s Response
1
RFI – Prisoner Store, Friends, and Family Care Packs, and Vending Services.

Section: Program Overview

Pg. 3, Section 1, Paragraph 4
Can you please provide details as to the number, type, location and audience of the current vending operation at each facility?

MDOC currently has 30 facilities with vending services. Each facility has its own vending services agreement in place currently. MDOC procurement has not consolidated the information about vending services from the facilities, and anticipates it may take some time to gather. In your RFI response please include what information you would need to know in order to submit a bid in the future for vending service. Currently all 30 facilities have vending machines (various types and number of machines) in two areas of facilities. First is the employee break rooms which are only accessible by MDOC employees. Second area in facilities using vending are the Prisoner Visiting rooms. These room would service Prisoners, Prisoner friends, and Prisoner Family. MDOC currently also has 5 facilities that have pop machines within the secure perimeter that Prisoners can buy credit for and purchase their own pop. MDOC may be interested in expanding this service to more facilities.

2
RFI – Prisoner Store, Friends, and Family Care Packs, and Vending Services.

Section: Program Overview

Pg. 3, Section 1, Paragraph 4
Can you please provide a listing of items currently being vended through machines at these locations and the audience in which the item is being vended to?

MDOC Central Office/Procurement does not have this information at this time. Facilities have their own agreements and decide what is available through the vending machines. If MDOC decides to include this service in a bid, it may include separate products based on audience. What is allowed in an employee vending machine may be different than that of a visiting room. MDOC is interested in healthy options that are available for employee vending services. RFI responses should include what potential bidders would need to know to submit a future bid for vending services.

3
RFI – Prisoner Store, Friends, and Family Care Packs, and Vending Services.

Section: Program Overview

Pg. 3, Section 1, Paragraph 4
Can you please provide the current price points if all items sold through the various vending programs?

MDOC Procurement does not have this information at this time as each facility is operating independently with their agreements. This would take additional time to gather and may be available for any Request For Proposal. RFI responses should include what information potential bidders would need to know to submit a bid for vending services.

4
RFI – Prisoner Store, Friends, and Family Care Packs, and Vending Services.

Section: Program Overview

Pg. 3, Section 1, Paragraph 4
Do you anticipate providing a vending solution to the entire DOC population or only select classifications within each facilities?

In general, it would be entire population. Some Classifications do not have visiting rights and would be automatically excluded. Pop machines are generally reserved for lower level classifications/facilities. If a bid is published, all classification levels approved for visitation would have access to the same items in vending machines in the visiting rooms.

5
RFI – Prisoner Store, Friends, and Family Care Packs, and Vending Services.

Section: Program Overview

Pg. 3, Section 1, Paragraph 4
Are the current vending machines connected to any form of IT Network?

· Can you define the owner of the network – Vendor or State?

No, current vending machines are not on IT networks. MDOC may require a universal payment mechanism for vending services that is standardized across all MDOC facilities and may require a network.

6
RFI – Prisoner Store, Friends, and Family Care Packs, and Vending Services.

Section: Kiosks

Pg. 4, Section: Kiosks, F
Do inmates currently wear any type of wristbands that include a Barcode that can be used as an inmate identifier?

No MDOC Prisoners do not wear wristbands. MDOC Prisoners do carry Prisoner IDs. These IDs are carried by Prisoners at all time and have a bar code which may be used.

7
RFI – Prisoner Store, Friends, and Family Care Packs, and Vending Services.

Section: Response Preparation; Prisoner Store Services

Pg. 7, Section: Prisoner Store Services, #8
Should the contractor offer the same amount of items that are offered today?

The number of items approved on the Prisoner store should have approximately the same amount of items in the future. MDOC may consider reducing the list based on sales of items and need. MDOC would also be willing to consider some proposed additional items, but would ultimately be at the MDOC’s discretion. At minimum, MDOC will require all items on Attachment A of the RFI.

8
RFI – Prisoner Store, Friends, and Family Care Packs, and Vending Services.

Section: Response Preparation; Prisoner Store Services

Pg. 7, Section: Prisoner Store Services, #12, A
Will delivery to the prisoner population be required for both Prisoner Store and Care Package?

Direct delivery may not be a requirement for either Store or Care Packages. At a minimum, delivery to each facility or warehouse will be required. Delivery directly to the population for either service is a consideration. Please provide additional information in your RFI response in regard to what information a bidder would need to know to submit a bid proposal for these services.

9
RFI – Prisoner Store, Friends, and Family Care Packs, and Vending Services.

Section: Response Preparation; Prisoner Store Services

Pg. 7, Section: Prisoner Store Services, #12, A
Please provide average number of orders by facility and current delivery schedule for both Prisoner Store and Care Package if both services are required.

SP= Secure/Care Package. Please refer to Attachment C for schedule.

10
RFI – Prisoner Store, Friends, and Family Care Packs, and Vending Services.

Section: Response Preparation; Prisoner Store Services

Pg. 7, Section: Prisoner Store Services, #12, A
Are there any time of the day the Contractor is not allowed to make deliveries?

Non-business facility hours (4pm to 8am next day). Routine business hours are preferred. MDOC preference would be before 1pm.

11
RFI – Prisoner Store, Friends, and Family Care Packs, and Vending Services.

Section: Response Preparation; Prisoner Store Services

Pg. 7, Section: Prisoner Store Services, #12, A
Are there any days of the week the Contractor is not allowed to make deliveries?

State holidays and weekends.

12
RFI – Prisoner Store, Friends, and Family Care Packs, and Vending Services.

Section: Response Preparation; Prisoner Store Services

Pg. 7, Section: Prisoner Store Services, #12, A
Will our delivery staffs be accompanied by a Correction Officer during the time of deliveries?

Yes, if deliveries are completed by the contractor directly to prisoners, contractor staff would be accompanied by a Corrections Officer during time of delivery.

13
RFI – Prisoner Store, Friends, and Family Care Packs, and Vending Services.

Section: Response Preparation; Prisoner Store Services

Pg. 7, Section: Prisoner Store Services, #12, B
Request asks to provide both Prisoner Store and Vending Machine services and does not request delivery of Care Packages, will delivery of Care Packages be required?

If MDOC requests delivery directly to the Prisoner via the Request For Proposal, than it would include Care Packages as well. MDOC is assuming the question is in reference to direct to prisoner delivery. If direct delivery to Prisoner is not required or requested in the Request For Proposal, delivery of Store and Care Packages to a facility/warehouse would still be required.

14
RFI – Prisoner Store, Friends, and Family Care Packs, and Vending Services.

Section: Response Preparation; Prisoner Store Services

Pg. 7, Section: Prisoner Store Services, #12, B
Will MDOC provide storage space inside each facility to store vending products?

No, MDOC does not anticipate providing any storage in facilities to vending machine companies. MDOC is not considering this at this time. Some facilities may have storage available and are currently providing to some vendors, but MDOC can’t guarantee going forward or at every facility.

15
RFI – Prisoner Store, Friends, and Family Care Packs, and Vending Services.

Section: Response Preparation; Prisoner Store Services

Pg. 7, Section: Prisoner Store Services, #12, B
Will MDOC provide warehouse space throughout State to store vending products to allow contractor to service multiple facilities from these warehouse locations?

This may be a possibility that MDOC considers. It would depend on need of Contractor and availability of space. If there was permanent contractor staff assigned to facility to monitor, we may consider. Please provide additional information in RFI response as necessary. If this were an option, what responsibilities would fall on MDOC?

16
RFI – Prisoner Store, Friends, and Family Care Packs, and Vending Services.

Section: Response Preparation; Prisoner Store Services

Pg. 8, Section: Prisoner Store Services, #15
Can you please provide the % of population that has accessibility to tablets?

Currently number of tablets and functionality of tablets is limited. Current population using tablets is around 60%. Please provide additional information about potentially using other contractor kiosks (example: digital prisoner phones) as ordering mechanisms.

17
RFI – Prisoner Store, Friends, and Family Care Packs, and Vending Services.

Section: Response Preparation; Vending Services

Pg. 8, Section: Vending Services, #17, C
Can you please provide the number of visitors per week at each facility?

MDOC was able to get visitor information on all facilities for one year. Please refer to Attachment B and divide by 52 for weekly average.

18
Appendix B – Shipping Addresses
Page 93
Please confirm that this is the complete list of facilities that have vending machines for employees, visitors, and inmates. If not, please provide a complete list that shows each facility you are looking to include in this process
Please see Attachment B.
19
RFI Response Preparation
Pages 7-9
Please confirm that our response to this RFI are answering the questions found on these three pages.
Yes, and any additional info you can provide.
20
RFI Request for Information Instructions
Page 2
In order to receive current vending sales and commission rates at each facility, will a formal submittal to the Freedom of Information Act be required or will this be provided by you as part of this process.
You could certainly FOIA this information, but you incur costs associated with the request as it would take time and resources to gather this information. If RFI responses could include what information bidders would need to know to submit a bid, MDOC may be able to provide that information during the Request For Proposal/ Bid process. At this time MDOC has not decided if this service would be included in a bid or not, so it would be premature to gather this information for an RFI. If a Request for Proposal is issued for this service, MDOC could include this information as well as other information identified through this RFI that bidders would need to submit a responsive bid.

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