STATEMENT OF WORK INHOUSE TREATMENT RFP1000013.doc

STATEMENT OF WORK

Introduction

The D.C. Pretrial Services Agency (PSA) is an independent entity within the Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency (CSOSA). CSOSA was established by the National Capital Revitalization and Self-Government Improvement Act of 1997 and was certified as a federal agency under the Executive Branch in August 2000. PSA assists judicial officers in the Superior Court for the District of Columbia and the United States District Court for the District of Columbia in formulating release recommendations that reasonably assure that those on conditional release return to court and do not engage in criminal activity. PSA also provides supervision and services to defendants awaiting trial. PSA has long been a leader in the D.C. criminal justice system and has been recognized nationally for its pretrial drug testing and innovative supervision and treatment programs.

1.

Background For more than 25 years, PSA has integrated drug use prevention, intervention, and treatment into its supervision framework. In 1984, PSA became the first pretrial program to drug test arrestees routinely before initial court appearance and offer regular drug surveillance as a condition of pretrial supervision. PSA also developed contractual and in-house substance abuse treatment resources, including the Superior Court Drug Intervention Program (Drug Court, established in 1993) and the New Directions Treatment Unit (2000). Combined with regularly scheduled urinalysis, these strategies have yielded impressive results. In FY2009, only 37 percent of defendants identified as drug users at initial appearance continued to test positive while under pretrial supervision. Moreover, PSA made over 1,800 placements to substance abuse treatment: 74 percent of treated defendants showed a reduction and 88 percent remained arrest-free while in treatment. So far in FY2010, PSA’s daily supervision caseload includes nearly 600 defendants under supervised substance abuse treatment.

To further enhance in-house treatment services, in 2009, PSA launched its Support, Treatment, & Addiction Recovery Services (PSA STARS) program. This pilot effort created a single combined treatment program that provides Drug Court and New Directions defendants with a wider array of group offerings and allows PSA to better match individual treatment need to specialized group interventions. Enhancements include a more intensive group treatment regimen to lessen the demand for expensive residential treatment; gender specific groups; specialty treatment for defendants with co-occurring mental health disorders and substance abuse issues.

Despite these successes, PSA has identified several potential shortcomings that may affect the availability or efficacy of its substance abuse treatment programs and require independent review.

· In FY2009, just over 50 percent of defendants assessed as needing substance abuse treatment actually received these services. This may have left hundreds of defendants in supervision levels insufficient to address their risk of pretrial misconduct.

· PSA STARS requires defendants to attend more group sessions: for example, the average number of groups attended by defendants completing PSA STARS is more than two and a half times greater than for treatment placements in FY2008. The greater number of groups may be an unintended obstacle for some defendants to complete treatment.

· In FY2009, PSA substance abuse case managers facilitated more than 3,800 hours of group sessions, compared to 1,833 hours in FY 2008. With the added group requirements for PSA STARS, case managers may have less time for one-on-one counseling and supervision of treatment defendants.

· PSA’s treatment protocol has undergone only one independent evaluation that was limited to the Drug Court.

2.

Description of Services

The Contractor will conduct a qualitative and quantitative assessment of PSA’s in-house substance abuse treatment practices, including but not limited to:

· how the Agency identifies and assesses defendants for potential substance abuse and mental health treatment placement;

· its procedures for placing assessed defendants into treatment and individual modalities;

· the current outcome and performance measures used to gauge the effect of in-house and contractor treatment services;

· the protocols for administering in-house treatment services; and

· the structure of case management within PSA’s substance abuse treatment and mental health units.

The Contractor will compare each assessed area to existing evidence-based and promising substance abuse treatment practices within the criminal justice and behavioral sciences fields. The assessment will emphasize the areas where PSA’s practices conform to and deviate from these comparison standards and the appropriate steps and corresponding action planning needed to improve deficient areas.

3.

Technical Requirement Working with staff of PSA’s Office of Operations Treatment Program Area (Treatment) and Office of Research, Analysis and Development (RAD), the Contractor will review and assess the Agency’s treatment assessment and service provision against identified and accepted evidence-based substance abuse treatment practices . Evidence-based practices may be identified from the most current information on drug courts and other problem-solving criminal justice initiatives, literature on substance abuse treatment from the behavioral sciences and criminal justice fields, existing standards and “critical elements” for substance abuse treatment programs, and other source identified by the Contractor or PSA. The assessment will coordinate with and be supported by existing Treatment and RAD quality assurance and evaluation efforts as well as PSA data on treatment defendants and program practices. The objective will be to identify areas where PSA’s practices conform to and deviate from the comparison standards and the appropriate steps and corresponding action planning needed to improve deficient areas and heighten PSA’s ability to reduce drug use and pretrial misconduct by substance-abusing defendants.

The Contractor’s assessment design must, at a minimum, address the following areas:

Identification of treatment-indicated defendants: PSA requires treatment assessment of any defendant with at least three noncompliant drug surveillance tests.

We adopted this procedure as a “triage’ method to identify defendants in need of treatment assessment rather than providing assessments to all defendants at the point of release (roughly 85 defendants per day). The Contractor’s assessment should determine if this and other PSA screening and identification protocol meet acceptable best practices.

Substance abuse treatment assessment: PSA uses an automated version of the Addiction Severity Index (ASI) to gauge treatment need and employs a dedicated treatment, mental health and social services assessment staff. In FY2009, PSA completed over 3,600 assessments on 99 percent of referred defendants. The Contractor’s assessment should determine if the instrument meets acceptable best practices; if assessors have been afforded adequate on-going training on how to correctly administer the instrument; if the instrument is sufficient to generate ASAM-based recommendations as intended; and if the position description for the assessors outlines the adequate duties, requirements, and qualifications to perform the required tasks. . Contractor may be required to participate on a panel of subject matter experts tasked with providing a qualitative review of assessments and related treatment placement recommendations to assist in answering the above questions.

Mental health screening: PSA utilizes a mental health screening tool to determine those whose mental health diagnosis and/or symptoms warrant placement on the supervision unit designed for those with chronic, persistent, and pervasive mental illness. This screening tool was compiled by internal subject matter experts and has not been validated. The Contractor’s assessment should determine if the mental health screening tool is sufficient to identify those most in need of mental health services and close supervision; and to identify if there are other standardized and validated tools, which could be utilized instead.

Appropriateness of group interventions to current best practices and treated population: One of the objectives of PSA STARS was to align in-house group session curricula and management to accepted evidence based practices. The Contractor’s assessment should determine if this objective was achieved. This should include if the curricula are a cultural and environmental fit for PSA’s treatment supervision population and if they are being successfully implemented at PSA. This assessment will not include an evaluation of individual staff performance, but will gauge overall implementation program-wide. The curricula/interventions that will need to be assessed include, but may not be limited to The Matrix Intensive Outpatient Treatment Model, Criminal Conduct & Substance Abuse Treatment: Strategies for Self Improvement and Change, The Twelve Step Facilitation (TSF) Program, Texas Christian University’s (TCU) mapping steps and gender specific interventions, and SMART Recovery.

Role of PSA staff in administering treatment and supervision services: PSA treatment case managers have as primary duties close supervision of treatment defendants (including regular face-to-face contact, monitoring of regular drug testing requirements, and responding to supervision and treatment noncompliance) , group session facilitation and individual counseling. The Contractor’s assessment should determine if current staff work requirements and established protocol conform to best practices.

Treatment outcome and performance measures: PSA currently applies three outcome measures to each of its supervision and treatment programs: 1) reduction in rearrests, especially rearrests on violent crimes, 2) reduction in failures to appear for scheduled court appearances, and 3) successful completion of community-based supervision without revocation of pretrial release. Specific treatment performance measures include the percent of defendants referred for assessment who actually are assessed (99% in FY2009), assessed defendants found in need of treatment who actually receive these services (52% in FY2009), reduction in drug usage while in treatment (74%), and the rate of staff responses to noncompliant behavior (87% for the treatment units). In addition, PSA keeps other mission critical and management data, such as the number of successful treatment completions and total numbers of defendants placed and managed by treatment units. The Contractor’s assessment should determine if these measures are identified and gauged properly and outline other outcome, performance, and mission critical indicators for a high-functioning treatment program.

The Contractor also may suggest other assessment areas for PSA’s consideration in their application or subsequent Assessment Project Plan. (See C.6, Deliverables)

Supporting Internal Evaluations and Assessments

Contractor activities will be supported by and coordinated with PSA’s current evaluation and quality assurance efforts, including:

Review of assessment practices and protocol: Operations staff have recently undergone a 30 day work-load analysis of all activities occurring on the PSA Social Services & Assessment Center, which upon completion will include a qualitative review of the assessments completed during the review period utilizing a panel of internal and external subject matter experts.

Identification and resolution of roadblocks to treatment placement: RAD staff are studying a randomized selection of defendants assessed as treatment-needy but never receiving those services to identify defendant- and system-related issues related to non-placement.

Process Review of PSA STARS: RAD and Operations staff are investigating whether the described PSA STARS model was implemented fully and, if so, to determine the new procedures’ affects on program completion rates, reduction in drug use, compliance to court orders, reductions in pretrial misconduct (including rearrest), reductions in need for residential services, increased ability to match defendant need to group intervention.

4.

Optional Services The vendor will be required to prepare an implementation plan for the government review and acceptance. The implementation plan should include specific steps and actions that will be carried out by the contractor to support PSA’s RAD office and Treatment program in implementing the recommendations outlined in the assessment final report. The implementation plan will also be submitted to the Contract Officer for review and approval and presented by the vendor to the Agency senior staff and key program officials for approval. During the two-month implementation period, it is expected that the vendor will meet with the Treatment program and RAD regularly with key staff individually and collectively during this two month implementation period to discuss and assist with specific strategies for implementation. A major part of the implementation plan will also include ensuring that the performance and program outcome data necessary to assess program success is accessible and comprehensive. The vendor will be required to produce a comprehensive implementation plan, two status reports detailing the activities and progress made at the end of each month, and a final implementation report discussing important activities, challenges, and successes. The two-month implementation phase will only be funded contingent upon the satisfactory completion of the four-month assessment phase and final assessment report and the availability of additional funding.

5.

CONTRACTOR KEY PERSONNEL

All Contractor Personnel provided in support of this contract shall be considered key personnel.

6.

DELIVERABLES

(a) The Contractor shall provide the following deliverables:

Phase I: Assessment

Phase II: Implementation

Design and Final Implementation

Plan/Meeting

(b) Deliverables shall be provided in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation Procedures and PSA Acquisition Policies and Procedures. Electronic copies of all deliverables will be provided to the contracting officer and the COTR.

7.

GOVERNMENT RESPONSIBILITIES

(a) PSA will provide the Contractor’s personnel access to the Agency Information Technology System after completion of appropriate security background checks.

(b) PSA will grant Contractor personnel security approvals (provided Contractor personnel meet specific Federal security requirements) or escorts as required to access the site for service delivery and provide access to all areas where equipment is installed.

8.

RIGHTS OF EGRESS AND INGRESS

During the life of this contract, the rights of ingress to and egress from any PSA facility for the Contractor shall be made available as required. During all operation on Government premises, the Contractor shall comply with the rules and regulations governing the conduct of personnel and the operation of the facility.

9.

GOVERNMENT-CONTRACTOR RELATIONSHIPS

(a) The Government and the Contractor understand and agree that the support services to be delivered under this contract by the Contractor are non-personal services and the parties recognize and agree that no employer-employee relationships exist or will exist under the contract between the Government and the Contractor and/or between the Government and Contractor’s employees. It is, therefore, in the best interest of the Government to afford the parties a full and complete understanding of their respective obligations.

(b) Contractor personnel under this contract shall not:

(1) Be placed in a position where they are appointed or employed by a Federal employee or are under the supervision, direction or evaluation of a Federal employee.

(2) Be placed in a staff or policy making position.

(3) Be placed in a position of supervision, direction or evaluation over PSA personnel or personnel of other contractors, or become part of a Government organization.

(c) Employee Relationship: The services to be performed under this contract do not require the Contractor or its employee to exercise personal judgment and discretion on behalf of the Government. Rules, regulations, directions, and requirements which are issued by PSA Management under their responsibility for good order, administration, and security are applicable to all personnel who enter a Government installation. This is not construed or interpreted to establish any degree of Government control which is inconsistent with a non-personal services contract.

(d) The Contractor will not be paid for performance of personal services.

10.

LIMITATIONS AND CONSTRAINTS

The Contractor shall comply with the following limitation and constraints of the contract.

(a) The Contractor shall not disclose sensitive or proprietary information of, or in the possession of, PSA contractors or business partners to unauthorized persons. The Contractor shall be the subject to any and all penalties by law for unlawful disclosure of PSA information.

(b) The Contractor is required to abide by PSA’s guidance for protecting sensitive information and proprietary information. Any such information made available in any format shall be used only for the purpose of carrying out the provisions of the agreement. Such information shall not be divulged or made known in any manner to any unauthorized person. The Contractor shall not remove any sensitive material from Government sites without Government approval. The Contractor shall immediately notify the COTR upon discovery of any inadvertent disclosures of information.

(c) All products created under this agreement are the property of PSA. The Contractor agrees not to distribute nor disclose any products or the final assessment results without the expressed written permission from the PSA Director.

11.

Contractor Personnel 11.1 The contractor shall provide personnel that meet the standard established with the proposal submission throughout the life of the contract. Any change of personnel must be submitted to the contracting officer in writing and include a resume of the intended personnel. The Government reserves the right to accept or reject the proposed replacement employee after review of the resume and a determination by the contracting officer that the proposed employee does not meet the established standard offered at award.

11.2 Any replacement personnel must complete the security requirements identified in Section 9, Security Requirements for Contractor Personnel, of the contract. In the event the replacement personnel is not approved due to instances regarding the security requirements, the contract is responsible for continuing to delivery services without a lapse. It is strongly suggested that the contractor provide security paperwork on a backup employee to continue services in the event of an illness or absence of the primary on-site employee.

11.3 All potential offerors are advised that this solicitation includes the clause FAR 52.212-4 (Oct 2003) for Commercial Items, which at paragraph (t) Central Contractor Registration (CCR), requires all contractors doing business with the Federal Government after September 30, 2003, to be registered in the CCR database. Offerors shall include their Data Universal Number System (DUNS) number in their offers. Registration in the CCR database shall be verified prior to award by entering the potential awardee's DUNS number into the CCR database. Failure to complete the registration procedures outlined in this clause may result in elimination from consideration for award.

12.

Security Requirements for Contractor Personnel:

All Contractor personnel utilized under this contract shall submit to a Government background investigation prior to performing work on-site at any PSA/CSOSA facility. The intent and purpose of this investigation is to preclude the assignment of any individual who poses a threat to the Government or successful work completion due to past unlawful or inappropriate behavior. Contractor employees must be U.S. citizens, or be lawfully permitted to reside in the United States and possess a valid work permit.

12.1 Background Investigations:

The Contractor shall ensure that a Contractor employee does not begin work under the contract until the appropriate background checks are conducted and approved by the PSA/CSOSA Office of Security. When a preliminary background check on an individual has been determined to be favorable, the Office of Security will issue an interim employment security approval to the Office of Procurement, who in turn will notify the Contractor. Only at that time may the Contractor notify an individual to begin work at a PSA/CSOSA facility. Derogatory information, falsification of any forms or refuses to supply information and/or forms may be considered justification to reject the individual.

When an individual is selected for contractual employment, the Contractor shall have the individual complete a background investigation package consisting of the items identified below. The individual is generally provided 10 days to complete and return the forms to the Office of Procurement. The following forms will be provided and must be completed:

(1) CSOSA-SEC-0008, Agency Credit Release Form

(2) FD 258, "FBI Fingerprint Card"

(3) Standard Form 85P, Questionnaire for Public Trust Positions

(4) Contractor's Preliminary Background Check Form

It is the responsibility of the Contractor, in order to ensure complete coverage for the services specified herein, to maintain an adequate staff of individuals meeting all of the requirements of this contract. To that end, the Contractor should submit the names of additional individuals, so that the requisite preliminary background checks can be conducted. PSA/CSOSA has the right to request any additional information necessary in order to adjudicate the completed background investigation. If a Contractor employee fails to provide any of the above information, or to cooperate with PSA/CSOSA Office of Security, the individual will be removed immediately.

PSA reserves the right to determine suitability of any contractor or contractor employee to work on this contract prior to the employee gaining access to any PSA facility or system.

13.0 Contractor's Responsibility:

(1) The Contractor shall ensure that no Contractor employee commences performance prior to completion of the background investigation, unless the Office of Security grants approval. Any individual who has been temporarily removed or resigned may be required to undergo another background investigation before resuming any position.

(2) Prior to forwarding the forms, the Contractor is responsible for reviewing the forms for completeness. The forms should be forwarded with a cover letter indicating that the forms are for reinvestigation of a current Contractor employee.

7.3 Government's Responsibility:

(1) The Government will conduct a background investigation on all individuals involved in the contract. Derogatory information developed from this investigation may be considered justification to reject the applicant. The Government also reserves the right to reinvestigate all Contractor personnel working on this contract for any reason.

(2) Upon completion of the background investigation, the Office of Security will review the results to determine suitability for the individual. Primary concern in the review process is to decide if the individual's presence in Agency facilities poses a potential risk to CSOSA, the Government, or the general public.

14.0 Contract Administration:

14.1 Invoices shall contain applicable information required by FAR 52.232-25, Prompt Payment, and include the following:

(a) Contractor Name, Tax ID Number and Dun & Bradstreet Number

(b) Mailing "Remit To" Address

(c) Contractor Point of Contact Information

(d) Contract Number

(e) Invoice Number

(f) Description of Services

(g) Service Dates (h)Unit of Cost

(i) Number of Hours

(j) Total Money Amount

14.2 Payment for services rendered shall be made no more than once per month upon receipt of an original and three copies of properly executed invoice.

14.3 Invoices for the work performed under this contract shall be submitted monthly to the Government for payment for services provided. The government shall review and ensure that the information is correct and verify that the services have been received. The invoice will then be certified for payment.

14.4 If an invoice is received with inaccurate information, that invoice shall be returned unpaid by the Government.

14.5 The Government will not hold the invoice or make corrections but rather return the improper invoice in dispute to Contractor. The Contractor shall make the required corrections and submitted a corrected invoice for payment. All follow-up invoices shall be clearly marked "Duplicate of Original".

15.

Instructions to Offerors:

15.1 A streamlined best value award process shall be used for evaluation of the proposals, and the award will be made on the basis of the proposal that provides the best value to the government considering price and other factors while meeting or exceeding the acceptability standards. The Government reserves the right to award without discussions. Proposal shall be evaluated on past performance, technical and price in that order of importance.

15.2 Proposal pages shall be 8.5 x 11 inches; single spaced with at least one (1) inch margin on top, bottom, left and right, and printed head-to-foot. The font size shall be no less than Times New Roman 12 point.

15.3 The offeror shall include all sections of the proposal in a binder with labeled tabs identifying each section of the proposal. The offeror shall submit one original and three copies of the entire proposal and each copy shall be in a separate binder. Each binder shall be clearly identified.

15.4 The proposal sections and sub-sections and related content are herby identified:

1. Contract and Associated Information

1A. Standard Form 1449 (blocks 30a, 30b and 30 to be completed by offeror)

1B. Copies of Certifications and Diplomas

1C. Financial Reference Form -

2. Technical

2A. Offeror to address statement of work requirements

3. Past Performance

3A. Offeror to provide past performance information

4. Price

4A. Contract Pricing -

15.5 The offeror shall submit copies of professional certifications and/or diplomas to support stated qualifications applicable and relevant to the stated requirement with proposals. The offeror shall include a cover page for the copies of professional certifications and/or diplomas listing those certifications on the cover page numerically in ascending order.

15.6 The offeror shall provide the resume/s of employees similar to those who will be providing on-site services. If the offeror is successful and receives a contract award, the resume/s submitted with the proposal will establish the standard that must be met for any replacement personnel for the life of the contract. Replacement personnel will have at a minimum the same level of experience and certifications as those submitted with the technical proposal submittal and accepted for award by the Government.

15.7 Any requirements in this solicitation that will not be met as described precisely in the solicitation must be clearly stated in the proposal as an exception to the requirements.

15.8 Offerors should highlight any proposal to make enhancements or modifications of any kind to the outlined services, service delivery structure, or service delivery schedule.

15.9 Offerors will indicate specifically how many practitioners will be utilized; and how the labor will be divided.

15.10 Offerors shall document three (3) of the most recent and relevant past and present contracts performed for Federal agencies and commercial customers within the last three (3) years.

15.10.1

The following detail information shall be provided for each past performance reference:

(1) Company name

(2) Service provided

(3) Contracting Officer Name and Phone Number

(4) Contract Number

(5) Contract Dollar Amount

(6) Period of Performance

15.12 Oral Presentations shall be conducted and held with all responsive and responsible offerors conforming to the requirements of the solicitation based on applicable evaluation rules and regulations relevant to this procurement.

15.13 It is anticipated that contract award will be made without conducting discussions, however, the Government may request clarification of any points addressed which are unclear and may ask for elaboration by the offeror on any point which was not adequately supported. Any such interchange between the offeror and the Government will be for clarification only and will not constitute discussions within the meaning of FAR 15.306.

15.14 Cost/Price information shall not be included in the written oral presentation documents or the technical portion of the proposal.

15.15 Should the offeror fail to meet the scheduled time and date for the oral presentation, the government will make every reasonable effort to re-schedule. However, this does not guarantee that the oral presentation will be rescheduled. Requests for rescheduling will be decided by the Government at its sole discretion.

15.16 Offerors shall be notified of the schedule for the Oral Presentation as deemed appropriate by the Government sometime after the closing date from the receipt of the proposal in response to this solicitation.

116. Pricing

16.1 Offerors shall submit a completed copy of Attachment 1 - Contract Pricing as part of their proposal submission. Pursuant to FAR 17.203(b) the Government's evaluation shall be inclusive of all options.

17. Proposal Submission:

17.1 Proposals shall be submitted in hard copy only – no faxes or electronic transmissions will be accepted. Proposals shall be sent via mail or overnight carrier and must be received on or by the deadline of 4:00 p.m. local time on 08/18/2010. Late proposals shall not be considered under any circumstances.

17.2 Proposals shall be sent to the following address and point of contact: Contract Specialist, Rachel Dobbs, D.C. Pretrial Services Agency, 633 Indiana Avenue, NW, Suite 1163, Washington, DC 20004.

Note: all questions regarding this RFP must be submitted in writing via email/fax to racheldobbs@psa.gov and 202-220-5655 (fax).

18.0 Award:

Award will be made to the offeror whose quote conforms to the requirements of the solicitation and offers the best value to the government considering price and other factors.

� Despite the increase in overall group hours under PSA STARS, an analysis of the average number of groups completed per case manager prior to PSA STARS implementation is the same as the maximum number of scheduled group hours per case manager after PSA STARS implantation—i.e. 6 hours per week per case manager. This was accomplished by combining resources between two in-house treatment programs and adding on-site contractors.

� Harrell, A., Cavanaugh, S., and Roman, J. (2000). “Evaluation of the DC Superior Court� XE "D.C. Superior Court" � Drug Intervention Programs.” Research in Brief (Washington, D.C.: National Institute of Justice, U.S. Department of Justice).

� “Noncompliant” tests are those that yield a positive result for drug use, a defendant’s failure to report for testing, an attempt to submit an adulterated specimen for testing or a defendant’s failure to submit an sufficient specimen for testing.