Criminal Justice Text Message Reminders

Palm Beach County Board of County Commissioners and the Criminal Justice Commission issued Request for Proposal (RFP) No. 20-033/LI to procure criminal justice text message reminder services designed to reduce failure-to-appear rates among defendants and probationers. The County sought a contractor to expand a pilot program that had successfully increased court appearance rates from 92% to 97% among Public Defender clients by implementing automated text notifications to defendants, probation clients, supervised pretrial release participants, and individuals receiving law enforcement notices to appear. The service required coordination with four criminal justice agencies: the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit Clerk of Court, Florida Department of Corrections Circuit 15, Professional Probation Services Inc., and Palm Beach County Pretrial Services Department. The target population included 9,516 enrolled felony and misdemeanor defendants, 5,589 individuals on felony probation, and 842 individuals under pretrial supervision as of the amendment date. Deliverables included an all-inclusive monthly flat fee structure with no maximum limit on text notifications per recipient, expedited notification of court date changes by 6:00 p.m. on the same day notice was received, and comprehensive reporting capabilities. Proposals were due January 21, 2020, at 4:00 p.m., with the Selection Committee meeting scheduled for February 4, 2020, and oral presentations on February 12, 2020. The contract evaluation criteria were weighted as follows: Experience and Qualifications (30%), Project Approach and Understanding (25%), Key Personnel and Operations (20%), Price Proposal (20%), and Business Location/Local Preference (5%). The contract term was thirty-six months (March 9, 2020 through March 8, 2023), with two optional twelve-month renewal periods.

The RFP included a local preference provision awarding five points to vendors submitting a valid Palm Beach County Business Tax Receipt, though no set-asides were designated for disadvantaged enterprises. Contractors were required to comply with the Criminal History Records Check Ordinance for unescorted access to critical information facilities and maintain Commercial General Liability insurance of at least $1,000,000 per occurrence and Workers' Compensation insurance. All proposals required submission of one unbound original, four bound copies, and one electronic PDF copy; amendments to the RFP had to be acknowledged in writing or proposals would be deemed non-responsive. The County explicitly declined to hold contractors harmless for missed notifications resulting in failure-to-appear incidents, establishing clear accountability expectations. The project was funded through a $2,000,000 MacArthur Foundation Safety and Justice Challenge grant awarded to the Criminal Justice Commission in October 2017, indicating the total available budget for the thirty-six-month initial contract period. The contractor's proprietary software and programming remained the exclusive intellectual property of the vendor, with the County obtaining only the services and reports generated through the system rather than ownership of the underlying technology.