Black Letter Standards of Practice

In 2020, the National Institute of Corrections (NIC) established a collaborative venture with the American Probation and Parole Association (APPA) to develop a comprehensive set of black letter standards of practice to guide community supervision policy and practices across the nation. The black letter standards provide consistent national guidance and direction for the community supervision field, and, more specifically, help probation and parole agencies build the case for organizing, staffing, and operating in a manner consistent with the latest knowledge and evidence. In addition, the standards provide guidance about what is effective in producing the desired outcomes of supervision, including safer communities, law abiding and productive persons under supervision, and prudent use of public resources. The standards are definitions established by APPA to model or serve as a minimum acceptable benchmark of correctional practice.

APPA is the largest membership organization supporting community supervision professionals at every level of probation and parole organizations and serves over 90,000 community supervision professionals nationally. The standards development effort followed the approach used by the National Association of Pretrial Services Agencies (NAPSA), and the format follows the black letter model used in the NAPSA standards.

In 2020, NIC and APPA established a workgroup that consisted of both practitioners and researchers who assisted with the development of the first draft of the publication Black Letter Standards of Practice. The goal of the first year of this work was to assess and use research and practitioner input comprehensively to establish sound principles and practices that would support rehabilitation and positive outcomesfor people on community supervision so they could lead productive and law-abiding lives. NIC continues to collaborate with APPA to finalize the draft of the standards that will include accompanying commentary. Additional work will include developing and implementing marketing and education strategies and plans.

The Black Letter Standards of Practice document will be the sole ownership of APPA, with NIC providing project management, structure, a draft of the black letter standards, which will include developing accompanying commentary. Additional work will include developing and implementing marketing and education strategies and plans. The goal of this project will be drafting and finalizing the black letter national standards and commentary for adult community supervision (parole and probation) and introducing the standards to the field at the APPA Summer Institute in August 2023. The awardee will work with the APPA project team and workgroup to develop marketing and educational strategies to support the adoption of the national standards by adult community supervision agencies .nd guidance. NIC will retain the right to publish, reproduce, and use any subsequently copyrighted or trademarked material pursuant to the “Rights in Data” paragraph contained in Section F: Federal Award Administration Information.

NIC invites applications from nonprofit organizations (including faith-based, community, and tribal organizations), for-profit organizations (including tribal for-profit organizations), and institutions of higher education (including tribal institutions of higher education). Recipients, including for-profit organizations, must agree to waive any profit or fee for services. Foreign governments, international organizations, and non-governmental international organizations/institutions are not eligible to apply. Proof of 501(c) (3) status as determined by the Internal Revenue Service or an authorizing tribal resolution is required.