About the National Institute of Corrections

Technical assistance is provided in response to requests from sheriffs, jail administrators, directors of state correctional departments, judges, chiefs of probation and parole, and county administrators among others. On-site, technical assistance uses experts from the field and NIC staff. It often results in the identification of gaps in policy and practice, the development of strategic plans with emphasis on organizational and system-wide alignment, and includes working with all involved stakeholders. Assistance is designed uniquely for requesting jurisdictions and requests are fulfilled in a timely fashion.

NIC has provided technical assistance and worked collaboratively with many states and the BOP on female offender issues including those related to programming, operations, and mental health and addressing the requirements of the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA). Additionally, NIC has provided assistance to the U.S Probation and Pretrial Services with its implementation of evidence-based policy and practice, and to state and local jurisdictions.

NIC uses cooperative agreements to conduct much of the planning, development, and implementation of its strategic plan. Through cooperative agreements, we award funds to support our program initiatives. These often have utility well beyond a single agency.

Training is a primary vehicle through which NIC delivers its products, programs, and services to the field of corrections through a variety of delivery strategies including classroom, blended, webinar, virtual instructor led training and live internet broadcasts. NIC is known for quality leadership training for prisons, probation, parole and jail leadership. For more information including number of training participants, please refer to the NIC Report to the Nation.

NIC is the only agency that regularly convenes leaders from similar correctional functions for the purpose of shared learning and information exchange. The primary objective of networking is to make opportunities available for informed discussion among members by providing places, time and staff support for meetings. The target audience for networks includes correctional executives from the state, local and federal levels.

Over 25,000 correctional professionals have joined NIC's online communities to share information on topics such as pre-trial services, cognitive behaviors change, mental health services, working effectively with women offenders, managing offender behavior, jail and prison administration and reentry.

The National Institute of Correction's library contains over 5,000 cataloged documents, dozens of serials (journals, professional publications, etc.) and online e-books and databases. The library is a repository for NIC publications and resource for NIC projects and training, as well as research for correctional practitioners who contact the Information Center staff.

Information Center staff are available to help correctional personnel identify appropriate resources related to their topics of inquiry (e.g. how to manage jail overcrowding, how to validate a risk and need assessment instrument), and to link them to other resources.

The Information Center also generates annual publications dealing with topical issues of interest to the field of corrections. The NIC Information Center is located at the National Corrections Academy, along with the NIC’s Training Center and the Federal Bureau of Prison's Management and Specialty Training Center, providing to national support to training and services. Over 8,000 individual requests for research assistance and correctional resources are processed by the Center each year.

NIC engages in partnerships and interagency agreements with national organizations and federal agencies to share expertise, avoid duplication and provide expanded services in a cost effective manner.

As an example, a Memorandum Of Understanding between BJA, OJJDP, OJP, NIC, CMHS, CSAT and SAMSHA) was established to "provide a framework for the federal agencies to plan, coordinate, and share the design and implementation of interagency efforts to improve the response to people with substance abuse disorders, mental health disorders, or co-occurring disorders who are involved or at risk of involvement with the criminal and juvenile justice system." To carry out this work, NIC engaged in a multi-year cooperative agreement with the Council of State Governments.