TEXAS TASK FORCE ON INDIGENT DEFENSE 205 West 14 th Street, Suite 700 Tom C. Clark Building (512)936-6994 P.O. Box 12066, Austin, Texas 78711-2066 CHAIR: THE HONORABLE SHARON KELLER Presiding Judge, Court of Criminal Appeals DIRECTOR: MR. JAMES D. BETHKE VICE CHAIR: THE HONORABLE OLEN UNDERWOOD September 6, 2005 The Honorable Tom J. Vandergriff Tarrant County Judge 100 E. Weatherford, Suite 501 Fort Worth, TX 76196 VIA FAX: 817-884-2793 RE: 2004 Discretionary Grant Second Extension - Tarrant County Integrated Justice Information System-Indigent Defense On-Line (IDOL) Dear Judge Vandergriff, Your request to extend the above mentioned grant for four months was approved by the Task Force on August 19, 2005. Please find the Second Amended Statement of Grant Award attached. Sign and return via fax to 512-475-3450 as soon as possible but before October 6, 2005. Please call me if I can provide any assistance to you. Sincerely, Bryan Wilson Grants Administrator
Grant Number: Grantee Name: Program Title: Task Force on Indigent Defense SECOND AMENDED Statement of Grant Award FY2004 Discretionary Grant 212-04-D01 Tarrant County Integrated Justice Information System-Indigent Defense On- Line Grant Period: 3/1/2004-4/30/2005 October 31, 2005 February 28, 2006 Grant Award Amount: $350,840 The Task Force on Indigent Defense (Task Force) has awarded the above-referenced grant. The authorized official named on the grant application must sign this Statement of Grant Award and return it to the Task Force by October 6, 2005. The grantee will not receive any grant funds until this notice is executed and returned to the Task Force. Funding is provided as listed in the categories in the table below: Direct Costs Personnel (Total Number of FTEs: ) Salary Fringe Benefits Original Budget Travel and Training Equipment $75,000 Supplies Standard Grant Conditions: Contract Services $275,840 Total Direct Costs $350,840 Indirect Costs: Indirect Costs Total Indirect Costs Total Proposed Costs $350,840 Less Cash from Other Sources Total Amount Funded by Task Force $350,840 The authorized official for the grantee accepts the grant award. The authorized official, financial officer, and program director, referred to below as grant officials, agree to the terms of the grant as written in the Request for Applications issued on August 25, 2003, including the rules and documents adopted by reference in the Task Force on Indigent Defense s Grant Rules in Title 1, Part 8, Chapter 173, Texas Administrative Code. The grant officials understand that a violation of any term of the grant may result in the Task Force placing a temporary hold on grant funds, permanently deobligating all or part of the
grant funds, requiring reimbursement for funds already spent, or barring the organization from receiving future grants. Disbursement of funds is always subject to the availability of funds. The grant officials agree to follow the grant terms contained in the Required Conditions and Report contained in Attachment A. The authorized official for this grant program has read the preceding and indicates agreement by signing this Statement of Grant Award below: Signature of Authorized Official Name & Title (must print or type) Date
Program Requirements Attachment A Required Conditions and Reports In addition to the program requirements stated in the Request for Applications (RFA) these specific program requirements apply to this funded program: - The county will develop a server based system where the source code and programming product are available to other counties upon request. The county may charge to recover costs associated with producing the copy. One full final version will be provided to the Task Force upon completion of this project. - Care will be taken to protect the integrity of the source code and product development paid for with these grant funds for at least two years beyond the project completion. Updates will be provided to the Task Force annually. - The equipment purchased with these grant funds will be used for at least one year after the funding period for indigent defense purposes. - The software purchased will meet standards established in Justice XML. - The County will provide a new timeline of activity to the grant administrator by October 31, 2005. Participation All courts of the county hearing criminal matters punishable by incarceration (criminal courts, statutory county courts and district courts) in Tarrant County must participate in the program. Activity Develop a model information system based on best practices for the management and reporting of indigent defense services that can be applied to other jurisdictions across the State. In accordance with the approved procurement processes of Tarrant County, upon receipt of the grant award an RFP for professional services shall be issued for the development of this system and equipment purchases shall be made. All activities related to this proposal shall be conducted under the oversight of the assigned project manager from the Tarrant County Information Technology Department with input from the appropriate county departments to include the Attorney Appointments Coordinator. All contracts and purchases must furthermore be authorized and approved by the Commissioners Court.
Tarrant County has adopted a project management methodology based upon the Project Management Institute s Body of Knowledge. The methodology is a process concerned with organizing the efforts necessary to implement a project and to meet all project objectives for functionality, quality, reliability, schedule and cost. The purpose of the plan is to provide a framework for management monitoring and control of performance. The project plan will serve the following five functions: 1. It will define the scope of the project, consisting of the end products (these are identified in the evaluation section as quantifiable objectives) that will be delivered (a.k.a. deliverables), the customers or users of the end product, and all the associated assumptions and constraints. 2. It will identify the project activities that will be performed. 3. It will describe the interdependencies between the activities and when the activities will be accomplished. 4. It will define the resources necessary to acquire/develop and implement the end products. 5. It will further describe the processes and procedures that will be used for managing schedule, cost, quality, procurement and risk. Tarrant County also utilizes IBM s Rational Unified Process (RUP) to manage custom application development projects, such as the proposed solution. RUP is an object oriented development methodology that has four main phases: inception, elaboration, construction and transition. Tarrant County has added a fifth phase to RUP, operational support. Each project phase consists of at least one iteration. The project iterations are scoped so as to reduce technical risk, provide early versions of a functioning system, and allow maximum flexibility in planning features for each release and enabling scope changes to be handled effectively within each iteration. The deliverables and objectives of the project are: The application development and equipment acquisition shall occur within the grant period. Upon completion of the grant, Tarrant County s Indigent Defense (IDOL) system shall: 1. Enable law enforcement agencies to capture defendant and incident information along with supporting paper documents and submit request(s) for counsel within 48 hours of arrest. 2. Enable magistrates to electronically review request(s) for counsel and submit request(s) for counsel within 24 hours of the indigency hearing. 3. Enable the Office of Attorney Appointments to review request(s) for counsel and process request(s) for counsel as soon as possible, but not later than the end of the first working day after the date on which the Office of Attorney Appointments receives the request for appointment of counsel. 4. Enable law enforcement agencies to be notified that the request for counsel has been denied within 24 hours of the denial. 5. Enable the appointed attorney to be notified that an appointment has been made within 24 hours of the appointment.
6. Enable an appointed attorney to review appointments and capture the date and type of first contact with the defendant within 24 hours of the appointment. 7. Enable an appointed attorney to capture the date and time of the first in person visit with the defendant, as appropriate. 8. Enable the Office of Attorney Appointments to be notified when first contact by an appointed attorney is not made within 24 hours of the appointment. 9. Enable the appointed attorney and Office of Attorney Appointments to be notified that the District Attorney has accepted/rejected the incident and whether charges where added, removed or modified. 10. Enable the Office of Attorney Appointments to produce comprehensive reporting measurements that reflect compliance with the Texas Fair Defense Act. a. Provide documentation of exceptions to the attorney rotation system i. By reason ii. By court b. Provide avoidance of multiple attorneys representing one defendant The IDOL system developed shall adopt technical standards based on the Justice XML Data Dictionary Schema for sharing information related to providing indigent defense services. Preliminary Project Schedule Indigent Defense On-Line (IDOL) Project Start Completion 03/01/04 04/30/05 Planning 03/01/04 04/01/04 Procurement: Professional Services 03/15/04 05/31/04 Equipment 03/15/04 10/31/04 Inception 04/16/04 06/30/04 Elaboration 07/01/04 08/31/04 Construction 09/01/04 11/30/04 Transition 12/01/04 1/31/05 Operations 2/01/05 4/30/05 This broad timeframe provides ample time to achieve all objectives necessary for successful completion of the project within the grant period to include transition time and ultimate operability.
Project evaluation A) The following items shall be provided in a report demonstrating that they have been accomplished. The report will contain screenshots, examples of reports and potential uses of the information to promote indigent defense services or processes. Upon completion of the project, Tarrant County will possess the capability to quantify and capture the following objectives that are not presently quantifiable: 1. Number of appointments made by date range (day, week, month, quarter, annual, and ad hoc) and type of appointment (felony, misdemeanor, etc ). 2. Number of denials of counsel by date range (day, week, month, quarter, annual, and ad hoc) and type of denial. 3. Minimum, maximum, and average number of hours between date/time of arrest and magistration by date range (day, week, month, quarter, annual, and ad hoc). 4. Minimum, maximum, and average number of hours between date/time of magistration and request for counsel by date range (day, week, month, quarter, annual, and ad hoc). 5. Minimum, maximum, and average number of hours between date/time of request for appointment of counsel and appointment/denial by date range (day, week, month, quarter, annual, and ad hoc). 6. Minimum, maximum, and average number of hours between date/time of appointment of counsel and Appointed Attorney first contact by date range (day, week, month, quarter, annual, and ad hoc). 7. Minimum, maximum, and average number of days between date/time of appointment and case filing by date range (day, week, month, quarter, annual, and ad hoc). 8. Minimum, maximum, and average number of days between date/time of case filing and disposition by date range (day, week, month, quarter, annual, and ad hoc). 9. Minimum, maximum, and average number of days between date/time of appointment and disposition by date range (day, week, month, quarter, annual, and ad hoc). The software will capture efficiency of representation measures of time to disposition. 10. The software will have fields to input from provided information related to clients identified as mental health and foreign national status. The design phase will evaluate as a deliverable the ability to include this as an import field from other county records. 11. The software will capture information related to no charges filed cases and report payments made by the county on those cases. 12. The software will capture information on duplicate appointments and document payments made by the county on those cases. The attainment of these measures will be identifiable through reporting mechanisms developed for both programmatic usage and fiscal accountability, i.e. local use and Task Force on Indigent Defense reports. B) Online documentation (data dictionary, programming notes, etc ) and user manual will be developed with this system.
AMENDED Timeline for Reporting and Fund Distribution Reports will be submitted on-line over the Internet. Reporting Period Type Report Due Date Report Due Fund Distribution Date March through May Budget Status Report June 15, 2004 June 2004 June through August Budget Status Report September 15, 2004 September 2004 September through Budget Status Report December 15, 2004 December 2004 November December through Budget Status Report March 15, 2005 March 2005 February March through May Budget Status Report June 15, 2005 July 2005 2005 June through August Budget Status Report September 15, 2005 September 2005 2005 September through Budget Status Report December 15, 2005 December 2005 November 2005 December 2005 through February 2006 Final Budget Status Report Final April 15, 2006 May 2006 Follow-up to Closeout Report Statement of compliance documentation for use of equipment. Summary of use of system after grant period. February 28, 2007 N/A