BJA FY 17 Sentinel Events Initiative DemonstrationProject: Technical Assistance Provider | BJA 2017 12387

Opportunity Information: Apply for BJA 2017 12387

The Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), within the U.S. Department of Justice, offered a FY 2017 discretionary funding opportunity to select a single Technical Assistance Provider under a cooperative agreement to support the Sentinel Events Initiative (SEI). The grant was designed to stand up and coordinate national-level technical assistance for roughly 20 to 25 demonstration sites that would be piloting and refining “sentinel event reviews” in criminal justice settings. The central idea behind SEI is to borrow proven approaches from medicine and transportation, where organizations routinely conduct structured, forward-looking reviews of serious, unanticipated incidents to identify system vulnerabilities and prevent repeat harm.

SEI focuses on the concept of a “sentinel event,” meaning an unexpected outcome that signals an underlying weakness in the broader system rather than a one-off mistake by a single person. Instead of a blame-centered response, the initiative tests whether an all-stakeholder, non-punitive review process can be used to map out how policies, practices, communication, training, supervision, data, and decision points interact to produce risk. In a criminal justice context, that can include a wide range of critical incidents or near-misses that reveal gaps across agencies, such as breakdowns in information sharing, procedural errors, or systemic conditions that increase the likelihood of preventable harm.

The technical assistance provider’s role was to help sites establish and run sentinel event reviews (SERs) in a consistent, workable way and to build local capacity so the process could be repeated and eventually routinized. Because the award mechanism was a cooperative agreement, applicants would be expected to work closely with BJA and the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), which led SEI as DOJ’s research, development, and evaluation arm. The provider would support sites with hands-on guidance, facilitation methods, templates or tools, training, and peer learning structures, and would help sites translate findings into concrete policy and practice changes. The larger purpose was not only to conduct reviews, but to use what is learned to reduce the recurrence of similar failures, increase safety for the public and justice-system practitioners, and strengthen the system’s ability to carry out its mission.

The opportunity explicitly framed SEI as a scientific inquiry with several core questions the demonstration effort needed to answer. First, can sentinel event reviews actually be implemented and routinized in the criminal justice environment, where roles are fragmented across agencies and accountability pressures can make open discussion difficult? Second, can SERs generate actionable insights that lead to improvements in policy and practice to reduce the risk of future errors or system weaknesses? Third, do these improvements translate into better outcomes aligned with criminal justice goals such as reducing crime, protecting the public, and advancing the administration of justice? Fourth, can this kind of review model be sustained over time beyond the initial demonstration period, becoming a normal part of how jurisdictions learn from failure and prevent harm?

Key administrative details included that the opportunity number was BJA-2017-12387 and it was listed under CFDA 16.560 in the law, justice, and legal services category. Eligible applicants included state governments, county governments, city or township governments, and federally recognized Native American tribal governments. The solicitation was created June 20, 2017, with an original closing date of July 27, 2017. Funding was capped at an award ceiling of $1,500,000, with BJA expecting to make one award, meaning the selected organization would serve as the national technical assistance hub for all participating demonstration sites.

In practical terms, this solicitation was less about funding local program operations directly and more about funding the infrastructure for learning and implementation across multiple jurisdictions. By supporting a centralized technical assistance provider, BJA aimed to ensure that participating sites received consistent guidance, that lessons learned could be compared across locations, and that the field could evaluate whether a non-blaming, systems-oriented review approach can realistically take hold in criminal justice and produce durable improvements.

• The Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance in the law, justice and legal services sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "BJA FY 17 Sentinel Events Initiative DemonstrationProject: Technical Assistance Provider" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 16.560.
• This funding opportunity was created on Jun 20, 2017.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Jul 27, 2017. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $1,500,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized).

Apply for BJA 2017 12387

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