Attachment B Phone Scripts

Attachment B – Phone Outreach

When calling a non-Public Defender Office (PDO) entity (prosecutor’s office, court, etc.) to determine the existence of a PDO:

Hello, my name is ________ and I’m calling on behalf of NAPD/NORC/Urban. We are beginning work on the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics project, the Census of Public Defender Offices, and we are currently trying to develop the list of names and addresses of public defense offices and their leaders within your state. We are having trouble determining whether there is a public defender office in your jurisdiction and are hoping you might be able to give us some more information. Do you have a public defender office, a regional public defender office, or an office under contract providing public defense services to your jurisdiction?

• If VOICEMAIL, see VM Script:

• If YES to PDO:
  Great, thank you! And would you happen to have the name of the office and an email address or a phone number I can use to get in touch with them?

• If NO to PDO:
  Okay, I will note that down for our records. Thank you for your time.

• If REFUSAL, see Refusal Script

When calling the main phone line of state system or PDO:

Hello, my name is ________ and I’m calling on behalf of NAPD/NORC/Urban. We are beginning work on the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics project, the Census of Public Defender Offices, and we are currently trying to develop the list of names and addresses of public defense offices and their leaders within your state. Is there anyone I can speak to that might be able to help us with this data collection?

• If VOICEMAIL, see VM Script

• If connected to contact at….

STATE SYSTEM:
Hello, my name is ________ and I’m calling on behalf of NAPD/NORC/Urban. We are beginning work on the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics project, the Census of Public Defender Offices, and we are currently trying to develop the list of names and addresses of public defense offices and their leaders within your state. We are collecting contact information for each public defender office in your state. Would you prefer to provide the office contact information over the phone or would you like me to email you a spreadsheet to complete with the contact information for each office?

• If YES to email:
  Great! Can you please provide me with your email address so I can send over the spreadsheet for you to fill out with this information on public defense offices in your state? You will receive an email from me today with the spreadsheet attached [ATTACHMENT D]. The spreadsheet will show which categories of contact information we need for each office. It takes about 15 minutes to complete. If you already have a list of offices in your state with contact information, we can accept that as well.

  • Thank you for your help with our data collection!

• If YES to phone:

Great! I just have a few contact information questions. Your participation is voluntary, you can choose to stop at any time, and you don’t have to answer every question.

• Can you please provide the following for each of the public defender offices in your state:

  • Office name:

  • Office mailing address:

  • Office general phone line:

  • Office general email:

  • Office geographic coverage: [county, multiple counties/district/regional (specify if more than one county), statewide, other (specify)]

  • Office type: [public defender, conflict public defender, specialty public defender (specify), other (specify)]

  • Office leader’s name:

  • Office leader’s mailing address (if different from office mailing address):

  • Office leader’s direct phone:

  • Office leader’s direct email:

• If NO/Reluctant, see Refusal Script
  
  

INDIVIDUAL PDO (large PDO with multiple offices):

Hello, my name is ________ and I’m calling on behalf of NAPD/NORC/Urban. We are beginning work on the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics project, the Census of Public Defender Offices, and we are currently trying to develop the list of names and addresses of public defense offices and their leaders within your state. Would you mind answering a few contact information questions for me about your public defender office, either right now by phone or by email?

• If VOICEMAIL, see VM Script

• If YES to phone:
  Great! I just have a few contact information questions. Your participation is voluntary, you can choose to stop at any time, and you don’t have to answer every question.

1. Can you please provide the following for each office:

   1. Office name:

   2. Office mailing address:

   3. Office general phone: is XXX-XXX-XXXX (number originally called) the correct office phone number?

   4. Office generic email:

   5. Office geographic coverage: [county, multiple counties/district/regional (specify if more than one county), statewide, other (specify)]

   6. Office type: [public defender, conflict public defender, specialty public defender (specify), other (specify)]

2. Can you please provide the following for your office leader:

   1. Name:

   2. Mailing address (if different from office mailing address):

   3. Direct phone:

   4. Direct email:

• If YES to email:
  Great! Can you please provide me with your email address so I can send over the spreadsheet for you to fill out with this information on public defense offices in your jurisdiction? You will receive an email from me today with the spreadsheet attached [ATTACHMENT D]. The spreadsheet will show which categories of contact information we need for each office. It takes about 15 minutes to complete. If you already have a list of offices in your jurisdiction with contact information, we can accept that as well. Thank you for your help with our data collection!

• INDIVIDUAL PDO (small PDO with one office):
  Hello, my name is ________ and I’m calling on behalf of NAPD/NORC/Urban. We are beginning work on the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics project, the Census of Public Defender Offices, and we are currently trying to develop the list of names and addresses of public defense offices and their leaders within your state. Would you mind answering a few contact information questions for me about your public defender office?

  • If VOICEMAIL, see VM Script

• If YES:
  Great! I just have a few contact information questions. Your participation is voluntary, you can choose to stop at any time, and you don’t have to answer every question.

1. Can you please provide the following:

   1. Office name:

   2. Office mailing address:

   3. Office general phone: is XXX-XXX-XXXX (number originally called) the correct office phone number?

   4. Office generic email:

5. Office geographic coverage: [county, multiple counties/district/regional (specify if more than one county), statewide, other (specify)]

5. Office type: [public defender, conflict public defender, specialty public defender (specify), other (specify)]

2. Can you please provide the following for your office leader:

   1. Name:

   2. Mailing address (if different from office mailing address):

   3. Direct phone:

   4. Direct email:

• If NO/Reluctant, see Refusal Script

VOICEMAIL SCRIPT:

Hello, my name is ________ and I’m calling on behalf of NAPD/NORC/Urban. We are beginning work on the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics project, the Census of Public Defender Offices, and we are currently trying to develop the list of names and addresses of public defense offices and their leaders within your state. Could you please give us a call back as soon as possible at XXX-XXX-XXXX so we can ask a couple of questions for our records? Again, that number is XXX-XXX-XXXX. Thank you!

REFUSAL SCRIPT:

Would you mind telling me the reason you don’t feel comfortable sharing this info with us?

• Do your best to deal with the issue they raise by offering information

• You may offer to have a senior member of the team call them back if it would be helpful

• If issue can be addressed, resume appropriate script above

• If issue cannot be addressed, record the reason in the call log spreadsheet

• If unsure whether they meet our definition of PDO, let them know we are just at the information collection stage at this time and that the census will have eligibility questions built in at the beginning of the survey to determine one way or the other

Thank you for your time!

If following up on a prior call or email:

Hello, my name is ________ from NAPD/NORC/Urban and I’m following up on (our call/my email) regarding the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics Census of Public Defender Offices project.

• If leaving voicemail:
  Please give me a call back as soon as you can at XXX-XXX-XXXX

• If you reach contact:
  We haven’t yet received the requested public defender office contact information from you, and I’m just calling to see whether you have any questions I might be able to address!