Summary

News

About

What We Do

At ACE! our primary focus is on action research models with an emphasis on participatory research collaborative models. The frameworks assists individuals and programs to use data to continuously improve practices such as working relationships, interventions, practices and treatments aimed at increasing public safety, and improving individuals’ well-being.

Our work includes developing translational tools, conducting randomized controlled trials (RCTs) or high quality quasi-experimental design studies, conducting program and policy evaluation, analyzing data, delivering hands-on training and technical assistance, disseminating our work through presentations, webinars, and publications, and developing the next generation of researchers through teaching and mentorship. Our Directors are leaders in the field: Faye S. Taxman as an ASC Fellow and Danielle Rudes as a 2018 ASC Teaching Award.

Our work covers multiple intercept points of the criminal justice system, including community corrections, pretrial, jail, prison, and non-justice system practices/interventions. We work extensively with community treatment providers who serve criminal justice-involved individuals.

For more information on specific projects, visit Major Projects.

Areas of Expertise

• Seamless systems of care models that link the criminal justice with other service delivery systems (Boundaryless Systems of Care)
• Reengineering probation and parole supervision services and organizational change models
• Examining the use of evidence-based practice in correctional and drug treatment settings and the factors that affect the adoption of science-based processes and interventions
• Examining the efficacy of various models of technology transfer and processes to integrate treatment and supervision
• Program design, experimentation and evaluation, advanced data collection systems
• Web-based interventions
• Implementation Science and Implementation Organizational Interventions
• Self-directed Interventions
• Disenfranchisement
• Organizational theory
• Socio-legal studies
• Examining how street-level workers negotiate organizational change and the impact their decisions have upon policy and practice
• Qualitative research methods (particularly ethnography)
• Quantitative research methods (including advanced techniques such as latent variable modeling, meta-analysis, etc.)

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Contact

Email: Center

Locations

The Center for Advancing Correctional Excellence! (ACE!)
4400 University Drive
MSN 6D3
Fairfax, VA 22030
Phone: 703-995-8555
Fax: 703-993-6020

Web Links

• Website
• X
• Facebook
• LinkedIn

People

Leadership

Faye Taxman, Ph.D.
Director

Faye S. Taxman, Ph.D. is a University Professor at George Mason University. Dr. Taxman is recognized for her work in the development of the seamless systems of care models that link the criminal justice with other service delivery systems, as well as reengineering probation and parole supervision services, and organizational change models. She conducted a multi-level organizational survey of the correctional and drug treatment systems to examine the utilization of evidence-based practice in correctional and drug treatment settings and the factors that affect the adoption of science based processes and interventions. She has several studies that examine the efficacy of various models of technology transfer and processes to integrate treatment and supervision. In one study, she explores the use of contingency management and incentive systems for drug-involved offenders.

Her work covers the breadth of the correctional system from jails and prisons to community corrections and adult and juvenile offenders. She has had three R01 from the National Institute on Drug Abuse and one cooperative agreement. She has also received funding from the National Institute of Justice, National Institute of Corrections and Bureau of Justice Assistance for her work. She has active “laboratories” with her 18 year agreement with the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services and four year agreement with the Virginia Department of Corrections. She is the senior author of “Tools of the Trade: A Guide to Incorporating Science into Practice,” a publication of the National Institute on Corrections which provides a guidebook to implementation of science-based concepts into practice. She is on the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Experimental Criminology and Journal of Offender Rehabilitation. She has published articles in Journal of Quantitative Criminology, Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, Journal of Drug Issues, Alcohol and Drug Dependence, and Evaluation and Program Planning. She received the University of Cincinnati award from the American Probation and Parole Association in 2002 for her contributions to the field. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Experimental Criminology and a member of the Correctional Services Accreditation Panel (CSAP) of England. In 2008, the American Society of Criminology’s Division of Sentencing and Corrections recognized her as Senior Scholar. She has a Ph.D. from Rutgers University-School of Criminal Justice and a B.A., from University of Tulsa.

Danielle Rudes, Ph.D.
Deputy Director

Dr. Rudes is an expert qualitative researcher whose methods include ethnographic observation, interviews, and focus groups with nearly two decades of experience working with corrections agencies at the federal, state and local county levels including prisons, jails, probation/parole agencies and problem-solving courts. She is recognized for her work examining how social control organizations and their middle management and street-level workers understand, negotiate, and at times, resist change.

Degrees

• Ph.D. Sociology (UCI)
• MA Sociology (UCI)
• MA Communications (Univ of New Orleans)
• BA Mass Communications (SUNY Plattsburgh)

Research Interests

• Organizational change
• Community corrections (probation/parole)
• Prisons
• Law & society
• Prisoner reentry
• Problem-solving courts
• Implementation studies
• Street-level bureaucrats
• Qualitative methods

Current Projects

• Together Alone: Solitary Confinement Project (in collaboration with the PA-DOC)
• Building an IPV/DV Risk Assessment Tool for Adult Probation
• Improving Access to Substance Abuse Evidence-Based Practices for Youth in the Justice System (with Oregon Social Learning Center and NIH)
• VA-DOC Implementation Project
• JJSTEPS (Juvenile Justice Steps) (for the A.E. Casey Foundation)
• Evidence-Based or Evidence-Informed Policy/Practice within Public/Non-Profit Organizations (with ASAE Foundation)
• Annual Survey of Probation & Parole (with BJA and RTI)
• The Prison Project (in collaboration with the PA-DOC)
• Implementation, Translation and Dissemination of Evidence-Based Policy/Practice in Community Corrections (NIJ)
• The Juvenile Justice Project

Senior Research Associates

Amy Murphy
Senior Research Associate

Kendra Clark
Senior Research Associate

I recently earned my Ph.D. from University of Colorado Boulder where my research was funded by an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. During graduate school I worked as a research assistant for numerous projects including the LoneStar Project—an NIJ funded study examining gangs and reentry experiences. I enjoy all aspects of research; however, data collection and analysis are where I thrive the most.

Degrees

• Ph.D. in Sociology from CU Boulder
• M.A. in Sociology from CU Boulder
• B.S. in Sociology and Psychology from Baker University

Research Interests

• Incarceration, reentry, and recidivism
• Quantitative methodologies
• Cultures and subcultures
• Gangs
• Justice-involved women, families, and children

Current Projects

• Evaluation of Stepping up Efforts to Improve MH Services and Justice Utilization
• Justice Community Opioid Innovation Network (JCOIN)
• Hildago County Emerging Adults Strategy (HCEAS)
• Developmental Reentry for Emerging Adult Management (DREAM)

What is so fascinating about one research project you are working on at ACE!

I love the multidisciplinary, mixed methods, multi-agency collaboration involved in so many of the project at ACE!—especially the Evaluation of Stepping Up. It has been fascinating to work directly with practitioners to answer the questions they are most interested in exploring and receive feedback on how they will use our findings.

How do you think working on ACE! projects will make you a better researcher?

The research at ACE! is highly collaborative with endless possibilities to learn from others. The experiences and perspectives of those I work with encourage me to think in new ways and pursue new ideas.

If you had to give advice to an agency about Evidence-Based practices, what would that be.

My advice to agencies would be to remain open to changing the status quo and to remember that the rate at which research on EBPs expands is largely dependent on agencies willingness to collaborate with researchers. The more we learn in terms of Evidence-Based practices, the more efficiently agencies will be able to provide their services.

Sara Debus-Sherrill, Ph.D.
Senior Research Associate

Dr. Debus-Sherrill works on projects related to community and institutional corrections to increase evidence-based practices, evaluate programs’ effectiveness, and facilitate reform efforts in correctional systems. She is currently serving as an embedded criminologist within a probation department and is partnered with additional probation and reentry organizations to support evidence-based reentry practices. Dr. Debus-Sherrill has also conducted applied justice research on a variety of topics at the Urban Institute, ICF International, and the University of Alabama.

Degrees
Ph.D. Criminology
M.A. Clinical Psychology

Research Interests
Corrections
Mental health
Reentry
Victimization

Current Projects
Risk-Need-Responsivity Simulation Tool
Alameda County Pathways Capacity Enhancement Project

Current Major Projects

Source: Website

Delaware RNR
The Delaware Department of Corrections (DE DOC) began implementing the RNR Simulation Tool in their Level 5 facilities (prisons) in 2013 and is in the process of implementing it in Level 4 facilities (reentry). DE DOC employs all three portals of the tool, assessing individual needs and making programming recommendations, examining program quality, and determining where additional programming and services are needed.
 
Developing Practice Guidelines for Supervision Agencies
The supervision field lacks clear, guided practice statements regarding how best to manage individuals in the community. This contributes to inconsistency across agencies, and perceptions of unfair and illegitimate practices. This project uses a modified RAND/University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) Appropriateness Method (RAM) process to create Practice Guidelines in six areas: Violent or Gang-Involved, Mental Health Disorders, Young Adults, Intimate Partner Violence, Driving While Intoxicated, and Substance Use Disorders. The overarching goals are to accelerate the use of evidence-based practices for different risk-need profiles, to create more fairness in how noncompliance to conditions of supervision are handled, and to improve successful outcomes from supervision.

Developmental Reentry for Emerging Adult Management (DREAM)
The DREAM program is a cognitive-behavioral program tailored to address key emerging adult development issues through group/individualized sessions, comprehensive case management, and reentry services. This program will be tested through a randomized controlled trial comparing DREAM to standard jail services. The goal is to develop and test tools that can help staff improve young individuals’ behavior and outcomes both inside the jail and after release.

E-Connect
A service system intervention for justice youth at risk for suicide (PI is Dr. Gail Wasserman, Columbia University). The specific aims are to develop and test a technological cross-system identification and linkage service model that trains staff, formalizes interagency collaboration and includes referral decision-making criteria. The tool uses a mobile application to seamlessly combine screening for suicide and related behavioral health problems.

Engineering Research Center (ERC) to Advance Recovery Efforts
This project is a collaboration with the Volgenau School of Engineering with funding from the National Science Foundation. The goal of this program it to explore the use of wearable technology to help individuals with substance use disorders.

Evaluation of Stepping up Efforts to Improve MH Services and Justice Utilization (NIMH)
This 5-year study evaluates whether the Stepping Up Initiative overcomes barriers to implementation of EBPPs and the impact on key outcomes, such as increased number of clients receiving behavioral health services, increased use of EBPPs, and dedicated resources to advance the use of EBPPs. The study uses the CJ Evidence-Based Interagency Implementation Model (CJ-IIM) and draws on both quantitative and qualitative methods to understand which dissemination and implementation (D/I) change processes positively impact the expanded use of EBPPs in CJ.

Hidalgo County Emerging Adults Strategy (HCEAS)
he purpose of the study is to evaluate the effectiveness of the Hidalgo County Emerging Adult Strategy (HCEAS), a Swift, Certain, Fair (SCF) program aimed at emerging adults under community supervision in Hidalgo County, Texas. HCEAS, operating since April 2017, is a specialized probation caseload designed to use swift, certain, and fair incentives and sanctions to promote positive behaviors by addressing key EA developmental issues during supervision. A randomized design is being used to evaluate this program, taking into account key outcomes such as revocations and stabilizing factors (e.g., employment, housing)

Improving Access to Substance Abuse EBPs for Youth in the Justice System
The goal of this study, led by Dr. Ashli Sheidow (Oregon Social Learning Center), is to examine the use of contingency management in juvenile probation offices. To achieve this goal, the project looks at the feasibility of JPOs to deliver an AOD abuse intervention, clinical efficacy for JPOs as service delivery providers, and identify any barriers that would need to be addressed for JPOs to deliver such services.

Innovations Suite Technical Assistance
CE! partners with Michigan State University’s School of Criminal Justice, and other organizations (funded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA)) to provide training and technical assistance to agencies who have received grants through BJA’s Innovations Suite. We help co-facilitate two Researcher-Practitioner Fellows Academies per year and collaborate with the group to create tools to facilitate active research projects.

Integrating Services to Improve Social Determinants of Health
This project aims to build engagement among nontraditional health partners (i.e., criminal justice (CJ), community health care providers), address social determinants of health (SDOH) (e.g., housing, substance use, food/nutrition) for a highly disadvantaged population, and build collaboration enhancing clients’ service access through a centralized online platform to connect CJ and community providers.

Justice Community Opioid Innovation Network (JCOIN) Coordination and Translation Center
The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) formed the Justice Community Opioid Innovation Network (JCOIN) to test different methods to reduce the negative consequences of opioid abuse among individuals in the justice system. This five year coordination center will be to support NIDA’s JCOIN initiative including an analytical center, 10 research centers, and our work. This includes an administrative core, translational/implementation core, dissemination/stakeholders core, education/research core and pilot funding core. The translational core will be responsible for implementing studies to examine the source, channel, message for various audiences that yields the greatest uptake. The dissemination/stakeholder core will develop new translational materials for the field with outreach to an array of stakeholders with the goal of inspiring innovation and organizational change. The education/research core will train and mentor new scholars of varying levels from undergraduate to post-doctoral.

Juvenile Justice Project
This project is a collaboration with a county level court-services unit. The study includes a mixed-method (largely qualitative) design to examine understanding and use of evidence based practices within juvenile probation, detention, boys/girls half-way houses, juvenile and adult intake and adult probation. Funded twice by the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) through a Byrne Justice Assistance Grant (JAG), the Juvenile Justice project includes an intensive researcher-practitioner partnership to learn about agency processes and work to improve them around the use of EBPs.

North Carolina Predictive Analytics Supervision Effort (NC-PASE)
NC-PASE is designed to use existing agency data to conduct predictive analytics. The program identifies profiles within the high to moderate risk population and builds Strategic Supervision Guidelines (SSG), or tailored supervision practices, for various risk-need profiles in different geographic areas.

Philadelphia Adult Probation and Parole Department
The Philadelphia Adult Probation and Parole Department (APPD) has collaborated with ACE! since 2013. This project has involved all officers completing the SOARING2/SUSTAIN eLearning, as well as training supervisors to serve as coaches. In addition, ACE! developed a needs assessment and case planning tool that is used by the 200+ APPD probation officers.

RNR Simulation Tool
The RNR Simulation Tool is designed to assist justice and treatment agencies in determining what forms of programming will be most effective in reducing recidivism and improving outcomes within their population. Implemented in over 200 jurisdictions, it is comprised of three portals that provide decision-support at the client (Assess an Individual), program (Program Tool for Adults), and system level (Assess Jurisdiction’s Capacity).

STEER
Stop, Triage, Engage, Educate, and Rehabilitate is a diversion program where police officers work with community treatment to divert individuals toward treatment instead of the criminal justice system. ACE! is conducting an evaluation of this pre-arrest diversion by using a randomized controlled trial.

SUSTAIN
SUSTAIN (Staff Undertaking Skills to Advance Innovation) is a learning system that consists of both eLearning and coaching. It is designed to assist professionals in building skills associated for the effective management of individuals involved in the criminal justice system. It includes a values-based training of coaching to develop internal coaches which will then work on internal capacity to implement evidence-based supervision. The state of Texas has funded 14 jurisdictions to implement SUSTAIN and the Virginia Department of Corrections has been using SUSTAIN for four years. SUSTAIN was originally developed under a grant funded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance (2010-DB-BX-K077) with Ralph Serin of University of Ottawa. The original material was developed by both laboratories.

The Prison Project
The Prison Project is a multi-method study of six prisons (male/female, maximum, medium, and minimum security levels) within the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections. Using surveys and interviews with staff and inmates, the project examines core correctional concepts related to procedural justice including relationships, trust, and legitimacy.

Use of MAT in Problem Solving Courts
Expanding the use of MAT in specialty courts is a priority of NADCP as well as a national priority of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (2018). Surveys of problem solving courts and treatment providers have documented that few problem-solving courts have dedicated treatment services, and even though treatment staff are part of the problem-solving teams, appropriate treatment is not often available (Taxman, et al., 2018). And, the use of MAT may be impacted by the knowledge and attitude of treatment and problem-solving court staff.  This administrative supplement will assist in understanding two issues: 1) the current utilization of MAT among problem solving courts; and 2) the barriers and facilitators to the utilization of MAT in problem solving court settings.

YOURS
YOURS is designed to be an interactive workbook for individuals on community supervision that helps assess “where they’re at” and work through goal setting. YOURS has been used by both community supervision and treatment providers to empower clients.

Emerging Scholar Labs

Source: Website

Undergraduate Research Assistant (UGRA) Lab

The goal of the ACE! Undergraduate Research Assistant (UGRA) Lab is to create an environment for students to see first-hand what research is being done, how it occurs, and the impact/difference it has the potential to make. The lab allows students to build their research skills while learning about a variety of research techniques and methods. The UGRA Lab began in 2009 with just one student and now over 90 students have gained invaluable research experiences in the Lab. If you’re interested after reading the information below, email us at ace@gmu.edu to learn more.

Graduate Research Lab

The ACE! Graduate Lab works in the same way the UGRA Lab. While ACE! provides masters’ and doctoral CLS graduate students opportunities to hone their research skills through graduate research assistantships (GRAs), many more CLS graduate students work full time outside GMU, hold graduate teaching assistantships, or do not receive GRA positions. Graduate students receive mentoring and research training during the semester by working with ACErs! on existing research projects. Additionally, they build relationships with other researchers and can access resources to help them in their graduate program and in building their CVs. If you are interested in volunteering in the ACE! Graduate Lab, email us at ace@gmu.edu.