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Center for Justice Leadership Supports the Advancing Correctional Excellence (ACE!) Initiative
Faye S Taxman, Ph.D. is a Professor in the Administration of Justice Program at George Mason University. She runs the Advancing Correctional Excellence (ACE!) initiative which includes partnerships with many Universities including University of Maryland, College Park, Virginia Commonwealth University, Brown University, University of Kentucky (to name a few) as well as government agencies such as the National Institute on Drug Abuse, Office of Justice, Programs, and Maryland Division of Parole and Probation. Research areas include health service delivery, criminal justice, corrections, sentencing, research designs, and organizational factors.
Dr. Taxman is the PI for the Coordinating Center for the NIDA funded Criminal Justice National Drug Treatment Studies (CJ-DATS) (www.cjdats.org) where she directs a national survey of practices in correctional settings and is involved in over several experimental studies. One such study explores the use of contingency management and incentive systems for drug-involved offenders. The other study assesses the impact of a peer-based HIV/AIDS prevention curriculum on risky behaviors. She is also the PI on two studies devoted to understanding adoption of science based practices in criminal justice and juvenile justice systems: a clinical trial to demonstrate the efficacy of a criminal thinking curriculum on the outcomes of substance abusing offenders and a clinical trial to understand the technology transfer practice that results in juvenile justice workers use of assessment tools in acquiring services for juvenile offenders. 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, 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.
Criminal Justice Drug Abuse Treatment Services (CJ-DATS)
This is the national coordinating center for the National Institute on Drug Abuse’s research network on treatment for the criminal justice- involved addict. The network includes ten research centers across the United States including the University of Miami (Howard Liddle, Ph.D.), University of California, Los Angeles (Michael Prendergast, Ph.D.), Brown University (Peter Friedmann, M.D.), University of Delaware (James Inciardi, Ph.D.), Texas Christian University (Kevin Knight, Ph.D.), National Research Institute and Development (Harry Wexler, Ph.D., Stan Sacks, Ph.D, and Nancy Jainchill, Ph.D.), Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services/University of Connecticut (Linda Frisman, Ph.D.) involved in implementing studies to develop new instruments for better management and treatment of the offender population, to implement clinical trials to test new strategies and interventions for improving outcomes from offenders, and to implement process studies to examine how criminal justice policy makers and practitioners affect offender and system outcomes. Lead Principle Investigator is Faye S. Taxman, Ph.D. Under this protocol, we are involved:
- CJ-DATS National Survey of Criminal Justice Treatment Practices survey
This is a multi-level survey of senior executives, administrators, program directors, and staff in correctional and drug treatment organizations. The survey involves a census of all 50 states and a nationally representative sample of counties/cities. The survey is designed to provide a systematic assessment of the availability and types of treatment provided to substance-abusing offenders throughout the criminal justice system. A special issue of the Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment (32:3) was published in April 2007. - ECourt. The e-Court project is intended to address practical needs involving federal monitoring and reporting on drug courts nationally, while also building basic knowledge on technology transfer and the role of technology in advancing program implementation and effectiveness. eCourt encompasses dual research and development activities: (1) design, develop, and pilot test a web-based information technology (IT) system in eight drug courts nationally and (2) conduct a national survey of drug courts to examine their structure and operations, treatment and compliance management practices, use of IT, and factors affecting the adoption and implementation of both IT and evidence-based treatment practices within the drug court setting. Impacts of technology transfer strategies will be explored by comparing the effects of a conventional training on eCourt IT implementation, to be employed in four of the drug court sites, and an enhanced training in the other four sites.
- National Drug Court Survey of Treatment Practices. A survey of a nationally representative study of drug courts will be conducted to understand treatment and relationship practices. The survey will be of 200 drug courts and will address issues referring to court and treatment structure, staff roles, use of IT and performance reports, coordination and collaboration between court staff and agencies, treatment orientation, perceptions of resources, and organizational climate.
- CJ-DATS Step’N Out. This randomized trial implemented in District 1 Probation and Parole Office in Richmond, VA. The study involves the use of positive reinforces and contingency management protocol to engage the offender in treatment services and improve outcomes. The protocol is a collaborative behavioral management approach to parole and substance abuse treatment where the parole officer, treatment counselor and client meet to work out a contract of graduated incentives and sanctions.
- CJ-DATS Data Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB). The NIDA Data Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) monitors clinical trials in order to ensure quality, internal validity, and scientific rigor of the accumulating data and identify early evidence of pre-specified or unanticipated benefit or harm to trial participants that may be attributable to one of the interventions under evaluation. Anne Rhodes (VCU) prepares data for submission to the DSMB for clinical trial interventions funded under CJ-DATS. This work includes working with all CJ-DATS-funded centers on preparing codebooks, cleaning quarterly data, reporting data according to CONSORT guidelines, designing and implementing a web-based system for reporting serious adverse events, and participating in quarterly DSMB meetings.
- Evidence-Based Practices in Corrections Project The Maryland Divison of Parole and Probation and the Virginia Department of Corrections (VA DOC) have established a memorandum of agreement to work together to improve correctional practices through provision of research, evaluation and educational services that bridge the gap between the academic and practitioner environments. The project will work with four communities in Virginia and four pioneer sites in Maryland and one prison (Wallens Ridge), and twelve day reporting centers throughout Virginia.
- Community Supervision. The first phase, which is the result of legislative requirements, involves reviewing the level of implementation of evidence-based practices in each of the ten Day Reporting Programs in Virginia. Organizational surveys and site visits were used to gather information on the level of implementation. The site visits also gave us an opportunity to test out a review instrument that will be finalized and used by the DOC to evaluate all programs statewide for EBP implementation. The final report “Day Reporting Programs in VA: Advancing the Concept” has been sent to the Virginia General Assembly to assist them in determining if the DOC should receive funding for two new Day Reporting Programs. Phase one will conclude with a presentation that summarizes the results and outlines a model Day Reporting Program to program administrators. Phase two focuses on implementing evidence-based practices into four pilot sites. At each site, state probation and parole and local community corrections organizations are participating. After several months of training and discussion of evidence-based practices, the pilot sites are currently working on an implementation plan for their location. These sites are also being surveyed to gather information on organizational culture and readiness for change.
- EBP in Prison. EBP in prison is designed to address the organizational climate of one level four prison. We are involved in identifying how to translate core research findings into operational processes in a prison setting. Organizational surveys are being conducted to assess the readiness for change of staff and administrators to modify practices. Surveys will be conducted periodically to assess change in the organization. We will implement procedures to monitor the translational process and then work on how to measure impact on offender and correctional system outcomes.
- Manualized Treatment in A Seamless System of Care, funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse with Principle Investigator is Faye Taxman, Co-PI, Elizabeth Katz, Friends Institute. This project will be a randomized block experiment to test the effectiveness of different models of the seamless criminal justice/treatment system and traditional criminal justice supervision on reducing recidivism and drug use, and improving social adjustment among offenders. Objectives of the study include understanding the differential impacts based on offender risk factors (e.g., propensity to engage in further criminal behavior) on criminal justice outcomes and to determine whether differences found between seamless and traditional system participants are moderated by offender risk level; understanding differential treatment and social adjustment outcomes (e.g., treatment progress, employment status) of different types of offenders participating in various treatment services; and examining levels of systems integration between the criminal justice agency and substance abuse treatment providers pre- and post-intervention and to measure the impact of systems integration on outcomes over time.
- Juvenile Assessment and Referral Services in the Juvenile Justice System. This National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) study funded this study (with Doug Young of the University of Maryland) to assess the impact of three different training and staff development protocols on the utilization of assessment, treatment planning, and service case management procedures by line staff at Maryland’s Department of Juvenile Services (DJS). The examination of this staff development protocols are designed to improve service utilization of community based substance abuse and/or mental health services by juveniles under the supervision of the DJS. It is hypothesized that staff that are involved in regimented, structured staff development will use the assessment, treatment planning, and case management strategies more than staff that receive other trainings. The goals are: assess the impact of a new juvenile assessment, referral and placement strategy on youth utilization of services, assess the impact of different training and staff development components, and analyze the impact of a new case management component on youth outcomes.
- ECourt. The e-Court project is intended to address practical needs involving federal monitoring and reporting on drug courts nationally, while also building basic knowledge on technology transfer and the role of technology in advancing program implementation and effectiveness. eCourt encompasses dual research and development activities: (1) design, develop, and pilot test a web-based information technology (IT) system in eight drug courts nationally and (2) conduct a national survey of drug courts to examine their structure and operations, treatment and compliance management practices, use of IT, and factors affecting the adoption and implementation of both IT and evidence-based treatment practices within the drug court setting. Impacts of technology transfer strategies will be explored by comparing the effects of a conventional training on eCourt IT implementation, to be employed in four of the drug court sites, and an enhanced training in the other four sites.