COVID-19 and Community Corrections: Analyzing Trends and Shaping Future Guidelines

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Travis Johnson is a grants program analyst with the American Probation and Parole Association. His work focuses on juvenile probation alongside the Annie E. Casey Foundation. He has worked for the American Probation and Parole Association for 8 years. Travis, over his tenure at APPA, has conducted surveys to the field on workforce issues, drug-testing, and fines and fees. His work also involves conducting workload studies for supervision agencies. Travis attended the University of Kentucky, majoring in Political Science with a minor in Arabic and Islamic Studies. He then continued his education at Eastern Kentucky University, where he obtained his master’s degree in safety, Security, and Emergency Management. His love for the justice system drove him to work for APPA.

Gwyn Kaitis, MA, is a Program Analyst with the American Probation and Parole Association, providing training and technical assistance and leading APPA’s efforts on a variety of projects to advance the field of community corrections. She has a background in intimate partner violence having served as Coalition Policy Director, Shelter Executive Director, trainer with the Chicago Police Academy, and serving as Chair of the New Mexico Intimate Partner Violence Death Review Team.

Faye S. Taxman, Ph.D., is a University Professor at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University. She is a health service criminologist. She is recognized for her work in the development of seamless systems-of-care models that link the criminal justice system with other health care and other service delivery systems and reengineering probation and parole supervision services. She has conducted experiments to examine different processes to improve treatment access and retention, to assess new models of probation supervision consistent with RNR frameworks, and to test new interventions. She developed the translational RNR Simulation Tool (www.gmuace.org/tools) to assist agencies to advance practice. Dr. Taxman has published more than 220 articles. She is the current Principal Investigator for the National Institute on Drug Abuse ‘s Justice Community Opioid Innovation Network (JCOIN) and HEAL Accelerator for the National Institute on Health. She is author of numerous books including Implementing Evidence-Based Community Corrections and Addiction Treatment and Handbook on Moving Corrections and Sentencing Forward: Building on the Record. She is co-Editor of Health & Justice. The American Society of Criminology's Division of Sentencing and Corrections has recognized her as Distinguished Scholar twice as well as the Rita Warren and Ted Palmer Differential Intervention Treatment award. She received the Joan McCord Award in 2017 from the Division of Experimental Criminology. In 2018, she was appointed a Fellow of the American Society of Criminology. In 2019, she received the lifetime achievement award from the American Society of Criminology's Division of Sentencing and Corrections. The Society for Implementation Research Collaboration (SIRC) in 2022 identified Dr. Taxman and her team for their work on collaborative and engaged research with the Mission Award. She has a Ph.D. from Rutgers University’s School of Criminal Justice.

Jill Viglione is an Associate Professor in the Department of Criminal Justice at the University of Central Florida. Her research focuses on the implementation of evidence-based practices, individual and organizational responses to policy reform, and decision making within courts and correctional agencies. She conducts policy-relevant program evaluations, with an expertise in survey methods. She has studied the implementation of a variety of programs/policies, including risk and needs assessments, correctional curriculums, and motivational interviewing. Dr. Viglione is currently a PI on a National Science Foundation study (SES-2215111) to examine the impact of COVID-19 on community corrections and develop pandemic guidelines and a PI on multiple Bureau of Justice Assistance grants (15PBJA-21-GG-02794-SMTP; 15PBJA-21-GG-02795-SMTP; 15PBJA-21-GG-02792-SMTP) to examine implementation of mobile applications and technology in community corrections agencies. In 2019, she was named the American Society of Criminology’s, Division on Corrections and Sentencing Distinguished New Scholar.