Evaluating Pandemic Guidelines for Community Corrections: A Structured Expert Feedback Session

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Benjamin K. Cohn is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Criminal Justice at the University of Central Florida. He received his MS in Justice, Law and Criminology from American University. He conducts research on community supervision, policing, police organizations, race and Whiteness. His introduction to criminal justice issues began over a decade ago when he organized with system impacted communities in his home state of California as a member of organizations such as the Ella Baker Center, Bend the Arc, and the Incarcerated Works Organizing Committee (IWOC). In addition to UCF, he also teaches inside local prisons through the Florida Prison Education Project.

Travis Johnson, works with Grants and Research with the American Probation and Parole Association. In his role, he assists with work on the association’s various grant-funded projects involving training, technical assistance, and research/evaluation to the community corrections field. Travis is currently working on several projects. BJA’s Project Safe Neighborhood as well as several different tribal initiatives. His interest lean towards supervision through technology and supervision of radicalized domestic terrorists. He received his Master’s in Safety, Security and Emergency Management from Eastern Kentucky University.

Gwyn Kaitis is a Program Analyst with American Probation and Parole Association (APPA), where she manages a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration-funded initiative focused on improving responses to impaired driving within community supervision systems. With over four years at APPA, Ms. Kaitis has led and supported a range of grant-funded national projects aimed at strengthening evidence-based practices for justice-involved populations. Ms. Kaitis holds a master’s degree in counseling and brings extensive experience working with both adults and youth who have been impacted by violence and trauma. Her professional background includes serving as Policy Director for the New Mexico Coalition Against Domestic Violence, organization Executive Director, and has served as Vice President of the National Association of Crisis Center Directors. Ms. Kaitis integrates her expertise in behavioral health, trauma, and systems-level policy to advance effective supervision strategies for individuals involved in impaired driving, with a focus on risk reduction, accountability, and long-term behavior change.

Feyza Koseoglu Darilmaz is a PhD student in Public Policy at George Mason University. She works as a Graduate Research Assistant at the Center for Advancing Correctional Excellence!, where she contributes to projects focused on evidence-based practices to improve supervision conditions and pandemic-related changes in community supervision. Her research examines risk and need patterns across different demographic groups, including immigrant populations. She holds an MA in Political Science from Koc University, Istanbul, and a BA in Political Science from Bogazici University, Istanbul, Türkiye.

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 to improve individual and organizational outcomes including procedural justice. She pioneered the development of translational tools to ease the implementation of research findings into practice such as the RNR Simulation Tool (www.gmuace.org/tools) to improve utilization of assessments in practice and treatment matching protocols and the Cascade of Care planning and system measures toolkit (https://www.jcoinctc.org/cascade-of-care). Dr. Taxman has published more than 230 articles. She is the current Principal Investigator for the National Institute on Drug Abuse ‘s Justice Community Overdose Innovation Network (JCOIN) Coordination and Translation Center.

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.