Major Projects
ACE!’s major projects fall into two main categories: 1) research across the spectrum of issues affecting justice-involved populations and 2) technical assistance. When we develop research projects, we look beyond the “usual suspects” and reach across departments, disciplines, and institutions to find the best and most innovative partners. We work to actively engage practitioners and policy makers in our research. Our projects include not just asking what works, but examining how a program works and what an agency needs to do to implement that program. Many of our studies focus on implementation, program, and organizational change outcomes.
Current Major Projects
This Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) Fellowship (PI Danielle S. Rudes) includes a multiyear study of correctional staff and residents in U.S. jails and prisons. Data includes interviews with individuals living (n=447) and working (n=183) in eight prisons and five jails across the U.S. regarding their perceptions of barriers to success and any programs, practices, and trainings staff and residents believed facilitated their work and carceral productivity. The team also conducted a thorough review of existing no-cost trainings available from various agencies designed to assist correctional staff overcome the issues and challenges they face as correctional professionals.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
(XR-B versus SL-B): This study fulfills Aim 3 of its parent study (PIs Michael Gordon & Tom Blue, Friends Research Institute) to explore barriers and facilitators to XR-B versus SL-B implementation in jail: (1) dose induction; (2) diversion and procedures for reducing diversion; (3) continuity of care after release or transfer to another facility; (4) staffing (both custody and medical) needs for daily versus XR-B buprenorphine dosing; and (5) patient preference for XR-B versus SL-B. The project consists of interviews at several times during the clinical trial period.
As part of a larger comparative effectiveness trial (PIs Michael Gordon, Tom Blue, & Frank Voceli of Friends Research Institute) comparing extended-release buprenorphine versus extended-release naltrexone in six county jails in Maryland, a learning collaborative was conducted in parallel with the randomized controlled trial partnering with some of the same county jails. This current study included interviews with organizational leaders--both pre- (2022) and post- (2023) learning collaborative (LC) sessions (with leaders from Maryland jails, and Maryland community treatment centers.)
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.