Executive Session on Community Corrections

The Executive Session on Community Corrections was a project of the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), U.S. Department of Justice (USDOJ), the Malcolm Wiener Center, and the Program in Criminal Justice Policy and Management (PCJ) at Harvard Kennedy School. See What is an Executive Session to learn more about the Executive Session model.

The challenges facing this field today are many. Prison and jail populations have grown historically large, correctional budgets have skyrocketed, and states are looking for new strategies to effectively manage large numbers of men and women who are passing through the criminal justice system. Criminal justice authorities have become an everyday presence in our poorest and most troubled communities. What strategies for probation, parole, and other agencies can promote public safety and also build trust between these communities and the justice institutions with which they’re now so closely involved? How can research evidence help neighborhoods, criminal justice agencies, and service-providers work together to improve supervision and support in those localities struggling most with crime? In short, we discussed nothing less than the future of American correctional policy. 

Between 2013 and 2016, members tackled a broad array of themes. Topics included current opportunities and challenges for reform, collaborative models for community justice, developmentally appropriate responses to justice-involved young adults, the lived experiences of those under supervision, the role of risk assessments in community corrections, and how to craft a positive role for community corrections in the overall health and wellbeing of communities.  By engaging leading policymakers, practitioners, and researchers from around the country, this Executive Session on Community Corrections aimed to develop our best practice and thinking for professionals across the safety and justice spectrum.

Members (affiliations at the time of the Executive Session)

  • Molly Baldwin, Founder and CEO, Roca, Inc.
  • Kendra Bradner (Facilitator), Project Coordinator, Program in Criminal Justice Policy and Management, Harvard Kennedy School
  • Barbara Broderick, Chief Probation Officer, Maricopa County Probation Adult Probation Department
  • Douglas Burris, Chief Probation Officer, United States District Court, The Eastern District of Missouri, Probation
  • John Chisholm, District Attorney, Milwaukee County District Attorney's Office
  • George Gascón, District Attorney, San Francisco County District Attorney's Office
  • Adam Gelb, Director, Public Safety Performance Project, The Pew Charitable Trusts
  • Susan Herman, Deputy Commissioner of Collaborative Policing, New York City Police Department
  • Michael Jacobson, Director, CUNY Institute for State and Local Governance; Professor, Sociology Department CUNY Graduate Center, City University of New York, Institute for State and Local Governance
  • Sharon Keller, Presiding Judge, Texas Court of Criminal Appeals
  • Marc Levin, Policy Director, Right on Crime; Director, Center for Effective Justice, Texas Public Policy Foundation
  • Glenn E. Martin, President and Founder, JustLeadershipUSA
  • Anne Milgram, Senior Fellow, New York University School of Law
  • Jason Myers, Sheriff, Marion County Oregon Sheriff's Office
  • Michael Nail, Commissioner, Georgia Department of Community Supervision  
  • James Pugel, Chief Deputy Sheriff, King County Washington Sheriff’s Department
  • Steven Raphael, Professor, Goldman School of Public Policy, University of California Berkeley
  • Nancy Rodriguez, Director, National Institute of Justice
  • Vincent N. Schiraldi, Senior Research Fellow, Program in Criminal Justice Policy and Management, Harvard Kennedy School
  • Sandra Susan Smith, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, University of California Berkeley
  • Amy Solomon, Director of Policy, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice; Director, Federal Interagency Reentry Council
  • Wendy Still, Chief Probation Officer, Alameda County Probation Department
  • John Tilley, Justice and Public Safety Cabinet Secretary, Commonwealth of Kentucky
  • Steven W. Tompkins, Sheriff, Suffolk County Commonwealth of Massachusetts Sheriff's Department
  • Harold Dean Trulear, Director, Healing Communities; Associate Professor of Applied Theology, Howard University School of Divinity
  • Vesla Weaver, Assistant Professor of African American Studies and Political Science, Yale University, Institution for Social and Policy Studies
  • Bruce Western, Faculty Chair, Program in Criminal Justice Policy and Management, Harvard Kennedy School; Daniel and Florence Guggenheim Professor of Criminal Justice
  • John Wetzel, Secretary of Corrections, Pennsylvania Department of Corrections
  • Ana Yáñez-Correa, Criminal Justice Program Officer, Public Welfare Foundation