Center for Advancing Correctional Excellence

Panelists, Stoneman Douglas Survivor, Examine Virginia’s ‘Red Flag’ Gun Laws Tuesday

Andrew J Schappert — Fri, 03 Mar 2023 15:07:37 +0000

Panelists, Stoneman Douglas Survivor, Examine Virginia’s ‘Red Flag’ Gun Laws Tuesday Andrew J Schappert Fri, 03/03/2023 - 10:07

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Mark J. Rozell

Faye S. Taxman

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Faye S. Taxman Photo by Creative Services

The Schar School of Policy and Government at ��AV and the gun safety nonprofit Safer Country will present a panel discussion addressing Virginia’s red flag gun law Tuesday, March 7, at 7 p.m. ET at Mason Square’s Van Metre Hall in Arlington, Virginia.

In addition to the local leaders on the Mason stage, David Hogg, a gun violence prevention activist and a student survivor of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, will participate in a virtual question-and-answer session during the event.

Panelists include Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano, Fairfax County Supervisor and Public Safety Committee Chair Rodney Lusk, Fairfax County Police Emergency Substantial Risk Order Coordinator Sgt. Amanda Paris, and President of the Fairfax County NAACP Sean Perryman.

Schar School dean Mark J. Rozell and Safer Country executive director Paul A. Friedman will moderate the discussion. University Professor Faye S. Taxman, founding director of the Schar School’s Center for Advancing Correctional Excellence (ACE!), will introduce the panel.

The event is free and open to the public but registration is required at this site.

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Study Examining Mental Health and Jail Populations Wins National Award

Andrew J Schappert — Wed, 14 Sep 2022 17:50:55 +0000

Study Examining Mental Health and Jail Populations Wins National Award Andrew J Schappert Wed, 09/14/2022 - 13:50

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Faye S. Taxman

Faye Taxman: ‘A truly engaged research endeavor, the best of all worlds. Photo by Ron Aira/Creative Services

A groundbreaking, $3.6 million study acknowledging that jails in the United States are de facto mental institutions—which also studies implementation strategies that can reduce jail populations across the country—won the Mission Award from the Society for Implementation Research Collaboration (SIRC), a national organization that encourages collaborations by academics, scientists, and researchers to create evidence-based psychosocial interventions.

This is the first time SIRC has presented the Mission Award. The award recognizes collaborations to advance system enhancements to better address health and justice equity issues.

The study, “Evaluation of Stepping Up Efforts to Improve MH Services and Justice Utilization,” is a collaboration among three universities led by Schar School of Policy and Government University Professor Faye S. Taxman at ��AV, C.S. Mott Endowed Professor of Public Health at Michigan State University Jennifer E. Johnson, and Jill Viglione, associate professor of criminal justice at the University of Central Florida.

The study is funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (R01MH118680, MPI Taxman and Johnson) working alongside a national initiative founded by three stakeholder organizations working to reduce jail populations.

“The Mission Award recognizes the significance of the national Stepping Up Initiative to reduce overincarceration of people with mental illnesses, developed and led by the National Association of Counties (NACo), the Council of State Governments (CSG) Justice Center, and the American Psychiatric Association Foundation (APAF),” SIRC said in a statement. “More than 15 million people pass through the U.S. criminal justice system each year, 66 percent of whom have mental health disorders.”

“NACo-CSG-APAF recognized seven years ago that there was a need to reduce the number of individuals with serious mental illness in jails and to improve access to community mental health services for currently or potentially justice-involved individuals,” said MSU’s Johnson. “They created Stepping Up to address this issue with over 550 counties now participating in reducing the footprint of the justice system for those with mental health disorders.”

Taxman is the founding director of the Center for Advancing Correctional Excellence (ACE!) at the Schar School and was principal investigator of the study.

“We are so pleased to receive this award because it not only recognizes the tremendous work of our collaborative research team both at Mason and our participating institutions, but it recognizes that our study would not be possible without the passion and commitment of national organizations—NACo, CSG, and APAF—to address the overrepresentation of people with mental health disorders in local jails,” said Taxman. “This award means so much to me as a scientist who has dedicated my career to working with organizations to achieve system improvements, and we are grateful for our partner agencies to work on this study. A truly engaged research endeavor, the best of all worlds.”

"Jails are an understudied area,” Taxman added, "and the collaborative work of the practice partners and academic teams illustrates the enormous effort required to work on complex system issues, both in terms of how to change systems and how to document the change. The Mission Award recognizes not only the collaborative effort, but also the individual talent of those whose work has been awarded."

SIRC’s Mission Award is shared by the national organizations of NACo, CSG, and APAF, researchers Taxman and Johnson, and other contributing researchers and stakeholders:

Risë Haneberg and Mark Stovell, the Council of State Governments Justice Center;
Nastassia Walsh, the National Association of Counties;
Chris Chun-Steeley, American Psychiatric Association Foundation;
Niloofar Ramezani, biostatistician at Mason’s College of Engineering and Computing;
Schar School doctoral students Cathee Lee, Jiaxin Wei, and Olzhas Zhorayev;
Mason researchers Ben Mackey, Alex Breno, and Kendra Clark;
Professor of Health Administration and Policy Alison Cuellar from Mason’s College of Health and Human Sciences;
Maji Hailemariam Debena, assistant professor in the Division of Public Health, College of Human Medicine at MSU;
MSU research assistant Hiywote Wencheko and medical student Crystal Nance-Panek;
Rochelle Rosen, associate professor at the Center for Behavioral and Preventive Medicine at the Miriam Hospital in Rhode Island and associate professor at Brown University School of Public Health; and,
Nicholas Paul, doctoral student at UCF’s College of Community Innovation and Education.

View a presentation and learn more about the study findings here. Read more about the one of the study’s outcomes here.

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Schar School News September 2022

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Taxman, ACE!, Probing St. Louis’s Troubled Jail

Andrew J Schappert — Wed, 31 Aug 2022 16:42:23 +0000

Taxman, ACE!, Probing St. Louis’s Troubled Jail Andrew J Schappert Wed, 08/31/2022 - 12:42

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Faye S. Taxman

Schar School of Policy and Government’s Faye S. Taxman, founding director of the Center for Advancing Correctional Excellence (ACE!), is helping administrators at St. Louis County Justice Center in St. Louis, Missouri, develop new racial equity policies and programming to improve the jail’s culture and reduce its population.

The 18-month, first-of-its-kind study, funded by a $300,000 grant from the MacArthur Foundation, will focus on rampant racism and mistreatment of inmates.

If successful, those new practices and policies could be adapted by criminal justice systems across the country.

The study team includes researchers from ACE!, the University of Missouri-St. Louis, and justice system partnerships.

—Buzz McClain

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Schar School News August 2022

Study: To Reduce Jail Populations, Increase Mental Health Services in Communities

Andrew J Schappert — Thu, 25 Aug 2022 19:21:05 +0000

Study: To Reduce Jail Populations, Increase Mental Health Services in Communities Andrew J Schappert Thu, 08/25/2022 - 15:21

Faye Taxman: ‘This study is important because it illustrates the interconnection between mental health services in the community and the size of the jail population…’

A new study by Schar School of Policy and Government researchers concludes that U.S. jails are de facto mental health institutions, with nearly 10 times as many individuals with serious mental illness in prisons and jails than in state psychiatric hospitals.

The study also found that access to affordable healthcare services and behavioral health treatment in the community changes how the jail is used and reduces the size of the jail population.

“This study is important because it illustrates the interconnection between mental health services in the community and the size of the jail population—that is, if counties invest in expanding local health services, then they can reduce how they use their local jail,” said Faye S. Taxman, founding director of the Center for Advancing Correctional Excellence (ACE!) at ��AV and the principal investigator of the study.

The data is relevant “to policy makers at federal, state, and local government agencies in terms of reducing the unnecessary use of local jails,” she said. “It also illustrates a connection that the number of services in the community is important to improve outcomes.”

Researchers included Niloofar Ramezani, a biostatistician at Mason’s College of Engineering and Computing, and collaborators from Michigan State University and the University of Central Florida. Working with $3.6 million in funding from the National Institute of Mental Health, the researchers studied the size of jail populations in 3,100 U.S. counties to explore factors contributing to the over-use of incarceration in county jails in the face of increased mental health challenges within those communities.

The study’s conclusions point to increasing mental health services—particularly in counties with smaller populations, reduced numbers of high school graduates, and fewer treatment services—to reduce prison and jail populations.

There is hope on the horizon, Taxman pointed out.

“The new Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill has funds for mental health services,” she said. “If used, that funding can help to reduce the over 11 million Americans who are processed by local jails each year.”

The complete study is here.

Probing St. Louis’s Troubled Jail

Taxman and ACE! are helping administrators at St. Louis County Justice Center in St. Louis, Missouri, develop new racial equity policies and programming to improve the jail’s culture and reduce its population. The 18-month, first-of-its-kind study, funded by a $300,000 grant from the MacArthur Foundation, will focus on rampant racism and mistreatment of inmates.

If successful, those new practices and policies could be adapted by criminal justice systems across the country.

The study team includes researchers from ACE!, the University of Missouri-St. Louis, and justice system partnerships.

In This Story

Faye S. Taxman

Learn more about the Schar School

Read the full study

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Schar School News August 2022

Center for Advancing Correctional Excellence

Reforming Criminal Justice

Andrew J Schappert — Fri, 03 Dec 2021 14:31:53 +0000

Reforming Criminal Justice Andrew J Schappert Fri, 12/03/2021 - 09:31

Screenshot by Buzz McClain/Schar School of Policy and Government

Nearly 100 viewers with an interest in criminal justice reform in the commonwealth tuned into an early December webinar on the subject, moderated by Bonnie Stabile of the Schar School’s Gender and Policy Center (GAP), and featuring Faye Taxman, director of the Center for Advancing Correctional Excellence (ACE!). Guests addressing the equity, effectiveness, and economics of incarceration included keynote speaker Jennifer Carroll Foy, former Virginia delegate and gubernatorial candidate; Bonnie Hoffman, director of public defense reform and training at the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers; Claire Guthrie Gastañga, former director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia; and Edward Ungvarsky, criminal defense lawyer.
—Buzz McClain

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Criminal Justice Reform

Schar School News December 2021

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Research to identify practices for reducing incarceration of those with mental illnesses

Damian Cristodero — Wed, 11 Mar 2020 09:30:00 +0000

Research to identify practices for reducing incarceration of those with mental illnesses Damian Cristodero Wed, 03/11/2020 - 05:30

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Mason professor helps evaluate tool to predict recidivism as part of landmark First Step Act legislation

Melanie Balog — Mon, 22 Jul 2019 19:26:44 +0000

Mason professor helps evaluate tool to predict recidivism as part of landmark First Step Act legislation Melanie Balog Mon, 07/22/2019 - 15:26

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recidivism

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Center for Advancing Correctional Excellence

Panelists, Stoneman Douglas Survivor, Examine Virginia’s ‘Red Flag’ Gun Laws Tuesday

In This Story

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Learn more about the Schar School

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Study Examining Mental Health and Jail Populations Wins National Award

In This Story

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Taxman, ACE!, Probing St. Louis’s Troubled Jail

In This Story

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Study: To Reduce Jail Populations, Increase Mental Health Services in Communities

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Learn more about the Schar School

Read the full study

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Reforming Criminal Justice

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Research to identify practices for reducing incarceration of those with mental illnesses

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Mason professor helps evaluate tool to predict recidivism as part of landmark First Step Act legislation

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