Corrections

The Executive Board is busy throughout the year and the Section holds its business/awards event at the annual meeting of ACJS each year. Upcoming meetings will be in Denver CO (2025) and Philadelphia, PA (2026). We hope to see you there!

With the new ACJS program app, at each annual meeting, members can use the app to identify panels, roundtables, and other events that may be of interest to Section members. These events usually are of particular importance to the practice, teaching, or study of corrections.

The Section-sponsored annual meeting has proven extremely popular. Each year at this gathering, we present Section awards and invite a speaker or two from a local non-profit that helps formerly incarcerated people. Last year we hosted folks from the North Lawndale Employment Network in Chicago, and this year (2025) we will host representatives from the Second Chance Center (SCC) in Denver/Aurora to tell us about their work. The Corrections Section will also make its annual $1000 non-profit donation to SCC.

Previous keynote speakers have included:

• Khelan Todd and Leah Holmes, North Lawndale Employment Network, Chicago (2024)
• Vanessa Bright, Maryland Re-Entry Resource Center (2023)
• Julia Lazareck, President of Prison Families Alliance (2022)
• Gail Watts, Director of Baltimore County Department of Corrections (2019)
• Steven Lassalle, District Administrator for the New Orleans District of Louisiana Adult Probation and Parole, and Kelly Orians, co-founder and Executive Director of Rising Foundations, a nonprofit working on behalf of individuals reentering society from incarceration in New Orleans (2018)
• Catherine Lineaweaver, retired warden from the Federal Bureau of Prisons (2017)
• Katie Green, National Institute of Corrections (2016)
• Malik Muhammed, Training Captain with the Orange County Florida Corrections Department (2015)
• Brandon Applegate, past president of ACJS (2014)
• Carly Welebob, Director of the Texas Community Justice Assistance Division (2013)
• Michael Jacobson, President and Executive Director of the Vera Institute (2012)
• Sonya Spencer, Executive Director of St. Leonard's Society of Toronto and President-Elect of the International Community Corrections Association (2011)
• Dr. Daren Dalton, Director of Programs, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (2010)

Any current member of ACJS is welcomed to join as a new section member! Also, we actively seek student members who are studying corrections at the undergraduate or graduate level and provide travel scholarships to interested students. If you know of a student who would benefit from meeting and networking with scholars in the corrections field, please encourage them to become a member. Student participation is vital to our growth and the continued research in the field! Section dues are only $35 for regular members and FREE for students.

We have a robust and growing membership and we always are looking for ways to recruit new members who are interested in becoming active participants. Any organization is only as good as its members, and we think that we have some of the most talented teachers, scholars, practitioners, and professionals in the field.

TO JOIN THE SECTION

Only members of ACJS can join a Section. To join ACJS and add a Section, complete the membership application.  If you are an existing member and would like to ADD a Section to your membership, please select the Section (only) on the membership application and complete the payment process.

You can find the Correction Section on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/ACJSCS.
Or simply search in Facebook under Corrections Section.

Section’s Twitter page: https://twitter.com/ACJS_CS

Corrections: Policy, Practice and Research Journal Twitter page: https://twitter.com/CorrectionsR

Our section website and email list serve as a clearinghouse for information and an exchange of ideas, questions, and helpful strategies for practical application, research, and teaching tips among section members.

Your dues along with your RSVP provide you the opportunity to attend the annual social gathering and general business meeting held at the ACJS Annual Meeting.

Members receive a subscription to our quarterly journal, Corrections: Policy, Practice, and Research. Please visit http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/ucor20/current to learn more about the journal. Members also receive a 30% discount on subscriptions to The Prison Journal provided by Sage Publications. Both publications are interesting and informative benefits of membership!

Please join us! We look forward to having YOU as a member!

Click here to view the most current section newsletter. 

Kelly Cheeseman Outstanding Student Travel Award

In 2011, the section began awarding the Outstanding Student Travel Award. Students presenting papers at the ACJS annual conference are encouraged to submit their presentations (in PowerPoint format) to the Awards committee for consideration for receipt of the $500 travel scholarship. This award is offered in loving memory of Dr. Kelly Cheeseman. Dr. Cheeseman was a strong criminal justice advocate, former correctional officer, well respected academic colleague and friend. To read more about Dr. Cheeseman's life and legacy, click on the article included in the association's newsletter, ACJS Today, pp. 14-16.

Past award recipients include:
Ms. Xiaosheng Iris Lou, University of California-Irvine (2023)

Outstanding Member Award

Criteria for nomination for the Outstanding Member award are: 1) membership in and preferably contribution to the ACJS Corrections Section; and 2) significant research and/or scholarship in the field of corrections. Winners will receive a $100 cash award, a plaque of recognition, and will be honored at the annual Corrections Section Award meeting. Self-nominations are allowed and encouraged.

2024 Award Winner: Dr. Renee Lamphere, University of North Carolina at Pembroke

Past award recipients include:
Lisa Carter, Florida Southern College
David May, Mississippi State University
Courtney G. Bagdon-Cox, Ph.D. Candidate at Washington State University - Spokane
Cathy Marcum, Appalachian State University
Cheryl Swanson, University of West Florida
Shelly Listwan, University of North Carolina Charlotte
Jeanne Stinchcomb, Florida Atlantic University
Jacqueline Helfgott, Seattle University
Faith Lutze, Washington State University
Kathy Johnson, University of West Florida
Mary Stohr, Missouri State University
Craig Hemmens, Missouri State University

John Howard Award

The John Howard Award is given intermittently, upon significant demand, to recognize an individual who has made significant and sustained contributions to the practice of corrections. The nominee MUST have made significant contributions to practice, but also can have made significant contributions in scholarship, teaching, policy, or service. Nominators can make the argument that a nominee's scholarship or work in teaching, policy, or service DID make a significant contribution to practice. This is encouraged. Nominations are accepted every year and the committee will seriously consider all nominees. However, the awarding of this honor is solely at the Committee's discretion and may not be awarded each year. Nominees should send a description of the nominee's contributions, explaining how the nominee meets or exceeds the criteria, along with a copy of the nominee's CV to the Section Chair.

2024 Award Winner: Leanne Alarid, University of Texas at El Paso

Past award recipients:
Mary Stohr, Washington State University (2022)
Kimberly Collica-Cox, Pace University (2021)
Jeffrey Ian Ross, University of Baltimore
Risdon Slate, Florida Southern College (2016)
Todd Clear, Rutgers University-Newark (2014)
Rosemary Gido, Indiana University of Pennsylvania (2012)
Ken Kerle, Managing Editor of American Jail Association's magazine, American Jails (2009)

Corrections: Policy, Practice, and Research (CPPR) Paper of the Year Award

Rebecca Headley Konkel and Jane C. Daquin received the 2024 Corrections: Policy, Practice, and Research (CPPR) Paper of the Year Award for “From the Streets to Prison and Back: An Examination of Continuity of Behaviors among Offenders.”

Dr. Jeff Bouffard and Dr. Nicole Niebuhr received the 2023 Corrections: Policy, Practice, and Research (CPPR) Paper of the Year Award for “Social Influences on Decisions to Refrain or Desist from Two Common Crimes among Incarcerated Men.”

Current members of the Executive Board are as follows:

Chair – Peter Wood, Eastern Michigan University
Term of office ends: March 2025

Vice Chair – Lisa Carter, Florida Southern College
Term of office ends: March 2025 (Vice Chair becomes Chair of the Section in 2025)

Secretary/Treasurer – Stuti Kokkalera, Sam Houston State University
Term of office ends: March 2026

Immediate Past Chair – Adam Matz, University of North Dakota
Term of office ends: March 2025

Executive Counselor – Jeff Bryson, Bethany College
Term of office ends: March 2026

Executive Counselor – Renee Lamphere, University of North Carolina at Pembroke
Term of office ends: March 2025

Executive Counselor – Christina Mancini, Virginia Commonwealth University
Term of office ends: March 2025