BOULDER, Colo. — Five community corrections professionals with extensive global experience have been named to the Advisory Board of the SAW Project (Supervision Around the World), a new global initiative that aims to effect transformational change in the community corrections space through an interactive online data repository.
These five industry leaders possess a range of experience in community corrections and will work with SAW Project Executive Director Julie Truschel to guide this new project centered on international collaboration. The board’s members are:
- Michelle Carpentier, Executive Director of the International Corrections and Prisons Association
- Veronica Ballard Cunningham, Executive Director of the American Probation and Parole Association
- Doug Dretke, Executive Director of the Correctional Management Institute of Texas
- Gary Hill, CEO of CEGA Services and President of Contact Center, Inc.
- Steve Pitts, former head of the England and Wales Prison and Probation Services International and co-creator of the original World Congress on Probation concept.
“Community corrections professionals have the opportunity to change the supervision industry for the better by sharing data. I’m looking forward to continuing to work with this group of unparalleled professionals on accomplishing that important goal,” said Truschel, whose community corrections consulting agency, Community Supervision Solutions, conducts the project in partnership with the APPA, a nonprofit membership agency within the industry.
For her part, Truschel has worked in various capacities of juvenile and adult corrections for more than 30 years and has provided independent consulting services to government agencies as well as national and international private companies, with an emphasis on a continuum of care model. She served on the Program Committee for the 2015 World Congress on Community Corrections and is a member of the International Relations Committee for the American Probation and Parole Association.
The goal of the SAW Project is to share best practices from around the world on community corrections, and provide a platform where community corrections professionals can access up-to-date information about supervision programs, models and outcomes in 195 existing countries. It has its origins in 2015 at the 2nd World Congress on Community Corrections, when APPA and CSS conducted a series of interviews with supervision professional administrators from various countries about local supervision practices.
Learn more about the five members of the SAW Project’s Advisory Board.