RAPID: Examining Community Corrections Agencies During COVID-19

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This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2).The COVID-19 pandemic has created extreme challenges for community corrections agencies across the United States, a population at a high risk for infectious diseases due to a prevalence of social, economic, and behavioral risk factors. This RAPID project will measure and track agency-level responses to prevent, contain, and respond to the COVID-19 outbreak. Additionally, this project will examine how community corrections (the largest arm of the corrections system) respond to the COVID-19 pandemic and balance public health and public safety. Consequently, this study will investigate the circumstances under which community supervision agencies alter their policies and procedures during the COVID-19 pandemic, while examining the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the physical and mental health of community supervision officers.Through surveys and interviews with community supervision administrators and officers, and based on a theory of organization change, this project will take a longitudinal approach to examine how community corrections agencies adapt during the COVID-19 pandemic. These methods will enable a study of the circumstances under which community supervision agencies alter their policies and procedures during the COVID-19 pandemic. This project will produce data and research results that will provide key information on the strategies agencies use during the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings will aid scholarship and agency decision making in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, while informing the development of plans to protect the health and well-being of correctional staff and clients in future infectious disease events.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.