2026 ACA 156th Congress of Correction Pittsburgh_Program Book

partners can work together to create coordinated pathways from incarceration to successful community integration. The session will highlight innovative collaboration models involving residential reentry centers, employers, workforce agencies, educational institutions, treatment providers and faith-based organizations. Presenters will demonstrate how partnerships can address common barriers, including employment, transportation, housing instability, digital literacy, trauma, family reintegration and community trust. This interactive workshop will include case studies, partnership-mapping exercises, audience discussion and practical implementation tools that correctional professionals can adapt within prisons, jails, community corrections and reentry settings. Participants will leave with actionable strategies for developing collaborative networks that strengthen outcomes for justice-involved individuals while supporting safer and healthier communities. Moderator: Raymond D. Austin, Jr. , Program Director/Workforce Development Leadership, Alvis Inc., Columbus, Ohio Speaker: Raymond D. Austin, Jr. , Program Director/Workforce Development Leadership, Alvis Inc., Columbus, Ohio More Than Monitoring: The New AI Playbook for Correctional Communications Room 316 Primary Community of Focus: Prisons & Jails Platinum Partnership/Via Path Overview: Most correctional AI tools focus on a single moment, channel or task. This session traces a realistic communications journey across secure messages, shared photos, phone calls and video visits to show how intelligence can emerge over time and across channels. Participants will explore how AI can support identity verification, user authentication, transcription, translation, contextual review, semantic search, investigator workflows and scheduled intelligence

summaries. By connecting fragmented clues and surfacing patterns that might otherwise go unnoticed, these tools can help agencies transform scattered communications into stronger investigations, greater operational awareness, and better decision-making. Moderator: Curt Clifton , EVP-Chief Technology Officer, ViaPath, Falls Church, Virginia Speaker: Christopher Ditto , SVP of Research & Development, ViaPath, Falls Church, Virginia; Helen Hanks , Vice President, Operational Excellence, ViaPath, Concord, New Hampshire Texas Juvenile Justice Department (TJJD): Survival to Self-Actualization Room 317 Primary Community of Focus: Juvenile Overview: In 2007, the Texas Juvenile Justice Department (then the Texas Youth Commission) faced significant scandal that led to increased oversight, legal reforms and a full system restructuring in 2011. Since then, the agency has shifted away from fear and control-driven models toward trauma-responsive approaches that emphasize emotional development, accountability and healthier decision-making. This presentation highlights how TJJD achieved this progress, navigating public mistrust, COVID disruptions, and staffing shortages to become a more proactive, responsive, and stable organization. It will demonstrate the strategies and changes that continue to drive TJJD toward excellence and its goal of becoming a national leader in juvenile justice. Moderator: Evan Norton , Deputy Executive Director, Texas Juvenile Justice Department, Austin, Texas Speaker: Shandra Carter , Executive Director, Texas Juvenile Justice Department, Austin, Texas

Thursday, July 30 ▼ 8 a.m.–12 p.m.

WORKSHOPS

94 — ACA 156 th Congress of Correction | Pittsburgh