MUSIC CITY- HERE WE COME! 
Mark your calendars and check our website for updated information about the 151st Congress of Correction to be held in Nashville, Tennessee on August 11-15, 2021 (August 11th is virtual only and August 12-15 is onsite and virtual). In the upcoming days, visit ACA’s website at www.aca.org for the latest conference schedule, registration information and housing. Purchase your exhibit booth now! Contact Da’Shawn Burnette at dash...@aca.org or 703-224-0030 to reserve your spot today! See you there! Click here to register for the 151st Congress of Correction ACA President Tony Parker kicks off ‘Meet the Challenge: Taking Care of You’ initiative to promote staff wellness “Commissioner Tony Parker, President of ACA announces during Correctional Officer and Employees week the ‘MEET THE CHALLENGE’ initiative. This challenge is for every correctional agency to create a contest for correctional staff to improve their overall wellness. The agency will select one winner and will submit their agency’s winner to ACA. There will be four national winners selected to receive a grand prize of FREE airline ticket and registration to attend the ACA 2022 Winter Conference in Phoenix, Arizona! The winners will be recognized at the conference in the General Session by President Parker. Several of the agencies that have signed up to “Meet the Challenge” include Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice, Connecticut Department of Correction, Tennessee Department of Correction, Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, The Salvation Army Harbor Light Complex, New Jersey Department of Corrections, Management and Training Corporation, North Carolina Department of Public Safety, Adult Corrections, and Michigan Department of Corrections! GET MOTIVATED… Encourage your agency’s leadership to sign up now and ‘MEET THE CHALLENGE’! Click here for more information and contest rules. Call for National Correctional Officers and Employees Week photos/videos In the first week of this month, May 3-9, we celebrated National Correctional Officers and Employees Week. Read ACA’s Message and Proclamation honoring our nation’s great public servants who continue to perform their duties in extraordinarily challenging conditions. Please send pictures, video or written explanations of how you have celebrated your Correctional Employees this week to execo...@aca.org and we will include them in the next ACA Connect or feature them in our publications or on our website/social media. Condolences to friends and family of Correctional Staff lost to COVID-19 ACA’s leadership, staff and members extend sympathy and condolences to friends and family of all corrections officers and employees who have fallen ill or passed away due to the COVID 19 pandemic since the May 7th issue of ACA Connect. Below are recent losses due to COVID-19. To see all who lost their lives, please visit ACA’s Wall of Honor and join us in mourning these professionals who put their lives on the line every day to protect our communities and those under their charge. James Herrera, Deputy, Downtown Detention Center- Denver, Colorado With the heightened risk of attending work and being in close quarters with both staff and inmates, the bravery and necessity of our correctional workers has never been clearer. Correctional Agencies on the Front Lines of the Fight against COVID-19 In addition to performing their duties in extremely trying circumstances, correctional agencies around the country are stepping up to provide relief to medical workers and the public at large. Take a look at the great work done by correctional agencies since our May 7th ACA Connect: [Delaware] Inmate vaccinations top 50 percent at Delaware correctional facilities [Florida] Close to 20% of inmates at Walton, Okaloosa jails choose to receive COVID-19 vaccine [Florida] Miami-Dade Corrections and Rehabilitation Department Inmates Receive COVID-19 Vaccines [Massachusetts] Middlesex Sheriff’s Office using wastewater analysis to monitor for presence of coronavirus at facility [Ohio] Cuyahoga County Jail Begins Offering COVID-19 Vaccines To All Prisoners Oklahoma Watch: Visitors, Volunteers Return to Oklahoma Prisons as Cases Drop, Vaccine Access Widens [Nebraska] NDCS team members honored for service during COVID-19 Congratulations to Pat Glebe for being appointed as Interim Assistant Secretary for the Washington State Department of Corrections ACA congratulates Pat Glebe for being appointed as the Interim Assistant Secretary for the Washington State Department of Corrections. Glebe started his career as a correctional officer at the Monroe Reformatory in 1985. In 2006, Glebe transferred to Stafford Creek Corrections Center (SCCC) and was named Superintendent at SCCC two years later. Later, he served as Superintendent of the Washington Corrections Center until his retirement in 2017. In addition to Glebe’s tenure with prison facilities, he also served in several acting roles at DOC headquarters for the Prisons Division. Glebe holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from City University with an Emphasis in Criminal Justice. In 2012, he was awarded the Governor’s Leadership Award by Governor Christine Gregoire. Congratulations to Vincent Schiraldi for being appointed as new Commissioner for the New York City Department of Correction ACA congratulates Vincent Schiraldi for being appointed as new Commissioner for the New York City Department of Correction. I’m really excited,” Schiraldi told The News. “I know that there are a lot of challenges but there’s also a lot of opportunity. New York is showing the rest of the country what a post-mass incarceration city can be like. We have incarceration rates that are rivaling European countries,” he added. Schiraldi is the city’s former Department of Probation commissioner, a former director of juvenile corrections in Washington, D.C., and a senior advisor to the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice. Congratulations to the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services for being honored for service during COVID-19 The Nebraska Department of Correctional Services (NDCS) was well-represented at a ceremony for recipients of the annual State of Nebraska Excellence in Leadership awards. Eighteen individuals received a desk plaque and a Nebraska Navy admiralship from Governor Pete Ricketts on Friday, May 14, 2021. Nominations for awards were submitted last summer and focused on outstanding service to the state during COVID-19. Awards were presented to the following individuals: Dr. Harbans Deol, medical director; Diane Sabatka-Rine, chief of operations; Ryan Mahr, warden, Community Corrections Center-Omaha (CCC-O); Estela Finn, translator; Daniel Rabenhorst, corporal, Diagnostic and Evaluation Center (DEC); and Karen Michaelson, human resources manager. Awards were also given to members of the NDCS purchasing team (Peggy Arp, Rhonda Bayne, Kyla Black, A.J. Divis, Chris Kliment, Diane Poppert, Danielle Reynolds, Mark Rumery and Kate Severin) and members of the Cornhusker State Industries (CSI) sewing shop (Nicole Abold, Margie Hoss and Danielle Sanders). All of these individuals served NDCS in extraordinary ways during the pandemic,” said NDCS Director Scott R. Frakes. Corrections Today May/June issue available online The May/June issue of ACA’s flagship magazine, Corrections Today is online at www.aca.org. Don’t forget to tell friends and colleagues to join or renew membership with ACA to access to the bi-monthly Corrections Today, bi-weekly ACA Connect, and Corrections Daily news updates, along with many benefits offered to members through training, conference events and much more! FROM ACA HEADQUARTERS Send in your nominations for the E.R. Cass Award and other ACA awards The time has come to send in your nominations for this year’s E.R. Cass Award. The E.R. Cass award honors those who have made outstanding contributions to the field of corrections throughout their careers and provided exemplary service to their agencies, states, and country. Click here to view the nomination form for the E.R. Cass Award. Please visit ACA’s website and Corrections Today magazine for other award nomination forms. ACA conducted a 3-day training in Tennessee on Medication for Opioid Use Disorder Program ACA conducted training in Tennessee on Medication for Opioid Use Disorder on May 10-13, 2021. ACA Welcomes New Staff at Alexandria Headquarters ACA is pleased to introduce to you ACA’s Communications & Publications Director, Kirk Raymond. Kirk has been a communications and publications professional for thirty years. He has created content and marketing materials for a wide variety of non-profit educational, lobbying and charitable concerns. He holds a B.A. from Adrian College and was a Master’s Fellow in Political Science at Southern Illinois University. He currently resides in Alexandria, Virginia. Office of Correctional Health Opioid Use Disorder Staff Trainings OCH also offers staff training for all agency staff on implementing medication for opioid use disorder programs. The curriculum covers all aspects of program implementation and oversight from a medical, behavioral health, security, and administrative perspective. ACA conducted 2nd virtual training for Auditor candidates from Mexico for International Correctional Core Standards (ICCS) ACA conducted the second virtual training of auditor candidates from Mexico on ICCS on May 17-21, 2021. ACA Commission on Accreditation for Corrections to hold virtual panel hearings in May and June The Commission on Accreditation for Corrections will host virtual panel hearings May 25 and June 3, 15, & 29, 2021. There will be virtual panels in July (dates to be determined) and on-site panel hearings in Nashville. You will be contacted in advance to schedule panel hearings. ACA Expected Practices Portal The proposed revisions to the ACA expected practices are now available for public comment. Comments can be submitted on the ACA website standards committee standards portal until May 21, 2021. For questions, please contact the Director Standards and Accreditation Department, at dav...@aca.org. Online COVID-19 Resources and Information Center ACA’s homepage now includes a link to ACA’s “Coronavirus Resources”. ACA staff have compiled and shared guidelines, emergency response plans and information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), World Health Organization (WHO), Federal Bureau of Prisons (FBOP), and state/local agencies. Keep checking this resource page for the most up-to-date and corrections-specific information on mitigating and combatting the COVID-19 crisis. Request to be a member of ACA Committees Anyone interested in serving on a committee for ACA, send an email to pres...@aca.org. Corrections Today Article Submissions ACA is always looking for good articles for Corrections Today magazine. If you are interested in submitting an article for consideration, please check out the publications area of our website or send an email to submi...@aca.org. Stay up to date with ACA’s Professional Development and Certification Programs E-LEARNING: Does Your Staff Need Training Hours??? – Check out ACA’s e-learning catalog for course offerings. Whether it is new hire training, annual in-service and critical issues training ACA can be your training partner. We can customize your training to fit your agencies requirements via ACA’s World- Class E-Learning Training Program. We offer courses that address security/inmate management, legal issues, mental health, supervision/management, juvenile corrections, and much more. Quality training starts at ACA and gives staff an opportunity to develop skills and boost career opportunities. We offer a state-of-the-art training platform, a media-rich learning experience and new courses; all cost- effective. Contact us at elea...@aca.org to find out how we can assist you. CERTIFICATION: ACA’s certification program is designed to promote professional development and lifelong learning to the professionals in the corrections field. The program ensures the awareness of the most current, innovative, and effective approaches in corrections. The program is designed to advance the overall knowledge level of practitioners in the field and promotes the capabilities of corrections professionals to the public by demonstrating their adherence to the ACA Code of Ethics. STAY CERTIFIED: – You have earned this honor. It is time to get RECERTIFIED. If you were certified in 2018, contact us at acap...@aca.org to find out how you can recertify! Visit the Professional Development webpage for more information here. ACA Connect News Item Submissions If you have internal news to share with your fellow ACA Members, please send it along to ind...@aca.org to be included in the next issue of ACA Connect. PARTNERS AND AFFILIATES Georgetown University hosts Breakthrough Series Collaborative on Transforming the Youth Justice System Georgetown University’s Center for Juvenile Justice Reform is hosting a new program, in partnership with the Center for Children’s Law and Policy, entitled Transforming the Youth Justice System: Promoting Equity, Community, and Wellbeing for Youth of Color Breakthrough Series Collaborative (BSC). Participating jurisdictions will be required to partner with communities most deeply impacted by the system as they develop, test, and implement evidence-informed strategies for diversion and other community-based alternatives and approaches. The BSC application is due by August 20, 2021 by midnight of the applicant’s time zone. If you have any questions, contact Macon Stewart at macon....@georgetown.edu. To learn more about this opportunity, visit the CJJR website. Register for the June 8th informational webinar here, or register for the July 12th informational webinar here. Attention ACA Chapter Presidents: Please send updated officer contact information to Helena Windsor, Membership & Chapter Relations Manager at hel...@aca.org | 
