AdCare Criminal Justice Services (ACJS), part of the overall AdCare Health System

AdCare Criminal Justice Services (ACJS), part of the overall AdCare Health System, is one of the commonwealth’s most respected specialized correctional treatment services provider. ACJS began providing substance abuse education and training, and life skills development programming directly within correctional facilities in 1990.  This service began in the Worcester County House of Correction (MA), and has expanded to other county systems, state prisons, the Office of Community Corrections, courts, federal probation, parole, and aftercare sites. ACJS also operates a toll-free telephone support line for newly-released offenders and participants of community corrections programs. 1-87-REENTRY-0® is available to offer referral, support, and other specialized services to the newly released offender.

In July 1997, a joint consolidation of AdCare Criminal Justice Services and Valle Management Associates was completed in order to enhance the organization’ss’ abilities to provide substance abuse and life skills training programs to prisons, jails, and community corrections programs nationwide.  This consolidation brought the expertise of Dr. Steve Valle, a nationally recognized licensed psychologist and substance abuse treatment specialist, into the AdCare system. Dr. Valle has over thirty years of experience in developing, managing, implementing and evaluating clinical services to correctional offenders under various levels of criminal justice supervision. In addition to being the founding treatment vendor for Massachusetts’ first drunk driving facility (MCI-Longwood), Dr. Valle has been a national CSAT program evaluation consultant, a nominee to federal substance abuse leadership positions, and an international speaker and trainer.

Following Dr. Valle’s arrival to the AdCare Criminal Justice Services network, a senior management team was assembled to guide the agency in its development of some of the most comprehensive offender treatment programs. In 1999, after several years as Program Director for what was then ACJS’s largest and most comprehensive county-based correctional program, located in the Bristol County House of Correction, Dr. Valle named Lisa Talbot to her current position of Vice President of Operations. Ms. Talbot is the company’s chief operating officer, overseeing the clinical and administrative operations of all of ACJS’s programs. In this role, she has the ability to assist managers in developing and implementing programs in keeping with Best Practice Standards and to effectively partner with supervising agencies and the key stakeholders in the multidisciplinary team. Ms. Talbot has proven experience working with the offender population and in management of all aspects of correctional programs.

Dr. Dennis Humphrey joined the Senior Management Team of ACJS in 1999, after retirement from his posts as Deputy Superintendent in the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department and Deputy Commissioner with the Massachusetts Department of Correction. An expert on all aspects of correctional treatment services, Dr. Humphrey has provided clinical supervision and training to ACJS employees in a number of institution and community corrections based programs.

Under Dr. Valle’s leadership, ACJS programs have implemented the Accountability Treatment Program® model, which is rooted in cognitive-behavioral and integrated modified therapeutic community (IMTC) approaches that have been demonstrated to be most effective in the treatment of the substance abusing criminal offender.
ACJS has been committed to the development and implementation of evidence-based correctional programs since the organization’s inception. ACJS has, as part of its senior management team, one of the nation’s few certified master trainers in the LS/RNR, the industry’s gold standard in the assessment of the risks, needs, and responsivity of adult criminal offenders.  All ACJS staff members are trained in the theory, administration, and interpretation of a comprehensive risk/needs assessment that examines not only the substance abuse treatment needs but the criminogenic needs of the individual engaged in treatment.
ACJS has also operated one of the only county-based Residential Substance Abuse Treatment (RSAT) units to demonstrate a reduction in recidivism. The NIJ-funded evaluation of the Barnstable County Sheriff’s Office’s RSAT unit and the subsequent follow-up evaluation validated the impact of the ACJS treatment model and guided the subsequent staff training and supervision throughout the ACJS system.

As a direct result of their demonstrated expertise in the RSAT model, Dr. Valle, and ACJS senior managers Dr. Humphrey, and Lisa Talbot were all named core faculty member’s on BJA’s first national training and technical assistance resource center for RSAT programs.

In 2010, Dr. Valle represented AdCare Criminal Justice Services at UKESAD, and addressed a special meeting of Parliament’s  House of Lords devoted to the important topic of substance abuse and the criminal justice system.

ACJS is presently providing operations management for a number of the community corrections centers throughout Massachusetts in addition to the county institution-based programs in which RSAT and other program service models are housed.