Thursday, January 12, 2006
CRIMINAL JUSTICE STUDENT TRAINING
Dear Caterina:
More than anything else, I believe it is critical for community colleges, colleges, and universities to start offering a course on jails. Fewer than 10 schools of the over 1,000 which have criminal justice/criminology courses do this. More students who graduate need exposure to what goes on in their own backyards. This means obligatory visits to jails during their course work. It also is incumbent upon jail administrators to ask for help in the evaluation of jail programs for both staff and inmates.
Caterina, I spent ten years as an academic and taught classes in government, public administration, and criminal justice at the community college, college, and university levels. I attend several criminal justice conferences each year with the intent to encourage more emphasis to be placed on jails. It is slow going, believe me---about one inch of progress each year, but it is a mission worth doing.
If any of your readers can assist me in this regard, I would appreciate hearing from them.
Ken Kerle, Ph.D.
Managing Editor
American Jail Association
kenk@aja.org
More than anything else, I believe it is critical for community colleges, colleges, and universities to start offering a course on jails. Fewer than 10 schools of the over 1,000 which have criminal justice/criminology courses do this. More students who graduate need exposure to what goes on in their own backyards. This means obligatory visits to jails during their course work. It also is incumbent upon jail administrators to ask for help in the evaluation of jail programs for both staff and inmates.
Caterina, I spent ten years as an academic and taught classes in government, public administration, and criminal justice at the community college, college, and university levels. I attend several criminal justice conferences each year with the intent to encourage more emphasis to be placed on jails. It is slow going, believe me---about one inch of progress each year, but it is a mission worth doing.
If any of your readers can assist me in this regard, I would appreciate hearing from them.
Ken Kerle, Ph.D.
Managing Editor
American Jail Association
kenk@aja.org
