Criminal justice faculty and students joined Louisville native and College of Arts and Sciences supporter Sam Lord Nov. 30 in celebrating his gift for a renovated Justice Laboratory in Brigman Hall.

The first-floor space includes a light-filled laboratory with enhanced technology that enables instructors to teach students and community members online and in-person at the same time and even asynchronously to allow access at a different time. The criminal justice department and the College of Arts and Sciences also would be able to hold a conference, record and-or stream it live.

The improvements would leverage the technology to reach a broader student base and even a global audience.

“It gives us a lot of capabilities that we didn’t have before,” said Tad Hughes, criminal justice department chair. “I promise you we will use this all the time.”

Hughes explained that the multi-chair work stations, each with one of six screens, would allow students to work more collaboratively, interacting with their cellphones and laptops or tablets — plus the teachers can pull from each station for class discussion using a larger central screen at the front of the room. Ěý

The laboratory opens onto a newly painted hallway wall with the words “On a journey to be better together” along with “Community-engaged, Future-focused, Policy-oriented.”

“Justice is equally important in government as safety, and it intersects with safety a great deal. We don’t know enough about justice, and we don’t know enough about systems and how they work,” Lord said. “My investment in this classroom and in all of your and the students’ work is to help you bring better knowledge of criminal justice and to experiment.”

A plaque in the space is dedicated to Lord’s brother, chaplain Nathan Macauley Lord, and in memory of his parents and native Louisvillians Nathan Shrewsbury Lord, a longtime UofL law professor, and Rachel Macauley Smith Lord.

Cherie Dawson-Edwards, former chair and a criminal justice faculty member who also serves as the college’s associate dean for diversity, engagement, culture and climate, recalled taking classes in the formerly outdated space as a student and shared that she was excited about teaching her social and restorative justice class there in the spring.

She envisions encouraging the campus and community to think beyond the words “criminal justice” and use the space “to engage in justice work. It can be about equality; it can be about social and racial justice.”

President Neeli Bendapudi drew from her experience as a professor of consumer behavior in remarking about the transformative impact that space has people, both functionally and symbolically.

“I can just imagine the students who are going to benefit,” she said. “This benefits the institution and the learning they are going to get.”

Bendapudi expressed gratitude to Lord’s longtime generosity to UofL, dubbing the Louisville philanthropist a Renaissance man for his interest in several aspects of university life.

“We are so grateful you’re ours. Thank you so much,” she said.

Lord previously funded a mathematics laboratory and a physics and astronomy computing platform and technology-enabled classroom, also in memory of his parents. He also has supported the Anne Braden Institute for Social Justice Research and the College of Arts and Sciences.

Brigman Hall, a large brick building along the Oval at Belknap Campus’ west entrance, was erected in 1893 and later named in 1949 for Bennett Brigman ’18, a College of Arts and Sciences teacher who became the first dean of Speed Scientific School (now J.B. Speed School of Engineering) at its 1925 inception. After serving as part of the engineering school, the building was home to the business school and then the public administration program before currently housing the criminal justice department and some Kent School of Social Work offices.

Their research is part of a nationwide project looking at jail population trends across the nation through the Research Network on Misdemeanor Justice, a project of the Ěýat John Jay College in New York City. The network consists of seven cities where researchers study lower-level enforcement trends to help communities address issues such as jail overcrowding.

A recent report, “,” was written by Tom “Tad” Hughes, UofL criminal justice chairperson and associate professor; Heather Ouellette, UofL assistant professor in criminal justice; and Brian P. Schaefer, assistant professor of criminology and criminal justice with Indiana University Southeast. It was released July 30 by the DCJ.

It found that inmates in the metro Louisville jail from 2010 to 2019 were fewer in number but stayed longer due to many factors. Among themĚýwere the inability to post bail; inmates being charged with more serious offenses; and longer wait times to transfer to overcrowded state prisons. Overall, the report found that while annual admissions at LMDC decreased 35% during the period, average length of stay increased by 60%.

Dwayne Clark, director of LMDC, praised the research partnership.

“Before COVID-19, we were already working hard to reduce strain on the system and the pandemic has further illustrated the danger of jail overcrowding,” Clark said. “Research partnerships like this will help ensure that future improvements to our justice system are backed by data, not anecdote.”

The report was made possible through the support of the .Ěý

“Correctional officers are asked to do a very difficult job. They protect and serve inmates, their fellow officers and society as a whole,” Hughes-Taylor said. “More often than not, correctional officers are not thought of as first responders, but they are the first on the scene of any incident that occurs within the prison walls.”

She says these officers are exposed to a number of daily traumatic events, such as violence, suicide attempts and completed suicides, and about one-third of Kentucky’s correctional officers have PTSD.

It has been an amazing opportunity to work on a substantial National Institute of Justice grant with her mentor, Kristin Swartz, associate professor, Department of Criminal Justice, College of Arts & Sciences, says Hughes-Taylor. It was during her senior year as an undergraduate student at UofL that she met Swartz while taking her criminal behavior course.

“Dr. Swartz’s love for research and teaching lit a fire in me,” she said.

The inspiration pushed Hughes-Taylor to go to earn a master’s degree at the University of Cincinnati, before returning to Louisville to pursue a doctor of philosophy in criminal justice.

Hughes-Taylor says she has spent hundreds of hours in correctional facilities observing the work of officers, and collecting psychological and sociological data. Thanks to the help of Tamara Newton, professor, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, College of Arts & Sciences, the research team also gathered biological data to analyze stress, which Hughes-Taylor says is completely unheard of in the correctional field. The mindfulness intervention provided to officers through the study included sections on coping, body-scanning, handling trauma and meditation.

Following recent success in defending her dissertation on correctional officer PTSD and coping, Hughes-Taylor will soon launch her own career either in academia or through work within a correctional department. Swartz will hood Hughes-Taylor at 4 p.m. on May 6 during the doctoral hooding ceremony at Cardinal Stadium.

Louisville Law ProfessorĚýĚýstars in a documentary titledĚý8:46: The Killing of George Floyd.

The documentary, produced by theĚý, takes viewers back to May 25, 2020, the day George Floyd was killed.

McNeal, chief legal correspondent for BNC,Ěýinterviewed members of George Floyd’s family and several national experts, including Louisville Law’s ProfessorĚý. Powell provides commentary on the role of structural inequality in the disproportionate use of force by law enforcementĚýin communities of color.

The documentary tackles issues surrounding the trial such as police reform and structural inequality within the criminal justice system.

McNealĚýwill also be covering the trial of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer charged with Floyd’s death, for BNC this month. She says that she is excited about sharing her trial experience with the Louisville Law community.

The report focused on median earnings out of college for those interested in three of the most popular majors for Black students: criminal justice, social work and sociology.

University of Louisville came in third, tied with La Salle University in Philadelphia, for better-than-average earnings among criminal justice graduates. Texas Christian University rose to the top of the list, followed by Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida.Ěý

The strength of the program, says Cherie Dawson-Edwards, chair of the UofL Department of Criminal Justice in the College of Arts & Sciences, is the department’s focus on organizational equity evident through course offerings, internships, student engagement opportunities and advising.

“We are fostering a teaching and learning environment that invites both favorable and critical views towards criminal justice with a curriculum that includes traditional justice system as well as social justice oriented courses,” she said. “A greater sense of belonging and an inviting space for differing viewpoints enhances student educational advancement and career outcomes.”

The magazine produced the report in conjunction with the Department of łÉČËÖ±˛Ą as an alternative to the U.S. News and World Report’s list of best colleges. The report’s is based on a number of variables, giving points for an institution’s commitment to educating a diverse group of students, percentage of first-generation students, along with recruitment and graduation of non-wealthy students.

In “Protecting the flock or policing the sheep?” Ben Fisher, assistant professor of criminal justice, studied 73 school resource officers across two school districts; one made up of primarily white students and one made up primarily of students of color.

“What we found is that the way SROs talked about the most salient threats to their schools are really different across the two districts,” Fisher said.

“At the whiter and wealthier district, it was a lot more about preventing external threats from coming into the school,” Fisher added. “In the more diverse, urban district, it was more about the students themselves as threats.”

Fisher’s findings elaborate on the ways SROs from each district perceive students. For example, in the primarily white districts, many issues are attributed to typical youth behavior such as drugs, alcohol and violence. However, those same issues in the more diverse district were attributed to the community environment bringing those issues into the classroom.

Fisher also refers to SROs as an extension of police within a community, which may often influence biases within a school or region.

For more information, visit .

Students from criminal justice, engineering, law and communications divided into four groups that presented curriculum at four secondary schools.ĚýThe topics varied from the dangers of online bullying and how water filtration works to building a solar oven to the International Declaration of Human Rights.

AnotherĚý14 third- and fourth-year dental students treated 172 patients during four days of service.Ěý

Many students, likeĚýGeorgia Connally, a third-year law student graduating this spring, described the experience as life-altering.

In the , she wrote about her experience at a Taoist Temple.

“I placed my incense in the vase and dropped the stones asking the spirits only ‘Will I find a fulfilling life?’ As they hit the floor, I could feel the silence erupt around me. The echo of the stones contacting the floor resonated in the walls of the temple. Before me, a red, tangled dragon holding a gong quivered with the noise on the alter. The monk approached me. ‘Maybe,’ he said and smiled.”

She writes about being emersed in Cebu throughout the next four days, and meeting a little girl, whose obvious poverty drew tears to her eyes.Ěý

“She welcomed me to Paril National High School and told me how much she loved her community, her school and me. In that moment I realized I didn’t know anything about happiness, or a fulfilling life. And I was not done learning.”

Connally detailed how she learned as much from the students as they learned from her,

maybe even more:

“From the outside looking in, it seemed like we, as Americans, had the better life. We have iPhones, indoor plumbing and electricity. But what we lack, they have in abundance: happiness and fulfillment. During a private interview with three students, I learned what these children understand, how they feel, about Cebu. We asked the students ‘If you could change one thing about Cebu, what would it be?’ They all responded ‘Nothing.’ I was stunned by their response. I wondered why they loved their home so much when they were so aware of the poverty and other issues. I asked them why. One student responded ‘It is my home, these people are my family. We help each other, and are always there for each other. I love it here. It has been good to me and my family. I may leave one day, but I will return, to continue to help my community.’ Again, I was speechless. I wondered how many Americans would say the same thing.”Ěý

to read more or Connally’s experience in Cebu.

Parham graduated high school with “a few associates degrees” from Owensboro Community and Technical College to “get a head start in college.” She transferred to UofL last year with a Criminal Justice major.

The new 3+3 program allows her to finish her bachelor’s degree while simultaneously finishing her first year in law school. This will allow her to sooner fulfill her longtime career goal of becoming an Air Force JAG (Judge Advocate Officer).Ěý

“I had already fast tracked my education starting in high school and the 3+3 program is giving me the opportunity to finish law school early, which will give me more time to serve,” Parham said.Ěý“I can think of no greater honor than being able to represent my country in the courtroom and I’ll do anything to get to that point.”

Check out Parham’s story below:Ěý

What he found was that the number of police officers killed has not significantly changed since that “key moment.”

In light of the July 7 police shootings in Dallas, Nix said they’ll need more data and time to determineĚýwhether police are being increasingly targeted. He further describes his research in the video below.