The University of California and Criminal Justice

Many criminal justice professionals believe that the University of California is a commanding institutional mentor. Indeed, the University of California has a significant investment in the criminal justice system of the state. Its graduates fill 3 positions as social workers, teachers, psychologists, statisticians, attorneys, judges or political figures, and the University is concerned about maintaining a stable and productive population.

Within the criminal justice professions, there is an expectation that the University holds the key to remedying both the societal ills which drive the inmate population and the problems the criminal justice system faces in recruitment, retention, continuing education and evaluation. Criminal justice professionals expect leadership from the University in the development of new research and innovative methods for handling crime and criminals, and improved models for the administration of justice and law enforcement.

The University has demonstrated little interest in criminal justice and law enforcement in recent years. Its single School of Criminology, located at the Berkeley campus, was disbanded in the late 70s However valid the academic reasons for this action may have been, it is interesting to note that the police chiefs of three major U.S. cities received their Ph.D.'s from the Berkeley School; all are minorities. Additionally, a significant number of law enforcement and administration leaders received doctorates in Criminology from UC Berkeley.

On the University of California's nine campuses, only a handful of faculty currently have major research interests and expertise in criminal justice Yet none focus upon the relationships between the Latino and the system. Many more touch upon aspects of the system from various disciplinary perspectives, which could provide valuable information for the criminal justice system.

With respect to the training of criminal justice professionals, the University contributes master's and doctoral degrees from the diverse fields of sociology, political science, law, economics, administration, psychology, and education, among others. The number of Latinos in the University's graduate programs is small, however, no matter what the professional goal. In fact, a majority of criminal justice professionals are trained in the State University system or in the Community Colleges. But there has been little or no connection among the three systems in this regard and little collaboration with local or State law enforcement institutions.

A recent encouraging development is the establishment of the Robert Presley Institute of Corrections, Research and Training, affiliated with the University's Riverside campus. The Institute's objectives and staffing are still not well-defined, but the enabling legislation envisioned the organization as a linkage among the three higher education segments, facilitating the training of new personnel, collaborative research programs about criminal justice issues, and the development of standards for evaluation of criminal justice programs in the State. Many professionals hope that the Institute's programs develop as a flagship of excellence and diversity and that the Institute will demonstrate leadership through the diversity of interests and backgrounds of its staff and board of advisors.

In addition, the University maintains several structures which could be mobilized to assist in the resolution of law enforcement's major problem: the recruitment of qualified personnel, and, in particular, the recruitment of qualified minorities, to careers in criminal justice.

Chief among these structures are the many programs which fall under the general heading of Educational Opportunity and Early Outreach. These provide, as early as the seventh grade, personal interventions into the educational lives of "at risk" students and seek to encourage students' belief in their own potential as scholars and in the potential of higher education for development of a fulfilling and financially rewarding future. The results of the University's vigorous outreach programs are beginning to be felt in increasing numbers of qualified minority admissions this year. Through such programs, young Latinos could learn about career opportunities in law enforcement or criminal justice administration and the educational steps they need to take to achieve them.

The Berkeley School of Law's Graduate Program in Jurisprudence and Social Policy provides one example of the University's ability to combine elements of criminal justice and policy education into a curriculum that may help to expand the pool of Latino criminal justice professionals.

Despite these contributions the University makes, or could make, to the improvement of the criminal justice system in the State, the criminal justice profession itself is calling upon the University to do much more, and, in fact, to accept a leadership position in responding to the needs of a system which is unresponsive to the changing population of the State. Regardless of the bases for that expectation, regardless of the critical need that exists, it is clear that the University is currently unequipped to assume this role.