Summer/Fall 2017 Vol.2, Issue 1
Hello! 2017 has hit with a bang continuing the Seattle University Department of Criminal Justice’s trajectory of newsworthy goings on. It is impossible to cover all of the news, news, events, and accomplishments of our faculty, staff, and students. This Summer/Fall 2017 Newsletter highlights as much as we can pack into one newsletter to give sampling of stories of our department.
We have had an exciting number of students hired on with criminal justice agencies over the past months and this summer, had a large group of students, faculty, and alumni present at an International conference, and our faculty are working on many interesting and important research projects. We are excited to begin the 2017-18 academic year!
Please share your stories with me for future newsletters! And don’t forget to join our social media – LinkedIn (Seattle University Department of Criminal Justice), Twitter (@Seattle U CJ), Facebook (Seattle University Criminal Justice; MACJ Program-Seattle University) pages so we can continue to learn from each other. One of the greatest things about our department are the close connections between our current students, alumni, advisory committee, and faculty. Let’s keep and grow this incredible lifelong network so we can stay looped in to each other’s news and accomplishments.
A large group of SU CJ Department faculty, students, alumni, and advisory committee members presented at the 2017 International Academy of Law and Mental Health (IALMH) Congress in Prague. CJ Professor/Department Chair Jacqueline Helfgott served as a member of the 2017 IALMH International Scientific Committee organizing conference panels. Topics including Evidence-Based Practice in Corrections, Community-Justice Oriented Policing, and the Amanda Knox Case. The following SUCJ panelists presented:
Last year our department celebrated the 10-year anniversary of the Master of Arts in Criminal Justice Program. One of the distinctive features of our department’s graduate program in criminal justice is our Victimology specialization which is one of a handful of such programs around the world. The Victimology specialization was influenced by the late Norm Maleng, long-time King County Prosecuting Attorney and member of our department’s advisory committee. Norm passed away suddenly just a year after our MACJ Program began though he was influential in the Victimology specialization curriculum and leaves a lasting legacy in our department. The Master of Arts in Criminal Justice Victimology specialization focuses on coursework such as Contemporary Issues in Victimology, Violence & Victimization, and Restorative Justice. Students who elect to complete the victimology specialization often have an interest in careers working in victim services and do thesis projects involving victimology, victimization, and victim services. Tonya Cole is a 2015 graduate of the MACJ Victimology specialization. Tonya was recently hired as a victim advocate with the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. No one would be prouder of Tonya than Norm Maleng as Tonya is a direct result of Norm’s legacy and influence in our department’s curriculum. Tonya contracted with the US Army as a domestic violence advocate from July of 2013 to Nov 2016. She was working on her thesis at the time (“How Restorative Justice is Applied to Domestic Violence in the United States: A Partial Evaluability Assessment) and the army allowed here to see how applying restorative justice to domestic violence could work. She was the legal point of contact on JBLM and built relationships with the police department and various JAG units. In Nov 2016 she began working as a Felony Domestic Violence Advocate for the King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office where she has had the privilege of working with prominent professionals in the field. She is using her MACJ, victimology specialization to the fullest. In Tonya’s words,
“The program has allowed me to see the big picture of the system and to continue to humanize the process, as I work with people whose offenders are also their loved ones. Having a foundation of the criminal justice system including its social justice issues has made me more sensitive in how I serve the people I work with, doing my best that their voice is heard within the system and providing them with case information in a timely manner. There is so much satisfaction in being able to share with a Prosecutor what the victim would like to see happen in a case or how a specific resolution could impact the victim's life and seeing the prosecutor make adjustments to get closer to what the victim wants”
Tonya has also been involved in Kairos Prison Ministry International for the last six year and during her time as an MACJ student she participated in the course “Restorative Justice Behind Bars” –a course taught at the Washington State Reformatory by Dr. Jacqueline Helfgott and the late Dr. Madeline Lovell in which Seattle University Criminal Justice students took a course with fellow students who were incarcerated there. Tonya currently serves on the Kairos Outside Advisory Council, where she puts on weekend retreats for women whose loved ones who are incarcerated and invite them to be a part of their community, so they can continue receiving as well as provide support.
Kabrianna Tamura graduated from SU with her Bachelor’s in Criminal Justice with Honors class of 2016. Her honor’s thesis – “"Hearing on the Deaf Penalty: The Intersection of Deafness and Criminal Justice" examined the intersection of Deafness and Criminal Justice. Through her research, she witnessed first-hand the deprivations this under-researched and under-served population faces in today’s justice system.
To begin combating the deficits, Kabrianna strove to spread awareness. She collaborated with Neuropsychologist Dr. Jaime Wilson, who himself is Deaf and provides evaluations for Deaf individuals in forensic settings.
On Friday, July 14th, Kabrianna co-presented “The Deaf Client in a Forensic Setting” at the King County Department of Public Defense’s Annual Conference. The presentation included case examples, policy implications, and critical resources the attorneys must know to provide due process rights to their Deaf clients. She is working on a larger presentation for the Washington Defender’s Association and hopes to present next quarter.
Currently, Kabrianna is employed by Dr. Richard Adler as his Administrative Assistant within his practice – Forensic and Clinical Psychiatry. There, she enjoys an array of responsibilities including preparing presentations for expert witness testimony, categorizing discovery materials for trial, scoring defendants’ psychological assessments, and analyzing defendants’ MRIs through the quantification software NeuroQuant®. Her interests include Neuropsychology and Criminal Justice, and she hopes to bridge the two when starting Graduate School in the Seattle University Master of Arts in Criminal Justice Program Winter 2018.
We have had a great number of students hired with criminal justice agencies in recent months. BACJ 2017 graduates Katherine Rottman, Megan Johnson, and Brooke Fincken and 2017 MACJ graduates Jessica Chandler, were hired as officers by the Seattle Police
Department. Katherine, Megan, Brooke, and Jessica are currently in the Basic Law Enforcement Academy at WSCJTC. Emily Malterud was hired as a Research Analyst at the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission. Sarah Murphy was hired as a Washington State Patrol as an Office Assistant 3. Candace McCoy was hired as an officer with the Federal Bureau of Prisons. BACJ graduate and 2017 Blume Scholar Ellary Collins was hired as a Juvenile Rehabilitation Residential Counselor, and MACJ graduate 2016 Grace Goodwin was hired as a Global Intelligence and Security Risk Analyst for Starbucks.
2017 MACJ
graduates Raymond Cowles and Katie Sullivan were hired as a research analyst for US Probation and Pretrial Services. Current MACJ student Autumn Murtagh was hired as a location monitor by US Probation and Pretrial Services.2017 MACJ graduate Caitie Healing was hired as a Crime Analyst for Pinkerton.
This year we have new instructors teaching our Medicolegal Death Investigation course! Jonathan “Zack” Gallar is an alum of the SU CJ undergrad and grad programs and is a medico-legal death investigator at the King County Medical Examiner’s Office. When Zack was a student in our department many years ago, he was the president of the Video Game Club and designed and co-taught a course with Professor Al O’Brien on Violent Crime and Video Games. Dr. Bev Himick is a long-time member of our department’s advisory committee and adjunct faculty member who has taught our undergraduate Forensic Science Lab course and co-teaches our graduate Theories and Techniques of Criminal Investigation . Dr. Himick is the Supervisor for the DNA Unit at the Washington State Patrol Crime Lab and has served on the Washington State Patrol Crime Scene Response Team.
Our department's Center for the Study of Crime and Justice (CSCJ) brings together researchers, academics, and criminal justice professionals involved in the study of crime and justice to collaborate on research, continuing education and training, service initiatives, and public events. Last year we hosted a series of events on policing and protest in the United States and this year we have a number of ongoing and new collaborative initiatives:
Police Department). Dr. Parkin and Dr. Helfgott continue to head up the Seattle Police Department’s Micro-Community Policing Plans Initiative which is in its third year. After graduation of the entire research team – prior MCPP RAs (Brooke Bray, Jennifer Burbridge, Jessica Chandler, Shannon Ro, Joseph Singer, Chase Yap, Grace Goodwin, Karmen Schuur, Matt Thomas, and Zhanna Kachurina), a brand new group of MCPP Research Analysts are now on board and the two-year implementation evaluation was completed January 31, 2017 and will soon be published by the Community Oriented Policing (COPS) Office. The Seattle Police Department is continuing to fund the ongoing collaboration. Our new and amazing group of MCPP RAs are MACJ students Mon-Cherie Barnes, Susan Nembhard, Puao Savusa, Michael Sowby, Matthew Todd and we will soon be hiring a new undergrad RA to join the research team to assist the MCPP RAs in administering our annual Seattle Public Safety Survey which will be administered October 15-November 30, 2017. Keep an eye out for the survey – we hope you will participate! More more information on the MCPP collaboration with Seattle University Criminal Justice, go to: https://www.seattle.gov/police/community-policing/partnership-with-seattle-university
Seattle Women’s Reentry Evaluation (Partnership with Seattle Police Department and Washington State Department of Corrections). Dr. Helfgott and Gunnison with RAs MACJ/JD student Tia Squires, MACJ student Kidst Messelu, and BSCJ student Nadine Guyo are in the 2nd year of data collection for this three-year Bureau of Justice Assistance Second Chance Act Grant funded project. The study will follow women released from the Washington Corrections Center for Women for three years post-release.
John Jay Criminal Justice Misdemeanor Justice Network. Drs. Parkin and Helfgott continue to work on their grant project as part of a network of cities examining misdemeanor justice in the United States. Seattle was selected as one of 8 sites to examine the misdemeanor justice process funded by a Laura and John Arnold Foundation. Two students – Lauren Morgan (MACJ) and Cameron Casey (BACJ) have been hired as RAs to work on this project.
On June 1 and 2 we will have special guests Dr. Mary Ellen O’Toole and Dr. Ray Surette on campus! Dr. O’Toole is a retired FBI agent who has worked on many notorious cases, wrote the well known The School Shooter: A Threat Assessment Report, and is the Editor of the journal Violence and Gender. Dr. Surette is author of Media. Crime, and Justice and is one of the foremost scholars on copycat and performance crime. The Continuing Education Event “Social Media and Crime” on June 1 will be open to criminal justice professionals, faculty, staff, students and the general public. The Copycat Crime Research-a-thon on June 2 will be a “live” open-source data collection event for students. Don’t Miss!
This summer Seattle University piloted a program where high school students came to campus from all over the country to take courses for college credit. Seattle University Criminal Justice participated with two courses – CSI: Seattle U taught by Professor Al O’Brien and Prison BREAKdown taught by MACJ ’10 alum Beck Strah who is currently a PhD Candidate at the Northeastern College of Criminology and Criminal Justice.
Clarence “Bob” Kastama (1933-2017), SUCJ Former Professor taught in the Department of Criminal Justice in the late 1980s and early 1990s after a long career as Superintendent of the Washington State Penitentiary. Bob was well-loved by students and colleagues and even after he left our department in 1993, continued to stay in touch to check in and mentor students. After he retired, Bob headed up the Retired Washington State Probation and Parole Officers organization, authored books on corrections, mentored students serving on thesis committees, attended departmental events. In his last years Bob took care of his ailing wife Diane who he was married to for 62 years. Bob leaves a lasting legacy in the Seattle University Department of Criminal Justice and will be remembered for his commitment to corrections, to students, and for his dignity, warmth, and humor.
By Kidst Messelu, MACJ, Graduate Marketing Assistant
It is with mixed feelings that we say farewell to our Program Coordinator Devin MacKrell and our Administrative Assistant Kate Reynolds. A feeling of sadness to see them go, and yet happiness to see them extending their career boundaries. Over many years in their positions they grew into invaluable members of the criminal justice department. Those of us who worked with Kate and Devin found them to be resourceful, conscientious, professional and hard-working.Kate and Devin helped to create an enjoyable environment to work in and their colleagues hold them both in high regard. Their contributions have been a great benefit to this department and they will be deeply missed. It is definitely our loss and someone else’s gain. I have no doubt that wherever their careers take them, they will continue to prove themselves as assets to that organization. Please join me in wishing Devin and Kate the very best of luck and the greatest of success in all their future endeavors.
We are pleased to announce that Jonathan Bechtol moved into the Administrative Assistant position over the summer and we have full confidence in his abilities to do the job well. Jonathan grew up and finished high school in Redmond, Washington. He attended The University of Arizona before moving to California to be close to family and attend community college there. He returned home to Washington in 2014 and worked for three years at Costco Wholesale in Woodinville wearing many hats. He’s excited to be back in the college environment and looks forward to learning about Criminal Justice and Economics.
We are also pleased to announce that a new individual has now been hired for the Program Coordinator position. Andrew (Andy) Gutzmer comes to us from Summit Olympus High School in Tacoma where he held a teaching position. After completing his Master’s in Curriculum and Instruction at University of Denver, as well as his Bachelor’s in History and Spanish, Andy spent two years teaching English abroad at the Pontificia Universidad Catolica Madre y Maestro in Santiago, the Dominican Republic, as well as at the Maptaputpanpittayakarn School in Rayong, Thailand. He is excited to make the switch from the classroom teaching to university services. He is an avid listener of the “Criminal” podcast and loves all things that encourage you to question justice, equity, history and truth. He enjoys cooking, hiking, and sketching in his free time. We look forward to the value his experience will add to our department.
Please join us in welcoming Jonathan and Andrew to Seattle University and in wishing them both every success with our department.
Send news of the work you are doing for inclusion in a future Seattle University Department of Criminal Justice newsletter to: Andy Gutzmer or Jonathan Bechtol, Seattle University Department of Criminal Justice Administrative Staff: gutzmera@seattleu.edu or bechtolj@seattleu.edu