- University News Archive - ��Vlog��ý Little Rock

��Vlog��ý Little Rock Bowen School of Law Announces Financial Gift from Walmart to Create Enhanced Community Policing Project

John Hill — Fri, 18 Mar 2022 16:56:52 +0000

The ��Vlog��ý Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law’s Center for Racial Justice and Criminal Justice Reform announced that Walmart Inc. has contributed $210,000 to the Center to develop an enhanced community policing project. The program aims to foster greater collaboration between local law enforcement and the communities they serve and protect. The project will apply foundational research to reimagine and enhance law enforcement outreach efforts by working with Walmart and its stores in local markets. This work will include development of training materials, assessment tools, best practices for engaging in local communities, and a pilot program in Northwest Arkansas. “Walmart is committed to strengthening community cohesion through police community engagement programs,” said Frank Johnson, Senior Director, Community Law Enforcement Liaison at Walmart. “We recognize that building trust with law enforcement is a key enabler for communities to thrive.” The reimagined program will align with the recommendations from the Arkansas Governor’s Task Force Report on Policing released in November 2020. One primary recommendation was that law enforcement work more diligently to increase trust within local communities, in part by conducting engagement events in rural and minority communities to build greater trust between citizens and the police, as well as a better understanding of the law. “The collaboration between the Center and Walmart can provide immediate outcomes in community policing and improve the relationships between Arkansas communities and law enforcement agencies,” said Center Co-director andré douglas pond cummings. “We are enthusiastic about beginning this research and critical work.” The development phase will focus on establishing standards for Walmart stores to collaborate with local law enforcement agencies. Student fellows will research nationwide best practices on community policing programs, design a paradigm for Walmart as a community policing collaborator, and draft procedures and training materials. Participants will be asked to provide input to measure the program’s success. During the pilot phase, the Center will work with several cities, including in Northwest Arkansas, to deploy the guidelines and training materials. Data from the pilot locations will be used to finalize the program. “Data-driven solutions will be a crucial part of this project as we pilot and assess best practices in community policing,” said Center Co-director Anastasia Boles. “This collaboration has the potential to significantly impact justice outcomes.” Ultimately, the objective is to scale the program to a national level. Law enforcement agencies and store managers will use the new program model to develop and support local community policing initiatives. “This project is an excellent fit with the Center’s expertise and its other initiatives,” said Theresa Beiner, Bowen’s dean. “We are pleased Walmart has chosen to work with the Center and Bowen.”

Bowen Law School Receives $1 million from Walmart to Fund Court Observation Project

John Hill — Fri, 17 Sep 2021 15:06:17 +0000

The has received a The grant will fund a Court Observation Project through Bowen’s new Center for Racial Justice and Criminal Justice Reform. The project will introduce a state-wide court observation initiative that will create and share a transparent body of reliable data and research about Arkansas’s criminal justice system that is otherwise unavailable in the state. The goal is to use the data collected to craft targeted solutions, such as policy changes and training materials. The project has two inaugural research modules. The first will survey pre-trial detention practices. The second will collect data on criminal charging. “The project can provide valuable information and data about how the Arkansas criminal justice system operates. Policymakers can then use this data to develop strategies to improve the criminal justice system in Arkansas,” said Anastasia Boles, a law professor at Bowen and the center’s co-director. Project faculty and staff will work with consultants, stakeholders and subject-matter experts to design the data collection sheet. After that, student fellows will work with court personnel and the project’s program manager to gather and compile data from criminal court proceedings throughout Arkansas. Law school faculty will help develop assessments to track student progress. In addition, the project plans to work with faculty from partner institutions each semester to include as court observers a small cohort of undergraduate students who are interested in criminal justice and the project’s research. “Developing the instruments used for court observations and sharing the data this project generates will improve the lives of all Arkansans,” said andré douglas pond cummings, associate dean for faculty development and the center’s co-director. The primary goal is gathering data about the incarceration for many–particularly nonviolent offenders – and then improving outcomes for those already impacted by the justice system in its current form. These solutions will, for the first time in Arkansas, be based on accurate observed data that can be shared across the nation, building an infrastructure for positive change that can eventually have a global impact. “The project is positioned to become a valuable part of Bowen’s core values of access to justice, public service, and professionalism,” said Dean Theresa Beiner. “I am grateful for Walmart, Inc.’s support.”

Law school creates Center for Racial Justice and Criminal Justice Reform

John Hill — Wed, 01 Sep 2021 21:01:53 +0000

The has created the Center for Racial Justice and Criminal Justice Reform. The Center recently received approval by both the ��Vlog��ý System Board of Trustees and the Arkansas Department of Higher Education. The Center’s mission is to advance legal equity, access to justice, and fairness in Arkansas and the region. Bowen professors Anastasia Boles and andré douglas pond cummings co-founded the Center and will act as its co-directors. “The Center will provide educational and professional development opportunities for Bowen law students, empowering them to become the next generation of legal leaders,” said Boles. “Research fellowships, such as the newly created Sam Reeves Racial Justice and Criminal Justice Reform Fellowship, will provide stipends for student researchers.” In addition, the Center will focus on specific criminal justice research projects while offering workshops and educational events for the legal community and the community as a whole. “The Center is enthusiastic about engaging with stakeholders across the state, including the legal and law enforcement communities, academics, students, and community members, in developing research tools and sharing data to improve the lives of all Arkansans,” said cummings. Another part of the Center’s mission is to increase diversity in law school and the legal profession. The law school recently received a $25,000 grant from the Building Black Communities Fund, coordinated by the Arkansas Community Foundation and the Arkansas Black Philanthropy Collaborative, to create and implement a law school pipeline program that will include an LSAT prep course as well as prospective student visits to the law school to sit in on classes and learn how to navigate the law school application process. The course will be part of Bowen’s existing pipeline programs with Arkansas historically Black colleges and universities. An advisory group of leaders, policymakers, and criminal justice experts from across the state representing a range of perspectives and experiences will support the Center’s work. This will ensure the Center and its initiatives are designed and executed in a way that maximizes collaboration, engagement, efficiency, transparency, and credibility. “The Center is firmly rooted in Bowen’s core values of access to justice, public service, and professionalism,” said Dean Theresa M. Beiner. “The events over the past year have brought these values to the forefront. Many students choose to attend law school because they seek to improve their communities and to be part of local, regional, and national conversations about the legal system. The Center, through research opportunities and educational programs, will give them the opportunity to achieve those goals.” The Center will build on other Bowen initiatives, including the Racial Disparities in the Arkansas Criminal Justice System Research Project. That project released a 2015 report analyzing racial disparities in Arkansas criminal sentencing and has worked with the community to examine criminal justice issues. In addition, the Rural Practice Incubator Project trains and supports new attorneys who wish to open law practices in underserved counties in Arkansas. Bowen’s public service externship program also provides students opportunities to work in federal, state, and local court systems, government agencies, and non-profit organizations. “The Center for Racial Justice and Criminal Justice at the Bowen Law School builds on a long-standing institutional commitment to foster discussion of racial equity issues in our communities,” said ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Chancellor Christina Drale. “Chancellor Joel Anderson made this commitment explicit in 2003 when he implemented the annual Racial Attitudes Survey to promote racial equity through research and dialogue. We are proud to continue this public service tradition through our new center at the Bowen School of Law.”

Bowen honors Faculty Excellence Recipients

John Hill — Fri, 17 Apr 2020 19:34:06 +0000

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law is honoring three of its faculty as the law school’s recipients of the 31^st annual Faculty Excellence Awards.

��Vlog��ý Little Rock will reveal the university-wide winners of the 2020 Faculty Excellence Awards at 2 p.m. Thursday, April 23, on the Faculty Excellence website and the.

Congratulations to Bowen’s Faculty Excellence Award winners:

Terrence Cain – 2020 Faculty Excellence Award for Teaching Before Cain joined Bowen’s full-time faculty, he was a private attorney practicing appellate law, primarily before the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, the Supreme Court of Arkansas, and the Arkansas Court of Appeals. His practice areas consisted chiefly of employment discrimination, domestic relations, and criminal defense. He has carried his professional and courtroom experience into the classroom.

Cain is known for his high professional standards, which he imposes rigorously on his students in his classroom. He promises his students he will always be present and always be fully prepared, and he expects no less of them. And when Cain promises he will be prepared, he means prepared. He walks his students through rigorous analyses of legal authority and encourages them to question, push back, and explore the law. As is also evident from his students’ supporting letters, they have adopted his phrasing of key concepts so thoroughly that they regularly hear him in their heads in other classes as well as in their future careers. His students say he has shown them “what can be accomplished by taking a professional, detailed, and fearless approach to each aspect of our education.”

Anastasia Boles – 2020 Faculty Excellence Award for Public Service

Boles is well-known as an advocate for increasing cultural competency and reducing implicit bias in the legal system. She serves as co-director and the primary administrator of the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Racial Disparities in the Arkansas Criminal Justice System Research Project. As part of the Racial Disparities Project, Boles has worked with Supreme Court Justice Rhonda Wood on passage of civil and criminal Arkansas Model Jury Instruction 103, which allows attorneys and judges to instruct jurors on explicit and implicit bias on the basis of disability, gender, race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, national origin, or socioeconomic status. She has authored three law review articles promoting culturally proficient legal education, diversity, and inclusion. Boles has also facilitated multiple workshops on the issues of implicit bias, criminal justice, and structural racism, poverty, and employment discrimination, and is known for her service to community organizations. “Professor Boles has tackled the difficult work of challenging the community to confront and eliminate racial disparities,” said Julie Vandiver, assistant federal public defender for the Eastern District of Arkansas. “She brings the study’s research and recommendations into the community by speaking to a myriad of groups. In this work, she is an effective messenger because she is solution-oriented and accompanies the sobering data with optimism. She has the unique skill to think structurally, act personally with compassion, and educate with an eye towards progress.” Nicholas Kahn-Fogel – 2020 Faculty Excellence Award for Research and Creative Endeavors Kahn-Fogel is well-known at the law school as both a prolific scholar and an outstanding, dedicated teacher. He is highly regarded by students and faculty colleagues alike, as shown by his nomination this year for two faculty awards for excellent scholarly research and excellent teaching. Over the last five years, Kahn Fogel has co-authored a legal textbook on Torts, which is among the several courses he teaches at Bowen. In addition, five of his articles have been accepted for publication in highly regarded scholarly law journals, including the Kentucky Law Journal, the Cornell Journal of Law & Public Policy, and the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy. He is recognized internationally for his legal scholarship pertaining to Africa. Kahn-Fogel’s contributions reflect the unique scholarly perspective he gained as a member of the faculty at the University of Zambia from 2006-08, as a Bowen Research Scholar in Zambia from 2010-11, and while conducting archival research in Zambia during the summer of 2013. Kahn-Fogel’s students and colleagues at Bowen take pride in his many scholarly achievements and his national and international recognition by other scholars. “In addition to his other scholarship, Professor Kahn-Fogel is a leading authority on eyewitness identification jurisprudence,” said Bowen Dean Theresa Beiner. “His scholarship has the potential to have a profound impact on the criminal justice system.”

- University News Archive - ����Vlog��ý Little Rock

����Vlog��ý Little Rock Bowen School of Law Announces Financial Gift from Walmart to Create Enhanced Community Policing Project

Bowen Law School Receives $1 million from Walmart to Fund Court Observation Project

Law school creates Center for Racial Justice and Criminal Justice Reform

Bowen honors Faculty Excellence Recipients

- University News Archive - ��Vlog��ý Little Rock

��Vlog��ý Little Rock Bowen School of Law Announces Financial Gift from Walmart to Create Enhanced Community Policing Project