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

Chastain Donates $100,000 to Create Endowed Criminal Justice Professorship in Father’s Memory at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock

John Hill — Wed, 22 Jun 2022 20:10:01 +0000

Sara Chastain, a registered nurse from Little Rock, has donated $100,000 to create an endowed professorship fund in memory of her father, the late Dr. Charles Chastain, who was the founder of the criminal justice program at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. “My father was more than just a good professor, he was a great dad and generally an all-around good person,” Chastain said. “He would go out of his way to help those who helped themselves. His legacy lives on in students and professors who strive for excellence in the criminal justice field.” Chastain is donating the first $100,000 of the $250,000 needed to endow the Dr. Charles D. Chastain Endowed Professorship in Criminal Justice Fund. Once endowed, the fund will establish an endowed professorship in the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock School of Criminal Justice and Criminology. “Dr. Chastain has made such an impact on so many different people in the criminal justice industry,” said Dr. Tusty ten Bensel, director of the School of Criminal Justice and Criminology. “The goal of this professorship endowment is to help sustain his legacy and his impact on the university, faculty, staff, and students who meant the world to him.” The purpose of the fund is to attract and recruit highly qualified individuals as professors, supplement university support for outstanding faculty, and to provide the professor with the resources to continue and further the scholar’s contributions to teaching, research, and public service. Dr. Chastain, who passed away in 2015, was known as an excellent teacher who carried strong convictions that the liberal arts should be part of the criminal justice curriculum. Originally a member of the Department of Political Science, Dr. Chastain was the founding chair of the Department of Criminal Justice. With Chastain as a guiding force, the department eventually grew into one of the largest criminal justice programs in Arkansas with five degree programs, including the state’s only Ph.D. in criminal justice. He served as chair or coordinator of criminal justice at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock from 1975 to 1997. Dr. Chastain retired from ��Vlog��ý Little Rock in 2011, after serving a distinguished 39 years as a professor. “We are so thrilled that Sara, his beloved daughter, has chosen to help us honor him with her generous donation to the Charles D. Chastain Endowed Professorship,” said Dr. Mary Parker, a professor of criminal justice who knew Dr. Chastain for decades. “This is not the first donation from his family to honor Charles. Sara and her mother Judy have helped support a student scholarship in his honor for a number of years, and we are deeply grateful for their continuing generosity. With her latest donation, Sara will help us further honor Charles for all he has done for all of us and will help us continue his legacy for years to come.”

Sara Chastain is donating $100,000 for an endowed fund for criminal justice in honor of her father, Dr. Charles Chastain. Photo by Ben Krain.

Some of Dr. Chastain’s most well-known projects include developing a reentry into society program for inmates at the Wrightsville Unit of the Department of Correction as well as collecting book donations from the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock community for the Arkansas Department of Correction libraries. “He was a fierce defender of what is right, and he took on some of the most daunting challenges, many of them considered lost causes by others,” Parker said. “He never backed down, and he never faltered in his beliefs about second chances, bringing those with less opportunity to the forefront, and his certainty that everyone had value no matter their current circumstances.” Dr. Chastain’s legacy can be seen in the many students that he helped graduate and go on to lead fulfilling lives in the community. “Both Dr. Chastain and Dr. Parker were always encouraging and supportive, eager to see their CJ students secure career jobs post-graduation,” said Greg Shapiro, a ��Vlog��ý Little rock alumnus who is now chief of police for White Hall Police Department. “They inspired me to join the Student Government Association as a representative for the former College of Professional and Public Affairs. We helped on campus voter registration drives and recruitment events. Because of their sponsorship, I landed internships at LRPD and in Washington, D.C. for the United States Senate.” ��Vlog��ý Little Rock officials plan to fully endow the fund by 2027 through donations from alumni and friends of the School of Criminal Justice and Criminology. For more information on how to donate to the Dr. Charles D. Chastain Endowed Professorship in Criminal Justice Fund, please contact Michael Johnson, director of development and external relations, at mdjohnson9@ualr.edu or 501-916-6442.

��Vlog��ý Little Rock awarded $453,000 contract from Arkansas Department of Corrections to study state’s prison culture and climate

John Hill — Wed, 23 Jun 2021 16:45:59 +0000

The Arkansas Department of Corrections has awarded the University of Arkansas at Little Rock a multi-year contract of more than $453,000 to study and assess prison culture and climate in Arkansas.�� “This multi-year project, funded by existing DOC revenues, will be the first of its kind done on the State’s adult corrections system,” said Solomon Graves, cabinet secretary of Arkansas Department of Corrections. “It will not only review operational issues within the Divisions of Correction and Community Correction, along with the Correctional School District, it will study issues related to staff recruitment, retention, and the efficacy of offender programs.” ��Vlog��ý Little Rock criminal justice professors Mary Parker, Robert Lytle, and Molly Smith will lead the four-year research project.�� “This is a project that I’ve been wanting to work on for a long time,” said Parker, the principal investigator. “I have more than 20 years of experience on the Board of Corrections. This research project is the next step in continuing my service to the state of Arkansas.” The study will be conducted from May 1, 2021, to April 30, 2025. The $453,805 award also provides funding for a graduate assistant, Cassidy Mitchell, who is a criminal justice doctoral student at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock. “Our faculty in the School of Criminal Justice and Criminology continues to raise the bar in community-engaged research,” said Dr. Tusty ten Bensel, director of the School of Criminal Justice and Criminology at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock. “This project is a great example of how our faculty and students engage with agency partners to improve our understanding of how the criminal justice system works, specifically in corrections.” Each individual correctional unit in the Arkansas Department of Corrections has a unique history, mission, and staffing as well as varied inmate, resident, and client makeup. Each unit in the state’s system will be studied individually before larger conclusions and recommendations are made for the Arkansas Department of Corrections as a whole.

Solomon Graves serves as cabinet secretary of Arkansas Department of Corrections.

The first phase will include studies on Cummins, Varner, East Arkansas, Tucker, and Tucker Max. Phase two will include Ouachita River, Wrightsville Complex, and Delta. Next, the third phase will include North Central, Grimes, McPherson, Pine Bluff units, and independent work release centers. The final phase of study will include Community Correction Centers and Probation and Parole Offices. “This has the potential to be a game-changer for the Department of Corrections. For the past decade, we have worked toward increasing our utilization of data-informed decision making,” Graves said. “Along with our newly created Quality Improvement and Program Evaluation unit, this ��Vlog��ý Little Rock partnership will give our Board and Leadership Team the type of actionable data we have only dreamed about.” The research project seeks to understand all aspects of prison life in Arkansas. To accomplish this, the research team will survey offenders, prison staff, family members of offenders, and volunteers. “We are one of the few large-scale projects that includes visitors and volunteers,” Parker said. “Families are a critical dynamic to incarceration and adding their perspective to the study gives us invaluable information on the impact of incarceration on friends and families of those incarcerated. Most people do not realize it but hundreds of volunteers work in prison providing religious programming, therapy groups, dog training, meditation, etc. for the inmate population. We will be surveying a sample of this population to gain their perspectives on what we can do better in our individual prison to improve multiple dynamics of the culture in prison.” The research team will also conduct focus groups with medical, educational programming, unit support, management, and training staff as well as probation and parole officers and staff members.

Dr. Bob Lytle��

Dr. Molly Smith

“I am very excited about this project for several reasons,” Lytle said. “For example, I’m excited about the opportunity to learn more about and help inform practices related to correctional staffing. Corrections can be a challenging field to work in, but I believe it can be equally satisfying. Corrections staff have the ability to help people in need, protect the community, and provide a public service. My hope for this project is that, over the next several years, we will be able to support efforts to improve correctional work environments and inmate management.” At the end of the study, ��Vlog��ý Little Rock will provide a final report with conclusions and recommendations about each unit in the prison system, a review of the educational programming throughout the system, recommendations with corresponding best practices for DOC administration, and recommendations to improve the culture and climate throughout the system. “As far back as early 2019, the now Division of Correction began discussing the need for an external review of various elements of our prison operations,” Graves said. “With the passage of Act 910 of 2019, the benefits of this project to the entire adult corrections system began being discussed. ��Vlog��ý Little Rock immediately came to the forefront as a natural partner for this project. The Department of Corrections has utilized doctoral interns from the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Department of Criminal Justice for several years. Additionally, multiple faculty members have conducted research projects involving our populations over the years and Dr. Mary Parker-Reed, a former Criminal Justice Department chairwoman, was a longtime member of the Board of Corrections who regularly advocated for a project of this scope during her tenure.” In the upper right photo, Dr. Mary Parker will lead the four-year research project along with fellow criminal justice professors Robert Lytle and Molly Smith.

��Vlog��ý Little Rock to research effectiveness of violent crime prevention efforts with LRPD

Ajani Oyindamola — Thu, 19 Dec 2019 10:26:52 +0000

A University of Arkansas at Little Rock criminal justice professor has partnered with the Little Rock Police Department (LRPD) to investigate the effectiveness of the department’s increased efforts to combat the rise of violent crime in the city.�� Dr. Trisha Rhodes, assistant professor of criminal justice, will receive $30,000 from a $750,000 grant LRPD recently received from U.S. Department of Justice. The Local Law Enforcement Crime Gun Intelligence Center Integration Initiative Grant will allow the LRPD Gun Crimes Intelligence Unit to establish its own in-house ballistics testing unit.�� “NIBIN, the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network, is a national database that police officers use,” Rhodes said. “Police officers collect shell casings, and occasionally guns, as evidence. Once they enter all the information in NIBIN, it goes into a national database, which can lead to matches to previous crimes and produce leads and suspects.”�� The specialized computer system is connected to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives database that police use to connect bullets gathered from crime scenes to firearms. The main issue with NIBIN is time. When crime labs get backlogged, it takes time for evidence to be entered and processed through NIBIN. With its own system, LRPD will be able to analyze evidence much faster. Rhodes noted that being able to connect crimes through NIBIN will be especially useful in long-term efforts to reduce violent crime, since a large number of these crimes are often perpetrated by repeat offenders.�� “With these types of violent crimes, it’s often not that many people who are responsible,” Rhodes said. “It’s often the same people committing similar crimes. It’s often a small subset that is accounting for a majority of the violent crimes. Once you identify those people and get them off the street, it will likely have a huge impact on reducing crime.”�� Rhodes is already familiar with the Gun Crimes Intelligence Unit. For the past two years, Rhodes, along with Criminal Justice Department Chair Mary Parker and criminal justice professor Jim Golden, have studied LRPD’s efforts to prevent violent crime in Little Rock, ever since the Gun Crimes Intelligence Unit was created in early 2018.�� LRPD received a nearly $500,000 federal grant from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Technology Innovation for Public Safety program. The criminal justice professors received $62,800 from the grant to analyze the effectiveness of the Gun Crimes Intelligence Unit and to study whether Little Rock’s previous increase in violent crime was an anomaly or a pattern of increased crime across the city.�� Little Rock had 44 homicides in 2014 followed by 31 in 2015, a 35-year low in overall crime, including violent crime. This was followed by two years of increasing crime rates with 42 homicides in 2016 and 54 in 2017. Last year showed a decrease to 40 homicides, a 13.19 percent decrease from 2017. The professors will release the results of their current research in 2020. Meanwhile, the new three-year research project will end in October 2022. Rhodes will continue to evaluate the Gun Crimes Intelligence Unit to determine if the unit’s actions are leading to reduced violent crime in the city and to determine the effects of the in-house NIBIN system.�� “We will be looking at changes in violent crimes in Little Rock that involve a gun, such as homicides, shootings, robberies, and terroristic acts like drive-by shootings,” Rhodes said. “We are also looking at clearance rates and the number of cases that are prosecuted and yield convictions in this area.”�� Rhodes looks forward to discovering what changes the continued efforts of the Gun Crimes Intelligence Unit, along with their new equipment, will bring.�� “The Criminal Justice Department is excited about continuing our partnership with the City of Little Rock and the Little Rock Police Department,” Rhodes said. “LRPD has made a great effort with this unit to fight gun violence in the city. They have seen a reduction in violent crime in the past year.�� The combination of the new equipment and old-fashioned detective work is what will really help address violent crime issues in the city.” The funds will pay for Madison Doyle, a master’s student in the criminal justice program, to serve as Rhodes’ research assistant.��

��Vlog��ý Little Rock receives $21,000 for criminal justice scholarships in honor of John Boyeskie

Ajani Oyindamola — Tue, 07 May 2019 13:16:17 +0000

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock has received a $21,000 gift to provide student scholarships in honor of the late John Boyeskie, a 1999 graduate of ��Vlog��ý Little Rock.�� Ron Boyeskie, vice president of , Inc. and his wife, the late Connie Boyeskie, former general manager at ASCO Hardware who passed away in January, made the donation to provide scholarships for criminal justice students in honor of Ron Boyeskie’s late brother, John. “The reason Connie and I wanted to do this is to provide a legacy for John,” Ron Boyeskie said. “He had such a passion for criminal justice and ��Vlog��ý Little Rock. The Criminal Justice Department is where John really connected with people later in life. He bonded with the professors, and they challenged him.” In 2003, the Boyeskies established the John A. Boyeskie Memorial Scholarship in honor of John, who passed away in 2002 at age 54, with a $15,000 donation. The new gift raises the scholarship endowment to $50,000. “Ron and his late wife Connie have made such a wonderful gift to the Department of Criminal Justice and our students,” said Dr. Julien Mirivel, interim dean of the College of Social Sciences and Communication. “Their gift is especially meaningful because it is designed to support our graduate students and provide the right financial support to help those students be successful. With their additional gift, Ron and Connie have created a legacy of influence and a shining memory of John, which will live on in every student awarded a scholarship in his name.” John Boyeskie returned to school in 1997 after selling his business to take on a new challenge in life. He graduated from ��Vlog��ý Little Rock with a master’s degree in criminal justice. “John was always very disciplined, an avid reader, and a genius,” Ron Boyeskie said. “He had a burning desire for more knowledge. He found a place to call home in the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Criminal Justice Department. He dearly enjoyed his time here because he was challenged and enjoyed relationships with the professors. My wife and I started the scholarship with the intention of helping students follow their dreams in criminal justice.” Dr. Mary Parker, chair of the Department of Criminal Justice, remembers John Boyeskie as a very intelligent student who challenged the status quo. “John was one of the most challenging students I ever had in the classroom – in the best way possible,” Parker said. “He forced you to question your own perspective on issues and topics while you were forcing him to question his perspective. He had no tolerance for the status quo. Through his unique way of making us dig deeper, he made us all better students, faculty, and human beings.” While pursuing their undergraduate degrees at what is now the University of Central Arkansas, the Boyeskie brothers roomed together and worked multiple jobs to pay for their college education. Ron Boyeskie hopes that this gift will make it easier for working adults to earn their college degree. “John was my baby brother, and he left the world too soon,” Ron Boyeskie said. “I wanted everyone to know who he is and have a scholarship to champion his name. It’s something that Connie and I wanted to do in his memory. Last year, Connie and I started talking about what an additional donation could provide. This scholarship is giving someone an opportunity, especially upperclassman students who are working and struggling to get a degree. John and I both did the same thing when we were getting our undergraduate degrees. This is an opportunity to give back.”

Doctoral student to assist in researching crime in Little Rock

Jenny Lambert — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 17:00:20 +0000

Brooke Cooley, a second year doctoral student at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, jumped at the opportunity to conduct real-world research in conjunction with the Little Rock Police Department. The LRPD recently received nearly $500,000 from a federal grant that will assist in its ability to have crime scene evidence analyzed in-house, and improve the investigations of gun-related crimes in Little Rock through a Gun Crimes Intelligence Unit. “Little Rock has seen an increase in gun violence, and at this point, people want to know is this a trend we need to be worried about or is it just a little blimp,” Cooley said. “For academics and criminologists, it’s really hard to tell.” After receiving the grant, the LRPD joined forces with the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Criminal Justice Department, and awarded $62,800 in funding to help analyze the effectiveness of the new intelligence unit and evaluate areas for improvement. “The police department did a great job of getting this grant, and when they applied for it, they asked us to come on to do the research because [they] really needed that third party help,” Cooley recalled. Cooley recently transferred to ��Vlog��ý Little Rock from the University of Nebraska Omaha, to work exclusively on this project. While attending a research conference last year, she was introduced to Dr. Tusty ten Bensel, graduate coordinator in the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Department of Criminal Justice, who informed her about the unique experience provided by the grant. Cooley’s advisor, Dr. Lisa Sample, seconded ten Bensel’s proposal, and Cooley, in turn, hit the ground running. “��Vlog��ý Little Rock had better research opportunities for me, which is the goal for Ph.D. students; to be well rounded in everything that they do,” she said. During this two-year project, Cooley will work alongside Criminal Justice Department Chair Mary Parker, faculty members Trisha Rhodes and Jim Golden, and fellow peer, Steven McCain, who is also a doctoral student. Her responsibility will be to work with the intelligence unit, conducting interviews and noting their processes, as well as working closely with crime analysts. “This is a major project,” Cooley said. “It’s one thing reading books and doing papers, but actually working with agencies and their employees is two different things.” While at the University of Nebraska Omaha, Cooley was able to conduct research at the Douglas County Jail, but she has never worked on an assignment of this magnitude. “I’ve had some experiences working with agencies with Dr. Sample, but never, honestly, at a grant this large,” she explained, “but, I have full confidence because I’m also working with Dr. Rhodes and Dr. Golden, who do have the experience working on these types of grants. I’m really excited to learn from them.” As a student with a passion for research and discovery, Cooley understands the importance of working on a project of such grave importance. “I think right now we don’t do the best as a field incorporating research and the applied part together,” she said. “I think there’s a gap there. Sometimes we research things, and us as academics, we don’t put that information out there for practitioners to know what works and what doesn’t.” Cooley believes that maybe she was destined to be in the field of criminal justice. Her dad is now a retired police officer. Even as a child, she always felt connected to this line of work. “When I was an undergraduate, I decided between pursuing criminal justice or sports management and therapy,” she said. “I’d played soccer and enjoyed sports and athletics, but criminal justice just seemed to keep my interest a little more.” As a result, Cooley is happy about her future and the future of this project. After obtaining her doctorate, she plans to remain in the world of academia, conducting research for a university or government agency.

��Vlog��ý Little Rock partners with LRPD to investigate violent crime

Ajani Oyindamola — Wed, 24 Jan 2018 22:31:46 +0000

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock is helping take a bite out of crime by partnering with the to combat the rise of violent crime in the city over the past two years.�� LRPD recently received a nearly $500,000 federal grant from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Technology Innovation for Public Safety program. The grant will allow the police department to purchase a ballistics identification system, which will allow crime scene evidence to be analyzed more quickly than sending evidence to the state crime lab, and create a Gun Crimes Intelligence Unit to better investigate gun-related crimes in the Little Rock area. “The Little Rock Police Department is excited to have the opportunity to work with the University of Arkansas at Little Rock Criminal Justice Department in a collaborative effort to investigate and reduce gun-related crimes in the city, through resources provided in the U.S. Department of Justice Technology Innovation for Public Safety grant,” said Capt. Ken Temple, commander of the LRPD Special Investigations Division. Faculty members of the Criminal Justice department – Chair Mary Parker, Trisha Rhodes, and Jim Golden – along with graduate students Brooke Cooley and Steven McCain – will receive $62,800 from the grant over the next two years to analyze the effectiveness of this new unit and evaluate areas for improvement. Findings from the study may also show whether Little Rock’s increase in violent crime over the past two years is a short-term anomaly or a rising pattern of increased crime. “We’ve had a wonderful relationship with LRPD over the years, and this is a tremendous opportunity for their department and ours to have a positive impact on gun violence in the City of Little Rock,” Department Chair Mary Parker said. “We are happy to be part of this endeavor with the Little Rock Police Department.” Little Rock had 44 homicides in 2014 followed by 31 in 2015, a 35-year low in overall crime, including violent crime. This was followed by two years of increasing crime rates with 42 homicides in 2016 and 54 in 2017. “As a researcher, my personal opinion is that it’s hard to tell if this is a true uptick in crime,” Rhodes said. “It takes several years to see if there is a true pattern of increasing or decreasing crime. For the most part, crime is still at its lowest across the country since the 1960s. In Little Rock, the slight uptick is alarming, and LRPD is working hard to collect scientific data and focus their efforts on finding the people who are most likely to be the victim of a crime or the perpetrator of a violent crime.” Members of the Criminal Justice department look forward to assisting the Little Rock Police Department. “It’s very important to form these collaborative partnerships, and it makes my work more meaningful when I do research out in the field that has an impact on day-to-day life,” Rhodes said. “I want my work to be useful and meaningful in the real world.”

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

Chastain Donates $100,000 to Create Endowed Criminal Justice Professorship in Father’s Memory at ����Vlog��ý Little Rock

����Vlog��ý Little Rock awarded $453,000 contract from Arkansas Department of Corrections to study state’s prison culture and climate

����Vlog��ý Little Rock to research effectiveness of violent crime prevention efforts with LRPD

����Vlog��ý Little Rock receives $21,000 for criminal justice scholarships in honor of John Boyeskie