University Park, Pa. -- Penn State has launched a new effort to serve local, state, federal and international communities with vital criminal justice research and policy. The Justice Center for Research is a new, collaborative effort among the College of the Liberal Arts, Penn State Outreach and the Justice and Safety Institute.
Director Doris MacKenzie hopes to foster rich partnerships across the University and beyond to make the new unit’s efforts a success.
“Our main goal is to integrate, expand and leverage Penn State justice research that will better inform decision-makers and empower them to arrive at improved policies,” said MacKenzie, formerly a professor of criminology and criminal justice at the University of Maryland.
Some of the topics she would like the justice center to address include the study of international alternatives to incarceration, interventions for gambling addiction, effective programs for turning around incarcerated youth and the growing number of mental health patients who are being forced from hospitals and into prisons.
The center is still searching for a managing director, but MacKenzie already is busy researching grant opportunities and making connections with a broad range of potential research partners and stakeholders in the justice field.
Penn State’s Center for Justice Research is located at 327 Pond Building on the University Park campus. For more information about the Justice Center for Research, visit http://www.justicecenter.psu.edu/ online.