JUVENILE JUSTICE IMMERSION PROJECT

Created by: The Department of Criminal Justice and the Institute for Digital Entertainment & Education (IDEE) in association with the College of Science and Humanities
Project Instructor:  Dr. Michael Brown
Project Coordinator: Dr. Rodger Smith
Partners: Indiana Judicial Center and Pearson Publishing

The Criminal Justice project will use existing Calamari recordings of juvenile justice processing to develop educational and training assets for the Indiana Judicial Center. These assets could conceivably contain an array of topical recordings or in-depth case studies about such topics as:

• The Intake Process
• Detention: Philosophy and Purpose
• Preliminary hearing: legal aspects and decision making
• Trial: Processes and Procedures
• 4th amendment (search and seizure)
• 5th amendment (self-incrimination)
• 6th amendment (right to attorney, rights associated with court proceedings)
• 8th amendment (bail, fines, and cruel and unusual punishment)
• 14th amendment (equal protection)
• Determination of Guilt: Evidentiary Standards
• Sentencing: The Disposition Process
• Sentencing Philosophies: Dispositional Goals
• Juvenile Court Philosophy: Parens Patrie Then and Now
• Transfer to Criminal Court

The target audience of this project may be limited to only one professional group, such as judges, or it may also include prosecutors, defense attorneys, probation officers, and juvenile detention employees. Therefore, this project is important and far-reaching.  It has the potential to bring about positive changes in the lives of children and their families.

Students will receive 6 credit hours each semester of the project through University College courses: Contemporary Justice Practices and Criminal Justice Theory and Practice.

Fall 2008
The student team leaders, along with the faculty mentor, contract faculty member, and members of IDEE will begin working on the project by:

• Developing recruitment materials for freshman/sophomores
• Help recruit freshman and sophomores to participate
• Performing literature searches
• Reviewing, digitizing and meta-tagging existing Calamari video footage
• Participating in technology workshops that teach team leaders how to use software and operate hardware used for this project
• Developing questions and interviewing judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, probation officers, detention workers
• Submitting a human subject protocol with the IRB for a survey of justice system professionals
• Helping to write and conducting a survey of justice system professionals to assess educational/training needs
• Collecting survey data and examining survey findings
• Preparing a summary of findings for the Indiana Judicial Center
• Developing an example asset (i.e., a case study, best practices asset, or fully developed lesson) and presenting it to the Indiana Judicial Center.

Spring 2009
The project team members (i.e., the team leaders, freshman/sophomores, contract faculty assistant, and faculty mentor), along with members of IDEE ) will work on the project by:

• Continuing to digitize and meta-tag existing Calamari video footage
• Continuing to develop and meta-tag original assets, writing text to accompany Calamari assets and original assets, mixing pictures with audio interviews, and integrating appropriate pedagogical tools (e.g., knowledge games) into assets
• Developing assets
• Presenting assets to the Indiana Judicial Center