Criminology Students
CCJ students have a variety of opportunities in and out of the classroom to develop and demonstrate their academic skills and career potential. For instance, CCJ students engage in community-based learning through a required internship working with an agency of their choice. Students acquire criminal justice experience and make connections between their academic experiences and the criminal justice profession. Simulation training events like the Lock-in, and Mock Assessment Center (interview training), provide occasions for students to apply what they have learned in their classes and prepare them for careers after graduation. Guest speakers, end of term potlucks and tours of Pelican Bay maximum security penitentiary create a social environment for CCJ students to develop relationships with CCJ students and faculty members as well as strengthen the academic program.
Alpha Phi Sigma
The National Criminal Justice Honor Society known as Alpha Phi Sigma (APS), allows some of our top CCJ students to be recognized at a national level. SOU Has had its own local chapter of APS since 1997, named Sigma Omega Upsilon. It is the only National Criminal Justice Honor Society for Criminal Justice Majors.
Each year the APS Advisor reviews student GPA data and invites qualified students to apply for membership in the honor society. Membership applications are provided on their website, but it must be signed by the APS Advisor who confirms individual student eligibility.
Criminology Club
Mission Statement
The Criminology Club strives to provide criminology students career opportunities as well as inform them with up-to-date information in criminal justice.
The SOU Crim Club builds relationships between students, professionals, Southern Oregon University, the community, and criminal justice agencies.
Common Activities include guest speakers from various agencies, field trips, social gatherings, fund raising, community service, bi-monthly meetings, and job postings.
Goals
- Promote the department of Criminology
- Educate students and the public about today’s Criminal Justice System
ACJS – Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences
The Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences is an international association established in 1963 to foster professional and scholarly activities in the field of criminal justice. ACJS promotes criminal justice education, research, and policy analysis within the discipline of criminal justice for both educators and practitioners.
The ACJS annual meeting takes place each spring. CCJ faculty members present research at the conference each year and bring select students who attend and present their work at the conference. Participation in the conference provides an excellent way for students to network with other CJ students, faculty members, researchers and professionals. The conference includes student paper competitions and events, and hosts Alpha Phi Sigma (National Criminal Justice Honor Society) meetings as well.
Pelican-bay Trip
Each year Southern Oregon University’s Criminology and Criminal Justice Department coordinates a field trip to Pelican Bay Prison for exposure to a learning environment participants never forget.
Located on 275 acres in northwest California, Pelican Bay Prison is designed to house California’s most serious criminal offenders in a safe, secure, and disciplined institutional setting. Pelican Bay Prison opened in 1989 to satisfy a need for a growing number of maximum-security inmates. Pelican Bay Prison has an approximate budget in excess of $180 million and roughly 1500 employees.
Students tour the inner most areas of the maximum security prison and spend hours learning about what the prison, a self-sufficient miniature city, does and how it functions. The sound of the large steel doors slamming shut behind them and other sights and sounds of prison life forge unforgettable memories for future criminologists and criminal-justice practitioners.
Pelican Bay Inmates
SHU Prisoner
Students learn about Pelican Bay Inmate Programs
- Prison Industry Authority (PIA): The PIA operates two programs at PBSP which employ approximately 100 inmates. One of the programs is the PIA Laundry, which is responsible for the cleaning of all institutional clothing and linen and also contracts with the local school district to clean rugs.
- Vocational Programs: PBSP offers vocational courses in Auto Mechanics, Building Maintenance, and is in the process of establishing Vocational Landscaping, Auto Body Repair and Graphic Arts Programs.
- Additionally, inmates have work assignments throughout the institution on various work crews which include yard crews, kitchen workers, porters, clerks, grounds keeping, maintenance, and other duties which assist in the daily operation of the prison.
- Academic: PBSP offers Adult Basic Education, General Education Diploma (GED), as well as College Courses, which are available through distance learning.
- Inmate Support Groups: PBSP offers inmates access to Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, Choices for Common Ground, Incarcerated Veterans, and Reaching Out Convicts to Kids which is known as the “ROCK” Program.
Family Reunification Liaison
CDCR provides through a contract with a community-based organization an on-site Case Manager as a family reunification liaison for inmates and family members, to assist with an inmate’s pre-release preparation; and conduct Parenting and Creative Conflict Resolution classes for inmates.
The Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Southern Oregon University also arranges field trips to Oregon state prisons and to Oregon Youth Authority facilities.
Contact Criminal Justice Program
SOU Criminal Justice Program
1250 Siskiyou Blvd.
Ashland, OR 97520
541.552.6508
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