Best Practices
To integrate the best new scientific developments into both investigative methods and judicial practices, John Jay College recently launched a new and innovative Center for Modern Forensic Practice. The new Center will provide criminal justice practitioners – judges, attorneys and police investigators – with the latest “best practices” in forensic science and forensic psychology to enhance the quality of trial evidence. “With its status and long history in these areas of study, John Jay is the ideal setting for such a center,” said President Jeremy Travis, because “it can harness the latest scientific developments to assist law enforcement and criminal justice professionals in carrying out their important work.” Mr. James M. Doyle, author of True Witness: Cops, Courts, Science and the Battle Against Misidentification, was named interim director. He brings to the Center 25 years of litigation experience, extensive research and strong academic credentials. According to Doyle, the Center, which was featured in a major story appearing in the March 17, 2006 issue of the New York Law Journal, “will utilize the College’s unique faculty resources to help local jurisdictions evaluate and incorporate modern forensic techniques into their particular practices.”

In a related event, President Travis was selected to serve on the newly created National Commission on Forensic Science and Public Policy, formed by the American Judicature Society. The commission will be co-chaired by former Attorney General Janet Reno, former FBI Director William Webster, and Dr. Stephen Fienberg of Carnegie Mellon University. Also selected to serve on the Commission was John Jay alumnus Hubert Williams (AA ’68 & BA ’70), President of the Washington-based Police Foundation.

Be a Detective
Are your children enthralled by the crime shows they watch on television? Are they interested in looking for clues and solving crimes? Do you want your kids to learn personal safety practices and at the same time enjoy recreational activities at the College’s state-of-the-art pool and gym? The Office of Continuing and Professional Studies is sponsoring a summer program that promises to be educational, entertaining and well-supervised from July 10 – 31, 2006 (Mondays through Thursdays) for children ages 10 to 14. Children will be exposed to the field of forensics and the newest techniques being used to solve crime. Lunch and snacks will be provided. Children of alumni will receive a ten percent discount. To register your children for this exciting program, call 212-237-8663, email SummerProgamForKids@jjay.cuny.edu or go to www.jjay.cuny.edu/continuingeducation.

Luz E. Gonzalez
The 2006 edition of Who’s Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges will include the names of 29 John Jay students who have been selected as national outstanding campus leaders. Selection is based on academic achievement, service to the community, leadership in extracurricular activities and potential for continued success. One of those included is Luz E. Gonzalez who is a Justice Scholar, a Thurgood Marshall Scholar, and a Bell Zeller Scholar. During the 2005/2006 academic year, she served as an Associate Justice of the College’s Judicial Board. Gonzalez, who expects to graduate next month, returned to school full time when she was 45 years old.

“What brought me to John Jay was my son. He had been arrested. At home we didn’t have the kind of family life that you would think of as being conducive to that kind of occurrence.” Gonzalez and her husband were educated and held good jobs. They were devoted to their children. But at age 16, her oldest son was arrested for murder. “He will probably be away for most of his life,” she says sadly. The event profoundly changed her. “I could not understand how this could have happened.” Instead of “wallowing” in sorrow, Gonzalez says, she decided to take action. For her, action came in the way of education – the study of criminology. “At first I was hesitant to share my story because there’s a stigma attached to anyone who has a child in jail. It wasn’t until I listened in class to some younger fellow students and what their perceptions were about prison inmates. I said, ‘let me put a face to this.’” At the College, her list of honors and awards is lengthy and impressive particularly in view of the fact that Gonzalez works full time as a legal assistant. At 50, her next goal is to obtain a JD in constitutional law and a PhD in sociology having applied to a number of universities that have strong programs in both areas. At graduation, she will receive the Alex Smith Award for Excellence in Criminology. The award is given to a graduating senior with the highest GPA in the criminology major.

Neil K. DeSousa (BS ’89)
“I would not be here right now if it weren’t for John Jay,” says alumnus Neil K. DeSousa. He is the Chief Deputy United States Marshal for the Southern District of Florida. It all began when he was a sophomore in the Interdisciplinary Studies Program (formerly known as Thematic Studies). More specifically he met Ms. Prem Sukhan, Director of Internships and Cooperative Education, who steered him to an internship – the first of three plus a co-op program – with the US Marshals Service (USMS). And the rest, as they say, is history.

President George Washington appointed the first Marshals in 1789 making the USMS the oldest Federal law enforcement agency in the nation. The agency is responsible for protecting Federal judges and courts, witness protection, fugitive apprehension, disposition of assets seized in criminal cases, and prisoner transportation. According to DeSousa, one of the unique aspects of the Service is that it rotates its law enforcement personnel into all program areas before specialization takes place. He started as a Deputy US Marshal in 1989 upon graduation from the College. Since then he has climbed through the ranks as a Witness Security Inspector in both Washington, DC and New York. In 1997 he became a Supervisory Deputy US Marshal in New York where he was responsible for supervising approximately 45 deputies. In 1999 he was assigned to Atlanta, GA and in 2002 he moved to Miami, FL as a Chief Inspector. DeSousa was made Chief Deputy US Marshal in 2005 and is responsible for the overall supervision of operations in the Southern District of Florida.

Because the Service has the ability to deputize local law enforcement personnel, it often works together with other agencies by forming task forces. One such area for which the Service is nationally recognized is fugitive apprehension. “We help each other through these reciprocal arrangements. Each agency benefits,” according to DeSousa. A current example of this type of interagency cooperation is Operation FALCON, which stands for Federal and Local Cops Organized Nationally. The operation has already focused on violent criminals and will in the future be used to target sexual predators.

Another area for which the Service is well known is court security. In the aftermath of the shooting of a judge, a court reporter, a deputy sheriff and subsequently a federal agent by a prisoner during an escape from the Fulton County courthouse in March 2005, many state and county jurisdictions have turned to the Service for security reviews. “Local jurisdictions now come to the Marshals Service to use as a model for best practices in safety and security for courts and judges,” says DeSousa.

The College’s Office of Internships has been placing students in the USMS for more than two decades providing more than 50 students with internship opportunities. In the Southern District of Florida alone, the USMS currently employs five John Jay alumni, with a sixth on the way whom DeSousa personally recruited.