Rural Justice Innitiative 2022-23
RJI collaborates with local, State and Tribal stakeholders to support evidence-based criminal justice policy that integrates the needs and experiences of Indigenous and rural communities. RJI’s work has three components: (1) sponsoring interdisciplinary graduate course work open to graduate students in all UM departments; (2) hiring, training, and mentoring paid graduate Research Assistants (RAs) who work in interdisciplinary collaborative Teams under faculty supervision, and (3) undertaking collaborative research and training projects with criminal justice stakeholders. RJI, founded and directed by Professor Jordan Gross, was featured in the 2023 UM Visions magazine.
In Fall 2022, RJI offered an Interdisciplinary Criminal Justice Reform (ICJR) course, which Ellen and Tatiana both took. ICJR, co-taught by Law Professor Jordan Gross and Psychology Professor Dr. Laura Kirsch, is a graduate seminar course that provides students knowledge, skills and values needed to effectively engage in criminal justice reform. Course topics vary from year to year, but the structure is the same – students work in interdisciplinary teams to examine criminal justice procedures and reforms. Last Fall, the ICJR class to a deep dive into jury selection practice in procedure, with a specific focus on jury selection policies and procedures in Montana courts that may disproportionately exclude Native Americans from jury service.
Here is a look at the 2022-2023 RJI cohorts:
Tatianna Pugmire
Tatiana grew up in Salem, Oregon. She has a background in behavioral health and human services and earned her undergraduate degree in Psychology from Western Oregon University. She recently completed a Master’s Degree in Sociology at UM, with a specialization in Criminology.
Tatiana specializes in mental illnesses and disorders as they pertain to crime. Her Master’s thesis: Uncovering the Connection Between Mental Health Service Availability and Violent Crime: A Test of Macrolevel Theory, examines that relationship. When she learned about the Interdisciplinary Criminal Justice Reform course it sounded like a perfect fit for her course of study.
“My coursework and research focuses on the criminal justice system; this was a wonderful opportunity for me to bring that knowledge from my background to aid criminal justice reform law and policy.”
Tatiana’s team focused on “Batson challenges” in Montana courts, a legal procedure a party can invoke to contest another party’s use of a peremptory challenge to eliminate a potential juror on an improper basis, such as gender, ethnicity, race or religion. The team focused on data collection and analysis and they identify, analyzed and coded every reported appellate case addressing the use of Batson challenges in Montana courts.
“Data analysis is where I shine. I got to take a qualitative, methodical, research approach to looking at the history of Batson Challenges that have occurred in the State of Montana. And I had a great time doing it.”
After the ICJR class wrapped up, Professor Gross reached out to students in the course with an invitation to join her and Dr. Kirsch at upcoming educational event hosted by the Montana State Bar. Professor Gross and Dr. Kirsch had been invited to present to judges and lawyers on the topic of jury selection at this April 2023 event. Speakers and attendees at these events are typically limited to judges, lawyers and other legal professionals. Working with the organizers, Professor Gross arranged to have all ICJR students invited to attend the event, for a few to present as well. Tatiana jumped at this professional development opportunity. After numerous prep and training sessions, Tatiana and three other ICJR students joined Professor Gross and Dr. Kirsch on stage to deliver a presentation to lawyers and judges about jury selection practice and procedure in Montana.
After this event, Professor Gross invited Tatiana to apply for a Graduate Research Assistant position with RJI. As an RJI RA, Tatiana worked with a Law student to aggregate and compile additional jury selection research, which RJI will eventually publish and make available to criminal justice stakeholders.
“I’ve honed in on the intersection between psychology and criminology as it pertains to the justice system. It’s great to see a research process through as we bring it to the finish line.”
Ellen Bolland
Before attending the Blewett School of Law, Ellen was an adjunct Latin Professor and Academic Success Counselor at the University of Providence. Her husband, also a law student, started a year before her. He had taken ICJR and recommended it to her for the following year.
“He’s a year ahead of me so he’s kind of acted as a law school guide,” Ellen said. “He really liked it and knew I would too, and I wanted to learn more about how jury selection works in Montana.”
Ellen’s team focused its research on efforts in other states to reform jury selection practice and procedure. Boland researched Washington State. Other team members looked as recent reforms in Arizona.
“There are some unique considerations in Montana because the State has constitutional responsibilities to Indian Tribes and Tribal members, and extreme challenges making sure Native American people make it onto juries,” said Ellen. “When prospective Native American jurors are excluded from jury service, its hard to establish the intentional discrimination required under the existing legal framework. There’s also a lack of data focused on this demographic in such a white state. We hope our findings will be useful to Montana lawmakers.”
Born and raised in Great Falls, Ellen hopes to take her law degree back to her hometown after graduation and use her education to empower her community in civil court. While not all civil cases include jury selection, Boland says the knowledge gained through her time with RJI translates across all facets of the justice system.
“These are universal issues, I don’t think they are necessarily confined to one aspect of the law or even jury selection. It’s a manifestation of different disparities that have been happening for a long time, but hopefully this is the kind of thing that gives people some traction to make changes.”
For Ellen, the RJI’s biggest virtue lies in its collaborative interdisciplinary approach to coursework and research.
“A big part of the value in this class is bringing in new perspectives. Law students particularly can get sucked into our own little world of law school and it’s easy to forget that other disciplines can be extremely helpful when it comes to making lasting change. Especially in school, it’s such a unique time in life when you can meet specialists in different departments and leverage their expertise in the interest of making changes in the legal world.”