PRESS RELEASE

Date: May 19, 2004

District Attorney announces Fall 2004 Citizens Academy

Citizens Academy is a 10-week course designed to engage minority communities in communication, participation, and mutual learning on the criminal justice system, diversity, and race issues within the framework of the criminal justice system. While the mission of the Academy is to provide information and resources, mutual learning, critical analysis of issues, and exchange of ideas and perspectives; the vision of the Academy is to achieve improved relations and communication between diverse communities and the criminal justice system.

A first of its kind, several unique components to Citizens Academy are as follows:

1. Selection of a broad range of topics for discussion: Beyond providing an important overview of the criminal justice system (the roles and challenges of the District Attorney, law enforcement, and judicial system), the Academy devotes three classes to diversity and race issues within the framework of the criminal justice system. The three topics are: Multicultural Sensitivity in the Criminal Justice System, Race as a Factor in the Criminal Justice System, and Perceptions of Disparate Treatment in the Criminal Justice System.

2. Input from the diverse communities: The selection of the three topics on diversity and race issues was obtained from the diverse communities through a Citizens Survey.

3. Selection of a diverse group of speakers: We bring together a diverse group of speakers from the district attorney's office, judiciary, law enforcement, defense bar, media, and community leaders.

4. Selection of a diverse group of participants. Our class members represent the various ethnic, faith and diverse communities in Sacramento. They are community leaders and individuals with a strong sense of community and commitment to building bridges between the criminal justice system and the various ethnic, faith and diverse communities.

The 10-week Fall 2004 Academy will meet Wednesday evenings, beginning September 8, 2004, for a two and a half hour class at McGeorge School of Law. Citizens Academy is sponsored by the District Attorney's office through a federal grant at no cost to participants.

For more information, please contact,
Supervising Deputy District Attorney Karen Maxwell
Citizens Academy Coordinator
(916) 874-4575 or da.citizensacademy@sacda.org
Visit us @ http://www.sacda.org/citizensacademy/

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