Officials at Texas Southern University today announced plans to establish a campus-based Center for Justice Research, aimed at producing criminal justice reform analysis and policy recommendations.
The center will be established through a $2.7 million grant from the Thurgood Marshall College Fund’s Center for Advancing Opportunity, a $26 million initiative established by TMCF, the Charles Koch Foundation and Koch Industries to position black colleges and as centers for research and development in education, criminal justice and entrepreneurship.
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“The Center for Justice Research represents a new direction for Texas Southern and will strengthen our commitment to equal justice for all citizens,” said TSU President Austin A. Lane. “TSU is elated to receive strong support for the Center from the Thurgood Marshall College Fund and the Charles Koch Foundation, forming a critical partnership to advance knowledge through our faculty and evidence-based research, and in turn, care for our fragile communities.”
In a statement, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee (D-18th District) called the center a vital asset to building criminal justice equity for minority communities.
“Our criminal justice system is deeply flawed and perversely inhumane support for reform spans the ideological spectrum, and this grant to TSU’s Center for Justice Research will help to enhance efforts to ensure that all of us receive equal treatment under the law.”
