Equity Institute chartered at GW
Third-year GW Law student Kian Azimpoor is one beneficiary of Equity Institute funding, though not directly. Last semester he took a criminal justice seminar with Associate Professor of Law Donald Braman, an Equity Institute grantee and director of science and policy at the Justice Innovation Lab (JIL). JIL helps prosecutors nationwide use evidence-based practices to increase public safety while reducing unjust and untenable racial disparities in the criminal justice system. The seminar, “Selected Topics in Criminal Justice,” enabled GW Law students to contribute to that work.
Azimpoor and his team of three student colleagues interviewed prosecutors nationwide about how they use diversion programs and how these can reduce disparities in the criminal justice system. The students turned what they learned into a professional-grade report, which JIL will integrate into its bank of data.
“The really cool thing was that these were real world problems,” Azimpoor said. “In a way, it’s probably the most creative class I’ve ever taken—the kind of course that has the ability to help facilitate a new wave of innovative law students.”
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