School of Nursing RRANN camp helps recruit young Alaska Native nurses.

A panel of officials from the Alaska Department of Corrections (DOC) and the Alaska Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) discussed how Alaska tackles the job of providing mental health care to juvenile and adult correctional populations. Nationally, more than half of prison and jail inmates have mental health problems, and probation/parole departments provide essential mental health services to their clients.

The Anchorage Police Department has recently increased community policing efforts, including adding foot patrols in some areas around Anchorage. APD and community leaders discussed current efforts at reducing crime, reducing fear of crime, and improving police-community relations.

Nursing mothers at the University of Alaska Anchorage now have a dedicated, private space to feed their babies or pump breast milk. The Alaska Division of Public Health awarded a group of UAA faculty, staff and students an Alaska Workplace Breastfeeding Support Project grant through its section of Women's, Children's and Family Health. The project aims to help Alaska organizations implement workplace policies and spaces to accommodate breast-feeding mothers.

Addiction and homelessness plague scores of people in Anchorage. Those topics will be the centerpiece of a Feb. 2 UAA Think Tank session, which is co-hosted by the UAA School of Nursing, with Anchorage Gospel Rescue Mission featured as the guest agency.

Four women—Jyll Green, Jill Rife, Leigh Keefer and Robin Bassett—became the first class of graduates to accept Doctor of Nursing Practice degrees from UAA at fall commencement.

"Criminal Justice Reform: A discussion of Senate Bill 91 — Reducing the prison population while enhancing public safety" was a discussion of Senate Bill 91: Omnibus Criminal Law & Procedure; Corrections Act. SB 91, based upon recommendations of the Alaska Criminal Justice Commission, was signed into law in Alaska in July 2016.

"Adapting for the Next Generation: The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act at 45 and 32d Annual Alaska Native Law Conference" was held on Oct. 14, 2016, at the UAA/APU Consortium Library on the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) campus, which drew more than 75 attendees including lawyers, Alaska Native village and corporation representatives, state and federal agency staff, and UAA faculty and students.

Police trainer and former police chief Mark Mew, recently returned from Benin, West Africa, discussed his experiences providing police training in support of peacekeeping in Africa. Mark Mew has more 20 years of experience in police work and served as the chief of the Anchorage Police Department. He also has worked as the Director of Security and Emergency Preparedness for the Anchorage School District. Bering Straits Native Corporation is the entity through which Mew provided the training.

The Alaska Innocence Project and the Office of Public Advocacy spearheaded the effort to exonerate the Fairbanks Four — four men convicted in 1999 of the 1997 beating death of a Fairbanks youth. This panel discussion of the exoneration featured two of the lawyers involved in the case, as well as a forensic scientist who provided expert testimony.