Criminal Justice

At Northeast Alabama Community College, our Criminal Justice Program prepares you for a rewarding career protecting and serving your community. Whether you dream of law enforcement, corrections, or security, our hands-on training and expert instructors give you the skills and confidence to succeed.

Learn through real-world simulations,

engaging coursework, and field experiences that prepare you for the challenges of today’s justice system. Join a dedicated Mustang team focused on integrity, leadership, and making a difference. Your journey to justice starts here—are you ready to run with us?

Criminal Justice at NACC: Your Path to Protect, Serve, and Lead

At Northeast Alabama Community College, our Criminal Justice Program is all about YOU—providing hands-on, quality education that prepares you for real-world success. Whether you’re aiming for a career in law enforcement, courts, corrections, or security, we’ve got the courses and support to help you thrive.

Our student-focused curriculum covers everything from criminal law and police procedures to the American judicial system and criminology. You’ll learn from experienced instructors who bring the field to life through engaging lessons, research opportunities, and practical applications. We’re here to equip you with the skills and confidence you need to protect your community and build a meaningful career.

Join a program dedicated to helping diverse students succeed, grow intellectually, and step confidently into the workforce or further education. At NACC, your future in criminal justice starts now—and we’ll be with you every step of the way.

Employment opportunities (link coming soon)
Certificate and Degree Requirements
Course descriptions

Mission and program introduction:

The Criminal Justice Program is consistent with and promotes the established mission of Northeast Alabama Community College. The mission of the Program, like that of the college, is to provide accessible quality educational opportunities, promote economic growth, and enhance the quality of life for the people of Alabama.  The Criminal Justice Program is driven to engender intellectual engagement with the students through instruction, research, application and the promotion of public service so that it correlates with the aforementioned mission statement.

In furtherance of the college’s mission, the Program provides a student-centered curriculum that focuses on the needs of a diverse student population. The Program offers pathways for students pursuing careers in law enforcement, courts and corrections, and security.  The Program has a range of courses, allowing students to explore concepts in criminal law; police procedures; corrections and security; the American judicial system; and criminology. Our program strives to offer education that will reflect the standards of business and industry specific to the criminal justice.  We place emphasis on goals that assist students in their desire to achieve higher education and who wish to be productive members of the workforce.

The program provides quality advising to help students maximize their potential of achieving their career and educational goals.  We engage in partnerships with criminal justice agencies to offer resources, networking and establish possibilities of internships and employment. Through advisement, the Program will guide students toward goals of achieving their certificate of criminal justice, certificate in law enforcement, an AS or an AAS criminal justice degree. 

The Program also oversees the Northeast Alabama Community College’s Criminal Justice Institute for Applied Forensics. The lab is a partnership between Northeast Alabama Community College and DeKalb District Attorney Mike O’Dell, as well as the Jackson County District Attorney and law enforcement agencies in DeKalb and Jackson counties.  The lab will allow law enforcement to test seized drug samples at a neutral site with test conducted by independent analysts.  These analysts are employed by the college, they are not in law enforcement; and the lab is operated as an independent testing lab.  It is an option for investigations to obtain analysis of a sample which will allow a faster turnaround time for identification.  This gives the ability to offer a pretrial motion to expedite cases that might otherwise be backlogged.  The lab can also be utilized for educational purposes for student observation.

It is with pride that we strive to better serve students, the communities we serve, our college and the criminal justice system.

Goals and objectives:

1. To continuously work toward fulfilling the academic mission of the college.
2. To provide students with courses and programs of high quality that will assist them in understanding diversity of disciplines and topics all-inclusive to criminal justice.
3. To provide students with knowledge, skills and engagement that will assist advancement in criminal justice professions, related fields, or in the continuation of criminal justice studies.
4. To better prepare the future workforce by offering the continuation of education that will offer paradigmatic learning of business and industry standards, and focusing on additional skills that will develop employable job candidates.

Student Organizations:

• Lambda Alpha Epsilon, Nu Alpha Chi - http://www.acjalae.org/

SkillsUSA

• Alabama - http://alskillsusa.org/
• National - https://www.skillsusa.org/

CRJ Faculty and Staff

Steven Whited
CRJ Advisor / Instructor Lambda Alpha Epsilon,
Nu Alpha Chi Chapter Advisor
BE Building, 2nd Floor Room 204
(256) 638-4418 Ext. 2259
Email: whiteds@nacc.edu

Amber Mathewson
Analysts, Criminal Justice Institute for Applied Forensics
Annex Building, Office 101
(256) 638-4418 Ext. 2364
Email: mathewsona@nacc.edu