Vera opened its office in Washington, DC in 2005 to serve as headquarters for the Commission on Safety and Abuse in America’s Prisons. Since June 2006, when the Commission published its report Confronting Confinement, Vera’s Washington DC Office has expanded its mission.
It now provides broad-based support to advance Vera’s mission to drive change in the justice system, and to leverage the bipartisan support currently in evidence at the federal policy level. It also serves as the conduit between the research, technical assistance, and expertise of Vera’s Centers and Programs, and its DC-based partners and collaborators, including Congress, federal agencies, and criminal justice and other policy organizations. The DC Office also houses a number of research and policy staff working on a variety of Vera programs.
Related Work
Series: Target 2020
Data-Backed Outrage: Police Violence by the Numbers
Over the past decade, the widespread use of cell phone cameras and social media has brought more public consciousness to the cold reality of police brutality, including the killings of unarmed Black men, women, and children. The tragedies of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd this year ignited overdue awareness, outrage, and calls to action from a wid ...
Blog Post
Logan Schmidt
Micah Haskell-Hoehl
Series: Target 2020
The Party Platforms Must Address the Urgent Need to Transform American Criminal Justice
America’s justice system is rooted in the nation’s history of slavery and racial oppression and applying a human dignity lens is necessary to achieve transformational change. This perspective values the intrinsic worth of human life and a person’s ability to grow and change. In that spirit, the Vera Institute of Justice (Vera) urges important party ...
Blog Post
Hayne Yoon
Logan Schmidt
Series: Target 2020
The Shocking Lack of Due Process for Immigrants
Not only is a lack of representation inhumane for immigrants, it also contributes to backlogs in immigration courts—where more than one million cases are pending nationwide. For Mariana and so many others, expanding legal representation for those facing detention and deportation has become a critical last line of defense for our immigrant communiti ...
Blog Post
Krystin Roehl
Logan Schmidt
Back to School: A Common-Sense Strategy to Lower Recidivism
Blog Post
Hayne Yoon
ADA@25
Impact and Implications for People with Disabilities Involved in the Justice System
On the 25th Anniversary of the ADA the Vera Institute's Center on Victimization and Safety looks back at the impact of this landmark legislation and looks forward to understand how to increase access to justice for disabled and Deaf communities.
Nicholas Turner's Testimony to President's Task Force on 21st Century Policing
Written testimony of Nicholas Turner, president and director of the Vera Institute of Justice, on the topic of building trust and legitimacy between law enforcement agencies and the communities they serve, submitted on January 9, 2015 to the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing. Turner discusses how trust between police and communities h ...
Nicholas Turner Testimony on Law Enforcement Responses to Disabled Americans
Promising Approaches for Protecting Public Safety, to the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary
Written testimony of Nicholas Turner, president and director of the Vera Institute of Justice, on law enforcement responses to individuals with disabilities and the potential for new approaches, submitted on April 29, 2014 to the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Human Rights. Addre ...
Nicholas Turner Testimony on Reassessing Solitary Confinement II
The Human Rights, Fiscal, and Public Safety Consequences, to the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, February 25, 2014
Written testimony of Nicholas Turner, president and director of the Vera Institute of Justice, on the human rights, fiscal, and public safety consequences of segregation (also known as solitary confinement or restricted housing) in prisons, jails, and detention centers throughout the United States submitted on February 25, 2014 to the United States ...
Michael Jacobson Testimony
National Institute of Corrections Advisory Board Public Hearing, Aug. 22, 2012
Michael Jacobson, president and director of the Vera Institute of Justice, reported on Vera’s evidence-based research into the effectiveness and efficiency of existing corrections policies. He described findings from a number of studies, the use of cost-benefit analysis as a tool for assessing and reforming policy, and results of Vera-designed init ...
Michael Jacobson Testimony on Reassessing Solitary Confinement to the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, June 19, 2012
Vera Institute of Justice Director Michael Jacobson submitted written testimony to the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights on the occasion of its first-ever hearing on solitary confinement, in which he describes the work of Vera’s Segregation Reduction Project (SRP). Launched in 20 ...