Date & Time
Thursday, December 4, 2025
3:00 pm - 4:15 pm ET
Location
Zoom Event
Please join us for an information session on the summer and academic year fellowships hosted by the Vera Institute of Justic. Vera’s mission is to end the criminalization and mass incarceration of people of color, immigrants, and people experiencing poverty. We pilot real-world programs developed with community members and the government. You can read more about Vera at this link.
Speakers:
- Dr. Jen Peirce, Associate Director of Research, Beyond Jails Initiative
- Dr. Nina Siulc, Managing Director of Research
- Sophia Harty-Reiter, Operations & Analytics Associate
Sharise Boney, Senior Talent Acquisition Associate, will also attend.
CUNY SUMMER FELLOWSHIPS 2026
The Summer Fellows are compensated $4,000 (120 hours over the summer). Fellows must be based in New York City and keep a hybrid schedule
BEYOND JAILS
The Beyond Jails Initiative (BJI) works at the local and state level to improve policies and practices that reduce the use of county jail incarceration and that build alternatives that keep people safe, healthy, and connected to their communities. From drafting legislation and campaigns to protect pretrial fairness from harmful rollbacks and reduce the use of money bail to working with community-based organizations to strengthen defense counsel in initial arraignments and for funding for key social services, the BJI team combines research, technical assistance, and advocacy. The CUNY Summer Fellow in 2026 would work with the BJI research team on both quantitative and qualitative projects. Quantitative work will involve cleaning and analyzing administrative data from county or state agencies – such as jail admissions or court hearings – to help stakeholders understand patterns and track changes. On the qualitative side, the BJI team will be interviewing stakeholders and/or directly impacted people in selected jurisdictions to understand the implementation and effects of new policies/practices. Fellows also contribute to team-wide writeups of key ideas, presentations to external groups, and supporting cross-team learning across Vera.
REDEFINING PUBLIC SAFETY
The goal of Vera’s Redefining Public Safety initiative is to narrow the scope of policing and strengthen investments in a robust and equitable civilian-led public safety ecosystem, including violence prevention and alternative 911 crisis response. A research fellow will contribute to our technical assistance work with staff of community safety departments in two cities, including building data infrastructure, creating community-centered measures of success, and building performance measurement and management processes. The fellow may also support analysis and reporting on other research projects, including analysis of 911 data, a survey of public safety leaders, and budget analysis of investments in public safety. Fellows with a commitment to equity and community-centered safety, experience conducting quantitative and/or qualitative data collection and analysis, and experience working within government and communicating research findings to diverse audiences are encouraged to apply.
RESTORING PROMISE
The Restoring Promise initiative partners with corrections leaders and incarcerated people to reimagine prison housing units for young adults and realign corrections policies and practices with a commitment to human dignity. Since 2016, Restoring Promise has partnered with six diverse states to open nine young adult housing units. The CUNY Summer Fellow will work with the Restoring Promise research team on a cross-site mixed-methods project in seven units across five states. The Cross-site Analysis (CSA) aims to understand how the Restoring Promise approach has been implemented in different contexts, assess its costs, and evaluate its impact and sustainability. Quantitative work will involve data cleaning, analysis, and visualization of administrative, survey, and systematic observation data. Qualitative work will include analyzing interviews with various stakeholders and conducting focus groups to evaluate prison culture. As a mixed-methods study, triangulation exercises will be performed throughout the project. Fellows may also contribute to writing preliminary findings and preparing presentations.
GREATER JUSICE NEW YORK (GJNY)
Vera’s Greater Justice New York (GJNY) initiative uses data analysis, research, strategic communications, policy, and advocacy to advance pretrial justice reform, reduce reliance on jails and prisons, minimize the harms of criminal-legal system involvement, and support reinvestment in strategies that build truly safe and thriving communities across New York State. GJNY partners with stakeholders and advocates to transform the criminal legal system, shape a statewide policy agenda, and drive local conversations about decarceration and public safety. The GJNY Summer Fellow will collaborate with team members to support a range of research activities that advance statewide and New York City–level reform efforts. Responsibilities would include developing research questions, cleaning and analyzing data, and synthesizing key findings in written and visual formats. The fellow will also have opportunities to learn about New York State’s current criminal legal policy landscape and GJNY’s strategies for advancing reform. An ideal candidate is creative, detail-oriented, and passionate about effective storytelling through data. Experience with or interest in learning data analysis in R and data visualization in Datawrapper is preferred. The candidate should be deeply committed to racial justice and eager to explore ways to advance it within New York’s criminal legal policy landscape.
RESHAPING PROSECUTION
The Reshaping Prosecution initiative is dedicated to transforming what it means to be a prosecutor by focusing on the dignity of all people impacted by the criminal justice system. Prosecutors play a critical, but often hidden, role in mass incarceration as one of the most powerful actors in the criminal justice system. Our team helps prosecutors across the country and the communities they serve work to shrink the front end of the system, pursue racial equity, and increase transparency. The CUNY Summer Fellow will assist in applied quantitative research efforts with selected prosecutors’ offices around the country. This work involves the analysis of data from prosecutors’ administrative case management systems and from community-based organizations that are conducting diversion programs. The CUNY Summer Fellow will help transform data into an analyzable format by compiling, cleaning, and documenting disconnected datasets into a master analyzable dataset. Additionally, the Fellow will assist in statistical analysis, writing up findings, and conveying that information effectively to non-researchers.
APPLIED JUSTICE RESEARCH (AJR) FELLOWSHIP 2026-2027
The AJR fellow will work with the central research department at Vera for a full academic year, under the supervision of Dr. Nina Siulc, managing director of research, who oversees research and data science across Vera’s initiatives. The fellow will support applied research that crosscuts Vera’s priority areas in support of our mission to end mass incarceration. The fellow will be responsible for at least one original research product to be co-authored with the managing director of research or other research leadership staff and may be involved in an annual review of detention and incarceration trends. This year we are especially interested in candidates who can support us in developing creative approaches to measuring the social and economic impact of various policy proposals in the criminal legal and immigration systems.
AJR Fellowship Details
The Fellow will be expected to spend three days per week at Vera’s offices during the 2026-2027 academic year. Fellows must currently hold a Graduate Center Fellowship (GCF). The student will continue to receive the GCF funding, but they will be permitted to substitute the work at Vera for their normal GCF service. Vacation and time off will be discussed with each applicant but will not follow the academic calendar.
