About the Talk

The Promise and Limitations of Academic Research as a Primary Driver of Criminal Justice Reform

In no other area of domestic and local policy making is there as wide a gap between what we know and what we do than in criminal justice. If rigorous research was a sufficient basis for enacting scalable justice reform, we wouldn’t have mass incarceration (or at least we would be on a path to end it), parole and probation systems that send hundreds of thousands or people back to jail and prison for technical violations, or states (except for California) that refuse to fund college in prison programs. Jacobson will argue that while research is certainly necessary for reform, it is not remotely sufficient unless it is accompanied by a political and fiscal strategy to chart a path forward. He will use a couple of current projects that the CUNY Institute for State and Local Governance is working on as examples of the risks and rewards for using research to inform policy making at a local level.

About the Speaker

Michael Jacobson is ISLG's founding Executive Director as well as a sociology professor at the CUNY Graduate Center (GC). Prior to joining CUNY in May 2013 to help create ISLG, Michael was president of the Vera Institute of Justice, serving from 2005 to 2013. He is the author of Downsizing Prisons: How to Reduce Crime and End Mass Incarceration (New York University Press 2005). Holding a Ph.D. in sociology, he has had an ongoing academic career coupled with more than 20 years of government service. From 1998 to 2005 he was a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and the GC. He was New York City correction commissioner from 1995 to 1998, New York City probation commissioner from 1992 to 1996, and worked in the New York City Office of Management and Budget from 1984 to 1992 where he was a deputy budget director. In 2010 to 2012, Michael served as the chair of Altus, a global alliance working across continents and from a multicultural perspective to improve public safety and justice.

This series is supported by funding from the Institute of Social and Economic Research and Policy (ISERP) at Columbia University.