Broadly speaking, I do policy-oriented research on criminal justice systems—how rules and institutions are designed and how people implement them in real life practices. Most of my work has been in Latin America and the Caribbean, and I connect my work to dilemmas and debates about justice policy in the US and Canada.
My research examines prison reform processes that aim to reduce the scope and harshness of incarceration and/or to strengthen rehabilitation and human rights. My dissertation is a mixed-methods study of the Dominican Republic's human rights-oriented prison reform experience, with an emphasis on the perspectives of prisoners.
I have done research, strategic planning, and policy and program development on criminal justice systems and prisons in Jamaica, Belize, the Bahamas, El Salvador, and regionally in Latin America. In 2016, I co-founded the Americas Prisons Research Network (redpenitenciaria.org), a platform to connect researchers across the region and to share methods, findings, and policy implications in an accessible way.
I am currently a Senior Research Associate at the Vera Institute of Justice in New York City. I completed my doctorate in criminal justice at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and the Graduate Center, City University of New York (CUNY), in 2021. I have been a Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Scholar and a Doctoral Fellow with the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (Canada). I also have academic training in international development and foreign policy, with an MA and BA in international affairs.