We are dedicated to engaging in hard conversations, conducting rigorous and balanced research, and building bridges across differences in order to transform our criminal legal system.
Our organization is made up of individuals with a diverse range of expertise and experience with the criminal legal system including scholars, practitioners, students, survivors, and formerly incarcerated individuals.
Who We Are
Education
We engage a broad diversity of community members and criminal legal system stakeholders in conversations on ways to transform the existing system into one that provides real justice.
We do this through our annual Re-Imagining Justice conference, online webinars, and community events.
Research
Our research is collaborative and participatory, drives our education and engagement with the community, and has an impact on policy. We conduct three broad buckets of research: partnerships and evaluations, policy-focused research, and community-led research.
Policy
We use our research to support the development of policies that shift the criminal legal system toward our vision of justice.
In addition, our research is used by partner organizations and public policymakers in their development of policy and advocacy efforts.
MNJRC Staff
Justin Terrell
Executive Director
Community leader with a record of executing successful issue campaigns and is an expert in Criminal Justice and Democracy reform. Justin leads MNJRC’s efforts to build a balanced and rigorous research program aimed at equipping Minnesotans with information and tools needed to transform the punitive criminal legal system.
Kayla Richards (She/Hers), Oglala Lakota
Community Impact Director
Social Worker & PhD Student at U of M-Twin Cities, Social Work. Her research interests include the youth criminal legal system as a tool of social control, community and advocacy, workplace culture, and intergroup dynamics. Kayla can be reached at Kayla@mnjrc.org
Avery Melton-Meaux (they/them)
Program Development Intern
Student at Washington University in St. Louis studying English with a Creative Writing focus and Drama. Avery is passionate about telling the untold story of minority groups through creative writing, playwriting, and acting.
Dr. Katie Remington Cunningham (she/her)
Research Director
Community-based researcher whose work spans the criminal legal system, youth development, and education. Katie leads MNJRC’s efforts to engage in participatory and collaborative community-led research. Katie can be reached at katie@mnjrc.org
Zeke Caligiuri
Community Engagement Manager
Writer and organizer from South Minneapolis. He authored This is Where I Am (UMN Press, 2016), and contributed to several volumes on the school-to-prison pipeline. Zeke co-founded The Stillwater Writer’s Collective, the first all prisoner-created, all prisoner-run writer’s collective in the country. He is committed to the empowerment and re-humanization of currently and formerly incarcerated human beings. Zeke can be reached at zeke@mnjrc.org
Cara Letofsky, MA, MPP
Associate Director
Nonprofit and policy leader with a commitment to helping build a more racially just world. Cara leads MNJRC’s operations, including financial management, communications, board support, and program development. Cara can be reached at cara@mnjrc.org
Will Cooley
Re-Imagining Community Supervision Project Lead
Experienced researcher and policy advocate on issues of probation and parole, violence prevention, and policing strategies. Will serves as the lead for MNJRC’s “Re-Imagining Community Supervision in Minnesota” project. Will can be reached at will@mnjrc.org
Our Research Steering Committee
The Research Steering Committee (RSC) is a group of researchers who advise on, support, and engage with our work. We are fortunate to have research scientists across varying fields from legal researchers, sociologists/criminologists, other social science researchers, and experts in community-based research working in collaboration with our team.
Dr. Christopher Uggen
Research Steering Committee
Regents Professor, Martindale Chair, and Distinguished McKnight Professor in Sociology, Law, and Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota. Studies crime, law, and inequality from a life course perspective, firm in the belief that sound research can help build a more just and peaceful world.
Dr. Michelle Phelps (She/Her)
Research Steering Committee
Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at the U of MN. Her research is in the sociology of punishment, focusing on the punitive turn in the U.S with primary lines of ongoing research on mass probation, criminal justice transformation, and policing.
Mark Osler
Research Steering Committee
Robert and Marion Short Professor of Law at the U of St. Thomas. He also holds the Ruthie Mattox Preaching Chair at First Covenant Church, Minneapolis. A former federal prosecutor, he focuses his research and writing clemency, sentencing and narcotics policy.
Dr. Ebony Ruhland (She/Her)
Research Steering Committee
Associate Professor of Criminology at Rutgers University Newark, School of Criminal Justice. Formerly the research director at the Robina Institute of Criminal Law and Criminal Justice - U of MN Law School. She researches how criminal justice policies and practices impact individuals, families, and communities.
Dr. Robert Stewart (He/Him)
Research Steering Committee
Assistant Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Maryland. He studies the social, political, and collateral consequences of criminal legal involvement and the accumulating effects of criminal records on impacted people and communities.
dr. raj (he/him/they)
Research Steering Committee
Associate professor at Metropolitan State University. He is a recovering criminologist, alcoholic, and survivor of sexual abuse, with 20+ years of community-based activism as a researcher & educator. He explores our justice system's depths and creates a framework where knowledge, critical consciousness, and heart become the root of our practices.
Dr. Joshua Page (He/Him)
Research Steering Committee
Fink Professor of Liberal Arts at the U of MN, where he serves as Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Faculty Affiliate in the Law School. He is currently focusing his studies on the bail bond industry.
Dr. Yohuru Williams
Research Steering Committee
Distinguished University Chair, Professor of History, and Founding Director of the Racial Justice Initiative at the U of St. Thomas
Our Research Team
Our growing team of Research Managers, Assistants, and Consultants are on-the-ground designing evaluations, collecting data, working with partners, and contributing to research products and the creation of educational tools and policies on a project-by-project basis. Our research interns support our Research Director, working across projects.
Antonio Sanchez (He, They)
Legal Research Assistant (Re-Imagining Pretrial Justice)
Dual Degree J.D. / Masters in Public Policy student at the University of Minnesota. Antonio’s interest in re-imagining pretrial justice stems from his years of work within the criminal justice system both in Florida and Minnesota.
Fernando Galvez
Social Science Research Assistant
LLM in US Law from St. Thomas University, and licensed attorney in Guatemala with a Bachelor’s degree in Social Sciences from Universidad Rafael Landivar. Fernando has experience in Legal Research in Sociology, Laws Compliance, Environmental Policy, and Human Rights. He is pursuing becoming a licensed attorney in the US, specializing in Civil Litigation and Immigration.
Marci Exsted, MSW, LGSW (She/Her/Hers)
Research Assistant - Reimagining Bail Project
Research Associate for the Center for Social Justice Research, Policy, and Advocacy at Urban League Twin Cities focused on promoting access to justice and the rule of law, advancing equity, and building capacity within the African American community.
Sharin Park (she/her/hers)
Research Manager - Survivors of Sexual Violence Engagement Project
M.S. in Education Policy and Director of Parent Programming at Jeremiah Program, focused on disrupting generational poverty. Research interests include education, gender and racial equity, and professional development within school systems.
Caity Curry (they/them)
Research Assistant - Reimagining Community Supervision
Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Sociology at UMN. Their research and teaching interests include law, punishment, race, and social movements. Their dissertation entitled, "Public Defenders as the New Civil Rights Leaders? Resistance Lawyering in Southern Courtrooms" examines the role of public defenders in criminal justice reform and transformation.
Kailee E Schaberg (She/Her/They)
Research Assistant - Survivors of Sexual Violence Engagement Project
Maternal and Child Health MPH Candidate at the U of M School of Public Health. Their research and advocacy interests include public health abolition, intersectional environmentalism, queer sexual/reproductive justice, and decolonizing violence prevention praxis.
Owen Jackson (He/Him)
Research Assistant, Pathways Home
U of MN-Twin Cities graduate of political science. In addition to working as a Research Assistant for the MNJRC's Pathways Home project, Owen is currently researching legal deserts and access to justice in rural state/tribal courts. He is a prospective J.D. candidate looking to begin law school in 2024 with interests in labor rights and restorative justice.
Dr. Ryan Larson (He/Him)
Research Consultant - Fines and Fees
Assistant Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Hamline University. His research examines the intersections of punishment, crime, and inequality, with a focus on quantitative methodologies and causal inference.
Kalice Allen (She/Her/Hers)
Research Assistant - Reimagining Bail Project
Her research interests are health disparities, gender, and racial equity, and community violence prevention.
Paulina Buitrago (She/Her)
Social Science Research Assistant
LLM graduate from Penn State Law and Bachelor of Laws from the Universidad del Norte in Columbia. She has a background in legal research on topics such as transitional justice, the pretrial process, and the legal liability of the State.
