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The Minnesota Justice Research Center (MNJRC) is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to driving meaningful change to Minnesota’s criminal legal system through rigorous and community-centered research, education, and policy development.

 

We seek a criminal legal system that promotes public safety by being more equitable, accountable, and restorative in delivering justice.

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.

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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.

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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. 

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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
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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.

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Will Cooley

Policy Director

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

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Sophia Lackens (she/her)

Communications Intern

Communications specialist and master's student at the University of Minnesota. Sophia supports MNJRC's digital branding and communications. Her research interests include neighborhood design, student organizing, and the carceral state. Sophia can be reached at sophia@mnjrc.org

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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

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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

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Mabel Malhotra

Communications Lead

Digital media specialist, filmmaker, and recent UW-Madison graduate. Mabel supports MNJRC’s communications and video projects. Her interests include psychology, documentary storytelling, and artistic activism. Mabel can be reached at mabel@mnjrc.org.

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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

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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

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Alejandro Caceres-Aranda

Policy Assistant

Public policy specialist, 2nd year graduate student from the Humphrey School of Public Affairs. Alejandro supports MNJRC’s policy initiatives and research. Having 3 years of experience working with various nonprofit organizations, state agencies and one lobbying firm. Alejandro’s passions in policy include criminal justice reform advocacy and the collaboration of community led research with local and state governments via the state legislature.

Our Team
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. 

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Anna Hall (she/her)

Project Manager and Research Co-Lead - Pretrial Best Practices

Criminal defense attorney and researcher committed to building a legal system that is equitable and just and honors the dignity of all people. She leads MNJRC's Pretrial Best Practices project.

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Ben Washington

Research Assistant - Canopy Roots

Data-driven advocate and researcher with a history of serving the Little Rock community with a focus on educational disparities experienced by incarcerated youth in Pulaski County, Arkansas. His interests have been homelessness, domestic violence, juvenile courts/detentions, and public policy. He also works as a consultant on issues including equity in hiring practices, nonprofit evaluation, data analysis, and broadband equity.

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Julia Moseman (she/her)

Research Intern - Pretrial Best Practices / Canopy Roots

University of Minnesota Twin Cities graduate of philosophy. She has a background of working with victims/survivors of domestic violence and serving her communities through various nonprofits.

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MacKenzie Farrington (She/Her/Hers)

Project Manager - Project PEACE and Block to the Ballot

Public health social worker (MPH, MSW, LGSW) with research interests including
alternatives to the carceral system, violence prevention, disability justice, and community-driven system change. Mackenzie also does research with the UMN Institute on Community Integration and is a crisis advocate at Women's Advocates.

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Rudy Perez (He/Him)

Research Team Lead - Project PEACE

PhD student in the Department of Psychology at the University of Minnesota. His research interests include understanding how alternatives to policing and incarceration can improve community safety and improve individual and community health and well-being. In his free time, he enjoys spending time with friends and family, going on walks, cycling, and trying new recipes at home.

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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.

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Anna Simonton (she/her)

Research Assistant - Pretrial Best Practices

Journalist currently pursuing an MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Minnesota. Her work as a reporter and editor has focused on injustice in the criminal legal system as well as education issues. Previously, she was an Editor and Development Coordinator for The Appeal, and she co-authored a book about a notorious RICO case in Georgia that criminalized educators.

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Dr. Ryan Larson (He/Him)

Research Consultant - Pretrial Best Practices

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.

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Kailee E Schaberg (She/Her/They)

Research Assistant - Project PEACE and Native Defense Evaluation

Sexual and reproductive health justice advocate (MPH-Maternal and Child Health) dedicated to collaboratively building a world where bodily autonomy and safety are fully guaranteed. Kailee is a sexuality health educator and mentor at Annex Teen Clinic and firmly believes that those closest to the issue are those closest to the solution.

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Michael Hamilton (He/him/his)

Research Assistant - Canopy Roots

Clinical psychology PhD student at Palo Alto University and lead Behavioral Crisis Responder with the Behavior Crisis Response team in Minneapolis. His research interests and experience have been at the intersection between global mental health, human rights violations, and the criminal justice system. Specifically researching the crisis of violence as a public health issue.

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Shannon Halen (She/Her/Hers)

Research Intern

Graduate student at the University of St.Thomas studying counseling psychology. She has a background in leading workshops in jail settings.

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Tayla Moore (She/Her)

Research Assistant - Project PEACE

J.D. Candidate, '25, University of Minnesota Law School, MPH Candidate, '25, University of Minnesota School of Public Health, and Fulbright-Nehru Scholar.

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Avery Melton-Meaux (they/them)

Research Intern - Survivors of Sexual Violence Engagement Project

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.

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Jenny Debower (she/her)

Research Manager - Canopy Roots Evaluation

Social worker, artist and PhD Student in Social Welfare at Hunter/Graduate Center of City University of New York (now based in MN). Jenny has more than 20 years of experience working in the youth development field, including leadership positions at the Hetrick-Martin Institute, the LGBT Community Center, Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center, and the Center for Anti-Violence Education.

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LaShayla Lumpkins (they/them/theirs)

Research Assistant - Canopy Roots

Graduate student at the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities, studying urban and regional planning with a specialization in race, housing, and community development. They're currently working as a graduate research assistant with the Center of Urban and Regional Affairs researching property vacancies and barriers to community-oriented redevelopment.

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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.

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Sharieka Young

Research Intern - Project PEACE

Thoughtful leader in DEI, anti-racism, and access. Sharieka believes in the power of collective voices to advance change and correct narratives. She is pursuing her master's in advocacy and political leadership at Metropolitan State University. She is an avid leader in her community, championing changes for causes that benefit society.

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Zaara Anwar

Research Intern - Pretrial Best Practices

Student at Carleton College studying Political Science and Psychology. Zaara has experience as a research assistant studying the intersection between mental health and incarceration.

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