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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
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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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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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.

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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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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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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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Mabel Malhotra

Communications Manager

Digital media specialist and documentary storyteller. Mabel leads MNJRC’s communications and video projects. Her interests include psychology and artistic activism. Mabel can be reached at mabel@mnjrc.org.

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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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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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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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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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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Sarah Bussey (she/her)

Research Assistant - Canopy Roots

Co-founder of de-Liberate LLC, private practitioner/supervisor, and adjunct professor at Hunter College, City University of New York. Sarah has worked in various capacities of youth work and community-based healthcare. Her research interests include anti racist clinical and community-based interventions; restorative justice and community healing; health disparities; liberatory supervision; and critical qualitative methods.

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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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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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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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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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