Summer 2026 - Research Intern, Beyond Jails

About the team:

To reduce the nation’s dependence on jails, Vera's Beyond Jails Initiative is working in jurisdictions across the county to shift resources to community-driven solutions to help people thrive. Vera’s Beyond Jails work has three core strategies: statewide advocacy campaigns and coalition-building to create lasting policy change; piloting and building evidence around local decarceration strategies; and building will for change in local counties. The team works with local government and community partners to develop plans for jail decarceration, prevent the construction of new jails, and design reinvestment strategies.

The Research Intern role for Beyond Jails is an opportunity for a college or graduate-level student or recent graduate to experience working in a full-time research role at a non-profit organization. Working on the Beyond Jails team, they will support analysis of administrative data from courts, jails, and other justice agencies, to generate descriptive and inferential findings that will inform our policy and advocacy work. The Research Intern will participate in day-to-day team activities including conducting research, participating in virtual and possibly in-person meetings with state and local community partners, team-building activities, and more. The intern will be supervised by a senior researcher on the team, who will provide ongoing guidance and train the intern on a range of quantitative and qualitative research skills as needed. Other Vera staff will also be available to support the intern.

The Research Intern will learn:

• To understand the process for cleaning and analyzing “messy” real-world data for varying audiences

• Build their skills in data analysis, interpretation, and explaining findings to varying audiences

• Workflow dynamics in a fast-moving team involved in multiple projects at once

In this role, you will conduct data analysis and mixed methods research that supports ongoing analysis of the dynamics of jail incarceration and supervision. Specific projects will depend on ability and interest, and may include:

• Using state court data and county jail data to analyze patterns in pretrial decision making and case outcomes, at the county level, and preparing these findings for different audiences;

• Cataloguing data sources and gathering various types of data, including but not limited to administrative data from criminal legal system agencies, budget data, and socio-economic data;

• Cleaning and analyzing administrative data to answer questions about how local criminal legal systems work;

• Writing memos or brief reports that document practices and summarize findings;

• Presenting findings and implications for policy to Vera teams and external partners.

About the role:

1. Research and analysis

• Support ongoing mixed methods research projects

• Review, organize, and analyze publicly available datasets

• Build skills in applied research, written communication, and systemic analysis 

2. Data management and documentation

• Catalogue data soruces and gather administrative, budget, and socio-economic datasets

• Document data cleaning processes, research procedures, and emerging findigns

• Strengthen organizational, technical and methodological skills through hands-on practice

3. Project support

• Prepare and research summaries and brief reports for internal teams and external audiences

• Gain experience working in a fats-moving, collaborative team on advancing policy advocacy work

What qualifications are we looking for?

Required:

• Experience conducting analysis of quantitative data, ideally related to criminal justice or other social policy issues, either on your own or in collaboration with a professor and/or full-time researchers;

• Comfort working with quantitative data, preparing data for analysis, conducting descriptive and statistical analysis;

• Commitment to advancing racial and gender equity in work;

• Curiosity about emerging research and advocacy in the criminal justice space;

• Strong writing skills;

• Proficient with Microsoft Office Suite;

• Proficient in R/RStudio statistical package.

Preferred:

• Professional, personal or academic engagement with issues of mass incarceration and mass criminalization

• Experience conducting research using different methods (quant analysis, analysis of interview and survey data, archival research, etc.)

• Proficiency in data visualization, database, and/or coding tools such as SQL, Python, Tableau and other statistical softwares (Stata, SPSS).

Location:

Please note this role will report to our Industry City, Brooklyn office. Vera employees adhere to a hybrid schedule and are in-office on an alternating schedule that generally amounts to 10 days per month.

Compensation and Benefits:

The compensation range for this position is $17.00 - $25.00. Actual salaries will vary depending on factors including but not limited to experience and performance. The salary range listed is just one component of Vera Institute’s total compensation package for employees. As an employer of choice in our field, supporting Vera staff - both personally and professionally - is a priority. To do this, we invest in the well-being of our staff through other rewards including merit pay, generous paid time off, a comprehensive health insurance plan, student loan repayment benefits, professional development training opportunities and up to $2,000 annual for education costs and fees relevant to Vera work, employer-funded retirement plan, and flexible time. To learn more about Vera’s benefits offerings, click here.

Application Process:

To receive further consideration for this career opportunity, applicants are asked preliminary questions about logistics, their interest and qualifications. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional details about their experience via a phone screen/form in advance of an invitation for a virtual or in-person interview with the team. Some searches may explore scenarios during the interview process and/or an assessment prior to reference checks and a hiring decision.

Applications may also be faxed to:

ATTN: People, Place, and Culture / Summer 2026 - Research Intern, Beyond Jails
Vera Institute of Justice
34 35th St, Suite 4-2A, Brooklyn, NY 11232
Fax: (212) 941-9407
Please use only one method (online, mail or fax) of submission.
No phone calls, please. Only applicants selected for interviews will be contacted.

Vera is an equal opportunity / affirmative action employer. All qualified applicants will be considered for employment without unlawful discrimination based on race, color, creed, national origin, sex, age, disability, marital status, sexual orientation, military status, prior record of arrest or conviction, citizenship status, current employment status, or caregiver status.

Vera works to advance justice, particularly racial justice, in an increasingly multicultural country and globally connected world. We value diverse experiences, including with regard to educational background and justice system contact, and depend on a diverse staff to carry out our mission.

For more information about Vera, please visit www.vera.org.