Summer 2026 - Research Intern, Beyond Jails

Vera Institute of Justice • Brooklyn, NY

15d • $17 - $25 • Hybrid

About The Position

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.

Requirements

• 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.

Nice To Haves

• 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).

Responsibilities

• 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
• 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
• 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

Benefits

• 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
• flexible time

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Intern
• Education Level: No Education Listed
• Number of Employees: 251-500 employees