Professor Beth Simone Noveck, Jerry M. Hultin Global Network Professor and Director, The Governance Lab Seeking Part-Time Graduate Legal Research Assistant For Project on Data-Driven Criminal Justice Innovation
We are looking for a highly-motivated Graduate Legal Research Assistant to help with research and drafting of a White Paper on the benefits and risks of data sharing for criminal justice.Research will include looking at what data is collected by whom and when in different jurisdictions and surveying the legal landscape of laws and regulations pertaining to how data is or isn’t shared, such as the rules on sealing records as well as related statues like HIPAA. You will work with the GovLab’s Director Professor Beth Simone Noveck.
The paper is part of a broader project on data-driven criminal justice in collaboration with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and with support from the Laura and John Arnold Foundation. Jurisdictions across the country have found success implementing new evidence-based practices to reduce their jail and prison populations, link more people with effective treatment in their communities, and generate significant cost savings without corresponding increases in crime, but challenges in collecting, sharing and analyzing data across criminal justice systems continue to present significant barriers to widespread adoption of proven reforms and stifle opportunities for new innovation.
Building on the GovLab’s experience in data-driven governance innovation in the fields of health care and education and working closely with a Criminal Justice Data and Innovation fellow working with the U.S. Chief Data Scientist at the White House, we are embarking on a year long project to analyze and document how data flows through the criminal justice system, identify policy and legal barriers to effective data sharing, and create pilot projects to replicate successful innovations in the field or test new approaches. Recognizing that many jurisdictions have already tackled these problems, we are actively seeking insights from experts in the field at the local, state and federal level to identify innovation already occurring, brainstorm new approaches, and build out key policies to help improve and expand criminal justice data sharing.
Please send your CV and a cover letter, detailing your availability and prior experience with legal research and writing to: noveck@thegovlab.org. Familiarity with data science and/or criminal justice a plus. Research Assistants will be expected to work at least ten hours a week, generally, at the GovLab.