Research Associate, Cyj Jobs

Please note that our Manhattan office will be relocating to Industry City in Brooklyn, NY this year.

Vera is hiring a Research Associate to join a diverse and growing team and to manage data collection in partnership with the people most impacted by our work—corrections staff and incarcerated people—as part of the Restoring

Restoring Promise partners with forward-thinking corrections agencies to transform living conditions for incarcerated young adults (ages 18-25) and working conditions for staff in jails and prisons across the country. Two core values, rooted in the name, guide the initiative:

• Promise acknowledges the failed promise to generations of young people, demands commitment to supporting them in realizing their full potential, and asks us to look forward toward a vision of transforming the prison system.
• Restoring cells for truth-telling and healing, a process by which people most impacted by the justice system are partners in reform; and

Restoring Promise focuses on prison conditions and young adults for four important reasons:

• Ending Mass Incarceration - Young adults are disproportionately represented at every stage in the justice system, driving mass incarceration.
• Advancing Race Equity - The racial disparities that plague the justice system are more acute for young adults.
• Ensuring Success - Young adults return to prison at higher rates compared to any other age group.
• Eliminating Violence in Corrections - People under the age of 25 are the most at risk of violence in prison and have the highest rate of homicide in prison of any age group.

Restoring Promise currently has three partnerships with departments of corrections: Connecticut, Middlesex County in Massachusetts, and South Carolina.

Vera Institute of Justice

The Vera Institute of Justice, founded in 1961, envisions a society that respects the dignity of every person and safeguards justice for everyone. Vera is committed to securing equal justice, ending mass incarceration, and strengthening families and communities.

• We study problems that impede human dignity and justice.
• We pilot solutions that are at once transformative and achievable.
• We harness the power of evidence to drive effective policy and practice.
• We engage diverse communities in informed debate.

We work with others who share our vision to tackle the most pressing injustices of our day—from mass incarceration, racial disparities, and the loss of public trust in law enforcement to the unmet needs of the vulnerable, the marginalized, and those harmed by crime and violence. Vera has offices in New York City, Washington, DC, Los Angeles, and New Orleans. Vera is an equal opportunity employer with a commitment to diversity in the workplace—specifically, we value diverse experiences with regard to educational background and justice system contact. We hire employees that reflect our values: respect, independence, collaboration, and commitment.

Restoring Promise Collaborative Research

Restoring Promise relies on a data-led approach driven by the people most directly impacted by the system – incarcerated young adults and line staff. In each of our partner sites, the team uses collaborative methods to collect detailed information on prison conditions, equipping people living and working in facilities to analyze data, and using ongoing surveys and administrative data to track the process of reform and course correct as the initiative grows and the units expand. Vera will continue to capture data using these methods as new sites join Restoring Promise, informing the design of the new units while also building the only national database on experiences of prison culture, using common data collection tools and definitions to provide a shared resource on corrections reform.

Responsibilities

Reporting directly to the Center on Youth Justice Research Director, the Research Associate will support the team’s research on young adults in jails and prisons, manage data collection from our partner sites, and support the development of new research studies.

In particular, the Research Associate will:

• Build relationships with our partners—specifically the people that live and work in jails and prisons;
• Support and manage data analysis and visualization and collaborate effectively with state data systems and the partners who run them;
• Support the development of new research projects that explore the ways that innovative approaches to confinement affect the outcomes for people who live and work in prisons;
• Manage data collection activities in jails and prisons in partnership with our partner department of corrections and in collaboration with project staff;
• Write memos and publications about our research—the values, the process, and the findings; and
• Coordinate all field logistics and research efforts with relevant stakeholders;
• Help to translate and present findings to diverse audiences;

About You

You have experience with the justice system—either you were yourself in the system, have a family member who is/was in the system, you worked in the system, or you worked to change the system.

You are deeply committed to the missions of racial justice and ending mass incarceration and are able to apply it to research design. You are knowledgeable about and fluent in discussing and advancing both racial justice and ending mass incarceration, and their relationship to community/public safety.

You have experience conducting research in partnership with criminal justice agencies and are comfortable with the realities of applied research in jails and prisons:

• The ethical considerations of data collection in jails and prisons;
• The self-care practices needed to balance being proximate to harsh conditions.
• Limited (and often “dirty”) data;
• Short timelines;
• The taxing nature of working in jails, prisons, or other oppressive settings that requires flexible in the field during data collection; and

You have exceptional organizational, communication, and people skills, with an ability to multitask and work collaboratively, with office-based and remote team members, as projects grow and evolve.

You have excellent interpersonal and communication skills that allow you to navigate the power dynamics that goes into working across the divide of people that live in prisons and those that work in them.

You have some experience in collecting and analyzing quantitative and qualitative research; writing research results for a public audience; and presenting analysis and findings to people who work in the field.

You love teaching—and learning. It is expected that you will share your knowledge and experience with Vera staff and that you will draw on the knowledge and technical capacity at Vera, as well as the practitioners you work within the field, to enhance your work/the work of the team.

You like to travel and are available to travel outside New York City often (several times a year, the travel is upwards of 3 work weeks out of the month).

Some areas of experience that are preferred, but are not required:

• There is a strong preference for this position to be based at Vera’s New York City Office.
• A driver’s license; and
• Conducting research in partnership with community and using participatory action research as an approach;
• Fluency in Spanish.
• Survey data collection and analysis;

Salary

Based on experience, and including excellent benefits, Vera believes in compensating its staff members at or above market. The salary range for this position is $57,000 - $70,000.

How To Apply

Please submit a cover letter and your resume. Applications will be considered on a rolling basis until position is filled.

Online submission in PDF format (through Vera’s careers page) is preferred.

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’s work, please visit

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