Back to jobs
New

Summer 2026 - Research Intern, Beyond Jails

Brooklyn, New York

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.

Create a Job Alert

Interested in building your career at Vera Institute of Justice? Get future opportunities sent straight to your email.

Apply for this job

*

indicates a required field

Resume/CV*

Accepted file types: pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf

Cover Letter*

Accepted file types: pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf

Select...
Select...
Select...
Select...

Voluntary Self-Identification

For government reporting purposes, we ask candidates to respond to the below self-identification survey. Completion of the form is entirely voluntary. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiring process or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in a confidential file.

As set forth in Vera Institute of Justice’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy, we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.

Select...
Select...
Race & Ethnicity Definitions

If you believe you belong to any of the categories of protected veterans listed below, please indicate by making the appropriate selection. As a government contractor subject to the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA), we request this information in order to measure the effectiveness of the outreach and positive recruitment efforts we undertake pursuant to VEVRAA. Classification of protected categories is as follows:

A "disabled veteran" is one of the following: a veteran of the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service who is entitled to compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to compensation) under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or a person who was discharged or released from active duty because of a service-connected disability.

A "recently separated veteran" means any veteran during the three-year period beginning on the date of such veteran's discharge or release from active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval, or air service.

An "active duty wartime or campaign badge veteran" means a veteran who served on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service during a war, or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge has been authorized under the laws administered by the Department of Defense.

An "Armed forces service medal veteran" means a veteran who, while serving on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service, participated in a United States military operation for which an Armed Forces service medal was awarded pursuant to Executive Order 12985.

Select...

Voluntary Self-Identification of Disability

Form CC-305
Page 1 of 1
OMB Control Number 1250-0005
Expires 04/30/2026

Why are you being asked to complete this form?

We are a federal contractor or subcontractor. The law requires us to provide equal employment opportunity to qualified people with disabilities. We have a goal of having at least 7% of our workers as people with disabilities. The law says we must measure our progress towards this goal. To do this, we must ask applicants and employees if they have a disability or have ever had one. People can become disabled, so we need to ask this question at least every five years.

Completing this form is voluntary, and we hope that you will choose to do so. Your answer is confidential. No one who makes hiring decisions will see it. Your decision to complete the form and your answer will not harm you in any way. If you want to learn more about the law or this form, visit the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) website at www.dol.gov/ofccp.

How do you know if you have a disability?

A disability is a condition that substantially limits one or more of your “major life activities.” If you have or have ever had such a condition, you are a person with a disability. Disabilities include, but are not limited to:

  • Alcohol or other substance use disorder (not currently using drugs illegally)
  • Autoimmune disorder, for example, lupus, fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, HIV/AIDS
  • Blind or low vision
  • Cancer (past or present)
  • Cardiovascular or heart disease
  • Celiac disease
  • Cerebral palsy
  • Deaf or serious difficulty hearing
  • Diabetes
  • Disfigurement, for example, disfigurement caused by burns, wounds, accidents, or congenital disorders
  • Epilepsy or other seizure disorder
  • Gastrointestinal disorders, for example, Crohn's Disease, irritable bowel syndrome
  • Intellectual or developmental disability
  • Mental health conditions, for example, depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorder, schizophrenia, PTSD
  • Missing limbs or partially missing limbs
  • Mobility impairment, benefiting from the use of a wheelchair, scooter, walker, leg brace(s) and/or other supports
  • Nervous system condition, for example, migraine headaches, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis (MS)
  • Neurodivergence, for example, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder, dyslexia, dyspraxia, other learning disabilities
  • Partial or complete paralysis (any cause)
  • Pulmonary or respiratory conditions, for example, tuberculosis, asthma, emphysema
  • Short stature (dwarfism)
  • Traumatic brain injury
Select...

PUBLIC BURDEN STATEMENT: According to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 no persons are required to respond to a collection of information unless such collection displays a valid OMB control number. This survey should take about 5 minutes to complete.