Fall 2025 - Data Science Intern, Incarceration and Inequality Project
Fall 2025 - Data Science Intern, Incarceration and Inequality Project
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Job Description
Who we are:
The Vera Institute of Justice is powered by hundreds of advocates researchers and policy experts working to transform the criminal legal and immigration systems until theyre fair for all. Founded in 1961 to advocate for alternatives to money bail in New York City Vera is now a national organization that partners with impacted communities and government leaders for change. We develop just antiracist solutions so that money doesnt determine freedom; fewer people are in jails prisons and immigration detention; and everyone is treated with dignity. For more information visit.
Vera has a staff of 216 people is headquartered in Brooklyn New York and has offices in Washington D.C. Los Angeles and New Orleans. We are an equal opportunity employer with a commitment to diversity in the workplace. We expect our staff to embody respect independence collaboration commitment anti-racism and equityboth in our outward-facing work and the internal culture of our workplace. We value a range of experiences in peoples educational backgrounds and encourage people who have been directly impacted by the criminal justice system to apply.
About the team:
The Incarceration and Inequality Project (IIP) combines research data science and strategic communications to explore and document how mass incarceration has impoverished communities and widened racial disparities in income and wealth over the past five decades. Vera is creating a national dataset that includes information on incarceration community supervision and economic outcomes from a range of local and federal sources. The project team will use this dataset to produce data-informed products including an online data visualization tool and an interactive data story.
About the role:
We are seeking a part time Graduate Data Science Intern to join a multidisciplinary team to support the development of data products and analysis that describe the relationship between incarceration and economic inequality. Daily responsibilities include data sourcing data prep and data analysis tasks to help progress the teams mission forward in close collaboration with the IIP teams senior data scientist.
Who You Are:
A graduate student in a relevant discipline such as data science computer science statistics economics public policydemography etc. You have technical experience in working with data at scale and have an interest in how large-scale dataprojects can expose issues that contribute to the systemic inequities of the criminal legal system. You enjoy collaborativeinterdisciplinary approaches to data analysis and prioritize creating workable solutions in context over building the latestcutting-edge black box machine learning models.
This is a commitment over the Fall 2025 semester with some flexibility as to start and end date.
What youll do:
Data Prep
- Identify and process complex datasets in collaboration with the Senior Data Scientist for incorporation into our public and internal analysis datasets. These may span multiple decades and contain data on incarceration demographics and socioeconomics across the U.S.
- Transform individual-level monthly data into annual county-level estimate
Data Analysis
- Prepare summaries of data quality and completeness and create documentation of data processing to inform methodologies and limitations of analyses
- Conduct exploratory data analysis and prepare descriptive statistics of core datasets in collaboration with the Senior Data Scientist to support IIP product development
Data Sourcing
- Identify additional sources for longitudinal national economics data
Other support & team tasks as needed
- Participate in data science and IIP team meetings and share updates with the tea
What qualifications are we looking for
- Currently enrolled in a graduate program in data science computer science statistics economics public policy demography or a related discipline
- Commitment to using research and analysis to end mass incarceration and undo racism and inequity in the criminal legal system
- Proficiency developing code collaboratively using GitHub
Preferred:
Lived experience as a person directly impacted by the criminal legal system
Knowledge Skills & Abilities youll bring:
- Experience working with large administrative or survey datasets
- Familiarity with U.S. Census data preferred
- Strong attention to detail and organizational skills
- Experience collecting and processing data using Python or R
Technical knowledge we need you to be prepared to use:
- Python and/or R
- SQL
- GitHub
- Google Cloud Platform (BigQuery & Google Cloud Storage)
- Command Line
Location:
Please note this role will report to our Brooklyn NY Washington D.C. New Orleans LA or Los Angeles CA office. Vera interns and employees adhere to a hybrid schedule and are in-office on an alternating schedule. Full-time positions generally amount to 10 days per month. Part-time positions generally amount to 5 days per month.
Schedule:
The intern should be available to work 15-20 hours per week during the Fall. The dates will be between September 8 2025 and December 12 2025 with some flexibility to accommodate personal and academic schedules.
Compensation:
The compensation range for internships is $16.00 - $25.00 per hour. Actual compensation will vary depending on factors including but not limited to experience and performance. Applicants may choose to receive academic credit. For those who need to earn academic credit Vera will gladly assist in working with the school or program to make arrangements and meet requirements.
How to apply:
Please submit cover letter and your cover letter please explain why you are passionate about criminal justice reform and what you hope to gain from this internship.
Applications may also be faxed to:
ATTN: People Place and Culture / Fall 2025 - Data Science Intern Incarceration and Inequality Project
Vera Institute of Justice
34 35th St Suite 4-2A Brooklyn NY 11232
Fax:
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 includingwith regard toeducational background and justice system contact and depend on a diverse staff to carry out our mission.
For more information about Vera please visit.
Required Experience:
Intern
Employment Type
Contract
