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    Ram Subramanian
    Leadership, Expert, Staff

    Ram Subramanian

    Managing Director, Justice

    Ram Subramanian is the managing director of the Brennan Center’s Justice Program. He plays a critical role in helping to shape and direct the programmatic work, including data-driven reports and analyses that examine the racial and economic disparities in the criminal justice system.

    Prior to joining the Brennan Center, Subramanian served as the editorial director of the Vera Institute of Justice, where he oversaw all of the organization's outward-facing publications. Before his appointment as editorial director, Subramanian worked in Vera’s Center on Sentencing and Corrections, providing research and technical assistance to state and county departments of corrections. His primary focus areas were sentencing laws, community corrections, prison conditions, and addressing sexual abuse in custodial settings. Subramanian also played a leadership role in starting Vera’s international comparative sentencing and corrections work. In this capacity, he planned multiple study trips to Northern Europe between 2013 and 2019, helping to jump-start a new movement of criminal justice practitioners, advocates, and other social justice organizations focused on how European criminal justice policy and practice can inform reform efforts in the United States. In both of his roles, Subramanian researched and wrote many groundbreaking reports, including Reimagining Prison, Incarceration’s Front Door, Out of Sight, Overlooked, and Playbook for Change?.

    Earlier in his career, Subramanian worked as a researcher, advocate, and human rights lawyer in Zimbabwe and South Africa, focusing on issues of democracy, judicial independence, and sexual and political violence. He holds an undergraduate degree from Wesleyan University, a master's degree in international affairs from Columbia University, and a law degree from the University of Melbourne Law School.

     

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    Derek Rosenfeld
    Media Contact
    derek.rosenfeld@nyu.edu
    646-292-8381

    Featured Work

    Prison Outdoors
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    Improving Prisons

    Changing the experience of incarceration to one that is more constructive and humane is part of a new, dignity-first approach that aims to help people lead a life of social responsibility after release.

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