Alex Frank

Alex Frank was the project director of the Restoring Promise Initiative in Vera’s Center on Youth Justice. Anchored in restorative and racial justice principles, Restoring Promise partners with jails and prisons across the country to end the punitive correctional model and replace it with an approach that centers accountability, healing, and equity. Restoring Promise began at Vera in 2016 with a pilot unit developed in partnership with incarcerated people, correctional staff, and leadership from the Connecticut Department of Corrections. Alex led the design and implementation of this unit—now known as the T.R.U.E. community—which transformed prison conditions for young adults at the Cheshire Correctional Institution. The Restoring Promise Initiative now works nationally, and Alex has implemented the lessons from this initial pilot in a growing number of correctional settings.

Prior to joining Vera, Alex was part of the Juvenile Justice Strategy Group at the Annie E. Casey Foundation and worked to close youth prisons, and to develop the foundation’s national strategy for partnering with incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people and families in reform—the people most impacted by the justice system. Alex’s work at the New York City Department of Probation, at the Suffolk County Jail in Boston, as well as her personal experience with the justice system shaped her interests in justice reform. Alex holds a Master's in social work from New York University, and a Bachelor's in holistic psychology from Lesley University.