Vera Institute of Justice

Bruce joined Vera in March 2008 as a senior research associate in the Center on Sentencing and Corrections. He received his BA in psychology from Utica College and his PhD in educational psychology and statistics from the State University of New York at Albany. From 1981 through 2003, Bruce served as chief of the Bureau of Research and Evaluation at the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS). From 2004 until just prior to joining Vera, he served as chief of the DCJS Offender Management Analysis Unit, supervising a group of researchers and policy analysts specializing in issues relating to criminal justice correctional programs. Prior to his career at DCJS, he also worked at the New York State Division for Youth, evaluating education programs for youth placed in state custody, and briefly at the New York State Division of Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse, assisting in the development of data systems for monitoring treatment programs. In the past few years, Bruce's research has focused on studies of the factors affecting recidivism among delinquent youth and adult offenders, development and validation of risk and needs assessment instruments, and a study examining how the effects of length of drug treatment and program completion vary with age, gender, and risk levels of the clients.