Vera Institute of Justice

Jasmine Heiss was program director of In Our Backyards, an initiative exploring the shifting geography of mass incarceration, and elevating the surprising truth that America’s highest rates of incarceration in are not in the biggest cities, but in the nation’s hundreds of smaller cities, towns and rural areas. She worked to inform the public dialogue, engage new allies, and advance change in order to end mass incarceration where it begins—in all of our backyards.

Jasmine previously served as the deputy director of The Coalition for Public Safety, where she helped lead the nation's largest bipartisan effort to reform the U.S. criminal justice system, and as Amnesty International USA’s senior campaigner, where she led work on groundbreaking victories, including the passage of the country’s first reparations package for police torture survivors and the release of two of the longest held-prisoners in solitary confinement.

She is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate from the University of Chicago and a proud alumna of Rockwood Leadership Institute.