Vera Institute of Justice

Jessi LaChance was a research analyst with Vera’s Center on Sentencing and Corrections. Her work focused primarily on segregation reduction, incarceration trends at the county and state level, and medical parole for the sick and elderly. Before joining CSC, Jessi worked as the first social worker for the Exoneration Project at the University of Chicago Law School where she worked with wrongfully convicted individuals coming out of prison to set up housing, employment, and mental and physical healthcare services. She also worked on the resentencing cases for individuals who were sentenced to life without parole as a juvenile in the state of Illinois. In addition to her direct service experience, Jessi worked for several years during her undergraduate and graduate studies as a research assistant on a project looking at how unpredictable work schedules affected work-family balance for hourly female employees. Jessi holds a BA from the University of Chicago and an MA in social work from the University of Chicago’s School of Social Service Administration.