Vera Institute of Justice

Melody was a program associate at Vera’s New Orleans office focusing on community engagement and education concerning issues of bail, fines and fees. This involved raising baseline public literacy of the ways in which a user-funded system compromises public safety and destabilizes communities. Melody began her work in the New Orleans criminal justice system at the Orleans Public Defenders where she focused on securing release for detained clients and developed a fluency in systems processing. Prior to joining Vera, Melody created and implemented strategies to reduce the local jail population on behalf of the City of New Orleans and managed volunteer voter outreach on a successful constitutional amendment campaign to require unanimous juries for felony convictions in Louisiana. She received a BA in anthropology from Wesleyan University.