Staff and Project Partners
Director
Michael Thompson – Director
Michael Thompson has worked on criminal justice policy issues with the Council of State Governments since 1997, getting his start with CSG’s Eastern Regional Conference. During his tenure at CSG, Thompson has launched and overseen various national policy initiatives to improve outcomes for people with mental illnesses in the criminal justice system; enhance the ability of people released from prisons and jails to succeed in the community; and increase public safety, reduce spending on corrections, and improve conditions in the neighborhoods to which most people released from prison return. These efforts have prompted congressional hearings, federal legislation, national news coverage, and bipartisan legislative and programmatic initiatives in states across the country. Prior to joining CSG, he worked for the Office of the Court Monitor in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Policy Staff
Marshall Clement – Project Director
Marshall Clement coordinates the CSG Justice Center’s work to provide assistance to state policymakers pursuing justice reinvestment strategies to increase public safety, reduce corrections spending, and improve conditions in the neighborhoods to which most people released from prison return. Before joining CSG, Clement was a policy researcher with the Rhode Island Family Life Center, a nationally recognized prisoner re-entry program, where he worked on improving access to housing and TANF resources for individuals recently released from prison and jail.
Antonio Fabelo – Director of Research
Antonio Fabelo, Ph.D., is in charge of designing, developing and implementing a research agenda for the Justice Center. He also provides technical assistance to state and local governments to help them increase public safety and make more efficient uses of state and local taxpayer dollars. Before joining CSG, he was a Senior Research Associate with the JFA Institute. He worked between 1984 and 2003 with the Texas Criminal Justice Policy Council, appointed to head this state research and evaluation agency in 1991. During Tony’s tenure on the council, he advised five governors (including former Governors Ann Richards and George W. Bush) and ten regular biennial Texas legislatures in developing criminal and juvenile justice policies. Tony received his B.A. in Political Science from Loyola University, and his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin.
Crystal Garland – Research Associate
Crystal Garland provides state-based research support for the Justice Center’s Justice Reinvestment Initiative. Crystal also coordinates the Justice Center’s efforts to provide assistance to policymakers interested in reinvesting savings in victims’ services. Prior to joining CSG’s Justice Center, Garland volunteered with the Correctional Association of New York, visiting correctional facilities throughout the state of New York to speak with staff and inmates regarding prison conditions.
Sara Marnel – Research Associate
Sara Marnel provides state-based research support for the Justice Center’s Justice Reinvestment Initiative. She also coordinates the Justice Center’s efforts to provide assistance to policymakers interested in reinvesting savings in education and employment programs and services. Prior to joining CSG, she worked as a fellow at the Innocence Project on DNA evidence preservation issues. She received her B.A. with honors from the University of Florida and her J.D. from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.
LaToya McBean – Policy Analyst
LaToya McBean provides assistance in implementing justice reinvestment strategies to state policymakers in Pennsylvania, Nevada, Michigan, and Connecticut. Before joining CSG, McBean served as a staff assistant to the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security of the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on the Judiciary. She has also served as a staff assistant to U.S. Congressman F. James Sensenbrenner.
Fred Osher – Director of Health Systems and Services Policy
Fred Osher, M.D., oversees the health components of the CSG Justice Center’s initiatives. He also provides technical assistance to state and local governments across the country seeking to improve their response to people who have mental health and/or substance use disorders and are involved in the criminal justice system. Before joining the CSG Justice Center, Osher served as the Director of the Center for Behavioral Health, Justice, and Public Policy and as an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. He has published extensively in the areas of homelessness, community psychiatry, co-occurring mental and addictive disorders, and effective approaches to persons with behavioral disorders within criminal justice settings.
Marc Pelka – Policy Analyst
Marc Pelka provides assistance to state policymakers in implementing justice reinvestment strategies. Before joining CSG, Marc served as a press aide in the Connecticut House of Representatives and subsequently as a policy aide to the Speaker of the House. His duties for the Speaker consisted of legislative research, planning, and coordination, with a concentration on policy before the Judiciary Committee. Marc received his B.A. with honors from New York University and his M.P.P. in criminal justice policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
Project Partners
Public Safety Performance Project
The Council of State Governments Justice Center, through its Justice Reinvestment Initiative, is a partner of the Public Safety Performance Project (PSPP), an operating project of The Pew Charitable Trusts’ Center on the States. Justice Center staff work with the PSPP to provide expert technical assistance to states.
The PSPP assists select states that want better results from their sentencing and corrections systems by providing nonpartisan research, analysis and expertise to help states identify data-driven, fiscally responsible options for protecting public safety, holding offenders accountable, and controlling corrections costs.
The Justice Reinvestment Initiative draws on a diverse group of expert consultants who bring extensive experience and insights to the Initiative’s work.
JFA Institute
Dr. James Austin, President
Wendy Naro, Vice President
Justice Mapping Center
Eric Cadora, Director
Charles Swartz, Associate Director
McCormack, Baron, Salazar
Richard D. Baron, Co-Founder, Chairman and CEO
Urban Institute
Amy L. Solomon, Expert, Justice Policy Center
Urban Strategies, Inc.
Sandra M. Moore, President