The Prison Policy Initiative is looking for a new experienced voice to add to our team: a Policy Director. We want the position to grow over time, but immediate responsibilities will include: regularly producing new content for our website and media targets, taking ownership over at least one current campaign, and mentoring staff and volunteers.

Founded in 2001, the Prison Policy Initiative is known for effectively using data to make the case for criminal justice reform. With a small (currently 5 staff) team of multi-skilled researchers, activists and communicators based in Western Massachusetts, we shape the future of national criminal justice reform with engaging visuals, innovative reports, and focused technical assistance.

With your help, we can take on new campaigns, empower more junior staff members and volunteers, and produce even more badly-needed research.

Required skills/experience/attitudes:

• Strong writing skills.
• 2+ years of paid or volunteer experience working for criminal justice reform in an advocacy, academic, jailhouse lawyer, journalistic, or government capacity.
• Understands the role of research in fueling advocacy.
• Have the ability to evaluate the impact and challenges of potential research projects and campaigns before we invest in them.
• Willing to work collaboratively from our Easthampton, Mass. office or a future satellite office in Hartford, Conn.

Helpful skills/experience/attitudes:

• 5+ years of paid or volunteer experience working for social change.
• Established public speaking skills.
• Experience using art, design, and other visual works for social change.
• A willingness to travel up to once a month for meetings and events.
• You are from a community that is overrepresented in the criminal justice system, or you have direct experience with the criminal justice system.

Salary & Benefits

The expected salary for this position is $60,000-$80,000 depending on the depth and relevance of your experience. Benefits include health/dental insurance, paid sick time, two weeks paid vacation, all Massachusetts holidays, and an IRA match.

To apply

We ask applicants to submit (preferably in PDF format):

• A cover letter.
• Your resume or c.v.
• Three writing samples/work products that show your skills and experience.
• Completed skill assessment form, found at https://www.prisonpolicy.org/Policy_Director_skills_assessment.doc

Applicants interested in a highly skimmable summary of our work, our history, and our budget, may find our annual reports helpful.

Hiring process

We will be reviewing applications and scheduling interviews on a weekly basis. We anticipate doing a phone screen, a round of Skype interviews, and then a final round of in-person (paid) working interviews.

Please allow us to keep our daily focus on improving the criminal justice system by refraining from writing or calling the office to check on the status of your application. We’ll keep the job page at http://www.prisonpolicy.org/jobs.html up to date with the status of our candidate search.